My Training Programme | Day 1.

Today marked the start of my 6 week training programme. I was both excited and nervous about it. One part of me was looking forward to taking the first steps towards becoming a fitter and healthier me, but there was another part of me that was freaking out at the prospect of entering a gym. That part of me kept telling me that I was completely out of my depth and that I'd look like a fool doing all these beginners things in a room with regular gym-goers dotted about the place.

Thankfully once I was there it wasn't too bad. There were a group of students waiting around by the main doors to the building and I'll admit I felt very self conscious walking past them, but once I was in the actual gym section and having a go on the rowing machine I felt a lot more relaxed and at ease -even with three people on the treadmills facing me!

Sorry about my awful posture. I didn't feel brave enough to take a picture in the mirrors lining the gym so resorted to taking one in my bedroom instead and the mirror in my room is quite low down.

The things I said I wanted to work on were: my strength -mainly core and upper body-, core stability and balance. Tuesdays are the days I'll be working on my balance and core stability and Fridays will be when I work on my strength.

As it was my first day and my first workout we didn't do anything too intense; it was more just getting me used to things and learning the ropes. And as today was Tuesday it meant the exercises I was doing were focussing on my core stability and balance. My routine today was:

• Warm up: 5 minutes on the rowing machine,
• A few stretches that targeted my core muscles,
• Evaluating my balance,
• Balancing exercises,
• Planking for as long as I could manage,
• Balancing on the Swiss ball (core stability work),
• Side planks
• Cool down: 5 minutes on the stationary bike.

I was pleased with the session and my performance overall. Although I wasn't great at everything I put in all my effort and I'm proud of myself for that. A good example would be all the side planks I did. The longer I did them the more my body would shake because my muscles were under a lot more pressure than they've ever experienced. But instead of collapsing onto the mat before x amount of seconds were up, I forced myself to keep at it until I heard Brandon say "Zero," which is when I would happily drop onto the mat.

I know that over the next two weeks it's going to get a lot tougher than today was, especially my strength days, but I'm looking forward to it for the most part. I can't quite get rid of that little bit of dread and self-doubt, but hopefully as I progress they'll disappear.