No pain no gain, is what my dad always said to me. I talk to a lot of modern personal trainers who wildly disagree with this mindset, but for me it’s too late. I was raised this way and it is stuck in my head, no matter how much I try to fight it. This means that when I exercise I push it as hard as a can for as long as I can. In the high heat and humidity whenever possible, because it makes the whole experience that much more miserable, and it doesn’t feel like a real workout unless I’m miserable. There is a personal trainer at the gym that overheard me discussing this philosophy, and ever since she has been trying to talk me out of it. She isn’t even my personal trainer, she just works at the gym, but she was so aghast by what I said she wants to change my mind. She thinks my attitude towards workout plans is dangerous, and will be harmful to my body in the long term. She advocates more low-impact exercise, and her emphasis in particular is on yoga. She feels that my body, and my mind, would both benefit greatly from yoga classes. I put her off for a while, but she was insistent and I ran out of excuses for why I couldn’t do yoga. You know I was surprised when that first yoga class turned out to be a deeply intense and rewarding workout. Maybe that personal trainer really was on to something good after all!