Personal Narrative: Fitness Testing

I've always been the odd man out on any sports team who looked forward to conditioning at the end of practice and would hold my plank an extra few seconds until I really felt the pain. I loved pushing myself beyond my expected limits and the satisfaction of leaving the gym knowing I gave my full effort. Although the thought of taking a weight lifting class was extremely intimidating, I acknowledged my deep love for training and bettering myself.

Everyone has something they’re talented at, and many people have to try multiple things before they find their talent(s) that they have. As a child, my parents like many others had me participate in multiple activities. For example, I took dance classes, played a great amount of sports, and was a participant in many plays. In my freshman year, I tried running track and field. During the course of it, I developed shin splints and I proceeded to go to the athletic trainer. The athletic trainer here, Todd Korabek, has a system that works for the whole program. New injuries will see an aide, and that aide will then write up a card for them which lists their name, sport, injury, and body part. The aide doesn’t write the injury because only the athletic trainer can diagnose. After the athletic trainer treats all old injuries, he evaluates the new injuries, which happened to be me at that moment. Watching the aides assist Mr. Korabek really inspired me and his profession intrigued me.

My first year of high school, I had experience with injured football players during my physical education class. We had a certified trainer who would come in and check them out. She was excellent and all of the football players and staff loved her. I was so interested in her work and later thought about making it my career goal. As time passed, I transferred schools. At my new school, there was an opportunity with two other girls to join the football team. One of my friends that I already knew before I changed schools. He introduced me to the girls and the helped me get involved. The job was to assist the athletic trainer and also help the football coach with any laundry, equipment, etc.

The first time I realized that I wanted to be an athletic trainer was during my eighth grade summer at camp. I was working on a project where I had to find careers that I was interested in. Doing this project helped me realize how many job choices there were, but only one intrigued me as much as this one. My choice to major in kinesiology was made clear during my freshman year after I job shadowed an athletic trainer at my local college and high school. High school has helped me realize who I am and what I want to become, and college will help me become that person.

Then I remembered, this is what I set out to fix! I refused to let my detrimental thinking get in the way of my improvement, and so, with all the courage I had, I walked into the gym. My first goal was to learn how to properly exercise. Lifting incorrectly could lead to a whole multitude of injuries, for example rounding the back on squats and deadlifts could lead to a herniated disk, or benching without pinching in shoulder blades could lead to a torn rotator cuff. In order to prevent these injuries I started lifting with very light weights. Despite my fear of being judged for lifting so little I knew I had to learn how to lift correctly. So I summoned all the self control I had and for the first month at the gym I made myself learn form. Finally I had all the tools and knowledge I needed to effectively achieve my goal. The only thing left was to create a habit. Up to now the habit was easy, go to the gym, record myself lifting little weights, judge form, go home. Then came the first day of heavy lifting, every weight became a struggle to lift. It was a true test of mental discipline. Not only did I have to maintain proper form, but I also had to

The goals that I set at the beginning of the semester was (1) By December 1, I will lose 30 pounds of fat and gain 20 pounds of muscle by increasing my physical activity and eating 1200 calories per day, (2) I will improve my diet by drinking only water, incorporating fruits and vegetables, eating portions about the size of my fist, and eating three balanced meals every day, and (3) Within three months, I am going to improve my three minute step test heart rate by pushing myself to 70 to 90% of my target heart rate and being able to lower my number from 177 beats per minute (bpm) to about 100-130 bpm. I did not accomplish any of my goals this semester. The reason why I did not because two were unrealistic. I did in fact lose body fat though,

It has been about two years now since I started powerlifting. How many of you are familiar with the term powerlifting? (Respond to audience) Well, just a little background about powerlifting for those of you who might not be too familiar with it. Powerlifting consists of three main lifts. (Point out images on scree) The main goal is to pull as much weight possible on each lift. I’m sure all of you have heard or seen at least one of these workouts before, but I will not be concentrating on these today. Instead, I will be telling you about how powerlifting has been an important part of my life that has taught me the joy of sacrificing my time and energy in order to better myself physically and mentally.

I continued my employment at the Pickaway County YMCA after high school, where I have been an employee at since March of 2014. During this past summer, I was promoted to a Deck Supervisor position, and coached the youth swim team, while also teaching swim lessons and lifeguarding. When I arrived to Ohio University, I became employed at the Aquatic Center as a lifeguard during the 2016 fall semester. For the 2017 spring semester, I will work WellWorks as a Fitness Center Supervisor, which will serve as a great introduction to my future career of incorporating communication and

feel defeated on the days that you don’t have the willpower to do ten push-ups. Guise (2013,

My main goal is to increase my cardiorespiratory fitness so that I can play sports for a long duration without getting tired. I can do this by using the overload principle, the principle of progression, the principle of reversibility, and FITT formula. I will incorporate all of these with interval training. Using the overload principle with the interval training will allow me to build up my cardiorespiratory system in intervals at greater loads. This leads into progression, as I will need to be able to do this gradually, and not all at once. Making sure the progression is done gradually will allow for my body to adapt to each overload. The principle of reversibility will ensure that I am continuing to work, and not failing to exercise. These

well I had gone to my gymnastics practice, just like any other Thursday. We were working on back tucks. I wasn’t very good at them, I needed a spotter or else I would have fallen on my face! But anyways, I started to get better at them and my confidence built up and I was willing to try one on my own. I stood there, waiting for my cue to go. I see the anticipation in my team mate’s eyes. My coach gave me the cue and I was starting to set into one. As soon as I hit the middle of my back tuck I knew that something was about to go terribly wrong. When I hit the hard, yet spongey gym floor my toes curled under my foot, and one of them weaved its way through the other ones and I hear a SNAP and a crunching noise. I felt a piercing pain rise up from my toe into my leg and throughout my body. I knew I had broken something I just didn’t know what until I had looked down. My second toe was purple and deformed. The horror in my teammates and coaches eyes was priceless. I bet my face was the same way. You probably could figure out from the gross details that I wasn’t doing very many back tucks for a

I started lifting weights when I was in the eighth grade but I didn’t take it serious until that summer before my freshmen year of high school. Although it may not be noticeable that I even lift weights at all, I do. I think it’s nearly every boys dream to have big muscles or to be strong. Well, it was mine too. I wanted to be different not only physically but mentally and fitness tackles both of those aspects. So, I decided to take on myself in a never ending battle of self torture. I believe this self torture that comes with fitness has made me become the strongest version of myself.

I thought I knew what I was going to go through when I signed up to become a CIA operative; this changed when I went on my first field training excersise. I woke up one morning in a small hotel room in Istanbul. Alone, with about five hundred dollars in my pocket and a fake passport. I didn't speak a single word of Turkish. My handler was in the city, but if I contacted him, I would be forced to find a new career. In exactly ten months, I was supposed to return to the same hotel to meet a friend who would take me out of the country. My passport told me that I was Emir Askoy, a thirty-four year old man. I quickly packed up my things and then left the hotel. My first priority would be to find a way to learn the language.

I love to work out. Any type of physical activity that gets the blood in my body pumping. I first started working out back in freshman year. I was bigger in size and weight than most of the other freshmen. That year I was planning to tryout for the basketball team and the coaches wanted us to go to the after school workout sessions. So I started going. I remember it was leg day so we did a bunch of leg exercises, but the activity that thrilled me the most was squatting. When I put those weights on the rusty bar I was excited because this was my first time ever squatting. I lined up the bar with my shoulders, released the bar from the rack and stood there with the weight on my shoulders. I lowered my body bending my knees and went back up. I

The first week of the workout helped me to set my position in terms of my upper body muscles ability and strength. I felt very comfortable with doing 30 moderated pushups. Therefore, I think that next week I need to push myself more and try to increase this number of moderate pushups. Pushups always were my biggest weakness. Many times I attempted to perform non-moderate pushups and I failed, without even being to reach 5 non-moderates. So, I believe that this goal will not only strengthens my upper body, but will also help me to finally achieve my desire to be able to do non-moderate pushups. Since I knew that my upper body is not as strong as I wish it would be, it did not surprise me that I could lift maximum of 10 pounds for the exercises such as One Arm