Young woman Anna came in today, I was supposed to show her through a routine someone else had written. I recognised the name, I'd chatted to her a few days before. Athletic-looking young woman, seemed fairly confident in the weights area.
The routine was leg press, chest press machine, that sort of thing. Only one or two bosu ball exercises out of 10-12 in all. As typical gym routines go, a not terrible routine for a deconditioned beginner who'd be training on their own, get them introduced to the gym without scaring them by making them do technically difficult stuff or heavier weights.
Anna was not a deconditioned beginner. From overseas, she'd previously had a couple of basketball coaches who'd given her weight training. She definitely knew her way around a barbell, performing hang cleans and jerks with ease, squats and deadlifts. A bit out of practice, but pretty good, the best cleans I've seen in the gym. She responded very quickly and well to technique checks, too.
Anna, at around 60kg, claims to have squatted 120kg in the past. Seeing her original squat was a half-squat, her actual squat would have been quite a bit less. Still, she's felt 120kg on her back and not simply collapsed, even without squatting it that's not nothing.
She easily did SQ40, HC30, DL60 and jerk 20, we didn't push it - were just looking at basic technique for starting weights. For every 5 clients I have, I have one scholarship - someone with strength or athletic goals who can't really afford training. Gina's #1, Anna #2. We'll see her on Sundays with the SINS crew.
I fired my co-worker an email letting them know Anna had asked for something more challenging.
