Hanna’s First Week on The Job

Hanna here -

I recently graduated summa cum lauda from Marian University in Indianapolis, where I was also a member of the women’s track & field team. I just started working with my brother, Shane, at his gym in Martinsville, Strength School.

Here are some observations from my first week working as a personal trainer at Strength School.

First, I was surprised at the difficulty of the workouts.

Second, I was impressed by the amount of weight people were lifting - especially some of the women, and especially the older adults in their 70s and 80s.

Third, some of the exercises are hard for me, a 6x All-American in track & field, which made me even more impressed when everyone at Strength School could do them with good form and pretty heavy weights.

For example, Bulgarian Split Squats were used last Monday. That’s an exercise where you put one foot up on a 12-18” bench, box, or pad, with the other foot on the ground, you bend the knee on the front leg and squat.

As you might know, or can imagine, those single-leg squats are very difficult. Well this past week I saw men in their 50s doing that with 130 extra pounds for 8 reps. And I saw women in their 60s doing it for 8 reps with 60 extra pounds. And they all had good form.

Impressive.