[rwest]

I never did any real gym work in my youth, but started in November with a running coach as I have a goal of running a sub 5 minute mile- long story; probably longer odds!

I go twice a week one on one with the coach. His “theory” is that if you can squat one and a half times your weight, you can run injury free- pounding on the joints is more than your weight and my knees suck.

He is more concerned with power output than total weight, so he has electronic device that magnets to the squat bar and then a special mat goes on the ground inline. He enters the weight of the bar into an app and then when you squat, it records how far you move the weight and how fast which gives you a power number. Every few weeks, he adds weight and takes away reps; then we build up reps, add weight- rinse and repeat.

He has me doing several other workouts and runs to strengthen all of me- I’m staring to get a little “cut” in my abs!