Carrying the shopping again

Where she started

Marta came in eighteen months after a shoulder operation, discharged from physio, cleared to train, and completely stuck. She had stopped using the arm for anything heavy without noticing she had stopped.

“I'd been told I was fine. Nobody told me what fine was supposed to feel like.” Her first session involved an empty barbell, a light kettlebell and a lot of talking about what she was and was not willing to try.

What the training looked like

Twice a week in Rebuild for the first block. Loaded carries in the left hand first, then the right, at weights that looked almost insulting on paper. Pressing came later and started against a wall.

The rule was that the day after mattered as much as the day of. If the shoulder was grumpy on Wednesday, Thursday's load came down. That happened four or five times in the first three months and each time the programme simply continued at a lower number.

Where she is now

Marta trains in Hybrid twice a week and carries the shopping in from the car in one trip, which she mentions more often than anything else she can now do.

“I'm not trying to be an athlete. I wanted to stop planning my week around one arm.” She is now the person in the group who tells new members that the first month feeling too easy is the point.