Did I tell you all that I won two one year memberships to Bally' s Total fitness? Remember how I went there on a two week guest pass? Well, I liked the classes so much that I entered a contest in Vital magazine. Last week I was pleasantly surprised to learn that I won! Wow, what a blessing. God truly does give you the desires of your heart.

Along with the memberships comes a free personal training session. My personal trainer today was none other than the fabulous Glenn S. Lott, the hip hop trainer extraordinaire. I dubbed him the hip hop trainer extraordinaire because he has a cool, young, urban persona that is refreshing and different. He' s young, vibrant, knows his business and doesn' t take any mess. Glenn knows how to push you. The first thing he had me do was jog laps around the club, something I never do. "But I have to warm up first, I have asthma," I protested. "I have to start out slow and build up until I warm up," I whined. Glenn just gave me "the look." You know "the look" right? It' s similar to the one your father used to give you. So I started jogging and low and behold not a wheeze emanated from my mouth. Praise God!  I' m in far better shape than I thought. I guess all those spinning classes are working after all.

The rest of the workout consisted of strategically focused exercises on my trouble spots. It turns out I wasn' t using enough weight on the assisted pull up machine. I was also introduced to a particularly tortuous exercise called "squats on a ball." A real fun thing we did was called "Karaoke Twists." I felt like a kid again playing and having fun. I was in total Heaven! Glenn did not go easy on me, nor did I want him to. You see, a personal trainer pushes you to go outside of your comfort zone. He intentionally showed me new exercises I hadn' t done before. He also emphasized explosive movements for that extra power punch.

I found Glenn to be a complete angel. His quiet demeanor belies a confident and well-trained professional. I was really impressed with how he is mentoring two young interns. We need more outstanding young Black men to pass on their skills to the future generation. He is walking the walk.

What more can I say? The young man is bad! I give him 5 stars, for highly recommended. Glenn S. Lott is at Bally' s Total Fitness, 16000 Northland Drive, Southfield MI. (248) 557-4700. Contact Glenn at MindAndTheMuscle@gmail.com or go to his space at www.myspace.com/MindAndTheMuscle.