Counting

When I see Quentin, my personal trainer, he pushes me hard. He makes me do things that are difficult, things I wouldn't do if it were just me. And he encourages me; half-way through a set, for example, he'll say "strong" and I'm never sure whether it's a command or an observation, either way it seems to have some effect.

One thing in particular used to nearly drive me crazy. If I'm doing, for example, 12 shoulder raises and there's a fair amount of weight so that I'm struggling, he'll as often as not do some helpful subtraction for me. So that when I get to ten, he'll helpfully say "two more". Now the first few times this happened I found it difficult not to be offended. I know that twelve minus ten is two, and because I'm so acutely defensive (I'm the sort of person who automatically thinks that unsolicited advice is criticism) I found it hard to resist the notion that somehow he thought that I couldn't do even basic arithmetic.

But, you know what? It actually does help.