Submitted by Jon on Sun, 23/11/2008 – 12:02am
This evening I decided that it was time to start weight training again. I cannot remember the last time I did some weight training – according to this journal it was in April, just over 8 months ago. A shockingly long rest period!
Anyway, I headed off to the garage about an hour ago, and spent the first half hour attempting to make some room for training. Where as before my garage was kept clear of junk, over the last 8 months anything and everything seems to have been tipped in there. Boxes, dining chairs, garden chairs, an old kettle, carpet, carpet underlay, an old CRT monitor, some boxed of old toys, and even the box that the kitchen sink came in. I kid you not. The old sink was fortunately taken to the tip in the summer!
Once I had tidied, I prepared to get to work. That is when disaster struck. I had forgotten how much weight the bar could hold before tipping over. I removed 20kg from the right side, placed it on the floor, and then watched as the 7 foot bar tipped up, and the left end slide along before crashing through a shelf and breaking about 4 old Stella glasses (kept for parties) in the process. I did not inspect the damage any further for fear of what else I would find.
Also tonight, I realized that I have gotten weak. I am no longer at all strong. I am an utter wimp. I just want to make that clear before posting my workout, so that you do not have to!
After reading the various celeb workouts over on the main part of this website, I decided to try to follow one. However, me being me, I could not decide, so I did my usual routine. I was going to do the Bond workout, then I decided that the Batman workout would be better, but in the end I opted for a random assortment of exercises, and even made a couple up! I’ll come to that in a moment.
My workout this evening:
Seated Shoulder Press:
20*10kg warmup
10*20kg
8*30kg
6*30kg
Some time during these exercises my left wrist started to hurt a little. I have had problems before, so nothing new.
Inclined Bench Press:
10*30kg
8*30kg
6*40kg
It was during these that I felt so weak. I have bench pressed over 60kg, and this felt tough. Also, my old right shoulder injury was evident. I did not suffer from a recurrence, but it did not feel right, and almost “cluncked” once. Not sure of the correct term. But it feels like it is not connected properly.
I was going to follow the bench presses with bent over rows, but decided on a new approach. After seeing some inspiring videos of people working out “on the street”, which usually means using bars in children’s play areas, or outdoor weight training racks, I felt that I should face my nemisis – the pull up. I have NEVER been able to do a pull up. Those muscles just do not seem to work for me.
To start with, I did some “assisted inclined with feet on the ground, body straight, pull ups”. I will Google for the correct name, please bear with me…… Inclined Pull-up (YouTube video) is the name. OK, I managed to do just 8 of these before failure. And they were not a perfect 8 either! Must work harder!
Following this, I did some “jumping assisted close grip pull ups and slow lowerings”. So, what do I mean by this? I grabbed a pull up bar above my head with both hands close together, with both palms facing inwards. I then jumped to assist a pull up, and attempt to get as close to the bar as possible, before lowering myself as slowly as possible. I managed about 4 of these.
I was going to do some dips, but felt both physically and emotional deflated by this point, so did not bother. Instead I opted for the classic EX-bar curls.
EZ-bar Curls:
20*10kg warm up
10*15kg
10*15kg
10*20kg
5*20kg
It felt good to do some curls. My biceps feel pumped now. Also doing barbell curls seems to really get my heart pumping more than the other exercises.
All in all, not a bad evening. It was good to do some weight training again, although frustrating that the garage was such a mess and that I felt so weak. But as I am pretty much starting again, what do I expect?
I am still walking home from the railway station most days, so getting daily exercise. My weight is around 86kg mark – I have put on a kilo (couple of pounds) since I stopped monitoring and taking weight loss so seriously.
Hopefully this renewed interest in weight training will get me back into shape. I just need to structure my workouts better. I did not squats, lunges or deadlifts today, so that I can either do them in a separate session tomorrow, or do some circuit training – star jumps, squats, sit ups etc. May have to skip the press ups!