Ok, it’s probably not been that long, but after nearly 20 years, I reckon it’s not far off it.
I haven’t blogged about my weight training for a long while, but it’s still going on every 2nd day. My gym re-opened in June, after being caught in the floods in January, and I’ve been slowly returning to form, and more quickly putting the kilos on me (so say the scales).
I started out lifting about 50% of my usual weight, as measured by the typical big compound exercises: bench press, dead lifts, squats, bent over rows. Bench press is pretty much the yard-stick though, as it’s always the one people will ask about and most impressed with .
Many of the other gym goers found another gym in the interim and I’m sure many of them think I’m on steroids, given how quickly I went from reps of 90kg, and about equal with some of the other “big” guys in the gym to the last couple of weeks and especially today, when I had to realistically decide between my working sets (8 reps) of 137.5kg and 140kg. In the end I went with 137.5kg because my previous set of 10 reps I’d managed at 135kg without hurting or even felling the strain, but 140kg … I’ve never done that without a spotter (well, not sets of anyway).
I’m also happy with tri’s too, managed to increase my weights and reps over what I did last week. I didn’t ride today and I think that extra energy helped in the gym, that and with my anxiety disorder and general social discomfort, whenever the gym is busy, I’m extra stressed and tense, and I lift more (I swear it’s not because I want to show off. Well maybe that a little bit… )
Last year I was caught up in maintaining a weight of around 90kg and that meant less calories. Much less. Now I’m focussed on just smashing the weights and growing, I’m taking my protein shakes with milk, not water, and rather than have a salad for lunch, I’m having pasta bake. So about 1000 calories more a day. The result is I’m up nearly 8 kgs on my what I start at the end of May, early June, yet I’m still on the same hole in my belt. I think I’d be even heavier if I was still working legs. My legs respond the best, so I positive I’d be over the 100kg benchmark again.
And to think I was considering trying to shed down to a lean 85kg.
My weights / workout this afternoon was, in order I did them,
| 1. Flat Bench Press |
- 20 reps @ 60kg
- 15 reps @ 100kg
- 12 reps @120kg
- 10 reps @ 135kg
- 8 reps @ 137.5kg (x 2 sets)
|
| 2. Incline Bench Press |
- 10 reps @ 100kg (x 4 sets)
|
| 3. Incline flies |
- 12 reps @ 30kg dumbbells
- 10 reps @ 32.5kg dumbbells (x 3 sets)
|
| 4. Seated Tri-cep extensions |
- 12 reps @ 45kg dumbbells (x4 sets)
|
| 5. Tricep pulldowns |
- 10 reps @ 50kg (x3 sets – all the weights on the pin weight machine)
|
| 6. Dips (body weight) |
|
