One month. One month until tryouts. Nervous, excited, etc. Luckily, I was not too wiped out from yesterday's walk to make working out today a pain wracked experience. I know that pacing myself will be very important in this endeavor. Pacing myself has never been my strong suit. I have a tendency to get involved in something and go full steam ahead until I run out of steam. I have no intention of letting that happen this time.
Tonight was my night in the gym. Now, I am no stranger to the gym, so going in to lift weights is really not a big deal, but in light of my upcoming tryouts, every weight lifted and every drop of sweat seemed to take on a special significance. I was very excited to work on some of the machines and see my baseline strength. I know that I'm not as strong as I used to be and that I am older, but, hopefully, wiser. And so of course, during the course of my workout, I banged my shin on a foot peg, leaving a nice shiny bruise. Oh joy! Still, I didn't let that stop me and continued my workout.
I did a round of arm and shoulder machines and then ended my workout with leg presses. The breakdown went like this:
Bicep Curl - 1 set, 10 reps @ 45lbs.
Lateral Raise - 2 sets, 10 reps @ 40lbs.
Pectoral Fly - 2 sets, 15 reps @ 15lbs.
Rowing - 3 sets, 15 reps @ 30lbs.
Lat Pulldown - 3 sets, 15 reps:
1 set @ 60lbs., 1 set @ 45lbs. & 1 set @ 30lbs.
Leg Press - 2 sets, 15 reps:
1 set @ 100lbs. & 1 set @ 180lbs.
Leg Press - 1 set, 20 reps @ 260lbs.
First off, the bicep curls...ouch, too much weight. Next time I need to adjust the weight lower. The lateral raise, pectoral fly, and rowing were all good, not too easy, not too hard. The lat pulldown was too tough at 60 pounds, tough at 45 pounds and too easy at 30 pounds. It looks like the 45 pound mark will be good for that machine.
This brings us to the leg press. OMG, I was so silly. I started at 100 pounds and it was absurdly easy. I bumped it up to 180 pounds and I struggled a little bit. I think 160 pounds is a good starting place for me on that machine. Then I had to go and get cocky. I really wanted to see if I could lift more than my body weight. So I bumped it from 180 to 260 pounds.
Then I did 20 repetitions. The above photo is from the Leg Press machine with me holding 260 pounds with my legs. The video below is from my last 5 reps of that set. I am not looking forward to how my quads are going to feel when I wake up tomorrow.
1 comment:
On the curls I would recommend low weight with high reps. Try using 20 lbs of weight on the bar in 5 lb increments. Then do ten extremely slow reps. At least 10 seconds up and 10 down. Take off one plate on each side and repeat. Take off another plate and repeat. If you can do ten reps when you get to just the bar add 10 lbs at the beginning next time. For most exercises you want to use a comfortable weight and do the reps as slow as possible. If you can do ten reps you should slow down instead of increasing weight. I have done grueling lifts with just 20 in each hand. Each rep took the good part of a minute. Also important is proper form. See if you can watch a trainer (not just some guy lifting). Usually you want to keep your elbows in and for legs you want to keep everything in line. Concentrate on form before increasing weight. Most of the time doing it right is more intense without adding weight.
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