Amusing Gym Day

I had an amusing gym experience today. It's monday, and today was a legs day. This means some serious work on the inverted leg press, the Smith machine, and the hack squat machine for calf raises. I started with about 10 minutes of stretching. Prior to that, I had walked from my office on W27th street to the gym on 8th ave and 16th. Not a long walk, but a nice "warm up".

I had to wait for the ILP, and I asked the fellow (a rather handsome fellow who has clearly been working out for many years) how many sets he had left. He said 2, so I patiently waited. When it came my turn, he asked how much I wanted on the press. I told him 540. He asked how many plates that was (clearly not a maths major), and I told him 12. He kinda looked at me funny, and asked if I needed to do a lower weight for a warm up. I told him that 540 *was* my warmup, and I hoped to get to 945 today, and 1000 by the end of the summer.

His jaw needed to be picked up off the floor. I told him I know one fellow who is in his 50s who is doing over 1100lbs, and that I have a lot of catching up to do.

I didn't hit 945, but that's because I wimped out. The full sets of 900 I did killed my confidence to do 945 safely, without a spot. I still feel pretty good. As far as the calf raises, I'm stuck at 810, only because the hack squat machine can't take a second tier of plates. I can do sets of 20 with only a 15 second break in between sets. I need to figure out how to position my feet on the ILP in order to do calf raises to hit heavier weights. Smith Squats after a serious ILP workout are always pathetic (they use the same muscles as the ILP, but the squat engages all sorts of stabilising muscles), but I was happy with what I did.

Tomorrow I go to work, probably very sore from today.

Amusing Gym Day

I had an amusing gym experience today. It's monday, and today was a legs day. This means some serious work on the inverted leg press, the Smith machine, and the hack squat machine for calf raises. I started with about 10 minutes of stretching. Prior to that, I had walked from my office on W27th street to the gym on 8th ave and 16th. Not a long walk, but a nice "warm up".

I had to wait for the ILP, and I asked the fellow (a rather handsome fellow who has clearly been working out for many years) how many sets he had left. He said 2, so I patiently waited. When it came my turn, he asked how much I wanted on the press. I told him 540. He asked how many plates that was (clearly not a maths major), and I told him 12. He kinda looked at me funny, and asked if I needed to do a lower weight for a warm up. I told him that 540 *was* my warmup, and I hoped to get to 945 today, and 1000 by the end of the summer.

His jaw needed to be picked up off the floor. I told him I know one fellow who is in his 50s who is doing over 1100lbs, and that I have a lot of catching up to do.

I didn't hit 945, but that's because I wimped out. The full sets of 900 I did killed my confidence to do 945 safely, without a spot. I still feel pretty good. As far as the calf raises, I'm stuck at 810, only because the hack squat machine can't take a second tier of plates. I can do sets of 20 with only a 15 second break in between sets. I need to figure out how to position my feet on the ILP in order to do calf raises to hit heavier weights. Smith Squats after a serious ILP workout are always pathetic (they use the same muscles as the ILP, but the squat engages all sorts of stabilising muscles), but I was happy with what I did.

Tomorrow I go to work, probably very sore from today.