Heavy Lifting

This week I’ve done more heavy lifting in the gym than Crossfitting. I tried the Body for Life style of working out a couple more times including today. I haven’t followed it to a T, but close enough! I think the basic point is to get you to go out of your comfort zone and lift heavier weights. Even though I’m okay with challenging myself in the gym (I welcome it usually), I haven’t found myself increasing the weights I lift. I usually just stick to around 10-15lbs. When I think about it, it does make sense to increase your weight and I’m not sure why I haven’t in the past.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I haven’t been running as much lately either. I think I’m still burned out by the Eugene Marathon. Lately, I’ve pretty much been forcing myself to go on shorter runs like 2 or 3 miles and that is it! I have no desire to run any farther!

Today, I managed to incorporate a run and weight lifting into my gym time. Here’s what I did:

Run

• Time: 20 minutes
• Pace: 9:00 min (around)
• Distance: 2.22 miles
• Calories: 200 (around)

Next, I moved on to a couple ab exercises.

• Overhead Swiss Ball Pass– These are so hard! My legs were sore today from working out yesterday so they were not feelin’ this exercise. You’re probably wondering why an abs exercise makes my legs hurt. It actually just tires out my hip flexors. This exercise also works your inner thighs since your using them to squeeze the ball in place.  Today, I basically just did as many reps as I could. I ended with around 17.
• Hanging Leg Raises–  3 sets of 15. These are pretty tough too. It’s always tempting when doing these to swing your legs and get momentum, but try to resist! This site show you proper form, but also demonstrates it with legs straight out. I bend my legs up towards my chest, which is easier.

Now onto some upper body exercises! I decided to only work 2 muscles today since I was lifting heavier weights. The last time I attempted several muscles, things just sort of fell apart at the end. My arms were simply too exhausted to get through all my exercises. I chose biceps and triceps today- 2 opposing muscle groups!

Triceps Skull Crushers

• 12 reps with 10lb. weights. I found where my gym keeps lighter weights so I chose a starting weight I could actually work with. Turns out, 10 pounds are pretty tough to begin with, but better than 15lbs.!
• 10 reps with 12lb. weights.
• 8 reps with 15lb. weights. This was hard. Really hard. I’m not even sure I did 8. I might have, but they were definitely not in a row. At this point, my arms were so tired I honestly couldn’t straighten them out (which is sort of an important part of skull crushers).
• 6 reps with 12lb. weights. If my arms weren’t about to fall off, I would have used 17 or 20 lb. weights for the 6 reps. This should be the heaviest weight you can use. For me, today, it was 12 pounds.
• 12 reps with 10lb. weights (should have actually been 15lb.). So tired at this point
• Triceps Overhead Extension- 12 reps with 20lb. weight. On this last set of 12, you switch to a different exercise, but one that still works the muscle you’ve been working. In this case, my triceps, which were on fire at this point!

Even though at this point I had only worked one muscle, my whole arm was exhausted. I did the best I could with my bicep exercises but it was tough since I was already tired. I guess I can start with even less weight next time or just keep pushing it out like this and assume I’ll get stronger?

Bicep Curls

• 12 reps with 15lb. Probably should have started with 12…or even 10.
• 10 reps with 17.5lb. Too hard and only my second set!
• 8 reps with 20lb.
• 6 reps with 22.2 lb. I attempted this, but did not do well. I went back down to 20 pounds and even that was too hard.
• 12 reps with 15lb. Since I was dead, I went to my lowest weight, which was still challenging!
• Hammer Curls- 12 reps using 15lb. weights. I finished these, but took a couple breaks during the exercise. My arms were so tired!

So, you get the point, my arms are really tired now! I don’t know if this happens for anyone else, but my arms get tired just holding a heavy weight. That part is kind of frustrating, but I guess that’s why I’m lifting weights: to get stronger!

I do love feeling sore the next day, which I’m sure I will be. 🙂

 

Do you lift weights on a regular basis? Do you keep the weights light or heavy?