well, this isn't facebook.
it's my blog.
i've written before about how i've had a distant relationship with weight rooms and somehow still feel like i look glaringly out of place in them despite having had "beginning weight training" three times over two schools. having just finished my fourth time a few weeks ago, i'm starting to actually feel comfortable there. like, i went to a&m's rec center this morning and am just now realizing that i didn't feel the least bit self-conscious. i even kind of enjoyed it.
to get maximum credit for the strength testing part of our grade, we had to do some basic exercises. things like pull-ups and dips were fixed numbers: for an A, ten pull-ups and twenty dips. getting a top score in the bench press and leg press required doing a combined total of 4.5 times your body weight.
let me put those numbers in perspective for you. in elementary school, when we did out fitness testing, i couldn't even do one. not a single pull-up. i used to have to measure my improvement by how much closer i got my chin to the bar. then i would watch my short friend matt conneran doing twenty or however many was needed for a "gold medal" grade and silently remind myself that i was in the advanced spelling class.
i don't do pull-ups.
as for the weight thing, 175lbs. x 4.5 = 787.5 lbs. for some perspective, i just did a google search for "what weighs 750 pounds" and got
- a 7-foot nintendo ds made out of legos
- a 20-volume set of the oxford english dictionary
- a female grizzly bear after hibernation
- chuck norris's hat
so, whatever reference works best for you, that's what i had to move five times.
and here's the cool thing:
i did it.
when our testing day came around, i benched 135 and leg pressed whatever 787.5 - 135 is.
further, i did pull-ups. real, overhand pull-ups. six of them and almost a seventh.
i felt absolutely awesome.
i'm 32 years old and in the best shape of my life.
2 comments:
WOW! I am impressed!
787.5 is a whole lot of pounds to move, for anyone, and you did it.
The thing about grade school is that children aren't supposed to lift weights, or weren't back then, and I found it contradictory to measure strength training in those early grades.
Atta boy, Jeff!
L
I could bench 135 lbs when I was on the gymnastics team. Congrats on catching up to your little sister :P I don't think I could do that in my current condition, but I do regularly lift about 70 lbs every day (Caleb weighs 38 lbs and Isaac is about 30....) And good job on the pull-ups. I could probably not even do one right now, sadly.
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