Saturday, May 26, 2012

carried away unto boasting

they say that people only post about their workouts on facebook to show off (yeah, i've got those friends, too...) and that it's really tacky.
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

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:

Anonymous said...

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

Becky said...

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.