I love weight training!
That is, I love lifting weights.
Resistance training, that is, replacing dumbbells and bars with other types of resistance provided by tubes or cables or simply ones own bodyweight is fun, too.
But I really enjoy lifting heavy weights.
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| A memory to my "first" and unexpected PB in deadlift: 75kg (165 lbs) |
It hasn't always been like this.
I mean I had some ideas to lift weights as a teenager, and even got one of those plastic coated mint colored dumbbells (while my older brother possessed one of those more real dumbbells made out off metal - no colors needed).
But I never got far, I simply didn't have the self discipline and I also didn't like to work out in my room where I didn't have the peace from my parents or brothers.
Neither did I have the money to join a gym like a friend of mine had.
But now - I have the time and the motivation and the money and the local gym (new gym, built three years ago or so).
While I was, and still am, highly motivating for triathlon training, I always struggled with the strength training part.
I didn't know how to fit it in the kind of busy schedule of swimming, biking and running.
When were you supposed to do the strength training?
Before a run?
Afterwards?
The day before a long bike?
The day after a long run?
Definitely no upper body strength training the day before a long swim, I found out.
Well, six years ago I lived in a house where I could install a hanging bar, so I could try chin-ups and other fun stuff. I also bought a two more sets of dumbbells (I kept the small weight plates from my teenager dumbbell but threw aways the plastic white and mint colored parts), and also a training bar (not the olympic weight lifting style though, a bar that had the same diameter as a regular dumbbell).
I wasn't doing that bad that year. I had done my first half ironman that year and was training towards my first full ironman distance july the following year, and needed some strength.
I didn't do that much weight training the year of the ironman (2010).
I had enough with the tri training. The same for the following years.
I tried. But I simply wasn't motivated enough.
Two summers in a row, when they finally had built our local gym, I bought a summer training card that offered two months of training at a fair price.
That was ok.
I finally found out I prefered working out at the gym,
I felt a bit self conscious at first.
But then I found out that everybody was mostly focusing on their own training, not looking around staring at the newbies.
Last year, when both my mental and physical strength was low, I thought that I really had to invest in building strength. Plantar fasciitis I guess was just another sign of too much running and biking without adequate recovery while not building my body at the same time. That summer summer weight training was fun, but the fun ended with the insecurity around plantar fasciitis - how much load should I put on my feet? Are squats ok, or too much weight? My left shoulder was struggling as well. Are deadlifts ok? Or would I make the plantar fasciitis worse?
So I dropped the gym again.
I started light resistance and weight training at home, focusing on balance, lower body strength, stretching my tight calf muscles and working on muscular imbalances, I lifted weights, too, regularly. And instead of trying to at least work out once a week, I tried my "reverse psychology trick": Instead of trying the minimum single workout a week, I started working our three times a week!
I figured if I wasn't able to at least strength train once a week, the whole approach was maybe not the one that would work for me. So - three times it was.
And it worked.
The good thing about it was that if I didn't manage the three workouts, I had probably done two workouts, and that was double the workouts I struggled to fit into my schedule before!
In june it was time for summer training card again, and I was longing to go to the gym.
My appartment is so small and although there is enough space to work out, it's getting quite hot in the summer, and I also don't always feel like sharing my training mat with my chocolate lab.
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| Enjoying the breeze... definitely not the place to lift weights when it's so hot! |
It took me some time to found out which days worked best for me, and what time of day.
Now I know that the late afternoon between 4 and 5 p.m. works best, that's the time when I usually get sleepy at home, but may be too awake for a nap (and don't need one either).
So I flee to the gym.
Sometimes I don't really wake up, and then the workout might not be that great, but it's still always maintenance. And sometimes, when I arrive at the gym tired and sleepy and really don't feel like working out, after a while, it can turn out to one of the best workouts (with even a PB!).
Sometimes motivation is high, and I just don't know where to start and when to stop, because it's so much fun. Sometimes motivation is low, but I'd go to the gym anyway.
Sometimes I also completely lack motivation. Then I just pack my stuff. Always the same stuff so I don't need to choose, and my gym clothes are always washed and ready after each workout, and I just hop on my bike and hurry to get to the gym.
Due to the downhill part and the short distance, sometimes it takes me only five minutes from leaving the house until I suddenly sit at the gym.
I love that.
I don't need motivation, I train anyway.
The more I talk with "the guys" at the gym, the more I enjoy working out.
Their enthusiams is contagious. They are both serious and in a good mood at the same time. Some like to chat, some not. I ask them for help on my technique, I borrow chalk from them, or just express my admiration for those heavy weights they live.
I found out I enjoy working out the most when "the guys" are working out.
It's so motivating and make me lift heavier and work out harder.
Although yesterday I found I had to do a bit of injury preventing strength work, so I went well knowing that "the guys" weren't there. And it also was great.
I could focus more on the different exercises, and did all those non-spectacular hip abduction and adduction, shoulder internal and external rotation, one-leg squats on a bosu, and so on.
But today I'm looking forward to do some heavy lifting: today is the day for focusing on deadlifting technique (maybe I can get someone to film my deadlifts so I can analyse them afterwards, looking in the mirrow is not adviced under a deadlift, be it ahead of you or to the side, protect your neck!) and working on my benchpress.
I printed out new workout sheets, to note the progress (or not, if there isn't. But there is always maintenance, and there is always something to do).
It's almost that I can hardly wait.
But the waiting will be good, since I've already been running today. Or, it was more of the walk-and-run-the-dog kind of a run. Just short of three miles and some hills.
I used my Fivefingers, since it was quite wet on the trails after the heavy rains the last days.
And I also think that my feet actually tolerate running in Fivefingers better then in heavily cushioned shoes (like the Merrell Allout Rush I used last sunday, they are well cushioned and have a little drop of 4mm, but still - my feet hurt the day after, in a plantar-fasciitis-kind of way).
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