7 Weeks at the Gym

My last couple of trips to the gym have been interesting from the point of view of comparisons. Now I don't go to the gym to compare and I try very hard to pay attention to what I am doing and only what I am doing but the other night (Friday) I was going through my new routine: I changed from 2 sets of 20 reps to 4 sets of 10 and I'm still adjusting the weights. There was a young lady there who isn't much bigger than my daughter. She was on the leg press machine when I got there and about 30 minutes later was still going. 6 or 7 repetitions at a time then off for a quick walk around and back. After a couple of sets she would go and find some more weights to put on. Now the carriage weighs 53kg to start with and by the end of her workout she had 160kg on the carriage and was doing her 6 or 7 reps with apparently no real strain. I'd be surprised if she weighed 55kg herself.


Only being 7 weeks in to my program I'm still taking it a bit easy trying to work my way up to some heavier weights but still keeping it challenging. So I hopped into the machine loaded up with 80kg and I could do my 4 sets of 10 but I could really feel it starting to burn at the end so I think I have that weight about right at least for the next couple of workouts. So this young lady had me in awe of the power that can be packed into well toned and not huge muscles. I'm guessing she is a dancer or martial artist.

On the whole I'm really pleased with my progress. When I signed up I could just barely do 10 pushups and certainly couldn't have gone back to do 10 more after a short rest. Now I can do 4 sets of 10 and while the last couple of the last set are a real strain still it shows real progress.

Tonight I had a Pilates class that still left me wobbly on my legs and again there was another young lady pushing heavier springs than me and she was another tiny one.

It's definitely a good thing I am firmly in the "this is what I have to do for me" not to compete mindset because otherwise I might be inclined to give up now and where would be the fun in that?

On the side effect side of things I work a (home) office job at my desk at my computer and have suffered neck and shoulder pain for quite some years now. While there is still stiffness and some soreness to be had it isn't as bad as it was and I feel I'm making progress from the increasingly couch bound sedentary life I was sinking into, back into a more active participation in everything. This is all probably a good thing because soon we will start the rather large renovation task of replacing the floorboards in 1/4 of the house and replacing the kitchen and for that I will need to be fitter than I was at the beginning of the year. And I am :-)