My health hasn’t been in tip-top shape for years… Ironically, I wrote an article a few years back called “Becoming Super” and of course the opposite happened, I’ve been practically anti-super ever since. Not by own choice, mind you but instead I was hit by a number of illnesses that has had me on the decline ever since. I’ve been hoping I could overcome the illness be myself, but I haven’t and I’m tired of waiting for my body to defeat my problems naturally. So, I’ve decided to start to get back into shape, but in a slow and cheap manner. So, thus the creation of this article. I’m going to track my repeating fitness efforts in this Sunday post. My equipment considers of a cheap bench and an Olympic bar and weights. Both of these could be bought together second hand for less than two hundred dollars.
I use to be pretty strong, so coming back after years off, I’m a little disappointed in the weight I’m working with. Versus the average male, I still did pretty well. In this effort I’m not trying to accomplish much so I decided to keep it short and sweet. I’m recording this because a blog is much like a diary, and I decided it might be fun to look back someday and see how at did at certain dates. It’s a cheap workout because I’ve decided to use equipment that I had in my basement that I received as a cheap gift over 5 years ago.
And now on with the workout:
- Bench:
- 45 lbs – basically the bar for 10 reps (my warmup)
- 135 lbs – 1st real set for 10 reps (years ago, this was my warmup set… disappointing…)
- 185 lbs – 2nd real set for 5 reps (hoped to go for 10, but too weak currently)
- 205 lbs – 3rd real set for 1 rep (I was hoping for 2 reps, but I failed this Sunday)
- 165 lbs – warm down set (this was a hard 10 reps surprisingly)
- Curls
- 45 lbs – bar basically, warmup for 10 reps
- 65 lbs – 1st set for 10 reps
- 75 lbs – 2nd set for 10 reps (easier than I imagined)
- Row
- 65 lbs – set of 10 reps
- 75 lbs – set of 10 reps (fairly easy too, time to increase the weight next time)
- Sissy Squats
- 2 set of no weight for 10 reps (making sure I got 90 degrees angle for the squat). I almost didn’t include these, but they were hard for me so here they are.
- Goals:
- Lose 20 to 40 lbs by the end of the year (20 lbs seems possible, but 40 lbs might be stretching it).
- Be able to bench press 250 lbs by the end of the year (I’d be happy if I could get 225 by the EOY).
- Be able to curl 95 lbs for 10 reps by the end of the year.
Well, that’s all. I kept it short and sweet as I mentioned above. I’ve always worked my upper body but not my lower body because I wanted to be fast with my legs because I was in Tae Kwon Do years ago, so my legs are underdeveloped (sort of, I’m sure they are stronger than average, but not too strong, maybe around the 80th percentile…). I’m pretty goal oriented with working out, so it might be hard to keep it short. I expect that I’ll be in a hurry to at least get to bench 225 for 1 rep.
I have to admit, I’m a little surprised that I’m as weak as I am, but hopefully I’ll recover quickly, especially in bench press (my favorite).
I hope I do much better soon,
Don