Begining Weight Training

It's always interesting to reflect on the mistakes one makes early on in your lifting career. Introspection brings revelations, simple learnings and in some cases it makes me laugh. While  I focused heavily on cycling as a young guy I still loved watching strength training and lifted weights to get stronger for riding.

As I look back I laugh at some of the dumb things I did. Weighing at most 57 kg at racing weight I lifted 4 days a week, consecutive days. Typically spending 2 hours in the gym and with study in and around my session I ate infrequently. Regardless  loved watching the huge powerlifters at Curtin Uni gym who would load a ridiculous number of plates on the bar and squat deep.

My nostalgic turn was prompted by watching a young guy in the gym this week. While I was getting through my big sesson below....

Deadlift
Paused deadlifts
Bench Press
Chins
Leg raises

I managed to get through this in an hour and 15 and worked my ass off. During the same time the skinny young guy nearby proceeded to do the following:

Barbell curl
Dumbell incline curl
tricep pressdown
french press
1 arm concentration curl

As I warmed down and left he was off onto another barbell exercise. Now this dude is an average ecto build and I feel so damn sorry seeing him do nothing but pump his guns for whatever ego/insecurity trip he is on.

It does make me think about how to grab these guys and get into their head to focus on the big lifts. Or perhaps you let them go and let them find their own way to the truth.

I'm glad that I am lifting at 44 and learning and loving competitive powerlifting.

Stay Strong

Thomo