March 2009 Archives

It's been raining mornings and evenings the last two days, thus deleting my bicycle commute (My Lovely Wife has been driving me to and from), so I was anxious to get down to the gym tonight and rev up a good lather on the old EDM and see if my Thursday experience with the free weights was an anomaly. Plus, today was the first time in four days I didn't feel like my joints had rusted. After my Thursday workout, I spent the weekend schlepping heavy objects to and fro in the service of MLW's mother (who's moving) and Our Lovely Daughter (whose 21st birthday party inspired me to do a lot of unnecessary, but strategic, landscaping maneuvers in the back yard). In other words, plenty of bending, lifting and twisting -- all the motions I can never seem to replicate during my workouts.

But that may be changing. I wasn't that energetic tonight, but I managed 25 minutes on the EDM, pushing my heart rate up to 152 and working up a good sweat. I didn't stretch (of course), but immediately descended into the free weights pit, where I found a bench and tried to replicate the work I've done on the Clapping-Hands-Together machine by grabbing two 25-pound dumbells, lying down on the bench and bringing them together above my head. I managed to do three sets of 10 reps, but it was a stretch -- which makes me wonder what it is about our physiology that makes it so hard. On the CHT machine, I can pretty effortlessly handle three sets of 10 reps with 120 pounds, and there I was struggling mightily with 25 lbs. in each hand.

Yes, it could be that I'm just a wuss, but I'm searching for more rational explanations. Obviously, the free weights are using more muscles than the CHT, and it's just possible that I haven't been using those muscles very much over the past 57 years. Also, there's the whole balancing thing: free weights don't move smoothly and happily up and down a pre-assigned track; you have to keep them from falling into your lap (or worse).

Anyway, I moved on to various engagements with heavy objects -- squats, lunges, overhead presses, etc., plus  my first experience with the basic deadlift, which every serious weightlifter seems to say is the nirvana of lifting. I did 70 pounds and really felt it in my lower back -- again, probably a good sign.

The weird thing about free weights is that you leave the pit without the sense that you've worked this or that muscle to its breaking point. It's more like you've worked your whole body. Which, I suppose, is the whole point.

As previously noted, I've been avoiding the free-weights area in the gym because it's just a bit intimidating -- all those large ripped and tattooed guys hoisting megatonnage of iron. But, last night, inspired by Marty Gallagher's advice to quit the resistance machinery and go "primitive," I descended into the pit and discovered . . . all sorts of regular folks. Sure, they were all in better shape than I am, and they all seemed to know what they were doing, but nobody kicked sand in my face or threatened to toss me back up the stairs just to prove they could. In fact, once I kind of oriented myself, I didn't feel any more out of place than I do in the rest of the gym.

And Gallagher was right about the free weights vs. the resistance machines. I spent maybe a half hour down there: some previously hazardous goblet squats, lunges, curls, overhead presses, triceps extensions and even a couple of sets of the exotically named Sumo Romanian Deadlift, and I can really feel it this morning -- way more than when I was doing my normal routine on the machines. And it's different muscle groups, which I take to be a good thing. As Gallagher puts it in The Purposeful Primitive, there's a good reason why dumbells and barbells are better:

"The very rawness of hoisting the barbells and dumbbells is what makes them so effective for muscle and strength building. Smooth and efficient is not nearly as good as crude and difficult when the name of the game is triggering hypertrophy. Free weights trump movement-mimicking machines every single time and in every single instance."

What was interesting was that I didn't hoist nearly the poundage that I generally use on the machines, but I'm feeling it a lot more than I usually do. Plus, I didn't drop any iron on my toes. An auspicious beginning, I'd say.

Got milk?

You know, you look up from the mess on the desk in front of you and you notice that a month has gone by and you haven't sprained an ankle, torn an Achilles tendon or blown out your knee and that's a good thing, generally, though you also notice there are cobwebs collecting now on your blog site and the seven readers you once had are now busying themselves filling out March Madness brackets and catching ESPN updates every three minutes on their I-Pod-Phone-Touch thing. So, it appears some catching up is in order....

The ice is out on the Mississippi and the roads and park trails are clear, which is always the signal for me to roll my old Schwinn out of the garage and change the nature of my commute. Sunday, I actually cleaned out the garage and chipped the ice from the floor (don't ask), which turned out to be a great little functional fitness workout -- bending, twisting, lifting, squatting, digging, cursing, lamenting poor foundational structure, etc. Then I climbed on my bike and rode west, past Lake Nokomis along Minnehaha Creek and through several smaller bodies of water that were  too large to describe as puddles. I managed to stay upright and remain more or less dry all the way to Park Avenue and back -- a distance of about 5 or 6 miles.

This managed to work my hamstrings and quads in a way they haven't been worked for a while -- I've been avoiding the bicycle-that-goes-nowhere machine at the gym for many months, because it tends to leave my left knee barking. But, I'm happy to report that my Sunday ride and my subsequent jaunts over the bridge to and from the office this week have been kind to all of my functioning body parts, as far as I can tell.

Of course, I don't push myself very hard on my commute (last summer, in fact, a jogger passed me going up the hill from 46th Street to the Intercity Bridge) or when I bicycle for recreation. I'm just not one of those guys who pulls on the skin-tight bike shorts and colorful shirts with the pocket in the back and races automobiles on the parkway. I like to coast.

I feel like I've been coasting at the gym in recent weeks, as well. Same old comfortable routine: 25 minutes on the EDM, a little stretching (maybe) and a half hour on the resistance machinery. I've been avoiding the free weights since my last (and first) visit there back in February, but I may get back there for a bit tonight and see what happens. I got a little inspired last week, when I had occasion to drop in on Marty Gallagher's Web site. He's a former championship  powerlifter and now trainer who argues passionately in favor of free weights (and lots of them) over the resistance machines. His new book, The Purposeful Primitive, draws on the wisdom of legendary lifters like Paul Anderson (above) and Ed Coan to design a serious cardio and strength-training regimen.

It's fun to read about guys like Anderson, who had a two-hole golf course set up on his Tennessee farm and liked to squat-lift an 800-pound barbell a few times after putting out, then tee off, chip onto the green, putt out and press 400 pounds a few times at the other green. "Paul combined short, intense workouts ... throughout the day, with periods of rest. For example, he would do 10 reps in the squat with 600, rest for about 30 minutes, and then do a second set of 10. After another 30 minutes rest, he would increase the weight to 825 and do three reps, rest again and do two more reps with 845. then he would rest again and conclude by doing half squats with 1200 for two or three reps and quarter squats with 1800. the whole routine took three hours or more. He would sip milk during the rest periods, consuming a gallon or more throughout the course of the day."

I would do that, of course, but I'm not a big milk drinker.