Started with Stage 2 of NRoLfA

[lyorn]

I finally managed to get started, after I lost two weeks due to a pulled muscle in my back when lifting a rather *light* thing at a very stupid angle. So of course I *still* did not attempt that one rep max deadlift. I suspect I'm chicken.

Anyway, back at the gym now.

The first attempts were quite wobbly. Those dynamic stabilisation exercises do not look like much, but, holy smurf. This will need practise.

I'm doing the heavy lifts, not the metabolic work, because I want more muscle, and according to the latest measurement I really shouldn't want any less fat. Also, with swimming and bicycling, I feel my metabolism is doing just fine. And heavy lifts are fun.

Though I didn't get up to really heavy yet -- I still need to find the right form.

I also finally lost patience with the short barbell of unknown weight, dragged the scales up to the free weights area and put the damned thing on it. As I suspected, it's 12.5 kg, not the 7.5 that one of the employees had guessed.

Anyway, fun. Hard work, too. Bicycling home was a challenge...

Comments

[weirdquark]

I really enjoyed the DB bench press on the partial bench. The off-loaded DB front squats were fun too. Mostly the challenge was figuring out how to get the weights up. :)

[lyorn]

Mostly the challenge was figuring out how to get the weights up. :)

Yes!

Fortunately I found that, for the barbell front squat, I could get up 17.5 kilos with part of a snatch motion, and when I do 20 kilos or more, that's the long barbell and I can use the rack.

But the partial bench stuff was ...interesting. How *did* you get the weights up for that?

[weirdquark]

Oh yeah, the BB Front Squats weren't a problem -- it was the DB ones that were a bit tricky. I found that with the weights I was using I could use my other hand to place the heavier DB on my shoulder and then swing/half-clean the other one up and I never increased the weights to where I couldn't get the second up at all, though I did get to the point where I needed to drag the second up to my knee while it was on a bench and use that to get it up to my shoulder.

For the partial bench I leaned my shoulders on the bench, sort of dragged the DBs up my chest until they were at my shoulders and then did a hip thrust to get the rest of me into position. Then you just bench as normal.

Having done DB incline bench, the hard part is always getting it started though -- I'd struggle on the first one but I found that if I could get the weight up at all, I could usually do a decent number of reps -- it was rare that I'd have a hard time on one and then find it was my max or that I could only do one or two more. Which lead to weirdness with incline bench where I'd totally fail to get the DBs up on day and then knock out five reps the next.