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Oh, Donna...
Sep. 17th, 2004 03:47 pmYesterday at the gym, I had a bit of a revelation.
I was once told that the difference between an intermediate and advanced weightlifter is not time, but a great deal more common sense. Six months is supposed to be when someone working consistently is no longer a beginner, and I'd say that's true for me at this point. But I'll admit that I've been victim to what I'll call "raarism," the visceral need to Lift As Much As Possible, regardless of how many times you can lift it, or how well you can maintain form. This sort of thing, as the more astute of you may have noticed, leads to injury and doesn't even build muscle all that well, except at first, when you see your first big improvement.
I've been improving steadily on squats, in terms of going up in reps. I'm still only squatting the bar, or the bar + 10, but I'm obsessive about my form and I listen to what Krista says. I don't want to hurt my knees or my back, after all. But I'd been wondering why I can't seem to get beyond 100 lbs of assistance on the Gravitron, or 95 lbs on the bench press - even when going dutifully twice a week.
I was on the bench yesterday, struggling a bit with that weight, since I had done William's Patented Ass-Kicking Male-Centric Yoga the night before, and had just figured out how to hold low plank position (woo-hoo!). The shoulders, back and chest were a bit tired.
Suddenly, above my head and to the left, a vision appeared, and said unto me, "Want a spot?" Its gender was indeterminate at this angle, but my first impressions were, in order: Black, buff, older (gray hair cut close to head), wearing red Bally shirt so likely personal trainer and not random gym person trying to hit on me, female. Letting these impressions wash over me for a moment, then taking another to judge how pathetic I must have looked on the bench, I accepted the proffered assistance.
Man, what this woman taught me in fifteen minutes. Turns out my right shoulder is weakened, and when I'm benching, the right side is significantly down. I'm lifting too much weight. I told her about my left shoulder injury of some time ago, and she said it made sense: my right shoulder's been taking up the slack all of this time, and now it's overtaxed. And here I've been babying my left shoulder!
She told me that I should do some kind of shoulder presses, with light weight, before touching the bench. That in between sets at the bench (when I return to it), I should do one-handed shoulder presses, just with my right arm. That before any of that, I should do some stabilizing exercises using a Swiss ball, or an elastic, or the wall, or a light dumbell - all of which she showed me. And that until I feel some improvement in strength, I shouldn't be doing pull-ups or dips, and I shouldn't have a bar above me that I could drop on myself.
It humbled me, and yet helped me. I've stepped up my workout of late and have been doing more yoga, plus weights thrice a week. I'd been aiming for speedy building and strength, and so didn't have a lot of patience with low weight/high reps. (Krista doesn't have much patience with it either, but I was overdoing it.)
After Donna, as this angel was called, finished helping me, she introduced herself. Did I mention she was a tall, square-shoulders, very buff, older, ebony-skinned probably-dyke that I was just smitten with? Oh, to have those biceps! And at the end of it, she didn't even make the slightest attempt to sell me personal training. As she was stacking away some equipment, I said, rather guiltily, "I haven't really been able to afford a personal trainer." She said, "Have you gotten the one free session you get when you join?" I told her I had, ages ago, at another club. "Well then," she said, "maybe we can just sneak you in sometime. Nobody has to know."
I'm going to have to spend a bit more time to do my workouts properly and stop overtraining, but I feel good about the whole experience. It's nice when someone really does their job. It's even nicer when they're wicked hot.
I was once told that the difference between an intermediate and advanced weightlifter is not time, but a great deal more common sense. Six months is supposed to be when someone working consistently is no longer a beginner, and I'd say that's true for me at this point. But I'll admit that I've been victim to what I'll call "raarism," the visceral need to Lift As Much As Possible, regardless of how many times you can lift it, or how well you can maintain form. This sort of thing, as the more astute of you may have noticed, leads to injury and doesn't even build muscle all that well, except at first, when you see your first big improvement.
I've been improving steadily on squats, in terms of going up in reps. I'm still only squatting the bar, or the bar + 10, but I'm obsessive about my form and I listen to what Krista says. I don't want to hurt my knees or my back, after all. But I'd been wondering why I can't seem to get beyond 100 lbs of assistance on the Gravitron, or 95 lbs on the bench press - even when going dutifully twice a week.
I was on the bench yesterday, struggling a bit with that weight, since I had done William's Patented Ass-Kicking Male-Centric Yoga the night before, and had just figured out how to hold low plank position (woo-hoo!). The shoulders, back and chest were a bit tired.
Suddenly, above my head and to the left, a vision appeared, and said unto me, "Want a spot?" Its gender was indeterminate at this angle, but my first impressions were, in order: Black, buff, older (gray hair cut close to head), wearing red Bally shirt so likely personal trainer and not random gym person trying to hit on me, female. Letting these impressions wash over me for a moment, then taking another to judge how pathetic I must have looked on the bench, I accepted the proffered assistance.
Man, what this woman taught me in fifteen minutes. Turns out my right shoulder is weakened, and when I'm benching, the right side is significantly down. I'm lifting too much weight. I told her about my left shoulder injury of some time ago, and she said it made sense: my right shoulder's been taking up the slack all of this time, and now it's overtaxed. And here I've been babying my left shoulder!
She told me that I should do some kind of shoulder presses, with light weight, before touching the bench. That in between sets at the bench (when I return to it), I should do one-handed shoulder presses, just with my right arm. That before any of that, I should do some stabilizing exercises using a Swiss ball, or an elastic, or the wall, or a light dumbell - all of which she showed me. And that until I feel some improvement in strength, I shouldn't be doing pull-ups or dips, and I shouldn't have a bar above me that I could drop on myself.
It humbled me, and yet helped me. I've stepped up my workout of late and have been doing more yoga, plus weights thrice a week. I'd been aiming for speedy building and strength, and so didn't have a lot of patience with low weight/high reps. (Krista doesn't have much patience with it either, but I was overdoing it.)
After Donna, as this angel was called, finished helping me, she introduced herself. Did I mention she was a tall, square-shoulders, very buff, older, ebony-skinned probably-dyke that I was just smitten with? Oh, to have those biceps! And at the end of it, she didn't even make the slightest attempt to sell me personal training. As she was stacking away some equipment, I said, rather guiltily, "I haven't really been able to afford a personal trainer." She said, "Have you gotten the one free session you get when you join?" I told her I had, ages ago, at another club. "Well then," she said, "maybe we can just sneak you in sometime. Nobody has to know."
I'm going to have to spend a bit more time to do my workouts properly and stop overtraining, but I feel good about the whole experience. It's nice when someone really does their job. It's even nicer when they're wicked hot.
