You Just Try Lifting Pounds, Laddies!

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I was in the gym in Belfast, and I caught the Irish blokes kind of chuckling at the paltry amounts I was lifting.

"Hey," I told them, "I've never lifted kilograms before. You just see how you do the first time you try lifting pounds." 

Comments

  1. Jim1:09 PM

    Funny. But really pathetic gym etiquette on their part.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous11:37 AM

    While I can certainly lift a decent amount of weight (more than many guys my size), I never saw any reason to show off or even care about what anybody else in the gym thought. I was in the gym for my goals, not those of others. Further, while my maximum lifts were pretty high for my weight, I rarely ever worked out at such levels. I would say that my regular training weights were about 50-80% of my max. weights. The reason for this is that my body responds far better to multiple sets with repetition ranges between 5-12, so if I went any heavier then I not only wouldn't be able to work within my optimum range, but my form would suffer greatly (which often causes injuries and joint problems). The fact is that you should work out with whatever weight you feel comfortable with and not give two shits about what anybody else thinks.

    Here's a story. I was working out at a Gym in San Diego when some guy scoffed at the amount of weight that I was using. He told me that a guy my size should be lifting far more than I was. I noticed that he was benching far more than I was, but that his back and butt would come off of the bench on every lift (meaning he was lifting more than he should be). So, I challenged him to a competition the next day. I bet him $100 that I could lift more of a combined weight of bench press, shoulder press and squat (all with perfect form). A few of our friends would judge our form. He was bigger than me, so he took the bet. Long story short, even though he was quite a bit bigger than me, I killed him on all three lifts because not only wasn't he used to using correct form, but he also never worked out his legs. Even if he had beaten me on bench press and shoulder press, my squat crushed his by such a large margin that I still would have won. He's lucky that I didn't throw deadlifts into the bet (my stongest lift).

    ReplyDelete
  3. Bob Murphy6:36 PM

    Jim I suspect this story is completely made up. For starters, does Gene look like he goes to the gym?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. gcallah12:42 PM

      Bob is half right: I really was at the gym, but the rest is invention.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous1:07 PM

      Was it invented due to your own perceived inadequacies about the amount of weight you were lifting? Were you self-conscious that you weren't lifting very much, and thus thought others were noticing that you weren't lifting very much? Was that how this came about?

      I'm not trying to be a jerk or anything, this is actually a very common thing.

      Oh, and Bob, I know that Gene does go to the gym, because he's talked about it quite a few times before. However, I think it is more or less an attempt to counteract the crappy parts of his lifestyle (drinking, eating crappy foods, lounging, smoking, etc). It's kind of like a hamster on a wheel: he's running, but he isn't getting anywhere. It's very common, actually.

      Delete
    3. gcallah8:15 PM

      Joseph, you are such a joker! You know damned well that I only have bad habits to compensate for how extraordinarily healthy I would be otherwise. I don't want to shame others!

      Delete
    4. Anonymous9:41 PM

      Haha. You're right, I don't know what the hell I was thinking.

      Delete
    5. gcallah3:20 AM

      Joseph, you were thinking how jealous of my physical prowess you would be if I surrendered all of my bad habits.

      :-)

      Delete

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