Who Put Lead in my Weights?

A few weeks ago, I was wondering, smugly, how many people at the airport wheeling their bags along were paying for gym memberships. Everyone--to a person--had wheeled luggage except me: as long as my old suitcase holds out, I won't buy another one. And I wasn't willing to pay $40 to check my luggage cart. Three months after my accident, my fractured arm was well enough to carry a week's worth of clothes and toiletries, and so it was pressed into service. After all, I'd pushed, sawed and hammered my fence back into place and planted 15 or 20 plants a few weeks before without a problem.

With this in mind, I didn't think my first workout in three months would be too hard. And for my legs and abs (which weren't injured in my bike wreck in late July), it wasn't. At first, the upper body workout wasn't hard--I got through three and a half Slow Burn pushups without undue hardship. But the weights felt twice as heavy as they used to. Did a five-pound weight really used to feel like nothing? Did I really once consider getting some 30-pound free weights? Despite wielding a shovel and a suitcase, I lost muscle tone. I needed a gym membership, or a home workout.

Most readers probably know the physical benefits of strength training. Personally, I simply like being strong. I don't like asking others to do the heavy lifting. I do like having a body that can move something heavy out of the way and dance for hours without getting tired. Everyday activity isn't enough to get it in prime shape.

Comments

Chuck said…

here is a great quote from Mark Rippetoe:
"Strong people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general"

November 08, 2012

Lori Miller said…

"Don't be that weak link." -Vanessa Huxtable on The Cosby Show

November 08, 2012

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