Because I made it to the gym bright and early today!
I am so glad I put up that post yesterday. If I didn’t, I’m not sure I would have made it to the gym this morning. But fortunately, I was able to drag my tuchus out of bed in time to squeeze in a workout.
So there I was, doing a bent-over one-arm row, eavesdropping on the conversation going on next to me. For the record, don’t ever repeat anything you don’t want heard in a gym, because I listen to EVERYTHING. Just as the walls have ears, so do the little, unassuming girls in the weight room.
Anyway, two guys are talking, and one is a trainer at the gym. I’ve seen him there for years, but I’ve never actually spoken to him. Despite that fact, I still formulated a vague impression of his personality–granted a very superficial one. He’s a trainer. At Bally. And he’s pretty muscular and wears tight shirts. I guess that was enough for me to assume that he was probably a douche. I’m not proud of this line of thinking, but it’s the truth.
But back to the conversation. They’re talking about some guy who broke up with a girlfriend that was supporting him. Gym trainer guy says some surprisingly insightful things. Perhaps I’m a little jaded from hearing so many “hit that shit and dip” conversations at the gym, but I was actually impressed by his maturity.
“You should never have to rely on your significant other, because you never know when it’s going to end. Whether you’re a guy or a girl, you should make your own bread.” Alright, so that’s not exactly the biggest epiphany, but the next part is what caught my attention. “The secret is to learn to be happy with nothing. Then when something good comes along it’s even better. I’m happy when I’m alone, but when I have a nice girlfriend I’m even happier.” Very true words. Sorry I thought you might’ve been a douche, dude.
And if you’re curious about the weight I used, here it is:
Reverse push-ups (I opted for these instead of assisted pull-ups because I was dead tired) – 3×10 @ body weight
Superset:
Bent-over barbell row – 3×8 @ 75 lbs
Seated cable row – 3×8 @ 70 lbs first rep, 75 lbs last two reps
Wide grip lat pulldown – 3×10@ 70 lbs, 75 lbs and 80 lbs respectively
One-arm dumbbell row – 3×8 @ 40 lbs
Hammer strength lat pull – 3×10 @ 90 lbs first rep, 110 lbs last two reps
Back extensions – 3×8 @ 10 lbs
I didn’t wake up early enough to do cardio, so that’ll have to come later. Did it!
The annoying interesting thing about this style of working out is that I have to go lighter with the weight because I’m doing much more volume for the working body part in one day. For a long time I did a full-body workout three times a week. With that kind of split I was hitting every muscle group only once per workout, but I was really hitting it hard. I was able to do that because each muscle group was fresh with every exercise I went in to. So I’d do some heavy squats, then chin-ups or bent-over rows and bench presses and I’d be moving some slightly impressive numbers (for my size). With my current body-part split, I’m pretty fatigued by the third exercise. It’s good that I’m changing things up. Hopefully I get some decent gains from this!
Did I bore you enough with that geekery? Too bad!
Tomorrow there will be another dosage of geekery with a post about sprinting.
PS. Coffee and I kind of got back together. Don’t judge me!
I totally eavesdrop at the gym too! I work out music-less (better focus) and it’s shocking what people will say when they think no one around them can hear anything – lol!
I know, right?! I too workout without music, unless I’m doing cardio. Then I’ll take any kind of distraction I can get.