Wednesday, January 28, 2015

A baby step toward weight training

Everything I read, everything I hear, everything I already believe to be true, and everything I have experienced firsthand tells me I need to be lifting weights. And yet I’m not. I know exactly why. It’s uncomfortable and awkward to get started, the “real weights” section of the gym is so intimidating (even for me, and I have some experience there), and there’s so much else on my fitness to-do list. If I’m lifting weights several times a week, when am I going to do yoga and swim and run and walk and take those spin classes everyone knows I adore so much?

Okay, maybe not the spin classes, but if I want to train for a triathlon, then I do have to get on some sort of bike at some point.

I’m thinking the thing to do is to start really small with a couple of things I can do at home: push-ups and pull-ups. I was doing so well on push-ups (10 in a row!) before I decided that they were detrimental to my shoulder recovery; now I’m not sure I can do any. And I have a pull-up bar in my line of sight for 10 hours a day, but it’s been more than a decade since I did anything close to a single pull-up.

It might be a bit ambitious, but being able to do 10 push-ups and one pull-up seems like a good goal for February. I mean Goal.

2 comments:

  1. first off ... pull ups are HARD girl. H. A. R. D. maybe set your sights just a wee bit lower?
    second ... a really simple easy weight lifting regime goes like this ... 3x per week... alternate each group every other day ... 10reps/3sets.

    I have everything I need at home ... dumb bells/ball/pull down strap.

    Squats
    Incline dumbbell press
    dumbbell rows (I use a ball as my "bench")

    Deadlifts
    Lat pull down (I use a band)
    Standing shoulder press

    And that's it.

    http://www.aworkoutroutine.com/the-beginner-weight-training-workout-routine/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. OK, that's good advice. Thanks for the link. I'm wary of trying to do too much at once, so I need to think about this some more.

      Delete