Tag Weight lifting

Health – Weight Lifting, getting organized…

brilliantviewpoint 18 Comments

January, time for health and goal setting, right! One goal I had in December was to organize my weights. I was tired of seeing them in a pile. I looked up weight racks and it took me “forever” to decide on one. Why? I started reading reviews.

Responses went from hard to assemble, product had a terrible lead smell, heavier weights take up a lot of space, so weights don’t fit perfectly, etc.

You see, a simple task turned into hours of research.

Before I knew it, I was watching YouTube videos on how to assemble the weight rack. That turned out to be critical. You needed a wrench, not included AND muscle power. Laughing, it’s true. The muscle power was for holding the nut in place while you turned the screw through the nylon steel nut.

I’m not going to lie. You can see, it seems easy, but it was exhausting. Like putting together an IKEA cabinet. Not hard, but just takes time. My heart sank when I saw “one washer” on the floor. Oh NO! Did I miss one? I checked and double checked. Looks like they gave me an extra one. Next time, I would count them out. Since I don’t do this often, I forget these tricks.

Mission Accomplished!! It sure saves space.

Anyone else work on a project over the holidays?

Fitness – The dreaded HIP pain!

brilliantviewpoint 11 Comments

Well, I was over zealous in my squats. For a few weeks now, doing squats was fine. No pain. I take that back, I mean, I had some normal “exercise pain,” which means our routine is WORKING, but no severe pain. UNTIL a few days ago. Walking was fine, but stairs…*#!&

Holy Moley, I suddenly felt like a 90 year old woman. Where did that left hip pain come from? I had obviously aggravated something. I immediately knew I had to stop the squats, but I have been on a rhythm. It’s always annoying to be in a routine, get an injury, and then either be side lined or have to refocus a workout in a different way.

I decided I would walk more, that should be OK, right. WRONG, I was fine until mile 3, when I got to the start of mile 4, my hip was on fire! It was saying, “What the heck are you doing?” I did chuckle to myself. OK, ok, I’ll ice YOU (the hip) when I get home.

On to YouTube for hip pain physical therapy. There are a lot of great videos on stretches that target the outer hip. Also, I liked one guy’s take on this. He said that doctors always say REST. His opinion was that stretching is critical to lengthen the muscles and tendons for quicker recovery. I agree. If we become sedentary, then one day turns into 6+ months of inactivity.

So… I’ve been BENCHED for a little bit!

Next time I’ll take those squats SLOWER! Lesson learned!

Fitness: Weight lifting routine

brilliantviewpoint 11 Comments

Exercise - weight liftingHow do you remember YOUR weight lifting routines? I’ve been working out with a personal trainer. When we’re going through a routine, I think I’ll remember everything he taught me.

Then I get to the gym on my own…

NOPE, NO MEMORY –  I think, “How did he do that, what size weight, did I bend up or down?” You get the idea.

So, I smartened up, after each session, I started doing quick stick drawings.

Guess what, I’m becoming a PRO.

AND I have a start of a new exercise book!

SPECIAL NOTE: Never tell your trainer you don’t like a certain exercise. WHY?? Because he will MAKE YOU DO the exercise you HATE every single time, i.e., planks!