ohkimma
craftgrrl

A little something my husband and I have been slavin' on for the past couple of days. Our daughter's birthday is the 12th! :)
More details in my journal.


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vicar
gymrats

So I took advantage of my WAH (work at home) and did my leg/core workout in the middle of the day. While I worked my way up to a whopping 255 on deep squats, a muscular man beside me did about 3 sets of 10 deadlifts, comfortably and with good form, at 305 (3 plates). When I got to 255 I asked him if I could borrow the 5's from his rack, he said sure...and offered me his belt. Repeatedly. Which is to say, he was polietely telling me he thought I was crazy and could use some coaching (I'm interpreting) We started talking.

He said he was out of retirement for the 3rd time, and he was in his 60s (he looked 50-55). He weighed 142, about 5'5" (same as me, only I have less muscle and more fat at 147). He talked about lifts in the 500s, getting back to it. He didn't seem to be bragging.

A couple of questions came out of what we talked about:
1) Is there any good use of a smith machine? He says he does 9-12 week stretches alternating free and smith, using the smith to get his muscles used to the big weights before really doing them free.
2) He suggested using a belt, not for your back, but to give you something to push you abs on while you lift. Does that really help? That much? I'm currently in the no belt - train all the muscle groups free camp.
3) How much does aging really matter? He says since getting older fat sticks to you more, and he can't really go heavy-heavy more than once a week because as he aged his recovery periods increased. Is this really what I have to look forward to with the aging process?

On the other hand, while I haven't done 500lb lifts, I am getting older and it's a great inspriation to see people decades older than myself still holding their own in the gym.