Better, Faster, Stronger.

I have been suffering with a perpetual full body ache since I started this whole enterprise a little over a week ago. Despite going to the gym yesterday and working even harder than I did last time, I feel fine today (there is a bit of a dull ache in my upper arms when I stretch I suppose). I don’t know if my body has given up complaining about the stresses and strains I am subjecting it to, or whether I am already starting to get fitter but either way I feel better than ever before.

Sunday, I met Nigel after he finished work and we hit the gym. And this time I lifted my exercise card to record our efforts here on the blog. (only trouble is I have scrawled all over it and it got crushed in my bag and is now looking a bit tatty. I might get Nigel to half-inch a new one for me so that I am not the only person in the gym with a weather beaten score card)

Training with Nigel is a blessing and a curse. There I am doing my weights, and he strolls on over and goes
“Only 39kgs? Hmmm. I did it on 45kgs and it wasn’t too hard”.
At which point I am forced to say “Huh? Oh? How did that happen? I thought it was on 45kgs but the pin must have slipped. I was going to put it on 50kgs anyway”. at which point I up the weights and burst an artery.
Machismo is going to be the death of me.

The Rowing machine.
Both of us achieved the full 15 minutes. With a couple of minor 30 second breaks for a glug of water about halfway through form each of us. I started and completed the duration with the resistance set to about 4. Nigel started out at resistance setting 7 but was forced to drop it down to setting 4 after about 8 minutes.
The machine records a few stats, and I love stats so I jotted them down for future reference. I covered 3048 metres with 238 reps. Nigel covered 2842 metres with 234 reps. All in all we were pretty much on par and although I did a few more metres and a few more reps, I didn’t start at such a high difficulty setting.
Next time out we are going to start on the same setting at the same time and see if we can keep pace with each other.

Leg Press.
Sit down and push a plate forward. This plate is obviously attached to weights via a complex pully system. We both worked through 2 sets of 12 reps. Nigel moved the pin up to 45kgs for this exercise, I didn’t and stayed at the 39kgs suggested by Fitness Stuart.

Erector spinæ.
This is an exercise that works the muscles in the lower back, Nigel has had a long standing back problem and hopefully working this area will improve the situation. We both moved the weight up to 39kgs and then worked through 2sets of 12 reps without too much difficulty.

Lat Pull down.
This works the large flat muscle on the back below the shoulder blade and also the biceps. I find that when I start this exercise I find it really easy but by the time I get to the 12 repetition I and starting to feel the burn. Weight was set at the recommended 32kgs and again we both did 2 sets of 12 reps.

Shrugs.
These are great. With a 15kg free weight in each hand you just shrug. This works the neck muscles and again we do two sets of 12 reps. This is a surprisingly effective exercise. Nigel accidentally (so he claims) used the 12.5kg weights instead of the 15’s on Sunday though.

Shoulder press.
You kind of push a bar connected to weights upward with this machine. And as the title suggests. It works the Shoulders. I start to struggle with this one, and by the 12th rep I am all a tremble. But we both worked 2 sets of 12 reps at 23kgs.

Chest press.
Similar to the shoulder press only instead of pushing upward, you push forward instead. Again I really start to struggle towards the end of the sets and if we had to do 13 repetitions I don’t know if I could do that last one. 2 sets, of 12 reps. I had the weight set to 25, nigel moved the pin up to 32 though.

Arm curl.
A strange contraption is this machine. But basically it is a really complicated device that gets you lifting weights using biceps and triceps. (I have no idea what is wrong with doing this using free weights) 18kgs and 2 sets of 12 reps. Nigel tried to up the weight but aborted that idea quite quickly but we both managed the full sets at 18kgs.

Seated dips.
I like this machine. You sit down and push down on a pair of really ergonomic moveable arms. Fitness Stuart didn’t show us this machine when we had our induction thing, but we worked it out fairly easily. We both found that 36kgs was a good weight. And again we worked through the 2 sets of 12.

Then there were the core muscle exercises. The power while kayaking comes from the group of muscles in the trunk and it is going to be really important for endurance paddling if we work these.

The Plank.
Laying face forward on the floor, you support your bodyweight on your toes and elbows. Sounds easy, looks easy, really isn’t. We do two of these to failure (keep going till you drop to the floor in a ball of stomach muscle agony). I have no idea how long we hold that, but I recon I maintain the position longer than Nigel. I also suspect Nigel thinks he is able to hold the Plank for longer than me. :D

Hand to Knee.
This is basically a sit-up but you don’t take the effort off the stomach muscles at all (in a sit-up you lay down at the end of each repetition). Again we do two sets to failure. I don’t mind these too much and I will do many before I have to stop. Nigel readily admits that he really struggles with these because of his dodgy back. I’m hoping that the situation with his back will improve over the course of weeks and months because the last thing you need is a duff back on a 125 mile kayak race. (No actually the last thing you would need would be a hole in the bottom of boat on a 125 mile yak race but you catch my drift!)

45 minutes of gym work, and then to finish off all of that we went for a swim. I aimed for and achieved 30 minutes of splashing around. Only to be shamed out of the pool by a 12 year old girl who clearly was in training to be a torpedo.

Monday is a day of rest (and the piano tuner is coming round) but back to the gym on Tuesday.

Oh. P.S. I didn't win that Kayak for Nigel on ebay. It went for more money than it should have. I have spotted a couple of other likely boats so will keep trying.