Today was a lower body workout at 7am. I was not feeling so into it when I woke up, but as usual, pushing myself to be consistent definitely helps. As a result, by the time I finished a few sets of leg curls and squats, I was feeling alot better and hit my squat high today of 125lbs for 5 repetitions.
I need to fill in the lower body workout table from the beginning of time, at least my time as a beginner of strength training at the ripe young age of 55, because I find it amazing how the body can respond to training in a positive way. The first time that I did any squats, I could not even do one squat without any weight and I think that was just from having no flexibility at all and having not done anything physicially similar to a squat in so many years.
When I did do my first set of squats with the barbell alone, I could not squat again for at least a week because I was so sore from the squats that I could barely walk! Who would know that a simple move like squatting could have such an impact on your body? S, ince that time I have been working my way up slowly and many times I have fell off the weight training wagon and had to start all over again from ground zero doing air squats (squats without any weights) and then starting again to add weight on to my squat each week.
Today is a milestone because it is the first time in two years of on and off again squatting that I have been able to do 5 repetitions of 125lbs. I know that might not seem like a lot of weight, but it is for me and I am a beginner who is terrible at weight lifting but I am making progress! And that is all that I want to accomplish, make the progress that I am capable of.
I am going to post a video of my deadlift form at some point and ask you all for your tips, thanks!
Now, about the deadlifts, it is true that I did a one rep max deadlift of 180lbs today and it felt okay, but, I am going back to basics. I felt that I would rather build up slowly with 5 repetitions than pushing myself to lift heavier and heavier weight for only one repetition. The reason is that two days ago and today I felt a twinge in my lower left abdomen when I lifted my one rep max weight and I remembered that I had a hernia back when I was about 14 and suddenly I was like, oh no, what am I doing, I have to walk the talk and lift more gradually.
So, I started with 135lbs for warm up and went up to 145lbs of 5 repetitions. Then I made the mistake of increasing for one rep maxes of 155lbs, 165lbs, 175lbs and 180lbs and it was at 175lbs that I felt the first twinge. So as of this writing, I still feel a bit but I hope that it will not turn more serious!
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How was your workout today?
Did you do lower body or upper body or all?
Do you do deadlifts and how do you prevent from getting a hernia?
I think the answer to that is to lift light and move up in weight gradually!
Please comment so we can all learn from and help each other!
Thanks for reading!
Ben Isaac is the author of