I usually workout 4 days a week... Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. And atleast once every week I think of 'retiring' from Weightlifting (If only I can understand what that means). I'm bad at managing my time and every time I have some assignment or some report I start thinking of the 3 hours that go into Weightlifting on four evenings and the time I spend on doing some research, or the pain and injuries due to Weightlifting. The last two days have been really bad. I got some problem with my lower back and every now and then it gives me too much pain when I sit in class. I was thinking too many times to quit Weightlifting and focus totally on acads.
What I said was only one part of the story. The other side is what matters. The lower back pain I got right now is bcoz of what I did on Sunday - 160kg Sumo Deadlift for 4 reps, after doing 107.5kg squat for 3 reps. After squat and deadlift, I did a bench press of 74.8kg for 3 reps and then military press of 60kg for 3 reps. I go to our institute fitness centre only once a week, the other three days we practice in our Weightlifting Hall. The one day I go to the fitness centre, I start with something that really feels like a weight- 160kg deadlift and 100+kg squat isn't a small weight. There would be loads of guys who wouldn't even think of 160kg deadlift. And today was a good day too.. Last thursday I attempted 80kg power clean and couldn't do even one satisfactory rep. Today, I did 80kg power clean for 3 sets of 3 reps each, all of them quite good. And then I did 70kg snatch from the hang. After that, I did 90kg push jerk for 2 reps. These numbers are too good at the IIT level (considering the kind of lifts that happen in inter IIT). And by the way, my maximum deadlift is right now 170kg. And in the olympics, kids younger than me, of the same weight as I am, would peacefully clean and jerk that weight. That is what a body of my size is capable of. So I know I still have a long long long way to go before I can call it a day and retire.
And after the lifting, we (me, Vikrant, Asif, BalaG) went and had a nice chicken biryani. And now I'll peacefully crash. THIS IS LIFE....... Wake up early in the morning. Attend classes. Have a nice lunch. Go to classes again. Then a proper workout session. Then chicken biryani to eat. Come back to room and crash.
Now I think of a lot of guys I see in the gym.... They go there every day. Lift the same weight for months. Take the same 5kg dumbbell or 10kg dumbbell every time they go. Keep working out for 1 hour.. 2 hours.. Barbell curls, leg press, dumbbell press, lateral raises, arbit machines- 5 sets of each exercise, 10-12 reps of each. And they never make any improvement. Coz I've been seeing guys in that gym for an year or more and they still never seem to think of any real exercise or any heavy weight. The big guys lift bigger weights, small guys lift smaller weights. But whatever weight they lift doesn't really change. The first few weeks, they can lift more than what they could earlier (this improvement is what we call the "Noob gains"). And what drives them to waste 2 hours of their time every day? There seems to be no pride or any kind of gain in what they're doing.
We go into the gym. Load a hundred kg on the bar. Squat it like we're going to die if we can't do that one rep. Keep puffing each breath. Shout our lungs out. Totally exhaust after each heavy set. That's some real intensity. It's not like lifting a 5kg dumbbell 10 times. And the pride and the feel that comes after squatting a 100kg is not something you can get easily. Beating your previous max after building up for that one heavy rep for 2 weeks is something that these people miss.
Every time I see people do dumbbell curls or calf raises or some other stuff, I'd want to go to them and say "Stop this shit. Put 70kg on the bar and squat." These dudes workout for months and years and have great biceps and they cannot deadlift 110kg (Which some of us, weighing less than 60kg, did in our first year). They are too damn scared to squat. But who's to blame? Everyone around is doing the same old dumbbell curls and the lats pull downs. 200 guys go to the gym and less than 10 guys ever squat or deadlift. Only for one hour in the entire week can they get to see the bar loaded above 100kg. And people say all kinds of crap- squat is bad for your kness, deadlift is bad for your back, bench press is bad for your shoulders, you should sit down and do military press, you should not do squat and deadlift on the same day..... That's what people say when they cannot face those exercises because they're too damn weak to do them properly and look for ways to escape the exercise.
Whatever "the dudes" do in the gym is their personal choice. But ask any guy who does some heavy squat or some heavy deadlift what they feel after beating their personal max. It's the pride. It's that feeling that you have conquered something and that feeling of being rewarded after a lot of fight. People watch movies and think about all kinds of adventures, about how the hero would get up after being dangerously injured and all. For me, my adventure is right there in the gym. Getting up with 110kg on my shoulders is a challenge and every time I live to that challenge I feel that my character has been testified by the iron that I lifted.. And IRON NEVER LIES.
What I said was only one part of the story. The other side is what matters. The lower back pain I got right now is bcoz of what I did on Sunday - 160kg Sumo Deadlift for 4 reps, after doing 107.5kg squat for 3 reps. After squat and deadlift, I did a bench press of 74.8kg for 3 reps and then military press of 60kg for 3 reps. I go to our institute fitness centre only once a week, the other three days we practice in our Weightlifting Hall. The one day I go to the fitness centre, I start with something that really feels like a weight- 160kg deadlift and 100+kg squat isn't a small weight. There would be loads of guys who wouldn't even think of 160kg deadlift. And today was a good day too.. Last thursday I attempted 80kg power clean and couldn't do even one satisfactory rep. Today, I did 80kg power clean for 3 sets of 3 reps each, all of them quite good. And then I did 70kg snatch from the hang. After that, I did 90kg push jerk for 2 reps. These numbers are too good at the IIT level (considering the kind of lifts that happen in inter IIT). And by the way, my maximum deadlift is right now 170kg. And in the olympics, kids younger than me, of the same weight as I am, would peacefully clean and jerk that weight. That is what a body of my size is capable of. So I know I still have a long long long way to go before I can call it a day and retire.
And after the lifting, we (me, Vikrant, Asif, BalaG) went and had a nice chicken biryani. And now I'll peacefully crash. THIS IS LIFE....... Wake up early in the morning. Attend classes. Have a nice lunch. Go to classes again. Then a proper workout session. Then chicken biryani to eat. Come back to room and crash.
Now I think of a lot of guys I see in the gym.... They go there every day. Lift the same weight for months. Take the same 5kg dumbbell or 10kg dumbbell every time they go. Keep working out for 1 hour.. 2 hours.. Barbell curls, leg press, dumbbell press, lateral raises, arbit machines- 5 sets of each exercise, 10-12 reps of each. And they never make any improvement. Coz I've been seeing guys in that gym for an year or more and they still never seem to think of any real exercise or any heavy weight. The big guys lift bigger weights, small guys lift smaller weights. But whatever weight they lift doesn't really change. The first few weeks, they can lift more than what they could earlier (this improvement is what we call the "Noob gains"). And what drives them to waste 2 hours of their time every day? There seems to be no pride or any kind of gain in what they're doing.
We go into the gym. Load a hundred kg on the bar. Squat it like we're going to die if we can't do that one rep. Keep puffing each breath. Shout our lungs out. Totally exhaust after each heavy set. That's some real intensity. It's not like lifting a 5kg dumbbell 10 times. And the pride and the feel that comes after squatting a 100kg is not something you can get easily. Beating your previous max after building up for that one heavy rep for 2 weeks is something that these people miss.
Every time I see people do dumbbell curls or calf raises or some other stuff, I'd want to go to them and say "Stop this shit. Put 70kg on the bar and squat." These dudes workout for months and years and have great biceps and they cannot deadlift 110kg (Which some of us, weighing less than 60kg, did in our first year). They are too damn scared to squat. But who's to blame? Everyone around is doing the same old dumbbell curls and the lats pull downs. 200 guys go to the gym and less than 10 guys ever squat or deadlift. Only for one hour in the entire week can they get to see the bar loaded above 100kg. And people say all kinds of crap- squat is bad for your kness, deadlift is bad for your back, bench press is bad for your shoulders, you should sit down and do military press, you should not do squat and deadlift on the same day..... That's what people say when they cannot face those exercises because they're too damn weak to do them properly and look for ways to escape the exercise.
Whatever "the dudes" do in the gym is their personal choice. But ask any guy who does some heavy squat or some heavy deadlift what they feel after beating their personal max. It's the pride. It's that feeling that you have conquered something and that feeling of being rewarded after a lot of fight. People watch movies and think about all kinds of adventures, about how the hero would get up after being dangerously injured and all. For me, my adventure is right there in the gym. Getting up with 110kg on my shoulders is a challenge and every time I live to that challenge I feel that my character has been testified by the iron that I lifted.. And IRON NEVER LIES.
