Round 4: Day 64: Upper Plus

I haven't been to a gym in over 25 years - until yesterday. My wife cajoled me into working out at her office gym. The gym is in the basement of her building and is extremely well laid out and well-equipped. There are all sorts of different machines, most of which I didn't understand (it has been 25 years, after all) but it also had the familiar: dumbbells, mats, skipping ropes, rowing machines, pull-up bars and so on. I was a little psyched out at the thought of working out in a gym, because for the last year, all I've known is my tiny little low-ceilinged basement space or my living room, and the only workout partners I've had are Tony and the kids. So I felt intimidated by being seen working out in a room with seasoned gym rats.

I decided to prepare by sticking to my routine. My wife was encouraging me to try different machines, but I am a devotee of the X, and wanted to stick to my schedule. So, I brought my push-up stands (the one piece of equipment that the gym didn't have), my Upper Plus worksheets, a towel and a container of water. I started by doing an extended stretch and warm-up, then jumped into the workout.

I wasn't on the clock, so I decided to take a slightly different approach to the workout. Instead of trying to do as many reps for a specific duration of time, I did 8 - 10 reps using heavier weights than normal. Alternatively, when that wasn't a possibility, I tried to exceed the numbers posted the last time I did the workout. For the most part, this approach succeeded. I forgot about the other people working out, focussed on my goals and objectives, and had a tremendous workout.

The only humbling experience was pull-ups. I've never done pull-ups before because the space in my house doesn't permit the installation of a pull-up bar. So, I've substituted pull-ups on a bar with resistance bands. While I've been successful with the bands, they are not equal to pull-ups. I was able to do several unassisted pull-ups, which felt pretty good, but they were really tough after that. My wife introduced me to a machine which allows you to do assisted pull-ups. While I felt that was a bit of a letdown, I recalled Tony advising that when you're bagged, use assistance. Sound advice. I'd rather pursue that route and do some pull-ups than none. It was a good experience, because it let me know that my shoulders and back could still benefit from extra work.

The workout went slower than normal, because of my revised approach, and my body was much more tired from having done the pull-ups. My wife and I will try to get back to the gym a few more times over the next few weeks. I'm looking forward to improving my pull-ups (assisted or otherwise).