Everyday Systems

I recently inherited a weight bench from a neighbor that is moving away. I must say that I haven't "lifted" weights in several years because of a shoulder injury from my judo days. Long story short, my max bench four odd years ago was 185lbs. The other day just for kicks I started adding weight to the bar after my SG workout....I benched 205lbs before I quit. And I have to say that I stopped there because of a tweak in my shoulder not because of the weight. I left the bench feeling like I could have done more. Much more. SG rocks!

I was very surprised one evening after SGing for about six months when I went to my cousin's house, got on his Solarflex (where he "jokingly" set the weight for about 185), and I promptly cracked off 10 good presses.

I do pushups, too, but I never would have believed I could have done that much. He was equally surprised. I guess it just shows that tiring the muscle is what counts. Undoubtedly, I could add mass by lifting heavier weight, but from an everyday perspective, the muscle I build with SG "works" better. I can do yard-work like a big dog!

Wow... I'm glad to hear it. I've got to see if I can reproduce that experiment. I haven't been around a bench press in years. Chin ups is another "independent metric" I'd be interested in, but the only time I'm ever around something that might serve as a chin up bar is at the playground, and I'm too self conscious in front of all the mommies (being a weirdo on the Internet is one thing, in front of your neighbors quite another).

Great to see you guys again here!

Reinhard

I do pullups in sets of eight to ten. After an SG session, I can do maybe four. On a good day.

I have a hard time with pullups (again with the shoulder!) but the yard work tie in is a great one...I moved river rock with a buddy of mine a couple of weeks ago and after an hour he was dead meat. I'll have to think about including pushups. I have been doing squats as a general warmup lately to get the blood moving, but push ups after might well be challenging.

I also benched 90 kg (200 lbds) the other day after reading this message. I have never benched that much before - and I haven't even done pushups for at least 6 months. I have shugged for about 18 months now though. With a 14 lber for about 12 months!

Phil.

As long as we're doing testimonials!

I've been shovelgloving for three weeks, and the number of pushups I can do has doubled: from 12 to 22! Wow!

200 pounds.... wow. This independent verification is getting compelling... very curious (and a little scared) to get on a bench press and see what I can do...

I noticed the pushups boost too (though now I've been doing them regularly for a while).

Reinhard

Bench update: I pushed 215 yesterday with a little help from my spotter...but I have to say that my shoulder was really sore this morning (painful even)...it's never this bad when I do SG all by itself, even after a day of adding a new movement. Although it has been interesting messing around with the bench, it is soon to go on craigslist...weight lifting seems too much like work after the SG workout.

Very true!

215... I got some catching up to do. I'm nervous I'm going to be nowhere in this league when I finally get around to it.

Just for the sake of comparison, this is free weight or nautilus? Sounds like free weight... which is even more impressive.

Reinhard

Haha! This reminds me Reinhard, did you ever have a rematch with your Brother in arm wrestling???
Have a great weekend you SG jocks!
Peace and Love,
Debs

reinhard wrote:the only time I'm ever around something that might serve as a chin up bar is at the playground

Loop a towel over a door and use it to pull yourself up the side. It doubles as a grip strength exercise. Not recommended for use on doors with catches (due to likely ouchness).

This seems good as long as you have a wide and solid enough doorframe.

http://www.karatedepot.com/tr-ex-16.html

I didn't really mean for the conversation to take this route...I hope I didn't sound like I was bragging or anything...I just really surprised myself. Other than a novel way to exercise I really hadn't paid that much attention to gaining strength with SG. Turns out I got it.

Reinhard unless you're really keen on figuring out what you could bench I wouldn't really bother with it. I am still sore from Mon. on the bench and I have had to lay off SG since Tues. I don't like down time from my hammer...

ThomsonsPier wrote:Loop a towel over a door and use it to pull yourself up the side. It doubles as a grip strength exercise. Not recommended for use on doors with catches (due to likely ouchness).

Sounds like a good way to break a door... unless you live in a medieval castle or something else built when hinges were real hinges.

I'd get one of those door frame bars but I'm very tall so they don't really work for me.

fungus wrote:Sounds like a good way to break a door... unless you live in a medieval castle or something else built when hinges were real hinges.

I live in England. We all have castles. Or pre-war housing, at least.

I have one of those pull up bars, but have nowhere to install it. Bah, and humbug.