I am humbled!

[elfs]

Went to the gym today and discovered that I'm not nearly as strong as I thought. On Friday when I went, I was with a small cross-section of my office and discovered I was in better shape than most of them. Today, I went with a different cross section and watched this fellow who's probably not nearly as tall or wide as I am lift three times my capacity.

That said, I had a great workout, beat my arms and shoulders and abs to death, and paid close attention to the muscles in my lower back, the ones I used when picking up my kids. Both of them still want to be carried from time to time, even though they're six and nine. I am getting stronger, but I fear the six-week crash. Also, toward the end of October I'll be taking a week off. I should probably buy a used bench before then; I have a weight set already.

Comments

[lisakit.livejournal.com]

OK, the comment about your lower back muscles made me cringe. My PT's have always told me to lift with your stomach, not your back. In other words, clench your tummy muscles when lifting kids and other impossibly heavy objects to add support to your back. And it's more important to strenthen stomach muscles for lifting than back muscles. You also want to be sure and bend your knees, which puts more of the work on your thighs instead of your back.

So yah, you want to strengthen back muscles to keep them healthy, but for lifting you want to concentrate on strengthening and lifting with stomach and thigh muscles.