A new personal best (bench/floor press) and a failed attempt (Turkish Getup)
I wrote in August about a couple personal bests in my lifting practice, Two personal bests in a week: Freedom, and last month about the risk of injury in exploring your physical limits. Why form is important in lifting weights, especially Turkish Get-Ups.
First, the personal best on the bench press, or more accurately floor press, since I don’t have a bench. My last personal best was to do three sets with the 70-pound weight per arm, 8 reps, then 7, then 6. Earlier this year, an injury lowered my ability to max out at three reps. When I bought the kettle bell (used from Craigslist) I don’t think I could do one rep.
Six days ago, for the first time, I did three sets: 9 reps, then 8, then 7. This morning I repeated it. I like that it wasn’t a goal. The progress happened just as part of my lifestyle resulting from my sidchas and standard procedures. It feels great as I’m doing reps three, four, and five to sense I’ve got more energy and strength to go past my previous best.
I still know that half my life ago I could have lifted more and gained faster, but I don’t get to pick my age. Back then I didn’t life. I played ultimate, so I practiced my throws and ran sprints. I wish I had lifted more. Oh well.
By the way, this progress came while losing the belly fat I put on eating all those free heirloom tomatoes and bruised peaches. They didn’t replace other food. I just ate more when I salvaged them, so the skin on my abdomen got thicker with fat. I don’t know how much, but it’s thinned since their seasons ended. Usually growing muscle comes with extra calories, but a body losing fat tends to mean fewer calories.
Turkish Getup challenge
You might remember from those posts that after doing a Turkish Getup with a 70 pound weight, I wanted to do it three times to make sure I didn’t just get lucky one time, not that I think you can do a Turkish Getup just from being lucky. With my six-day exercise cycle that I start on the first day of the month, I only wanted to try at the ends of months with 31 days, since then I have the extra day to experiment.
My first attempt went great. My second did too. The one I tried a few days ago didn’t go so well. The weekend was busy, especially mornings, when I usually lift. The only chance I had was in the evening. My apartment gets dark then, plus I’d walked a few miles and barely ate for lunch.
The result: I was able to lift the 70-pound weight from the ground to the full height, above my head, but then I wobbled. I think the darkness made it harder for my body to maintain stability. The weight got to where it wasn’t directly over my arm. It would have fallen from that full height of probably over 7 feet, but I kept enough control to sort-of catch it at my chest. No injury, but no rep either.
With more light, I probably wouldn’t have had the problem. Still, I’m partly glad I didn’t make all three sets on the first try, since doing so would have implied I could have done them earlier. I value being humbled.
While I didn’t injure myself, most of my body felt something beyond soreness from catching the weight after nearly dropping it. Memento mori.
I’m not sure when I’ll try next. The calendar says the end of December, but I’ll probably try earlier, maybe instead of one of my regular Turkish Getups in my regular exercise cycle.
How I feel
I feel great about the surprise progress on the floor press, all the more for repeating the personal best the next time (today). I feel humble but maybe better about failing to finish the 70-pound Turkish Getup than had I not had a problem.
I’m telling myself to relax my boundary exploration after the third successful 70-pound Turkish Getup, assuming it happens. Lifting is tiring for the rest of the day and the next. Maybe it’s time to stop exploring limits and maintain instead of grow. The floor press achievement has me thinking about going a bit farther, not resigning to plateauing.
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