Personal best 1: floor press

Regular readers know that when I bought my 70-pound kettle bell, I almost couldn’t use it (though carrying it from the person I bought it from, used from Craigslist, to the subway, down the stairs to the subway, up and down stairs to transfer, and up more stairs home was a farmers walk).

A few months ago I reported reaching personal bests for reps for floor presses. Well, last Thursday I reached eleven reps for my first set. When I got it, I may not have been able to do one rep. I’d been doing 10, 9, 8 for my three sets on my lifting days.

Last Thursday I hit 11 for the first set. I didn’t plan to. I just felt enough left after my tenth rep to try another.

The point isn’t that I’m reaching great amounts. If I set myself to it, I could lift more. My point is that I lift not to reach personal bests. I do it as a sidcha, to structure my life. It’s part of how I make sure what I consider the three necessary legs for a life to go well are automatic. The three legs are healthy diet, regular exercise, and the right amount of sleep for you.

I think for many people, those parts of life are horror shows. They follow trends, change often, stop, and restart. By making it standard, I don’t worry about doing it wrong. I just keep refining my technique and choice of exercises. I don’t worry if I’m doing them right at the start, since I have low standards the first time.

I also develop discipline. Everyone responds by saying I must have started with discipline, which to me sounds like saying Schwarzenegger must have had big muscles to start going to the gym. They get cause and effect backward. I had no discipline, as you’d know from the amount of ice cream and chips I ate despite trying to stop myself.

I also develop awareness of ever more subtle nuances in my experience. It comes from doing something similar day after day.

Oh yeah, I also did an extra single-arm row in the first set with the 62 pound kettle bell. I’d been doing three sets of five. This time I did 6 the first set.

Personal best 2: Turkish Get-up

Yesterday, I did another 70-pound Turkish get-up, which tied my personal best. I lost count, but I think this time was my fifth. Before doing it, I told myself I wouldn’t try any more because the anticipation, which includes fearing injury, creates so much anxiety. Then I did it and even with the wobble when I did it on my right side, when the kettle bell was above my head, as soon as I finished I thought, “I have to do it again.” … not that day, but some time.

I learned a lot of kettle bell exercises from an old friend who was once a fitness trainer. By chance he texted me for the first time in a while. It was for a different reason, but I told him I did it. He wrote back:

70 pounds is an elite weight to do them with.

Russian military use 70 pounds.

Top 1% use a 106 pound kettle bell but you’re so close to it already.

I remember reading when first learning about Turkish get-ups: “Legend has it that when old-time strongmen were asked to take on an apprentice, they would send the applicant away, telling him not to return until he could perform one Turkish get-up using a 100-pound weight.” I know that in my fifties just keeping fit, I don’t expect to perform what people training to become strongmen do, even before serious training, but I still figured I was far from lifting a serious weight.

Doesn’t it feel great when an expert tells you you’re doing well on something challenging? It does to me.

Anyway, I told my I’d tell him the details, like how scary the part with the weight above my head felt. He responded:

Oh yeah. When you’re tired and shaking, the last thing you want is a huge responsibility above your head.

I wonder if I’ll ever try a heavier weight? I doubt it. I guess first I’ll see if I can do a second rep. I’ve been doing two reps on each side with the 62 pound kettle bell for a while. Maybe I’ll do a third rep with it, then work up to two reps with the 70 pound one.

That is, unless I sense my body can’t handle it. I guess there’s some chance I never do another 70 pound one.

[EDIT: Tomorrow’s post, What I love about expensive gyms, follows up this one. I recommend following up with it.]

[EDIT: When I told my friend who taught me how to get a full body workout with two kettle bells that I’d been doing 70-pound Turkish Get-Ups but felt it was a maximum I might not do any more said 70 pounds was a big deal not reached by many, then added that once I reached a new level, it would eventually become normal.

The result: I did another rep on August 2, 2026. It still feels as scary as if I’m walking along the edge of cliff, but what he said sunk in. Maybe I’ll keep doing more. This last one was slightly wobbly and maybe I’m dangerously close to injuring myself, but I haven’t yet and I keep doing more. We’ll see.]