Pumped Up

You can hear me now and believe me later, but I am getting pumped up.  Scroll to the bottom of this post to see how my body is responding to all of my work outs.

Actually, I'm still weighing in at a girly-man 160 pounds, or 11 and a half stones for fans of Top Gear. But that's OK, I'm not really trying to gain weight, I dejectedly tell myself.  I'm just trying to get stronger and stay fit. Yes, that's exactly what I'm trying to do.

I'm not trying to injure myself, but I have this nagging pain in my left should and left side of my neck. There's been a stiffness on the left side of my neck for quite a while. Many moons ago, when I started riding a bike again, I noticed it was hard to look over my left should at traffic.  I have to basically turn all the way around in the saddle like one of those equestrian trick riders.  The pain, however, is not from lifting. I think it's my bed, but more on that some other time, including how I had to go to Wal-mart and buy a new pillow.

I've been reading this guy's blog about his 5X5 system.  He's sort of a self help lifting guru, and he's a bit of a contrarian, which always appeals to me. He stresses squatting and places a high priority on that lift.  Through the years I've always avoided squats, though I do believe you need to do them.  At home, however, what I can squat is limited to how much I can lift over my head. Needless to say, that's not a lot. I may have a solution, though. Some time ago I built some saw horses. I got to looking at those one day and here's what I came up with:

Now I can appropriately hurt myself by trying to squat more weight that I can lift. (I do not recommend this set up for you. If you try this at home, or anywhere, you will die and/or become seriously disabled and injured with no hope of recovery. The saw horses are designed for carpentry projects, not to act as a proper squatting rack.)

Speaking of musclely guys from Belgium, a movie you should see is JCVD. Jean-Claude plays himself, a once-popular actor still trying to get work, and gets mistaken for a bank robber.  There's a weird soliloquy in the middle, but it's still pretty good. Check it out if you get the chance.

And now, the new me: