Meathead
I am officially a card carrying member of a gym. I joined up Saturday morning at the Harrisburg location. I hit the bike for 1 hour to burn off 7 days of built up aggression and frustration. After that I went to the mat and did some crunches, and began in earnest to stretch my hamstrings and calves. That all went pretty well. Then came the weights.
I have to say, I found the weight area to be overwhelming and intimidating. There were a bunch of huge meathead looking dudes there lifting more weight than I could hope to carry.
Don’t get me wrong. I am perfectly happy with my (lack of) muscles. I like being lean. I like to (try) to be built like a runner. And I am not even worried about standing beside some huge guy who is benching twice what I weigh while I curl soup cans. None of that bothers me. What bothers me is that I don’t know what exercises to do, in what order, how many times and what form.
Those guys obviously put into weight training the kind of time and energy I put into running (maybe more), and I feel like I should at least have a passing understanding of what I am doing before I go getting in the way.
I am going to order the book, Ultimate Guide to Weight Training for Running. I think that should go a long way toward helping me figure out a decent routine. I also sent a text message to a friend that is pretty interested in weight training and he has agreed to help me come up with a plan.
Today I was a little more adventuresome. I rode the bike for a hour again, and then followed up with the stretching abs workout from the day before. Then, since the gym was not very busy, I wandered around reading the instructions on the different machines and used the ones I though might be helpful.
I didn’t use any of the leg machines because I don’t know if that will aggravate my hip. The workout was disorganized but I figured, much like beginning running, just trying some new things while taking it light and slow would be fine. Hopefully I can put some time into learning about weight-training and make the most out of the time I spend in the gym.
I have also made a discovery with my hip. Stretching my hamstrings, has a positive effect on it. After I am done riding the bike, my hip usually feels a little tight. After a good 15 minutes of stretching I can walk around pain free. My current thinking is that my inflexibility: A) helped cause the injury and B) is prolonging it’s recovery. Tsk tsk. Do your stretches children!
Ewww, stay away from the machines. Free weights, man. Gotta work all those little stabilizer muscles. Get some dead lift action going.
Hehe, I don’t think dead lift is in my future, but I do plan to use free weights. The machines are nice IMO, especially when you are getting started. Plus the meatheads are all using the free weights, the machines are left for runner nerds. :)
Mike,
Great blog. Found it through Complete Running. I’d not heard of the book on weight training that you mention, so I’ll have to check that out. I’ve slimmed down since starting running a year or two ago, but still have the same body shape (”skinny fat” as I call it - as you can tell from the title of my blog, though, I still have a thing for sweets. Maybe that’s part of the problem.).
I look forward to reading your blog regularly.
Topher
http://www.illrunfordonuts.blogspot.com
Hey Topher, Welcome. Hopefully we’ll get some good feed back and discussion from you here.
I added your blog to my rss reader, see you on the nets.
Hey Nate. Good running into you again. Too bad about the colo crash. A book I’d recommend for lifting is Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe. It’s the most comprehensive book on the big lifts out there. I’m a big believer in whole body lifts and Olympic lifts. For what you’re doing I’d start with just deadlifting and presses. Hamstring flexibility is uber important. Tight hamstrings act as a brake on your quads, so you never get the full power of your quads. Just increasing your hamstring flexibility will immediately start shaving time off your PR through increased muscle efficiency.
Sandblade,
Yeah man great to see you as well. Would have been better if the secret service hadn’t come in to tell me my night was ruined and I had to go to work, but whatev.
I will check that book out, thanks for the heads up!