Monkey Blog

Lifting is something that I always suspected that I would enjoy but for a myriad of reasons I never made a real attempt to do it.  I let fear hold me back for so long.  Fear of the unknown, fear of failure, fear of what I assumed would be a hostile environment, etc.  One of the best thing I’ve learned in the last two years is nothing feels greater to look one of your fears in the eye and not only facing it, but squashing it.

I remember watching an episode of Battlestar Galactica (frakking LOVE that show) where Apollo (Jamie Bamber) gets interviewed by a reporter when he had just exited the showers and was only wearing a towel.  I remember that watching that seriously pissed me off.  I was mad because that is exactly what I wanted to look like but I never made a real attempt to try and do it.  I was mad because I thought I might have missed my chance to get into the shape that I wanted.  I was 35 and everyone I knew who is that age was woefully out of shape.  Who the hell starts training at that age?  Now I know that it’s lots of people but I didn’t realize that then.  There comes a point when you realize that you can continue to wallow in doubt and unhappiness or you can start doing something about it.  I didn’t know if I could make the changes I wanted but I said "Screw it" and decided to try my damnedest anyway.  I am so happy that I did.

Jamie Bamber on the left.  My progress on the right.

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I’m always looking to try new exercises in the gym.  On arm day I tried something that I read in *cough cough* magazine.

Hold a DB in each hand with your arms bent 90 degrees and your palms facing the sky.  Curl one arm ten reps then return it to 90 degrees.  Curl the other arm ten reps and do the same.  Then curl each arm ten reps.  That’s one set.  Before my first set I thought "I wonder if 25 pounds will be enough?"  OMG at the end of the first set my arms were on fire!    This is definitely going to be added to the rotation of things to possibly hit on arm day from now on.
If I had a nickel for every skinny guy I saw using WAY too much weight flinging their bodies around while doing dumbbell curls I would be a rich man.  Train smart!