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- Newsgroups: misc.fitness
- Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!ames!pacbell.com!att-out!walter!origami!kenl
- From: kenl@origami.cc.bellcore.com (Ken Lehner)
- Subject: Re: Weight Lifting posts
- Message-ID: <1992Dec22.213344.12703@walter.bellcore.com>
- Sender: kenl@origami (Ken Lehner)
- Nntp-Posting-Host: 128.96.85.66
- Organization: Bellcore
- References: <28402@oasys.dt.navy.mil> <Bz293u.JBM@mail.boi.hp.com> <Bz44LH.BA3@ncifcrf.gov> <1992Dec22.205543.17081@cbnewsk.cb.att.com>
- Distribution: usa
- Date: Tue, 22 Dec 92 21:33:44 GMT
- Lines: 44
-
- In article <Bz293u.JBM@mail.boi.hp.com> smay@boi.hp.com (Scott Smay) writes:
- >
- >A little background: I'm 34, 5'9", 155 lbs. I can run a 10k in about 37
- >minutes, ski 25km in about 80 minutes. I do a lot of whitewater kayaking.
- >I lift weights about 9 months a year, though I'd never done bench presses
- >until this last year.
- >
- >On bench press, I will be (or would have been until this thread started) happy
- >when I can do 3 sets of 8 reps of my own body weight. Right now I can do
- >3X8@135, and I've done an occasional single set at 155 with great effort.
- >Watching around the gym, this is definitely lower than the average, though not
- >by a lot. I see lots of people working with about 200 lbs. Those who work with
- >the 150 lb range seem to be in the 10-20 rep range. What is a little
- >confusing and sometimes irritating is that most of these guys have slighter
- >builds than I.
- >
- >My objective is to build strength, not mass. Advice or references would be
- >welcome. I read this group daily, and don't see my workout being radically
- >different than some successful ones described here. One possible difference
- >is that I tend to use weight training as an adjunct to more aerobic sports.
- >However, I am not using a low weight X high rep routine. I rarely get reps
- >above 8 or 9 (or below 7) and do work to exhaustion except on warmups. Am I
- >just up against a genetic limit?
- >
-
- (A little background: track in college (jumps plus a decathlon), masters
- swimming last 7-8 years, triathlons/road racing last few years. I'm
- a sprinter by physiology, not a distance person (37:25 best for 10k, and
- 4:55 for a mile this year (at age 34))
-
- Do you want strength that you can use toward some particular activity
- (e.g., running or kayaking), or do you want strength "in the abstract"
- (e.g., lift more weight)? To run sub-6 minute miles for a 10k, you've got
- to be a pretty reasonable aerobic athlete. You've trained your muscles
- and energy systems for that. I think it is difficult to train for both
- aerobic and non-aerobic activities at the same time (that's why it's so
- hard to be a world-class decathlete, and why there are so few decathletes
- who are really fast 1500m runners).
-
- Do you want strength in particular muscle groups, or just strength that
- will increase your max in the bench press?
-
- The more specific you are in stating your goals, the better I (and others)
- may be able to give advice.
-