So I guess my brain still does not want to acknowledge I am now once again a member of Planet Fitness. I found myself a half mile into the drive to Retro before I realized I was going the wrong way.
So one of the annoying things I have mentioned about Planet Fitness is it’s removal of all barbell benches from the gym. When they replaced those benches with machines they added one additional Smith machine, so there are three of them. Now of course Smith machines are far than ideal but it at least is an option. Well the issue I have seen is availability. Pretty much every time I have gone to the gym all three machines are in use, often by people that are absolutely clueless.
Today was a perfect example. On one of the machines was an extremely short woman, maybe five feet tall. She must have seen somewhere that it is good to do squats using a bench as a “seat”. Well if you are a six foot tall man this might be a half decent way to get better depth on your squats, but you will still find you aren’t getting your thighs parallel to the ground. Well when you are a borderline little person, using a bench as a stopping point meant she was doing reps that were about a third of the range of motion of what they should be. It’s frustrating not being able to get on a machine because a nub is tying it up.
I eventually did manage to get on a Smith machine for some “bench pressing”. The numbers I post are if I had the same plates on a regular barbell. The reality is a Smith machine barbell only weighs around 20 pounds instead of 45 due to the counterweight rig. I tried one set on the incline chest press machine and bailed because it hurt my left shoulder. The pec dec didn’t feel great either.
Today’s Workout
5 minutes cardio/stretching
Smith machine bench press – 135lbs x 10, 185lbs x 5, 225lbs x 3, 245lbs x 2, 255lbs x 1, 225lbs x 5, 185lbs x 10
Incline chest press – 120lbs x 10
Pec dec – 90lbs x 10, 130lbs x 10, 170lbs x 8
Recent Comments