Dufisthenics

Today the gym was very full, probably the fullest I have ever seen the Wellness Center since joining. My theory was the snowbirds that migrate for the holidays are now arriving in mass. There were a LOT of faces in there that I have not seen before and it seemed like the majority of them had no idea what they were doing.  I saw so much bad form and plain silliness that I found my own workout time being cut into from watching the spectacle around me.

There was one man however that stood above all others in entertainment value.  He was short with glasses.  I would describe his build as average and would estimate his age in the neighborhood of 60.   His Adidas sport short sleeve shirt was neatly tucked into his color coordinated shorts.

His workout weapon of choice were 10 pound dumbbells.  What he did with them could best be described as “pulsate”.  He would do short, spastic movements with the dumbbells in various odd angles and positions.  The most bizarre looking one of all was when he had his upper arms pinned to the sides of his chest.  He then leaned backwards and held the 10 pounders in such a way that they were about chin height.  He then fluttered the dumbbells inward and outward, he sort of looked like a middle aged, small,  T-rex flailing it’s baby arms.  I can say without hesitation that despite 25 years + of observing weird things at the gym and watching countless, funny people at the gym videos, I have NEVER seen anyone do anything like this.  Cool.

I began my scaled back poundage workouts today in an attempt to reduce hardcore straining.  I kept all my sets at the same lower resistance level but concentrated on getting more reps with shorter, defined rest periods.

Today’s Workout

5 minutes cardio/stretching

50 push ups

Squat machine 140lbs x 10 reps x 3 sets

Unilateral leg extension with strict 30 second rest period & one sec pause at top – 50lbs (each leg) x 10 reps x 3 sets

Kneeling leg curl with strict 30 second rest period – 50lbs (each leg) x 10 reps x 3 sets

Rotary calf extension with strict 30 second rest period – 100lbs x 10reps x 3 sets

40 push ups