• Mood: calm

Fitness ...

I made no particular resolutions about it, but one of my goals for the year was to get fitter, to help with fencing competitions (and life in general).
We've been quite irregular in getting to the gym. At the beginning of the year, either rwrylsin or myself seemed to be down with a cold of some sort much of the time, and then we both got knocked out by chest infections (the repeated colds were probably just a symptom of that, or so we think). We lost March and most of April to that. Then, from August on, the year got busy - WorldCon, Berlin, and a bunch of fencing competitions. I usually try to avoid going to the gym for at least 4-5 days before a comp., because I usually end up with sore muscles somewhere, and want to be in the peak of whatever condition I have for the comp. Still, we have managed to go there about once a week for the last month or so, and a few times in the last week while we're on holiday. Next year we should be able to go more often and continue improving in strength and fitness.

Meanwhile, mostly for my own future reference, here's my current workout :
Start with 35 minutes cardio, aiming to keep HR above 150 (one of my Christmas presents was a heart rate monitor, so this will be easier to keep track of). Should probably increase to 40 minutes next year, and probably mix it up rather than do it all on the exercise bike.

All the weight exercises are done in three sets, repeating to fatigue. The numbers of reps below are my current reps achieved :
Bench press - 15kg (plus the bar, which is 20kg). 15 reps.
Lat pulley - 20kg, 15 reps.
Squat - 30kg (plus 20kg bar), 16 reps.
Shoulder press, 18kg (9kg each arm), 15 reps.
Abduction, 160lb (errr, 72kg), 20 reps (will move up to 170lb next time).
Bicep curls, 16kg (8kg each arm), 13 reps.
Adduction, 190lb (86kg), 20 reps (moving up to 200lb next time).

Alas, I have no idea what my maximum amounts would be. Should try it sometime, just out of curiosity.
I have this vague goal that I'd like to be able to move my own body weight in squats and bench press one day, although I suspect that's a long way off at the current rate of progress. (Too many years spent on computers or nose-in-book, apparently :-) )