Month: April 2021

Transgender athletes debate

One of the more contentious debates that I see are those about allowing “male to female” transgender to compete in female divisions.

What I find astonishing is that are are some who have very loud voices who honestly do not understand what a statistical advantage biological males have.

Let’s look at weight lifting.

This female lifter is Olympic caliber and she recently clean and jerked 300+ lb in practice. Yes, that is stronger than the vast majority of gym-bros and would be respectable for, say, a D3 lineman.

Pretty impressive! But look at how a top male weightlifter handles that amount of weight:

Yes, I know, more than most, how heavy that is: (handles are 4 inches higher than a neutral grip; some trap bars have 8 inch handles). I busted my gut to get this to my waist.

That shoulder…

The minor injuries that are hardest to heal up from..for me, are those that aren’t super painful but can be made worse with overuse. My piriformis and shoulder are like that.

I was going to lift on the porch today; it turns out that my shoulder is not ready for “workout level” shoulder presses with dumbbells; getting them from the racked position to overhead is just too painful.

pull ups: singles, set of 10, lots of sets of 5 (50 reps); ok

incline presses: 10 x 116, 7 x 126, 2 sets of 5 x 134 (actually went ok)

rows: 3 sets of 10 x 134

Supported shoulder presses: 10 x 94, 7 x 104, 10 x 94

curls: 3 sets of 10: 50, 52, 52.

This took a while as I moved weights back and forth.

I won’t make the team lifting like this..

Yes, I know…just more workout stuff. I have some work stuff on my mind that i’ll take care of prior to the women’s NCAA title game.

Today: deadlift plus walk; shoulder still somewhat tender..glute a bit wonky.

Deadlifts: 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 3 x 224

work sets: low: 3 x 265, 3 x 265, 3 x 265, 3 x 270, 3 x 270 (maybe a bounced rep in the last set?)

high: 3 x 285, 3 x 285

the low handle work sets were HARD for me. I was disappointed, but I have to remember that this was a minor improvement over last week where it was 1 set with 260, 2 with 265, 2 with 270.

Then my walk (5K, West Peoria, 14:4x pace.)

COVID: Peoria is spiking a bit and local positivity rates are about 10 percent. And many are NOT taking it seriously.

Going on 1 year at home

I saw a “post 1 year ago” on Facebook and realize that I’ve been doing the home gym thing for well over 1 year; that explains, in part, why incline presses are such a struggle. I went a year without doing them! Also, I’ve gotten soft on the standing overhead presses due to my using the “bench with back support” so much.

Yesterday: ok walk; sped up at the end.

I did a “lot of laps” to take advantage of low traffic and good footing; some mild ache.

Today: took some of it outside; shoulder is certainly tender (have to watch “re-racking” the weights)

lots of rotator cuff

pull ups: 50 reps; 10 single, 2 sets of 10, then 5, 5, 7, 3 (last 3 were chins); spent recoveries taking weights out.

incline presses: 10 x 44, 10 x 114, 10 x 125, 5 x 135, 5 x 135 (this was work)

rows: 3 sets of 10 x 134

shoulder presses: this was all over the place; one shoulder tweak on getting the weight out; learning to use a “push” to get the first rep started:
3 x 87, 5 x 81, 6 x 81, 5 x 81, 5 x 81, 5 x 81

curls: 3 sets of 10: 50, 50, 52

Overall, this took a while (30 min. extra for bringing weights in and out..but now I know what I need and what to do)

Achy April

Heartache, shoulder ache, piriformis ache.

Heartache: last walk with Lynn for a while; I forgot how much I had missed her.

Shoulder ache: it is taking a while…it is like that.

Piriformis ache: not that bad but…

the walk: 2 miles at 19:30 mpm or so. Photos below. First pace was a bit quick for Lynn, right now.

Then weights: pull ups were tough as it was 30 F or so. I skipped the bench:

pull ups: 50 reps; included 2 sets of 10

deadlifts: 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 229 (yes, that is a recent record)

rotator cuff and hip hikes:

incline press: 3 sets of 10 x 114 trying to get depth.

rows: 3 sets of 10 x 134

shoulder press: 3 sets of 10 x 94 ..minor tweak on a sloppy rerack

curls: 3 sets of 10 x 50 (time to up it a bit)