I am so happy with some of my progress at the gym; while I am still learning so much about myself, my health and where I am at and how to get to where I need to be I am also setting personal records of feats of strength I did not know about.
I am getting quite addicted to doing the leg press at the gym and seeing where my legs are at for strength. I started off originally at around 200 pounds and have consistently upped the weights pushing myself for bigger goals and seeing what I can do. Only once since this began have I felt the inevitable leg burn from a strenuous work out on my legs when doing the leg press in particular.
That burn came when I did the 750 leg press at 3 sets of 10 a few weeks ago.
This week I increased the weight, and was a bit worried it was too much after what i felt last time; I had increased it to 790 pounds. I was nervous so I texted my brother in law at 5am to tell him I was about to attempt it. He sent his words of caution and encouragement.
I started off that morning doing my usual routine of different weights for different muscles and as per usual I like to finish with the leg press. I warmed up with 630lbs, 3 sets of 10 with no problem so I added on 2 x 45 pound plates and went to 720lbs, again with no problem.
A young girl had just walked into the gym as I was finishing off the 630 pounds; in the mirrors i noticed she was watching me add the new plates as she took up the leg extension machine beside me. I did my sets of 720 and she moved off to the squat area to do her thing; I suspect she was warming up and waiting for me to finish with either the leg press or the weight plates which is when I went to add more another 2 plates - 35 pounds each as I had already used up all the 45 plates on my machine. 16 x 45lbs plates to be exact.
Now at 790 pounds, my heart racing and I was drenched in sweat, I texted my brother in law Dan whom I knew was already at work (the pool business in the Okanagan requires him to do some long hard days) to let him know of my feat to come. I got in position took a deep breath, pushed up with my legs to release the safety guards. The weight was huge, I could feel it that is for sure, but it was not causing me to tremble at all with fear of my legs giving out or inability to do the weight I had set up. I lowered my leg and then began the inevitable push to get my legs into the pull extension again. I let out a deep grunt as I began to push, I was confident though that I could do it.
1 rep, 2 reps, 3 reps I carried on until I reached 10, WOW I thought to myself, I was impressed I was able to do this but the question was, can I do it again? So I tried again.. and succeeded. Before I could do my 3rd set I remembered to video tape it with my phone. I noticed as I was video taping the movement and being sure to get the shot with the weights and my legs extending that the girl who came in had stopped briefly to watch me do the weights; she stopped even if it was a brief moment before she started, to see me do the huge feat. To me this was the first time that I noticed someone stopping to look at me for a good reason, not because of my size and weight but rather because i just did something that a lot of very healthy people who are at the gym regularly would have trouble with.
So many times I have set myself with small goals in pushing weights in all muscle groups not just legs and have achieved the weights I set myself up for. I am very proud of those achievements so far and I look forward to continuing with but I want to set a very lofty goal for my legs for the end of the year. I want to set a goal of 1000 lbs for a leg press. I really don't know if I can do that, it may be too lofty, I can say though that I will not risk my health to achieve it though because if i feel my legs are at the breaking point or in danger of serious harm I will not attempt it, I just want to have something to work towards.
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