Strength Training and Other Such Nonsense

IN America, an astonishingly low number of people get excited about exercise. If the years since WWII have taught us anything, it's that the sedentary lifestyle is the way to go. It makes us feel comfortable, contributes to the oh-so-shallow pockets of television network executives, and causes all kinds of mental/religious/health dilemas. What a wonderful society we live in!

And so we all blithely come out of our twenties, heading into a middle-age of growing waistlines and back pain. That is, until that fatal day that we decide enough is enough. It's time to start to exercise.

For me, exercise has been an on-and-off thing. High school was really active. College wasn't. Mid-twenties were really active. Late twenties weren't. And just this year I decided to get back into a regiment after several years off.

Fortunately, the body remembers. It knows the muscle it once had, and thinks that it can be that strong again. The mind remembers the euphoric hormones generated during and after a workout (ever heard of a runner's high?). And what remains of the muscles remember the motions of each individual exercise. But this phase in my battle against the bulge is going to be different.

I've been at the gym for about five months, and I'm seeing results. I'm stronger, fitter looking, and generally happy with my progress. I'm using a regiment that I've used before. It has always worked in the past, for a while. After a few months, however, I tended to plateau permanently. And I feel I've reached that point again.

So I looked for something new. I decided that doing what I've always done might not be the right decision. The exercises I've always done need to be abandoned. They work, but they don't trigger my sense of experimentation and drive for personal improvement. In other words, I want to do all those exercises that I have never liked. We often don't like to do things because they aren't easy. And when you are trying to better yourself, the easy path rarely leads to the highest reward.

I stumbled upon a regiment on StrongLifts.com that seems to fit the bill. The premise is simple: Start with very low weight on a very basic rotation of compound exercises. Learn technique. Raise weight gradually at each workout. Focus on the squat. In other words, build strength properly, consistently, and comprehensively.

I'll check back into this discussion in a few weeks. To start out, all of the core exercises but one start with an empty Olympic barbell (45 lbs). We'll see how far I get.

I'm excited about exercise again!