Making My Weight

I was sorely tempted to weigh myself after going for a run: I was planning on going for a run anyway and should come back a couple of pounds lighter... I knew I would regret it if I came in at 155 lbs or more, but if I went for a run and came back below 155 I could never know if I was below before running.

Note: For some reason Blogger cut off the right side of the pictures, so to see the whole weight on the scale, you can click on the picture and see the whole thing.

Whew! Okay, that was close.

Last time I made a weight, I had just made 150 lbs and my body weight had been 145-150 in those days, so I thought "mission accomplished". Nope. I weighed in at 158 lbs! It was last February and the snow kept me from making even half the normal running mileage*. It was most disappointing; I was lifting 5 more pounds, but had gained 10 pounds--I was actually getting worse, in a relative fashion.

I know, it is kind of numerology, what difference does it matter if you can lift your own weight over your head? I can't say it makes a difference but it was a goal that I had since starting to lift a couple of years ago. It was a goal that I thought would be pretty easy too: I lifted for about three months in high school and was able to surpass my body weight by ten pounds. As a distance runner and young, my body fat level must have been in the single digits, so I was essentially just muscles, skin and bones. Now I am a middle aged man with a middle aged dad-bod.

The bar is 45 lbs, and there are two each of 35 and 10 lb disks and four 5 lb plates. Total 155.

What did I do differently this time? Normally, I start with the 35 lb plates because I want a warm-up weight of less than 135 lbs, which is what you get with two 45 lb plates and one 45 lb bar. I would switch back to the 45 lb plates once I got above 135 lbs. This time I decided to just work with the smaller plates. In theory, I have to do more work to lift the barbell when the smaller diameter plates are on, since the bar is about 1 1/2 inch lower at the starting point. The height of the lifted weight is the same either way. The reason it is easier is that there is a lot more strength at the bottom of a lift and so by the time I am a couple of inches off the floor, I am moving faster with the small diameter plates compared to the larger ones. That added momentum takes me to the top.

*I missed out on running around 70 miles in Feb, this translates to about 7,000 calories, which should be around two lbs. I must have been eating heavily too.