Thursday

Last night Erika and I showed up at the gym and it was packed. I love it when it's busy. Dave was working with 12 or more women from Team Survivor Northwest because they have two workout classes on Thursday nights. He had two deadlift bars set up and it was fun to see over a dozen women, most in their 40s, standing enthusiastically in line for their turn at a deadlift. There was music on and Scott was running at least one other workout group, so as I went upstairs to change I heard Dave having to talk really loud for his group to hear him--it felt like a real P.E. class with a gym teacher trying to keep everyone's attention. Later he was demonstrating push-ups and talking about it, and the women were all around in a tight circle. I think they seem to realize he's a good coach! I would have liked to inconspicuously take pictures of that group. It would make a great promotion-by-example for older women who think they want to try weightlifting and calisthenics but are intimidated. Our workout with Scott started with a run of about a mile (I think) and 5 sets of 3 deadlifts up to 90 percent of max. I went up to 90 kg. Then the main workout was: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 reps of kettlebell snatch left arm, kettlebell snatch right arm, and pull-ups. I used a 12-kg kettlebell instead of a 16 because lately I've felt slow, and I wanted to blast through this fast. And I did. I finished the fastest, in 10:01, without breaking up any sets. Our workout group was not as big as the Team Survivor group, but there might have been eight or nine of us. We did the KB snatches in a big circle and jockeyed for space on the pull-up bars, with some people using rubberbands for assistance or jumping from a bench.