The Dead Lift

Yesterday, I had a session with Matt, and I was excited--in that way that only lifting nerds can be--when he pulled out an apparatus I'd seen him use with clients at the gym. He bought it at some point after my training period with him three years ago, so I'd never used it before.

He put two 10-pound disc weights on it, and I didn't even think about the total weight of the discs and the apparatus itself. I just merrily started dead lifting and working on some form issues Matt was pointing out, like knee action and just how/where to place my butt in the pre-lift phase. (I have a tendency to treat dead lifts like squats, but we're working on it.)

It wasn't overly difficult, but it wasn't easy, either, in terms of the load I was lifting. To be honest, I didn't even think about how much I was lifting.

After a few sets of those, interspersed with sets of reverse push-ups, Matt took the 10-pound discs off and replaced them with 25-pound discs. Without even thinking about it, I said, "Oh, fifty pounds!"

Now, I should have known better. Fifty pounds is entirely too light for me--last time I did dead lifts with Matt they were in the 70-pound range.

Matt just smiled and said, "Yes!"

(Liar.)

This time, I noticed that I needed a lot more effort to dead lift...and I started to think about the weight of the apparatus holding those 25-pound discs. I finished three pretty difficult reps and Matt told me to rest. Then he grinned at me.

"That's one hundred pounds."

"One hundred...?" I did some calculations in my head.

"Yup, the bar weighs 50 pounds." He just sat there grinning at me as this all sunk in (slowly), and his grin got bigger when my arms shot up above my head in a V-for-Victory sign.

"I've never! ... I mean...Oh my God, that's a personal best!!!"

His hand came up for a high-five. "Good job! How do you feel?"

"I feel amazing! They were hard, but I did it! Oh my God, I have to Instagram this!!!"

So Matt just laughed while I aimed my phone at 100 pounds of weight I'd just dead lifted and snapped a picture. Because that's what you do when you PR in my world--you tell everyone.

The dead lifts (I ended up doing three sets of three reps at 100 pounds, after three sets of 10 at 70 pounds) weren't the only thing I did, either. There were reverse push-ups, and two Tabata sets of kettlebell swings. My body is feeling all of this today.

As I left, I was instructed to do 200 kettlebell swings on Friday.

"Two hundred?"

"Yup, two hundred."

We discussed the logistics: a brief warm-up, two hundred swings with my 25-pound kettlebell,  in sets of 20, and, if I have any energy left, some agility ladder drills (my original Friday plan).

There was a definite whine to my voice as I asked one more time: "Two hundred?"

This earned a low laugh and a grin. "Yup."

"Do you hate me?" (The whine was definitely getting stronger.)

"Noooooo."

And he doesn't. I know this. My workouts with Matt only serve to make me stronger and more badass. I'm so glad to be back at it!