Pull-Ups and PRs

"That is pretty good progress there", complimented the trainer. "Just one month ago I had to help you quite a bit to get pull-ups". "Start practicing this more and you'll get better, try to do 2 a set and get as many sets in as you can", he continued. "Also, practice hanging off the bar", he advised, "for as long as you can". 

I followed the advice. For the next two sets i did 2 pull-ups each. It felt different, I wasn't tiring as fast and was ready for the next set in less time, so I did another set and could still do two.

Next was the push-ups. Even these felt easier. I did 20 and somehow didn't feel a thing, did another set, this time 25 reps cause I felt strong. I remembered being told that I was doing push-ups wrong if it felt easy, and the next set I did them all in slow motion, 15 in a row, making sure i was keeping my body straight the whole way down, feeling it in my ankles, and going the whole range. Each rep done slower to ensure i was doing everything right. It was a bit harder, I did 15 reps, but then got up and felt nothing in 30 seconds. I was strange, I was heavier then ever before, but my body felt lighter that day. And it felt like moving these heavy weights wasn't as big a deal, almost like I was being powered by upgraded fuel.  

The squats were next, I was excited what this extra energy would get me that day. I did 15 body-weight squats to recall the form, it was easy, the with the 15 kg dumbbell. I did 15 reps and it somehow still did feel like that big a deal. I went over to the squat rack to do barbell squats, the bar was 20 kg when empty, and still didn't feel that much more difficult despite the bar digging into my back. Maybe it was that the bar was on my back and not on my front. I got to 10 reps before i felt a thing. And even then i did 5 more and felt like i could do even more. The next set I added 5kg to the bar, Even this felt doable, I decided to push it for reps and was pleasantly surprised that I could get 15. I did 2 more sets of 14 and 13 reps, and noted this excitedly in my notebook as i knew it was much better then anything I had ever managed to do before. this day would go down in history, I thought.

The leg presses were next, to my surprise, the squats did almost nothing to my legs that wasn't gone after a couple minutes, here though, I could somehow manage only 2 reps more then my last workout, despite the fact that I paced the sets, although, this time, the weights felt lighter then usual,despite the fact that i wasn't significantly stronger in this exercise.

I somehow still felt not a shade of fatigue as I went over to the dumbbells. I straight up picked up the 5kg dumbbells for shoulder presses and was surprised to find I could now do 15 in a row, I picked up the 7.5 kg dumbbells and started a set of shoulder presses with them. These felt heavier, it was harder to keep them in form, but I managed to crack out a set of 12. I did two more sets, the second one was another 12 reps, it was harder. The third set I managed 8, so i picked up the dumbbells to get in the rest of my reps in set 4. 

The last exercise of the plan was dumbbell rows. I had found i was gaining strength well in this exercise, I was already on the 10 kg dumbbells, and didn't even bother to warm up, my entire body was already soaked in sweat, what could more heat do. I did a set of 15, and felt a bit more tired, but not as much as usual, and did another set of 15 and a last set for as many reps as possible, I got to 20. Then Meeraj came up to me and told me I had been doing dumbbell rows wrong that past few days by arching my back and using too much momentum, and he suggested I go back down to the 5kg dumbbells.

I did 2 more sets of dumbbell rows with the 5kg dumbbells, this time focusing on keeping my back straight, engaging the muscle, holding at the top and lowering down slowly. This time I felt it really go into my lats muscles, I could feel the blood rushing in.

I was on the finisher for the day, bicep curls, I had my first set of 15 with the 5 kg dumbbells, standing next to Neeraj who was curling 20 kg dumbbells for the same number of reps, counting out loud.  I knew by now that Neeraj was one of those 'bro' lifters that regarded his chest, arms, shoulders and abs to be the most important muscles on his body, as they were the easiest to show off. He didn't really care much about contests and stuff, and loved to show off to others and brag about how awed they were. 

Meeraj was on the side of the gym doing heavy high pulls, while clamping his teeth so that his neck and jaws bulged. I learned that though he wasn't as loud as Neeraj, he was incredibly focused and intense in his moderately long workouts. While Neeraj had darker skin and pecs and arms that popped. Meeraj had this more rounded look to his upper body. His huge traps and capped delts gave him this look, though his arms were good, they didn't have the same 'pop' to then as Neeraj's arms did. I watched Meeraj load even more weight on the bar, and do a set of shrugs, not the wimpy shrugs most of the others did, he was full in. His veins bulging, eyes, though opened, didn't look like they were seeing anything. I watched him shoulder shrug the massive barbell, it must have been at least 100 kg, for rep after rep until he couldn't, and then realized I was the only one looking at him. 

 "Meeraj is the hardest working guy that i know", explained Neeraj, who noticed me staring at his friend. "He looks impressive, doesn't he", he continued. I had to agree.

I watched Meeraj's intense traps and shoulders workout for a few minutes, and thought that maybe I should keep doing stuff.

I went straight over to the triceps push-down and tried it, I was stronger then when I first attempted this, but not by as much as I hoped, same with the hamstring curls, but I kept doing reps, I even tried calf raises, and was pleasantly surprised to find that I was very strong in them compared to my other lifts, its was funny though, my calves never looked big for my small size. 

I felt good so I even went to the forearm curl machine, then I looked at the clock. M workout alone had went on for 2 hours straight, I was sweatier then usual, despite the AC being cool as ever, so I made my way home.