Back in the gym…

After a long hiatus due to moving and starting a new job, I’ve finally started lifting again. There’s one big difference this time: I’m doing it at home!

I tried to go to the local YMCA last October, but I found that lots of equipment was shut down and there were limited hours due to COVID, which of course resulted in more people crowding around the stations that were still available during the shorter time period the gym was open (I would love to hear an explanation of how their COVID precautions make any sense). I also bumped into some of my students when I tried to go, so the Y is hard off the table for the time being.

So, I set off on building my own gym. I got a power rack and a cable attachment ($600), a barbell ($250), adjustable dumbells ($160), an adjustable bench ($150), some floor mats ($30), and some molds to make concrete weights for my barbell ($220). The power rack and bench seemed reasonably priced to me, but I think I got gouged and paid “pandemic pricing” on everything else. At about $1400 total, the home gym will pay for itself after a little over two years, assuming I save $50 per month on a gym membership. Not too bad!

It took about a month to put everything together and make enough weights to get started with. I finished building it recently, and I’ve been lifting in it for the past two weeks. I am finding that I can do basically every exercise that I could do in a commercial gym. At the Y, I did almost all free weights anyway. I would occasionally use the assisted dip and pull-up machine or leg extension machine, but that was about the extent of it. The only exercises I really miss in my home gym are standing overhead press and pull-ups, but those are due to the low basement ceiling (me being 6’3″ does not help, either), not any lack of equipment.

I do spend a bit of extra time during workouts shuffling equipment around to get set up for the next exercise. I have to move the bench back and forth, I have to move the barbell in and out, and I have to climb awkwardly around the power rack to get to various weights and attachments, so it’s not a perfect setup, and in an ideal world I would definitely have more space to help alleviate some of these issues. However, I am also saving a lot of time driving to and from the gym, so it probably evens out at the end of the day.

My lifting career is long and rather unimpressive. I have lifted on and off since graduating high school. I have always wanted to get bigger, but my main issue has been consistency. On average, I’ve probably worked out properly for 3 to 4 months out of the year for the past five years. My most recent spurts (like when COVID first hit and I was “working” from home) have been especially fruitful, which I attribute to the increased experience I had compared to when I was first starting out. Over time, I started to figure out things like:

• I can never successfully commit to a six day routine in any sustained way, if I go for four or five days I will actually be able to complete all workouts week to week
• Protein shakes don’t need to taste atrocious, I would much rather have a tasty 700 cal/70g protein shake than a monstrous 1400-calorie beast that takes four hours to get through
• There are a lot of tasty meals that are not chicken and rice that have lots of calories and protein, and are easy to make
• Forcing myself to work out at set times has never gone well- I need to have the option of working at 3pm or 9pm if I want to

These “realizations” might not apply to you. You may do much better getting up at 5am to work out every single day, or maybe you find that you love getting half your calories for the day in with just one shake. What’s important is that you understand precisely where your own limits are, so that you can set realistic expectations. Obviously I don’t have it all figured out, but I can say that understanding myself has been a big key to more efficient workouts with better results.

I have lost about 20lbs since I moved back home in September, due to the simple fact that I’ve been eating a lot less. Looking at the photos from around August, even though I told myself at the time I was just “bulking”, I definitely did get a little more fat than I needed to, so I did have a few pounds to spare. It’s hard to tell how exactly how much strength I lost during my off period, especially since I’m focusing on different lifts and doing different rep schemes, but however much it is, I’m confident I’ll be back to full strength in no time.

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My goals this time around are the same as always- look better, get stronger, feel better. Something that is different is that I put together my own routine, instead of following one that I found online. I am really emphasizing the exercises that I’m weakest in to achieve more well-rounded strength and better posture. For example, I’m aiming to hit abs and upper back three days per week with ten sets on the days “on”, when previously I’ve only gone for six sets at most and two days per week. Here’s the spreadsheet that I made for my routine:

There’s a distinct lack of bench press and other “push” exercises. That’s because I’ve been having a lot of pain in my left arm when I do anything that requires a push motion. I can just about bear it with overhead press (for now), but bench press is off the table. I’m planning on seeing a doctor about it soon, but in the meantime I’m just making the best of it and trying to really hone in on my weak points.

So far, each workout has been taking about an hour and fifteen minutes, which is a lot longer than I was expecting. I intentionally left out a number of reps for each exercise from the spreadsheet. I wanted to give myself some “wiggle room” to try out different things. Maybe I could do pyramid sets one day, maybe some days I could just do straight 5×5, maybe other times I would want to try increasing the reps rather than increasing the weight- basically, I just didn’t want to overcommit.

So, that’s what I’m doing! I’m lifting at home, five days per week, with my own new routine. I will post here periodically with more progress, ramblings, and maybe just some high-protein recipes that I like. Thanks for reading!