Lifting at Plate City with Abdul

My old friend Abdul came by to see me Friday, and we hit it hard at Plate City. But before all of that, I did a pretty big swim at Twin Rivers. Let me tell you about all of it.

I went in at my usual 10:15 to do my Friday long swim. Vicki was out because she was picking her son up from the hospital. Alone, I swam

  5,100 1:41:46 warmup

  6 X 25 no breath main set one

  2 X 75 medium paddles main set two

  50 backstroke cooldown

  total: 5,450 yards

That was my biggest practice of the year, my longest straight swim, and my longest total yardage. That is an endurance builder right there.

Then Abdul stopped by. After I let him in, he went straight through the house, out the back door, and to the City. We did an epic one. First, we performed seven sets of lateral raises.

Abdul on the chest-supported row machine.

We also did eleven sets on the overhead press machine. Yes, you read that right, eleven sets. Why so many? For one thing, we're bad like that. For another thing, we maxed out so a lot of those sets were warmups intended to prepare us for the max effort without fatigueing us. After we maxed, we dropped the weight and did some working sets. Why? Because maxing does not build strength, it tests it. We tested then went on to do the work necessary to build some more strength.

Abdul on the fly machine.

In addition to that, we did the chest-supported row, the fly machine, the swim pull, and one set of log presses. That is a real workout right there, I don't care who you are.

If you look at those pictures, you might get the idea that Abdul is pretty thin. You would be right about that. He is, however, pretty strong for his size, and he lifts religiously. We both maxed the overhead press machine at 160, a ten pound PR for me. Yehaa.

So for me it was a huge day. I had a monster practice in the pool, and a monster gym session with Abdul. And I got to spend time with my old friend. Life is good. Thank you, Jesus.

Abdul eating pizza.