On the bench press sweat dripping down my face a whole five minutes into my first training session  – thinking to myself  “what the hell was I thinking??”

I stretched my arms  cracked my knuckles and prepared myself mentally – did a few deep Lamaze like breathing techniques – revved up like all the best body builders do.  I let out a manly grunt and pushed the barbell off the safety latches  down to my chest and back up again.  I managed to do this 8 times – not bad for my first try huh?….  Gasping for air and quickly losing color in my face I went to write down the weight and reps I had done.

Hey Dan, how much weight was that? …
……..uhhh… I didn’t put any weights on the bar yet…

I was a little embarrassed but Dan was real cool about it – we all got to start somewhere, right? He was less worried about how much weight I had on the barbell and more focused on teaching me some fundamentals:

Breathing: Breathe out when you exert (push or pull) and inhale when you are relaxing (bringing the weight back in).
Counting: 2 seconds when you exert (push or pull) – 4 seconds when you are relaxing (bringing the weight back in).
Form: Doing exercises in proper form will ensure maximum results and avoid injury.

On the bus ride home in between trying to remember when to breathe and tending to my sore limbs -  I remembered being on a stationary bike [doing about 0.2km]  at a community center in Japan watching in amazement as this tiny girl [90-100lbs tops] raised a loaded barbell over her head [Olympic weightlifting style]  like it was a [insert something ridiculously light here].

One day I hope to be as strong as that a girl.

for the record the weight of the bar is about 35-45lbs

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