Big Weights

Yes you guessed it, today was a weights session. Having been doing lots of reps on fairly comfortable weights up until now I decided it was time to up the ante and actually do some harder work (not that I'm still smarting about the old lady with the leg weights the other day you understand ....). So today was 3 sets on each set of weights increasing the weight between each set. Blimey that was hard!! Started with lat pulldowns which was ok, but my technique went to pot on the last set so I think I was doing more work with my arms than my back. Next were quad lifts - ok now I have got over it as I managed to at least equal aforementioned old ladies weight :-) Shoulder press was way way hard, by the time I got to the second set I was struggling (and trying not to cheat and use my legs too), so my third set I only managed 7 reps and they were not pretty! Hamstring curls followed, again my technique kind of fell apart on the last set but they didn't feel too bad. I actually did three decent sets on the tricep extension, even though I struggled with the top weight it's an easy exercise to do properly even when it's hard. I was distracted before getting on to the leg press machine watching an exercise that one of the other women in the gym was doing, she had a weights bar across her shoulders with some fairly heft weight on it and was in a lunge position doing dips to the floor - 10 on each leg (if you can picture that - i.e. she wasn't doing lunges but had front leg bent and back leg straight and was lowering her back knee almost to the floor then lifting up again) - anyway she had amazing leg muscle definition so I'll have to look that one up and give it a try at home on Friday when I'm doing free weights. I'd just like to point out here that I was only watching her for the purposes of exercise and not just randomly perving at girlies in the gym ;-)
Anyway where was I, oh yes, leg press - no problems there. Then onto my nemesis, the chest press - no, hang on it's not a chest press - well it's some sort of chest machine, the one where you have your arms up at 90 degrees each side of your body and push forward on pads which close together in front of you. I always find this machine really damn hard, even on a low weight. Luckily someone had left a half-weight booster block next to it so I didn't have to go up a full weight each time which would have been a total disaster.
The calf raise machine had a dodgy adjuster so I couldn't change the height of it which was a bit annoying, I could still use it but it was a little high for me so I didn't get a full range of movement.
I finished off on the mat with a combination of stretching and ab. work (crunches and plank) - surprisingly I was fairly supple and stretchy today, I say surprisingly as I've been really slack with my stretching lately, apart from stretching out major muscles after running etc. I haven't been doing anything else.
Swimming again at lunch time today - yesterday was good although the pool was a little busy by the time I finished. Then tonight I have hockey training - lordy I haven't picked up a hockey stick since the end of last season (October) so that will be a bit of a shocker. The occasion is the forthcoming South Pacific Master's games (for non-NZers masters refers to age - ie. it's veterans rather than experts :-) ) which start in Hamilton next week. As we have lots of 'senior' players in my club we're putting in two teams, an over 35 and an over 45 team, and as quite a few of us haven't played since last season we thought we'd better have at least one get together before the tourney! So that, in combination with today's efforts should lead to some sore muscles tomorrow.