Dumbells

So it's now week 4 of the new dumbell regime. And I have to say that despite my complaining and moaning, there has been a marked difference in my performance. On the first night I struggled to manage two sets of most of the exercises and I imagine that watching me struggle my way to 18 press-ups was absolutely painful.

Well, now I'm doing full sets of everything. Each dumbell is 5 kilos (which may not sound very much, but for an overweight, under exercised slob like me, it good enough for now! We'll be increasing it as time goes on).

3 days a week I'm doing 50 bicep and 50 tricep lifts on each arm in 5 sets of 10, 80 lateral lifts in 4 sets of 20 (aiming for 100) and 25.. er… shoulder lifts. There are probably proper names for all of these, but I don't have a clue! And now I'm doing 30 press ups with relatively little trouble.

On 3 more nights a week I'm doing squat things, holding both weights (so that's 10 kilos) to work my leg muscles and a bunch of sit-ups. 40 I think, last time. Ultimately this is going to turn in to a running session – but my stamina ain't up to it yet.

The most notable difference is my recovery time. It's come down quite significantly. I'm taking the stairs to my 14th floor office 3 days a week (again, I'll increase this to 5 days in a couple of weeks). When I started working out, it took me 5 or 10 minutes to recover enough to be of any use to anyone. Shows how unfit I was. No it's only taking a couple of minutes. I fully anticipate being able to climb all 300 and something steps every morning without breaking a sweat, soon.

I pretty pleased with my progress. I think I've made a real difference in just 3 weeks – think how much better it'll be in a couple of months!