Today’s Gallery Theme: Ripped Guys

…and today’s musings: ‘Ripped ME’.

Unfortunately, not good. Yesterday, doing pull-downs behind the neck using Chad’s excellent resistance machines, I pulled a muscle in my left forearm. Pulled some of it off the bone just below the elbow joint, I think. Not only did I feel it tear, I HEARD it tear. Which is quite scary, actually.

I wasn’t doing anything excessive: about 140lb. Less than pulling my own weight up on a bar. Then, TWANG!

Dave says this is definitely a sign of getting old. But then he gave me great massage – and didn’t just do the arm, either.

Unfortunately, it has put a temporary stop to handstands (except for one-arm because it is not my usual balance arm fortunately), and a definite stop to most weights exercises for a few days at least. Damn!

There is a school of thought that says that you should just continue to train – “train through the pain”. But we don’t subscribe to that one. So, while the bars may be tempting, definitely good to lay off for a bit.

Someone is probably going to comment that ‘Tone didn’t warm up properly.’ Actually not true in this case – I was 45 minutes into my weights, starting with 50 inclined sit-ups for general ‘heating’, then preceding each significant exercise with a light-weight set exactly for that purpose. I had gone first to what we call the ‘wheelbarrow’ machine, where you press down around your own weight on the wheelbarrow handles with your knees jammed under a pad to give you leverage. A fantastic exercise for the shoulders and triceps, with a good contribution to chest and back too. My favourite machine, actually. Then I had done bicep curls (120 lb using both arms, again on a seated machine), some dumbbell work on deltoids in various directions, kneeling rowing exercises… and quite a bit more before embarking on the pull-downs.

OK, enough about me. Some more great ‘ripped’ guys – ripped in all the right places, unlike me!

OK, that’s it for today. I always think that black and white images are particularly good at showing off the male body, especially when the lighting is right. But you can’t really fault the others here.

Well, off to coaching later. A bit more shouting and a bit less supporting, I think.

Take care doing your training, and don’t do stupid things like pulling a muscle, OK?

Loving the Boy: ISBN 978-1-907732-30-0

The Power of Love: ISBN 978-1-907732-41-6

Against All Odds: ISBN 978-1-908645-35-7