The Working Man's Weightlifting Show
Brothers Nick and Stephen Wiley invite you to The Working Man's Weightlifting Show, a relatable podcast for ordinary people who are committed to realistically incorporating health and fitness into their already busy lives. In an industry crowded by flashy aesthetics, photo-shopped abs, full-time camera crews, and misleading marketing, Nick and Stephen leverage their combined 30+ years of weightlifting experience to help clear the air on everyday fitness issues. Common discussion topics include no-nonsense nutrition, exercise tips for the manual labor workforce, best practices for office workers, building home gyms, recovering from injuries, workout programming, and much more.
The Working Man's Weightlifting Show
Building a Working Dad's Program in Realtime
In episode 76, Stephen takes Nick to school and builds a program in realtime. Topics include:
- Strategies for building effective dad-friendly workout routines
- Importance of muscle memory after breaks from lifting
- Upper body exercises
- Testing one-rep maxes
- Finding fatherly motivation to get back in-shape
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Hello and welcome to the Working Man's Weightlifting Show, the show where working men talk about weightlifting. I'm going to stare my co-host and younger brother, stephen Wiley, in the eyes until he turns there it went, I'm turns, there it went, I'm turning. There it went. How's it going, man? Pretty good. How are you Doing? Well, If you're new to the show, what do we do here? We work jobs, we're brothers, we weightlift and we have different walks of life, I guess, which we were just talking about for the last two hours, yeah, um and uh. You know, the idea is, hopefully, between the two of us. I kind of work a I call it a sky blue colored color, sky blue collar job, it consulting, uh, and and Mr Stephen does what I do tile and flooring installation I'm sorry and other things.
Speaker 1:Other things. You said that nefariously, like there was Just you know somebody asked me to do something.
Speaker 2:Oh okay, if I'm willing to do it.
Speaker 1:I thought you meant like All shady things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like illegal things no, shady things no.
Speaker 1:So the idea is that you know we have to work around the challenges presented by both of those and of course, in my life as well, I have two kiddos on the scene. More recently that has had a profound effect on weightlifting. So hopefully, between all that, you get some different perspectives. So thanks for tuning in. If you're new. If you're not new, thanks for sticking around. Right, yeah for sure. So what we normally do is a little bit of a recap of training for the week. We haven't done that in a long time, but I think it's probably worthwhile but just really brief, and then we'll kind of get into the topic of the day. But before we do any of that, we do have to talk about the sponsor of today's episode.
Speaker 2:Kicking it over to you.
Speaker 1:Stephen Over to me. Yeah, I don't know who it is. The sponsor is just us, like it always is. You know, that's it, that's it. If it's gonna be sponsored, why don't we sponsor? Why don't we have our band sponsor it?
Speaker 2:that's a good way to do it.
Speaker 1:We can. Yeah, if you didn't hear the announcement at the beginning of the show, we do have a band together as well, and this entire podcast is just a ruse to get people to listen to it. And so go check out a band called Token Sacrifice on your favorite streaming platforms. Look up our latest song. It's called In Memoriam. You can also go to musicworkingmansweightliftingcom and that'll send you directly over to it, but we're super proud of that song and would love for you to check it out. And, yeah, let's let that be the sponsor.
Speaker 2:Our band paid us.
Speaker 1:We paid us to do us. It's a lot of us going on, a little bit inception-y. Anyway, recap for the week. I need to stop talking. I want you to talk, but I will just say briefly I got back in the gym today for the first time since my second son was born, or the first time this week. Is that what I said?
Speaker 2:You said that today, but yeah, it was this week.
Speaker 1:This week's first time I've been back in.
Speaker 2:Steven's gym Big accomplishment.
Speaker 1:Since my son was born, our second son, which was approximately three and a half months ago at the time of this taping, as we old people say, and so that's my recap. I just did it again, Got back on it, as they say. How about you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we I still currently lift three times a week right now. If you've listened to our old episodes, I've talked about that a lot. Pretty standard, yeah. Once I found it I did not used to do that, but once I got into three days a week I really liked the way it feels. So I'm still doing that Occasionally. I'll do some, like this week. We're recording this on Thursday, so I've worked out Monday and Wednesday. Tuesday me and my wife did some like cardio. We have a rogue echo bike and we have a row like a rower machine, so we kind of do like a little. We do like 20, 30 minutes of that like back and forth on the minute for so long, 20 seconds or so, and it feels pretty good. It's like a. You know it's nothing fancy, but it gets the heart going. So I've done that. Lifting is going nice at the moment but I'm kind of I've been in a process of rebuilding some strength back up. I took a little bit of time off, like a couple of weeks, like two weeks off.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And for me that's a long time. That's probably the longest amount. Yeah, you got sick, right? Yeah, I took a week off actually to recover, and then I got sick the next week, which really sucks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm just going to speak for you and say that's completely unheard of. Like I don't remember the last time you took two full weeks off of.
Speaker 2:Yeah, me either.
Speaker 1:And in the last like 20 years.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't think that's happened. I don't think it has.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it was big and it I mean this man brings barbells on vacation. Yeah, like legitimately. Yeah, I'm not know if I just use that word right. Yeah, I guess, whatever, but it works, I know English.
Speaker 2:um well, yeah, yeah, anyway, all that, to say that I'm I'm taking the time off and then getting sick right behind it, it kind of just threw me off a little bit. I guess I would say yeah, um, nothing major, but it just I. I kind of did a little reset on some of my numbers for training. Uh, I don't get too caught like nowadays I don't get too caught up about. Nowadays I don't get too caught up about, you know, I'm not hitting a certain number all the time. So anyway, yeah, it's going well. I would say Okay, good.
Speaker 1:That's a good recap. Yeah, moving on to the topic at hand, we thought, given it's a new year and given that, well, I just need help, I'm interested in trying to rebuild. Well, I just need help, I'm interested in trying to rebuild. We're going to build a program in the air mid-flight and the setup for this is that I actually texted Stephen a few days ago when I wanted to restart this week and I was like we've talked about this many times before. We're big fans of the starting, not starting strength. I like the starting strength app actually.
Speaker 1:The iPhone starting strength app is great, but we've been using the StrongLifts app a lot, the difference being maybe they've changed starting strength. Now, if you're doing starting strength, you should use their app.
Speaker 1:If you're not it's, I don't think you can really customize it a whole lot, Whereas the StrongLifts app will let you build an entirely custom program. So that's what I was attempting to do. I was trying to find a way to build like a dad friendly um, what do you call it Like? I want like a time efficient program. Yeah, Like the maximum amount of effect for the least amount of time spent in the gym. So, if you're again, if you're new, uh, Steven loves about five minutes for me and uh, anytime I'm doing like heavy barbell lifting, I go to his home gym, which is quite robust, and we've invested in it together. He's got a couple of squat racks over there. I mean, you've done most of the investing but I think there's a few things that we've gone together on, and so I wanted to get back into that.
Speaker 1:For many months now, most of what I've done has been like circuit training at home, with very minimal equipment, just to try to keep myself, like, from going into complete atrophy, and so I was like I've got to get back in the gym, as people say. So I thought, okay, I'm going to. For whatever reason, I thought it'd be good to make my own program, mostly because I just have never really done that and I thought I kind of want to try it. So I did that and I sent it to you, and I'm going to read out loud what I sent to him, and then you're going to give us your reaction, which was a mixture at the time of like True. So here's what.
Speaker 2:I sent.
Speaker 1:I was going to do two days of actual heavy lifting at his gym and then two days of like circuit training and then try my darndest to have two days of some kind of like just movement, walking with my family in the neighborhood or some kind of cardio or something. So I don't. I've never done a six-day program, but the older I get, the more I, and because my job is fairly sedentary, I was like I've got to do some kind of moving. I can't just. I can't just. I've got to cut out these days where I'm just I literally go to my desk. I sit there all day. Some of my hobbies are at my desk, so I'll work all day at my desk. I'll have dinner and kind of get the kids to bed and then if I want to participate in any, if I want to play a video game, or if I want to even work on some of my music stuff, if I want to mix a song or I want to edit this podcast, it's all at my desk. So it's like I've got to just get off my rear end. So that was the thinking behind it.
Speaker 1:Here's what the workouts looked like. So workout A, or gym day one, if you want to call it that Squat bench press pull-ups. Three sets, five reps each. Squat bench press pull-ups three sets, five reps each. Um pull-ups I used to be able to do. I really am. I have fallen way down on that. I might be able to do like one right now, one or two.
Speaker 1:I think one time I was doing sets of ten, I think I think like five by ten, you know, which is kind of wild to think about. But I really wanted to get back on that because I really feel like that's good for you and I've not been able to do that. So that was going to be Monday. Wednesday. I was going to come back to the gym and do deadlift, overhead press and pull-ups. My thinking there is double the pull-ups, because I really want to rebound and get get good at it again.
Speaker 1:And I wanted to add overhead press because if you again, if you've listened to the show at all, you've probably heard me talk about shoulder surgery I had now 10 years ago and my left shoulder is just nowhere near where it needs to be in terms of mobility and strength. So I thought for a long time I just kind of avoided it and just said I had to heck with it, like I'm just going to have a bomb shoulder. But now I'm at a point in my life where I'm like I need to just like build it as much as I possibly can. I know it's never going to be a hundred.
Speaker 1:The surgeon told me that when he finished the surgery 10 years ago, but I'd like to get 70, you know, whatever I can get to like some percentage back. So then I was going to do two circuit days at home. I've got a set of dumbbells at home like this what do we call those things? We talked about them in the last show Power blocks, power blocks yeah, so selectable dumbbells. I was going to do dumbbell Bulgarian split squats. Dumbbell Bulgarian split squats. Dumbbell overhead press seated Squats. Dumbbell Overhead Press Seated and Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift. So that was going to be on like Tuesday. And then on Thursday I was going to do Kettlebell Swings, dumbbell Fly and Dumbbell Row.
Speaker 1:So that is the program that I came up with, and Stephen sent me a novel of critiques back. But I thought you know, even we don't have to read that off, I just thought you can just respond. Sure, I don't know. Do you have that program pulled up that I sent you? Yeah, yeah. So I got it here. Tell me, let's start out. What about it? Where would you start making changes? Changes, I guess that's the easiest thing to say. Where did I kind of misstep?
Speaker 2:yeah. So I would say, like you said, nick's been out of the gym for I guess what. Like how many months is it now exactly? You think almost four months. Yeah, and you weren't like, you weren't like.
Speaker 1:You weren't strong to begin with.
Speaker 2:No, I don't know that you were. You weren't like. I can't remember where you were at in the process when you stopped coming.
Speaker 1:I mean I was in a sort of a rebound.
Speaker 2:Right, you weren't at your peak strength.
Speaker 1:The peak strength. I mean that's actually probably worth saying. The strongest I've ever been is probably a year or two into this podcast, which would have been like 2021-ish. Before my first son was born, I started doing starting strength. I got up to about a 300. I think that the I did like 315 for five reps squat.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think so yeah, and I got a deadlift up in the 400 range bench. I've never I've always struggled with bench. I don't remember what I got to, but it wasn't. I wouldn't write home about it, whatever right and I wasn't.
Speaker 1:I think I, even then I was omitting overhead press. I don't think, yeah, I don't think you were doing yeah, yeah, so, but I, I was. I felt pretty good about those numbers on the lower body, so, but that was now, that's probably three years ago at the peak, and then since then, basically, my first son was born in April 2022, which is about the time we sort of like ramped this podcast down for a long time, cause I just had to learn how to be a dad and also do all these things down for a long time, because I just had to learn how to be a dad and also do all these things.
Speaker 1:And uh that really I think I I didn't like go to the gym for like a year after that, so I've been in a recovery state. Every time I've re-approached the gym since then it's been like I'll sort of get on the horse and then fall off again and you know that's my story. If you listen to the show like that's, you know that's my thing. And I don't mean that to be self-deprecating, I just mean there's a lot of factors.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're not alone in that I think a lot of people happens to a lot of people.
Speaker 1:That's the setup.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, first off, because of that, like what you said before, um, me and nick talked about this the other day you have a. There's definitely some muscle memory in there that would come back pretty quickly. Yeah, um, and nick mentioned that he feels like he's kind of stuck. He's restarted several times and he feels like sometimes he's almost gone too light just because he was worried about whatever. Um, I would be hesitant to say starting too light's a bad thing, necessarily, as long as you're going to make the correct progress and get through that period. But you probably can add weight pretty rapidly, like weekly for a while, because you've got all that old strength in there. That's going to come back fairly quickly. But, yeah, so, like for the program, um, but yeah, so, like for the program you sent Monday, squat bench and pull-ups and Wednesday was deadlifts, overhead press and pull-ups. Um, the Monday workout looks pretty good. It's three, like you said, three by five, three sets of five. That's a pretty standard. Good, like range for barbell work. Yeah, good, like range for barbell work. Yeah, the pull-ups I think I mentioned to you that because you can't really get three sets of. Like the program you sent me. It said three sets of 10 on pull-ups, actually, because you can't do sets of 10 right now. You can. You could do them assisted. So if you have a pull-up bar at your house and you've got bands that assist you with pulling weight off your body Like rubber bands, yeah, yeah, yeah, you can do that. I don't really think they're like the best way personally to get really, really good at pull-ups. I think they're really good at helping you get there, but I think you still need to practice the real thing. So if you're going to do it, I would still say throw in like a real pull up at the end or the beginning somewhere in there, like in the next week, try to get to next week, try to get three, that kind of thing, and then do the rest of them assisted. Um, so you could do that, but I wouldn't just week after week See what I'm saying, because it's hard to make progress like that.
Speaker 2:The other thing being because the Tuesday Thursday part of the program was something like a circuit at home. Pull-ups kind of fit in nicely there because it's kind of built that multiple reps, all that kind of stuff, that's a good movement, since it's body weight to throw into the home circuit. So I told Nick, I was like you know, I'd probably swap those out for like a row, like a barbell row, and we've talked about this before. There's a variation called the Meadows Row where you actually use like just one end of the barbell and you kind of brace yourself on your leg. I would definitely recommend looking it up online and seeing how to do it, but it's a really nice way to give your low back a break.
Speaker 2:But that's what I would suggest putting there a set of pull-ups on the heavy days and just let the heavy days actually be heavy, like be going for barbell work, rapidly increasing weight until you get to a point where you can't just add weight all the time. Um, until you get to a a point where you can't just add weight all the time. Then obviously the you gotta get a little more um, a little more technical with how you add weight, uh, but that's what I would start on those two days. I would change that then, uh, so, so Monday being squat bench rows, at this point I would probably just do, uh, three sets of five.
Speaker 2:Um, sorry, the coffee machine's going off on us. So three sets of five, I think, is great, even for the barbell rows. Like that. It's an easy number to be able to add weight to, especially when you're getting back into lifting like that. But then on Wednesday you've got deadlift, overhead press and pull-ups. Again the deadlift you put one set of five overhead press, three sets of five pull-ups, three sets of 10. The one set of five is something we've done from starting strength and from strong lifts. It's kind of how they're programmed in those two programs.
Speaker 1:They both have you squatting twice a week, I think, Well, squatting three times a week actually. Yeah, that's right, three times.
Speaker 2:And you deadlift once a week and I believe starting strength, you actually deadlift more than that in the very beginning and then as it gets heavy you go to once a week. And that is pretty much the reasoning behind doing one heavy set of five like working up to one heavy set is because you're squatting on top of that like the same day. So you've got. You're obviously fatigued from the squat. So I told Nick, you know, if you're only going to deadlift that day, I would. I would personally up the volume of that. So I would probably do like three sets of five, just like you did with the squat for the deadlift, since you're not squatting that day. Um, and alternatively, I told Nick, you know you also I'm a pretty big fan of squatting multiple times a week. I think it helps you. It's a really technical move. So if you've never tried it before and you struggle with squats, I would recommend looking at some of these programs where you squat more often. It gives you a lot of practice and practice helps like crazy. It'll help you get stronger you. I would be willing to bet that you will add weight to the bar quicker if you just start practicing it more often.
Speaker 2:And so I told Nick. I was like you know you could, if you like, only doing having to work out to one heavy set of deadlifts. Sometimes that helps. It's kind of mentally taxing when you know you have to do multiple sets of a really heavy weight and sometimes it just helps. You just feel scared.
Speaker 2:So I told Nick, I was like you could squat on that day as well, so you could just squat like pull out the pull-ups, don't even necessarily change the rows. I would just on Wednesday I would do three sets of five squats again and then I would do three sets of five squats again and then I would do three sets of five overhead press and then I would do one set of five deadlifts and again, keeping those heavy days heavy, it lets you do the one set of heavy deadlifts. I would recommend trying that as well If you're the kind of person that's always done multiple sets. I think it's really it does actually feel pretty good. You just have to work up to one really heavy set and you kind of give it everything you have and then you're done. It feels really good.
Speaker 1:I like it a lot better, but that's not to say that I'm opposed to doing more. I just you're right, there is something mental about it that it's a lot easier to get excited about. Maybe that's a way to say it, which maybe that's a poor reason to do something, I don't know.
Speaker 2:but no, I mean, I think, I think it's good, and especially in the gym, anything that makes you enjoy it more, I think it's good to help you keep coming back.
Speaker 2:Um, multiple heavy sets of deadlifts. I don't think it's going to many people. Back to the gym, yeah, all right. So yeah, for those two days, that's the changes I would make. Moving to the circuits, you said so, the first circuit being on Tuesday Bulgarian split squats, overhead press and Romanian deadlift. I told Nick for me, if you're going to pick three movements like that and do them in a circuit fashion, so what that means is you do the first movement, as little rest as possible, do the next movement, little rest as possible, do the next movement and then that's one circuit.
Speaker 2:So you just back-to-back training. Basically. In that scenario you've got two leg movements and then one push, so there's no pull whatsoever. Two leg movements and then one push, so there's no pull whatsoever. If we're pulling pull-ups out of the other days, that's a great place to put the pull-up. Also, I think it's a good idea if you're doing a circuit personally and this is something Jim Wendler has talked a lot about but doing like one push, one pull, one leg or a core is how he looks at it. Um so I would probably swap one of those two out.
Speaker 2:Personally, if you're going to deadlift, I would probably pull out the Romanian deadlift, since that's the day before deadlifting day, just to keep you from being too fatigued. Um, so if you want to do Bulgarian split squats, that's okay. So you could do that. You could do overhead press and then you could do like pull-ups since we yanked by the other day, that's. I mean, really that's probably the main change I would make on that. And then the other day you had kettlebell swings, dumbbell flies and rows. I think I told you I I would probably. So in your lifting days you've got flat bench and then you've got overhead press.
Speaker 2:I would probably swap out the kettle, the dumbbell flies for, like incline bench, like dumbbell incline bench, because, like nick mentioned, he has a set of dumbbells at the house. I would just make that just to have a different movement there. The flies I think are good, but I don't think in a minimalist program like that I don't really think that I would spend time doing that. I think they're good if you're kind of doing a you're not really leaving any stone unturned kind of program where it's just multiple days of long lifting sessions. Kettlebell swing, I think is great. It's kind of a blend of core, legs, cardio. It kind of covers everything. And then you put three sets of 10 there and then you put dumbbell row. I think that's fine. I would just put some kind of pull so you don't necessarily need to do pull-ups again. Double row is completely fine.
Speaker 1:Often I'll do an inverted row in a circuit. The only reason I did that is because you and I had talked and you were like you ought to use those dumbbells more.
Speaker 2:Man Right, yeah, I was like oh okay, yeah, yeah, I mean I think that's a good idea. I did tell Nick, though, that the one big change I would make off this program is he put three sets beside everything on the circuit day. When I do a circuit, I tend to do a minimum of five rounds, trying to build up more over time. So you know five to ten rounds, somewhere in that range. Three rounds, you're going to go really fast. I mean that workout's going to be over really quickly.
Speaker 1:I just I think five is a you can do five in about 20 minutes if you bust it. I mean I definitely have, yeah, yeah for sure, been able to do that. I just sometimes the trouble I run into is if I try to fit this in the middle of the workday. So like if I take a lunch break or I'm like I've just got to do this thing, I'll just like, basically I'm going to sit there and like try to work while I'm doing it, which is insane.
Speaker 1:Like to sit there and like try to work while I'm doing it which is insane Like I'll do one cycle through the circuit, and then I'll like go respond to an email and then I'll do another, which is that I would not advise that to anyone. Like that's not how you get anything done.
Speaker 2:And it's a.
Speaker 1:It's a total luxury that I have because I have a home office. I work remotely fairly often and my my quote unquote gym equipment is in my home office, so I literally can just like be in this weird amorphous zone, but I'm not doing a good job at work and I'm not doing a good job working out, so none of that is like helpful.
Speaker 1:But you know, when I've done that, having fewer rounds is like, I guess easier target to set for your hit, but that's not again. I guess easier target to set for your head, but that's not again. I'm, I would. I don't think it's a good idea. So, um, I don't know so anyway, that's uh yeah those are the changes you'd make.
Speaker 1:And then, um then you came to me yesterday, I think we were talking, and you said you know what if you just didn't do that at all, like didn't do those circuits at all, and instead did a third gym day, but did it from your house where you have the dumbbells, so basically like a lot of upper body assistance kind of stuff on the third day? And then we got to looking at StrongLifts actually has a program I'm forgetting what it's called, I think it's StrongLifts Plus, that's right, stronglifts 5x5 Plus which has it's almost the exact same program for the first two days that we just talked about, yeah, and then on the third day day you do a bunch of upper body assistance and I got to thinking about it and I was like that's actually maybe a great idea for me because, like we spoke about earlier, my bench has always sucked.
Speaker 1:My arms are not that strong, my shoulders are in shambles.
Speaker 2:So, like you know, my, maybe my lats are sort of okay but, like you know, like I can row pretty well, but other than that and I told nick um, you know the the problem with that is problem with what, which one with with doing the first program you sent me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, with the circuits and all that. Some people are really big proponent of it, jim Wendler being one that I just mentioned. Other people are very against doing something like that because it kind of cuts into your recovery from the heavy days. So, like in that example you sent, you're squatting Monday. Maybe you're going to squat again on Wednesday. Well, if you do Bulgarian split squats on Tuesday, you're probably gonna be really really sore on Wednesday, like really hindering your performance. You're so sore You're not really giving yourself a day in there to just rest that body part at all. Yes, you can find articles online and people, huge proponents for like working out every day and doing everybody part every day, active recovery or whatever.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think there's something to be said for that. But I I would actually say, especially with you getting back into the gym. That was the main point. So, nick, um, I would build up a level of the they call it GPP general physical preparedness. Um, I would build a a level of they call it GPP general physical preparedness. I would build a level up to where things are getting much easier for you. You don't really get winded. Very often. Heavy weight feels pretty normal. Now You've greased the groove, as they say. Everything's feeling good. Say everything's feeling good.
Speaker 2:I think that to me, if you're getting back in the gym, I would not just immediately start with working out every day like that, back to back and really hammering the muscle. I think those extra recovery days are really nice, but you still for active recovery, quote unquote. You can still walk, you know. Go on a walk with the family. You can still walk, you know. Go on a walk with a family, walk your dog, whatever it is. That's completely fine and that's very easy to recover from. It's probably going to help you move some blood to your muscles and get your heart pumping and everything. And I mean I don't really know anybody that can't. If you can lift weights, you most of the time you can go on a walk, so anyway, so, anyway that I told Nick that's what I would probably start with and then, like you mentioned, that last day on that program is just, it's almost like a bodybuilder style day, um, which is kind of fun sometimes just to change things up.
Speaker 1:Uh, yeah, it's well. What we talked about is it's almost perfect for the particular variables that I have, which is that I can go to your house for the heavy ones, but in general, not knocking you. I just would like to go over there as few times as I can get by with, because it is just getting out of the house with the kids and all that it's like it's more difficult now.
Speaker 1:So if I can do that only twice a week and then utilize those dumbbells, which I've not really been doing, uh, ever since I brought them, I've got a bench, I've got like an incline bench and dumbbells that go up to like what 120 or something they go yeah, they go really heavy, pretty high so, uh, for me in my personal circumstance, like that's actually really exciting because I would like to use those more, since I've, since I have them and they're taking up space and also still get the benefit of the heavy lifting on the other days.
Speaker 1:Um, so I'm actually excited to try it out. So my current plan is, uh, you know, started back this week, next week I'm going to try to do it like a one rep max test for all the big lifts. So that's my only goal for the week is to try to just work up to a heavy single on the big lifts and really I mean, maybe I've never actually tested the small ones. Maybe I should just do that Like I've never.
Speaker 2:I've never been like what can I curl? You know, like I just never did that.
Speaker 1:So, um, maybe I'll do all that, run all the calculations and then you know, two weeks from now I'll actually start what you know, this program for real and obviously I'll be reporting in on how the progress is going. But I really want to do these tests because, like you said, I I've had a bad habit, especially further in the past, of anytime I take a break from the gym I'll come back in and I'll just pick whatever the easy, like let's say it's a squat. I'll just start with like 135.
Speaker 1:Right, because it's 245 plates and it's just easy to do and it sort of feels like this easy marker, when in fact, to your point earlier, like especially after a couple of weeks here I may have, I may be able to rebound further along, like maybe it's 200 and it's like I don't have to spend however many weeks like just getting back up to that point um, comfortably. So obviously, be careful and be safe.
Speaker 2:You know, I'm not gonna sure I'm gonna, I'm not gonna like hurt myself or anything like that, but um yeah um, yeah, if you're, if you're so new to it that you you don't know what like it feels like to have a lot of weight on your back or something. I wouldn't recommend doing that. I would just start back very light, yeah, but yeah, if you, if you're used to it and you know what to expect, um, you know, yeah, like I was, I was squatting in the two hundreds like earlier, like last year, right, yeah, so it would be.
Speaker 1:I think it would be inappropriate for me to just, like you know, start with the easiest thing I possibly can. But anyway, I'm excited. Yeah, me too. I need to get back in shape, for sure.
Speaker 1:And you know, I've just been thinking a lot about you know, I'm sure that we'll probably get way more into this in future episodes, but it's just crazy how your motivations change and, like now, being a dad, like like now the thing that I think about is like I'm I'll be wrestling with my boys at night, and it's like I'm sitting there going like man. I want to, I want to be doing this for years. I don't want to. I don't want to, like you know, get to where I'm not comfortable physically doing this and and that you know, or they'd be easier to injure something or whatever, and so it's like it just totally changes the perspective on, like what matters. So for me now, it's just like I want to be an example for them and I want to be, like proud of what I can do physically, so that they will see that their dad is proud.
Speaker 1:You know, like I yeah there's something, because I'm prone, you know, as you probably picked up on from if you've listened to the show for any length of time, like I'm prone to being kind of self-deprecating. So if I have something like this, where it's like, even if I'm gonna joke that way, but can also pick up a heavy piece of furniture or whatever it is or like, move the dryer with, with ease like that kind of thing.
Speaker 1:I want them to like get little glimpses. I don't even want them to know, I just want, I want, I want to be a legend. You know what I mean. Like I want.
Speaker 2:I don't want it to be like I'm not gonna.
Speaker 1:I'm not gonna be like going around, you know, I just want it to be like whispers in the dark, like he's Batman. You know that kind of thing.
Speaker 1:Anyway, okay, any closing arguments, as I think we got recorded Very nice. Well, you know. Again, thanks for tuning in. If you'd like to help us here at the Working Man's Weightlifting Show, the best way to do that is to leave a review for us on your favorite app. I think you could do it on more than just Apple now, but primarily on Apple Music or Apple Podcasts. That's a great place to leave a review. It helps our ranking tremendously and we'd really truly appreciate that. And if you just so love us that you want to buy something from us, you can head over to shopworkingmansweightliftingcom, where we havea couple of merch items for sale. You can also reach out to us on our website, workingmansweightliftingcom. We've got a Discord server you can join. It's not very active right now, that's our fault, but you know we can always make it active. You can get on there and post Discordworkingmansweightliftingcom. Until next time. I've been Nick, I've been Stephen, we've been the Working man who lift weights and talk about it on this show. Thank you, and we'll catch you next time.
