Tag Archives: Weight Lifting

Love & Hate – Pumping Iron

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As it goes every spring, folks are looking to get back into shape, abandoning their hibernation routines for a beach body summer. Personally, I just want to get back to being mildly active again. Long gone are the days when I was able to hit the gym with nothing holding me back, but that doesn’t mean I can’t work off some rust and weight. With that in mind, here are the activities the Sip Advisor loves when he’s looking to get… well, active:

Cycling

If I’m going to have a good sweat, I’m hopping on the cycle. Mrs. Sip and I bought a fold-up cycle in March and neither of us have yet to use it. Girl Sip sat on it one evening to enjoy a book, but otherwise, it has sat in our garage. That has to end and hopefully some recently warmer temperatures encourages one or both of us to finally break the bike in.

Weight Lifting

There was a time in my life that I was a gym regular. I loved how swoll my muscles would get after a good session and incessantly annoyed Mrs. Sip about my physique. Sadly, with the introduction of kids to our life, I haven’t had a good lifting sesh in years. Now that we have our own little place, I looked into the price of weights and was shocked to see how much pieces now cost.

Sports

I’ll take getting active thorugh sports, over time in the gym, any day of the week… except for basketball (more on that later). Recently, Boy Sip and I have enjoyed kicking around a soccer ball and playing some ball hockey with a net we recently purchased. I also sometimes pine for the days when we were involved in a multisports league, playing a different sport each week. Among my favourites were ball hockey, dodgeball and volleyball.

Narrowly missing the exercises I like are activities like rowing/kayaking. What can I say, I like watersports! Now let’s move to the exercises I find wasteful and useless:

Running

Running is so stupid. How stupid is it? Well, really, really stupid. The damage it does to your knees alone is enough to make one cautious. And let’s not forget about the dreaded nipple chafing! I’ve also seen too many idiots running around on roads, acting like they have the right of way over vehicles. These folks should be rundown with no hesitation. Some kind of point system would keep people in line.

Yoga

I tried yoga once and hated every second of it. Granted it was the morning after a long drinking session, so that could have played a role. I don’t care about all the purported benefits of the activity, as I need more movement in my life, not less. I will give yoga some credit for the creation of yoga pants. Also, some of those positions can be quite inspiring, if you catch my drift!

Basketball

I hate everything to do with basketball. From squeaky shoes to the feel of the ball and everything in between. It is by far my least favourite of the major sports and I apologize to the world, on behalf of my country, that a Canadian invented the sport. Whenever we’d have basketball as part of our multisports league, I looked for every way possible to get out of the activity.

Love & Hate: Pumping Iron

  • 1 oz Vodka
  • 1 oz Amaretto
  • Top with Orange Soda
  • Garnish with a Lime Wedge

What exercise activities do you love or hate? Sadly, Mrs. Sip still disputes that sex is an exercise activity, so I’m left working out on my own… as usual!

September 13 – A-Sample

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The Gun Show

Over the last two years, the Sip Advisor has become a bit of a gym rat (and not the type that wants to sleep with weightlifters!). As a result, I’ve been witness to some mind blowing behaviour that drives me crazy. Here are the Top 5 exercise room pet peeves:

#5: Letting Weights Smash Together

My theory is, if you can’t let the weight come down slowly, you’re lifting too much. This may not be a completely correct line of thinking, as some people prefer a maxed out lifting regime, but no one in the gym wants to be startled by the loud sound of weights clashing against one another just cause some prick wants to be a big shot and overexert his lifting. I think a perfect punishment for this exercise foul would be a guillotine-style decapitation at the hands of someone lifting too much to let the weight down easily.

gym-cat

#4: Unneccesary Devices

The only device a person should be bringing to the gym with them is something to play music. I can’t count the number of times I see someone sitting on a piece of equipment, staring at their phone and either texting away or holding a long conversation with someone. If you want to do that, get out of the gym and let me have access to the equipment and a work out free of listening to your latest drama. I also despise the folks that bring a laptop to the gym, thinking everyone wants to hear their tunes, you master of human audial enjoyment. Worse is the person who watches a movie and has to awkwardly balance the machine as they exercise.

#3: Using Multiple Machines at Same Time

I know that some people like to work out by rapidly rotating through a few machines, but in a small gym like the Sip Advisor’s apartment has, that means that you’re using up a majority of the possible stations all for yourself and it’s hard for someone else to get in and do their own reps when you’re not sure when this person will be done and how long you might have to wait for your next set. What’s worse is if two people are swapping in and out of the same machine and are taking it up for long periods of time, largely because they’re spending more time chit chatting than pumping iron.

gym-treadmill

#2: Using Machines to Hold Possessions

I really don’t understand how people can be this rude. Do they not realize that others might want to use that bike or bench that they have their jacket laid out on… and on that note, why the hell did you bring a jacket to the weight room in the first place!? It’s not like you had to travel far to get there when it’s within the same building that you live. Did you have a need to look fashionable amongst people wearing kits stained with sweat? Oh, you want to rest your precious iPhone on a bike seat like it’s the freakin’ holy grail?… well, then don’t mind if I “accidentally” destroy it with my rockin’ gluteus maximus!

#1: Not Putting Equipment Away

This one really draws the Sip Advisor’s ire. How hard is it to return whatever equipment you used back to the place you found it? So many times, weights are strewn across the gym floor and mats and those stupid massive rubber balls are left to roam the room. What pisses me off the most is when I’m trying to put heavy weights away, but I’m blocked from getting as close as possible to the rack by a wall of discs and dumbbells, making me have to lurch in awkward ways to return what I was using. These folks are the worst of society and should be barred from the gym until they can prove their rehabilitation and good behaviour.

Super Saturday Shot Day: A-Sample

A-Sample Shot

  • 0.75 Zubrowka Vodka
  • 0.75 Gatorade
  • Garnish with Pills

I would never criticize how anyone chooses to work out (to each their own), but I do want to share one of the funnier exercise routines I’ve ever witnessed: Some dude came in and grabbed one of those big rubber balls before doing two whole sit-ups on it. He then went over to the bike and pedaled for about a minute, before hopping off and returning to the ball again for another pair of sit-ups. He finished with a handful of push-ups and left the gym… and the jerk never put that stupid ball away!

Sip Advisor Bar Notes (3 Sips out of 5):
Given the subject of today’s post, A-Sample (what athletes provide for drug testing) was the perfect shooter to pick for the article. Better yet, I wanted to make sure Gatorade was an ingredient and everything really came together. I used Zubrowka Vodka, because it’s made with Bison Grass and to the Sip Advisor, nothing says bulking up like Bison Grass. One problem is that the Gatorade is too light to cover the booze, but this is otherwise a decent shooter.