Back to weightlifting

03 Sep, 2025

This August I got a gym membership. I’m back to weightlifting. My last time was in early 2020; I stopped for obvious reasons.

Why weightlifting?

The two reasons I kept weightlifting were:

• it’s easy to see my progress;
• it’s surprisingly fun.

These were not the reasons I started weightlifting. I mainly started because I needed to do some real physical exercise or cut down the beer and the ramen. That, and a friend to teach me, and a specific anime¹ for motivation. In the end it was the physical activity I could do consistently for the longest.²

As I need to exercise again; back to the gym it is.

My routine (for now)

Until October, I’m following an adaptation of the Reddit fitness beginner routine. The objective is to get into the habit of exercising again. I’ve swapped a few things I find unfun to make it easier.

The routine consists of two sets of exercises:

1. Day A:
   • Squats: best exercise; pure fun.
   • Bench press: not my best, I want to get better at it this time.
   • Dumbbell rows: I had difficulties with barbell rows; dumbbells are a bit easier.
2. Day B:
   • Overhead press: important for people with a small kid (me).
   • Deadlift: no strong opinions.
   • Pull-ups: I’m horrible at them.³

Each exercise I do 5 reps twice and then as many as possible for a last round (abbreviated 3x5+). Three days a week is enough for me (and I don’t want to carve out more time).

From September, I’m adding a short stretching routine. From October, I plan to add a bit of cardio too.⁴ From November, I’ll go to a more complete routine. I’m still not sure which, but not the routine I was using last time; 5x5 is brutal and boring.

Outro: Some nice things

I’ve been going to the gym for a month. Since now I’m paying a gym membership (not using the University’s gym), there’s a few things which are better than before. It’s way more empty; there’s no competition for machines on the time I usually go. The University gym also had the problem of undergraduate students, who have infinite time to spend. (And I hope that if I have any complaints someday, the gym will not ignore them as the University.)

#weightlifting