Get Into Weights

Weight training? Are you kidding me? My primary care physician had been recommending this for years, but I did not know how to incorporate weight training into my exercise plan. I’m a 71-year-old female runner. I played basketball and golf in high school, but I had never been introduced to weightlifting. I had never been taught how to properly weight train and had no idea where to start. Not only that, the intimidation factor in gyms for 120-pound females doing weight training beside 250-pound males is quite intense.

Vertex Physical Therapy offered a “Weight Training for Runners” class, a six-week program to build supporting muscles for running. I had been going to Vertex PT to correct a glute and hamstring issue that had developed due to poor training when this class was recommended.

Ahhh, just what I needed. I signed up and totally embraced it. The two awesome Doctors of Physical Therapy, Dr. Mara Argyriou and Dr. Thomas DeHaven, who led this program were very fun, engaging, and knowledgeable. The participants were also very enjoyable and fun to work alongside. They were of all ages, genders, sizes, strengths, and weaknesses. I looked forward to every Thursday evening’s class, though it was a bit of a drive from my house. Everyone was in the same “boat” . . . runners learning how to weight train . . . no more intimidation.

Yes, we had “homework.” I logged, printed, and practiced each exercise 2-3 times a week. I was surprised to see improvement in just three short weeks, especially with balance issues. Yes, 71-year-olds need to work on balance problems, and the lack of it probably contributed to my glute and hammy injury in the first place.

Then, Vertex PT created the “Pump and Run & 5K”, organizing the event for Saturday, April 15th. For every bench press done for your age, gender, and specified percentage of your body weight, 30 seconds were removed from your 5K time.

I was in. I signed up immediately. I learned how to do bench presses and worked on them twice a week. I sought after total stranger spotters that knew about this avenue of weight training, and they willingly provided great information and support. I was not good at it, very wobbly at first, but I was no longer intimidated by this newly found sport! The 250-pounders wanted me to do well in the Pump and Run competition!

I hope there will be another Pump and Run next year. Maybe deadlifts will be added, among other attractions. Who knows? Start training now!

Oh, I looked up the word Vertex on Dictionary.com. This is relevant and applicable to Vertex PT in Cayce:

Vertex:

1. The highest point of something; apex; summit; top: the vertex of a mountain.
2. Anatomy, Zoology: The crown or top of the head.
3. Craniometry: The highest point on the midsagittal plane of the skull or head viewed from the left side when the skull or head is in the Frankfurt horizontal.
4. Astronomy: A point in the celestial sphere toward which or from which the common motion of a group of stars is directed.
5. Geometry:
   a. The point farthest from the base: the vertex of a cone or of a pyramid.
   b. A point in a geometrical solid common to three or more sides.
   c. The intersection of two sides of a plane figure.

Lynn Lewis Grimes
Runlynnrun33@gmail.com