deadlift (by Alex)

Well, I told Kate I decided I better write something so as not to feel too left out of this blogging community. She's been after me for a while to post something and today at work I finally got the blogging itch, so, hear I am, sitting in bed jotting out what's been on my mind all day: Deadlifts hurt. Ok, ok, this is kind of out of left field, so let me explain. Every monday, wednesday, and friday, I leave the house at 6:30 am and meet a work buddy of mine at the YMCA across from my office downtown. He has this weight lifting routine we do - chest, shoulders, and triceps on mondays, back and biceps on wednesdays, and lower body on fridays. (on tuesday and wednesday we either play racquetball or I try and do a little cardio). We use the free-weights, so there are barbell benchpresses, incline and decline presses, standing military presses, barbell squats, assisted dips and assisted pullups, and others, and, of course, the dreaded deadlift. Every wednesday morning we start with 3 sets of the deadlift. We take the barbell, put on a few weight plates, put on wrist straps (yep, I even got wrist straps for this crazy exercise!), grab the bar while it is resting on the floor, stand up holding the bar while keeping our backs straight and chins up, and then squat back down so the bar is almost on the ground again. It actually seems incredibly simple: you lift something very heavy and then put it back down again. The thing is, the deadlift kills me. About half way through the first set I think, "Why am I doing this to myself? This hurts!" It isn't a matter of fatigue, more of a complete body exhaustion mixed with fighting off bursting into tears knowing I still have 6 more reps and 2 more sets to complete. I guess the only good thing is it makes the rest of the workout feel easy. Well, I better get some sleep so I'm rested for tomorrow - no deadlift for me on friday, just its uncomfortable cousin: the squat.