Kayla Le

WATCH AND OBSERVE | Photo editor, Griffin Beam, learns how to do a bicep curl during lifting club. Sophomore and club member Jose Gonzalez assisted Beam throughout his workout.

What happened in the weight room used to be a mystery to me, but that changed after I attended an after school practice for Weightlifting Club. Although I was nervous about the meeting at first, when I saw many of my friends bench pressing and using equipment like dumbbells, that fear gradually faded away. I was inspired to start working with the dumbbells after watching other members use them confidently. 

I picked up two 30-pound dumbbells and then club member Jose Gonzalez, a sophomore, demonstrated how he works out his arms and legs with them. He instructed that  before I started lifting, I needed to stretch in order to prevent muscle strain while lifting. After stretching, I asked Jose how I should do bicep curls with the dumbbells, which was an exercise that intrigued me after watching other members do it. Jose showed me the correct form for the exercise and explained to me what the difference was between sets and reps, two important measures of consistency and growth. He specified that reps are the amount of times you repeat an exercise while sets are the amount of reps you do. Based on Jose’s advice, I decided to aim for 15 reps and three sets of bicep curls on my first day. I was surprised to find that it was manageable, and I suspected that the main reason for this was because of my Boy Scouts training, where I’ve built my arm muscles by carrying items like full water jugs and ice chests on a regular basis.

After my bicep curls, Jose suggested that we work on calf raises next as a way to train my lower body and give my arms a rest. He explained that he likes to do these by grabbing a plate and two dumbbells, holding one in each hand, and then putting the first half of each foot on the plate to position his feet at an incline. As I mirrored his movements, he showed me how I should then push off the ground and hold myself up for a few seconds before  lowering myself down again, finishing one rep. Together, Jose and I repeated this motion for three sets of 25 reps. After the first two sets my calves were burning, but it felt rewarding to know I was getting stronger. I knew that the more my muscles hurt, the better workout I was getting.

In the corner of the room, almost hidden by all the other weights, I caught a glimpse of a wooden stick attached to a rope that was wrapped around a small plate. This immediately had my attention because I’d never seen anything like it before. I met another club member, Varik Choudhary, and asked what this setup was used for. He explained that it was used to help members develop their forearm strength. In order to use it properly, I had to turn the stick, which slowly wrapped the rope and caused the weight to rise with it. Varik explained that the higher up I held the rope during the exercise, the more my forearms would develop. Taking this to mind, as I used it I tried to hold it up and high as I could, rolling the rope up until the weight reached its max height. My forearms started to burn, and I thought it might have even been as hard as the calf exercises. However, I was able to work through it and did the motion for two more sets. 

To finish off the practice, I did a couple sets of push ups to train my upper body like my pecs, triceps, and shoulders. At the end of practice, I thanked everyone who helped me before leaving. Learning different exercising techniques at Weightlifting Club was a fun experience, and I can definitely see myself going back for more in the future.