Remembering Valentine's Day Past

For Valentine's Day in 2005, the Misses gave me the greatest give one could possibly give.  She gave me my first weight bench!

She got it at Walmart.  For $40.  I'm pretty sure it was intended for 16 year old high school boys.  It had a weight limit of 250 pounds, so If I was going to lift over 70 pounds, I would have violated the weight guide.  She paired it with a quarter inch weight set from Sports Authority.  It may have been the lamest weight set ever, but it was mine. Average Dave's was open for business.

It's hard to believe that this was six years ago.  It doesn't seem like I've been lifting weights that long.  I had to dig up the old log book just to make sure.  Here is the log of my first workout on 2/14/2005:

Pushups       13/8
                     7/8
                     2/8

(The backspace is when I couldn't do any more real pushups and I switched to pushups from my knees.)

Bench     40lbs      9 reps
              40lbs      12 reps
              40lbs      10 reps

Flys        30lbs      12 reps
              30lbs      12 reps
              30lbs      12 reps

Curls      30lbs      12 reps

              30lbs      12 reps

              30lbs      12 reps

Tricep Pushdowns

              25lbs      12 reps

              35lbs      12 reps

              35lbs      12 reps

Pullups   7 seconds

              7 seconds

              6 seconds

(That's right, I couldn't do a Pullup.  I would just hang from the bar to build up strength.)

Pulldowns  

             35lbs      12 reps

(I wrote "didn't like" here.  I remember the lat attachment on that bench was terrible!  I guess that's what you get for $40).

Rows     15lbs   12 reps

             15lbs   12 reps  

I miss that old bench.  I sold it and the weights to Play it Again Sports a few years ago when I bought an Olympic Bench and weights off e-bay for $125.