How to Refurbish Gym weights

Refurbishing older weights is not a hard thing to do. Newer weights can cost a lot of money but if you have a chance to bring life into some older weights, go for it.

I had a few weights that had rust on them from being in the basement and garage. You could still see some of the red paint but the rust red was way more prominent. This image has one weight with a little rust and another covered with it.

Take care to remove any dust or dirt that is on the weight first. Rust can be a dust magnet. Using a rag or brush should be enough to remove loose dirt. You might find it a bit easier to use a damp rag but do not be temped to use a wet rag. You want to keep the surface as dry as possible. 

One of the better ways to remove the rust is with a wire brush. It will take some time to remove but its worth it. To speed it up, get a wire brush cup for your drill. I used a wire brush cup on my Ryobi hand drill and it made the job much easier and a bit quicker.

Take your time taking the rust out. There is no right or wrong way to remove the rust. Be patient and slow and it will make a difference. Be sure to use caution as well, wear eye protection and be in a ventilated area, wear a mask if needed.. Do not breathe in any of the produced dust that is airborne.

The temptation to begin painting right away will be great but before you do, brush and wipe off the weights again. This will ensure that you have a clean surface and will not see any loose particles mess up your paint job.

With a clean surface, it is time to paint. Krylon Fusion paint dries to a hard top layer. I have found it resists scuffs and scratches well. It can be found in many colors and Stain Black matches well with common weights.

Paint the weights with even passes. Start before the object and continue slightly after the object. Try to paint the indents and center first and then paint the rest of the object. The paint has a cure time so read the side well for application directions. The cure time also depends on the paint and air conditions. I painted each side once, waited over an hour, painted it again, waited 2 hours then flipped it over and did the same on the opposite side.

If you wait too long, you may have to scuff the paint to get it to adhere again. This is not a project that can wait for the next day but needs to be done on the same day, so start early.

This KRYLON paint is awesome. The lower weight has two coats and looks complete and very durable. These weights have been given new life and will be in use for quite a long time.

Setting these old weights alongside the newer ones, you can hardly tell the difference in the finishes.

30 Day HIIT Workout Challenge.. Update

 30 DAY HIIT WORKOUT CHALLENGE

Hi all and welcome back again. Lets give you an update on my 30 Day Workout Challenge. I was able to complete 2 and a half weeks of the routine and learned a good deal about myself. The first few days of the 30 Day HIIT body weight routine were tough, really tough. The complete routine calls for 2 round but I was not able to do two complete rounds, it was just too much. Just doing one full round round left me completely exhausted but I was really pushing it.

When I practiced the routine I did half the reps and the whole routine and I was beat. My Achilles heal, those darn Burpees. Those things are super tough to do and you cannot cheat. Took me almost 45 minutes to get through Day one.

As I got further in, I found that I could feel my whole body engaged and my blood was flowing. It felt good and the consistent sweat was also a good indicator. I found myself looking forward to the routine, except for one exercise.. those darn Burpees.  Just in case you don't remember what all the exercises were, I put them down below again.

This HIIT is pretty good and does target the whole body and I do recommend it. I had to stop doing it after 2.5 weeks. Why you ask ? Those darn burpees. My shoulder just could not take it. You know how they say push through the pain or no pain no gain. I took that too heart. I had no problems with the pushups or mountain climbers but as soon as I would go through the burpee motion, pain in the shoulder would stop me from completing those reps. I looked up how to do a burpee and common user mistakes and it helped a little bit but not entirely. My last day I did the routine, I felt something in that shoulder and that was it, no more. I actually had to stop working out for 3 weeks altogether to make sure I had healed and was no longer in danger or damage to the shoulder. I did a little research and not everyone can do Burpees. It is a touch exercise and it can put some tough stress on your shoulders and and biceps because of the nature of the exercise.

I kept in the back of my mind, no pain no gain. That is not always true. Somethings you have to endure and push harder. That last rep, those extra pounds or the last mile. You have to listen to your body and not ignore it. I ignored mine for a bit because I wanted to finish. As I got further along I then started to feel hurting and not sore outside of the workout session. The shoulder was harder to move and it was getting harder to pick things up on that side. I found that I had not only a problem with shoulder but with the bicep as well. When I felt a real tight / twinging filling that one night, that did it. I found myself stretching the bicep and shoulder as well as using the massage gun to get back to where I was. When I do this again, not if, I am going to substitute the Burpees with another exercise. I am not sure what I would do in place of it, but there has to be something that can replace it.

One of my big take away from this besides don't quit is listen to yourself. You are the only one that can say if your in pain, can go farther or have reached some kind of limit. Limits are meant to be pushed but need to be done with caution. Everyone has a different limit and physical ability. You are not expected to walk a mountain trail after a few walked of 8k-10k steps. Its progression and perseverance that get you some where. Keep watch on your progression and push yourself but remember to be your trainer and observer at the same time and listen to yourself.

 

30 Day Challenge HIIT Routine

1st SET

30 Jumping Jacks

20 Squats

10 Pushups

30 Second REST

2nd SET

30 Mountain Climbers

20 Lunges

10 Pushups

30 Second REST

3rd SET

30 Pulsing Squats

20 Burpees

10 Pushups

30 Second REST

4th SET

30 Bicycle Crunches

20 Cross Jacks

10 Pushups

30 Second REST

Repeat ALL, starting at Set 1

https://www.experimentsinwellness.com/best-hiit-workouts-at-home/amp/

30 Day Workout Challenge.. Yes another one 🙂

    Hi everyone and Welcome Back... Lots of stuff has happened since I have posted like a new roof / porch, multiple projects around the house getting worked on and lets not forget COVID. All of this together has given us lots of stress and worry over a long period of time. Trying to exercise to keep in shape and do projects around the house, has been what I call, Yo-Yo fitness. Sometimes you feel too tired to work out or there is too much stuff to move around to get the weight bench and weights out. I even have bands that are good for some exercises but uncomfortable for others. I decided to try and get back into shape without weights or bands, using only body weight and modified body weight exercises. I have relooked into mobility training, full body training and how Hollywood stars train for roles. Most of what I found shows the stars training with simple moves and not straight to weights with multiple sets training, nor running for miles or training to exhaustion. Armed with this information, its a great time to pick a good routine to restart with, and we have several.

Getting in shape should be a whole body feeling. It is not always practical to get straight to a body building routine of bench pressing or bicep curls and a ton of isolation movements. It seems a good start is bodyweight exercises that push your limits. If you cannot pick yourself up or pull yourself around with just your own weight, are you in good shape ? That's one of the a few reasons to start a 30 day challenge with body weight moves and the KISS method. Keeping It Short and Simple and not needing any equipment is a way most anyone can get started to get back in shape right away.

Now what do I do ?

My research found lots of routines to try including those to get your stomach flat or you buttocks tight. Those routines, however great, will not give you a full rounded workout. Look for something that would get you feeling warmed up quickly and make you sweat. You never want to try a full routine right out of the box because you don't want to hurt yourself right at the start. I ended up finding the routine below and tried it twice, separate days apart and felt good about it. When I tried the routine, I took my time with it and didn't rush and didn't do the full reps but did just half the count each time. I felt confident that this was a good routine to start with, it gave me that good full body feeling.

Below is the routine and link for this 30 Day Challenge and this routine is one of the TOP 10 HIIT in the article. I felt this routine was the best to try and felt the most rounded.

1st SET

• 30 Jumping Jacks
• 20 Squats
• 10 Pushups
• 30 Second REST

2nd SET

• 30 Mountain Climbers
• 20 Lunges
• 10 Pushups
• 30 Second REST

3rd SET

• 30 Pulsing Squats
• 20 Burpees
• 10 Pushups
• 30 Second REST

4th Set

• 30 Bicycle Crunches
• 20 Cross Jacks
• 10 Pushups
• 30 Second REST

Repeat ALL, starting at Set 1

https://www.experimentsinwellness.com/best-hiit-workouts-at-home/amp/

I addition to the routine, I plan on doing two more things. The first thing is to cool down for 5 minutes so as to get the heart rate back to normal. This should give the body time to normalize itself before moving on. The second thing to try is to Meditate. Consider it just one more rest and reset if you will. Just as much as you work out and rest your body, your mind should be given that comfort too. When it comes to meditating, many use music, silence or a special candle. I am going meditate for 5 minutes and try all 3 over the course of the 30 days and see which one fits best. In order to help concentrate, use a timer, watch or phone app to count down the 5 minutes. I wanted to use my fitness tracker to see how my heart rate fares from day one to day thirty but it has wondrously decided to glitch out and become useless recently. My tracker has worked great for at least 3 years now and has recently decided to randomly shut down, start to track a fitness routine, indefinite heart rate monitor and deplete the battery fast. My tracker use to last days but now it last hours so I will be on the lookout for a new one.

Day one of this 30 Day Challenge starts tomorrow July 5th. Thanks for hanging in there till the end and I hope you are going to try this too. Be sure to come back to hear about my progress and Best of Luck if you do too.

New MAC MINI

I have a new toy. A new MAC MINI. I have been trying to learn Android programing on my DELL but it is too old to keep up with the Eclipse software and the Android Virtual Devices that I would try. I actually timed how long it took to start a Nexus 7 AVD and it was about 7minutes just to start it up. The MAC MINI that I have now is running OS X With a 2.3 GHz Intel i7 with 8gig of DDR3 RAM. So far so good. Running Eclipse and other software has been great. They only real issue I have had are related to getting use to the MAC OS. I already have an IPAD 2 and have been used to that but this is not quite the same thing.

It is strange to see the power coming out of such a small machine. My Dell XPS is about 10 times bigger in physical size but has less processing power. I have to give my Dell props. It is over 5 years old and is still running strong. It has seen its change of video cards as well as a hard drive update but after those changes, it was up and running and going strong. I still use it and so does my family, its not like its gone but it was time for a change for me.

You might be wondering, why the MAC MINI and not an IMAC or even a Chromebook. I looked into getting a Chromebook but I could not find someone that was using one to do Android programming. I do like the IMACS but I also like upgrading when I can. The MAC MINI allows for a user update to memory and hard drive where as not all of the IMAC line does not. The 21inch IMAC does not allow user updates but the 27in IMAC does allow some user update. I also had an extra screen and extra keyboard to use. The biggest choice I thought I had to make was, magic mouse or trackpad. The winner there was the magic mouse and I find it is awesome.

I look forward to getting to know my MAC MINI better and running more programs on it.. IWork's, iMovie, Evernote, Parallels and more.  Its the beginning of a long road.. paved with an Apple..

Happy Halloween

Its Halloween.....Today is the day for kids to go out for some candy and scares. Cos-players can abound everywhere for contests, parties and just to dress up. So go on out there and enjoy yourselves and have a great time.

 Here is a nice pic I found from DeviantArt.net. Check it out and others there.

And what about some Transformers cos-play videos.. Nothing says Happy Halloween more than being your favorite bot and then Roll Out :-) Check out the YouTube video below and more here

This is also a cool video.. 

I'll leave you with a bonus.. The bots getting down

HAPPY HALLOWEEN