What I did this weekend

Freeweights area

HARTS STRENGTH AND FITNESS GYM OPENING

Yesterday, 2^nd October 2010, my services were required by Chris and Gemma Hart to act as the star turn (as it were) on the day of the official opening of their new gym. I’d worked with Iharts (the supplement side of the business) back at Bodypower earlier this year. I must have made a good enough impression because they asked me to do my ‘thang’ again.

So I made my way up Friday evening and apart from the ‘no-show’ pickup at Chesterfield station (Mobster no like, Mobster mutter much) it was golden. On arrival at the gym it was easy to see that 95% of what was needed to be done had been done but in spite of a too many late, late nights (1 and 2am finishes) it was, for them, going to be another long one. Shelves would be stacked, surfaces polished and much sweeping up of the work dust from drilling was needed. I crashed at their place around midnight but Chris, Gemma and much of the crew were not done until 2am. However, I did get the tour and could see a huge effort had been made.

The building had been a former Victorian age school block and the base refurbishment work had been done before the Hart’s decided it would make an awesome gym space. Not only do they have a proper slick looking reception area but also there’s a juice bar cum supplements shop, a separate women’s training and weights area, aerobics studio, cardio suite and a great deal more. Once working I spent most of my time in the gym machines and free-weights space front (the focus as it is in most clubs) which had dumbbells to about 140lbs, enough plates inc some 25-kilos ones and an assortment of goodies sufficient to give most a great workout. If you get a chance pop in do the door and give it a go.

Saturday found us back in doing some last minute bits and bobs with the 10am ‘big show’ looming. One idea of Chris’s, which saw me with a very small pen-knife furiously cutting a scissor shape void out of an Argos brochure was that he’d do the ‘thanks for coming’ speech to the assembled throng, ask for the scissors to cut the ribbon and turn to me and say ‘Mobby’ and I’d go ‘raarrggghhh’ rip the book in half and out they popped. Good grief it worked!! So they 30-50 or so waiting gave us a round of applause and open she was!

Obviously the crew set to work welcoming everyone, giving tours and so on. With cake, snacks and drinks on hand for the day they were kept fed and watered. For my part I set up some toys to play with. I’d brought down my old and stiff Rolling Thunder handle, clip and pin. Added was a pair of Fat Gripz, a talking grip tester and I’d planned on doing some heavy ass one hand deadlifts. Around 11-1130 or so I did my first show working up to a 180-kilo one-hand Deadlift hook grip style. Not too sniffy considering I’d done nothing for it in months. I made sure, when not on show, to say hi and chat with people. Throughout the day I’d dig out the grip testers and get all and sundry to compete against each other to see who could do what. It was and is an easy way, without chalk or other specialized equipment to have friendly goes with no real risk of harm etc. Plus they could see how close to me they got.

Snacking on cake and much caffeine to keep me going all day long the grip tester was handed around. I’d affixed one of the fat grips to a 140+ pounds dumbbell and while many of the lads could pick up the bell sans handle with it… that was not happening. I, of course, did it with thumb over and thumbless and with either hand. I took as many opportunities as possible to show how squeezing or gripping the handles hard on exercises helps with a greater contraction. Thus, in ‘selling grip’ I’d demonstrate the usefulness of a little hand strength training.

But, as you’d imagine, me showing off was the entertainment. At the mid way through session the Rolling Thunder handle (my old stiffer one) was dug out and a challenge match of sorts was on. With, as is the norm, a few guys hanging in at around 60-75-kilos or so we ended up with one of the taller lads pulling a hard earned 95-kilos load. I then come back in and, again with either hand, pull it – but for 3 reps! I then, after a very quick breather, got one of the guys to bang another 20kg disc for a 115-kilo plus set up total and pulled that. I decided that a 170-kilo lift on the one hand Deadlift – hook grip as before – would suffice this time around but intended saving the biggest pull for the last run around. With the crowds starting to thin towards the end of the day I set a 4pm or so dealine for the last big effort.

Having chatted with some regulars as well as would be new members (lots of fun) and watching the fit girls in the cardio room I told Chris etc that I’d do the big pull. I knew he’d been busy with clients etc early on. I also knew that he’d not seen what I could do with the heavy free weights as we’d been limited to what we could use at the NEC/Bodypower gig. As I’d mentioned to one group during the day, big crowd displays suit lifting of objects over a bar and weights. While most gym users will appreciate what a bar and discs weighs not all of the public or uneducated will. Anyway, I ran through a quick blaster session of yet another Argos catalog (the last one left), the thick handled dumbbell pull and then banged my way through warm-up sets on the barbell. So no bar for reps, 60-kilos, 100-kilos, 140-kilos all fell quite quickly. I took another breather and asked for 200kg. On walking back I noticed that it was 5 wheels a side, which is 220!! Ahem gents can you make those outer discs 10kg plates and thus 200 rather than try and kill me.

Now it’s been some time, using a proper straight bar (it could have spun a little more freely), having pulled 2 biggish weights and lifted, squeezed and gripped through the day I now had the pressure of needing to pull and put on a show. As one lad said after ‘I thought it was only going to come up and inch or two’. But chalk, belt and pride play their place and so with a real gut busting effort I managed 200-kilos above the knees to a nice round of applause and me feeling a little giddy. I’m fairly certain that I had nothing left to give so thank goodness we were done.

The day ended with a very welcome beer or two and some nice thanks. I may have got back to Gloucester at 10pm on a Saturday night when my usual preference would have been feet up and face buried in an ice-cream tub but it was, as it always is, a hell of an enjoyable experience. I’m hoping to do some grip/sports performance seminars back in the gym towards the end of January. Watch this space!