Crossing the Finish Line: The Power of Small Changes - a podcast by Ty Brown

I currently have my arm in a sling. You may not think that has anything to do with dog training, but I can usually get a training lesson out of almost every major life event!

Here’s what happened: I was at the gym the other day, trying to get in better shape. I’m not in great shape, but I’m pretty strong, and I enjoy lifting weights.

Typically, I lift by myself. When I do a bench press—which, for those of you who are unfamiliar, is when you’re lying down and pushing the weight up—I normally do it on a Smith Machine, which allows you to easily rack your weights. So if you find that you’re in over your head and suddenly have too much weight on the bar, you can flick your wrists and it will rack the weights for you. When you’re lifting by yourself and don’t have any spotters, the Smith Machine can be much safer.

The downside to the Smith Machine is that it only has one track for the weights. They move up and down in the same pattern every time. So your muscles don’t need to compensate, and as a result your body gets used to pushing in one way. If the weight weren’t on that track, you would need to have much more control over the way you’re moving your body.

A few days ago, my brother and nephew were in town, and we decided to go down to the gym and do some bench presses. Since I had a spotter I decided to do regular lifts with free weights instead of using the Smith Machine. We’d done a few sets, I felt great, and I was interested to find out how well I could do without the machine. After I’d done a few sets, I eventually got myself up to a weight that I can usually manage six to eight repetitions of. It’s not a huge amount of weight, so I wasn't being too ambitious.

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