For chest and back I do 7 exercises, alternating between the two. I start with a machine type of bench press at 50 pounds. Then I go to a single-hand rowing machine where I do 60 pounds per arm. Next comes a seated, forward press where hands start at the sides and then push forward and inward until they almost touch directly in front of the breastbone. I do those at 90 pounds. Then I do a pulling exercise from a seated position, with arms in front and palms-facing grip, pulling handles down and somewhat backward--I do these at 100 pounds. The fifth exercise is another seated press, but with arms in a high chest position and pushing straight outward. The sixth exercise is a cable pull, pulling handles directly to the chest with back in a steady position and chest out, doing these at 110 pounds. The final exercise is a chest fly--starting with arms out to the sides and pushing the machines handles to the center and front of the chest, and I do 70 pounds. For all the chest presses, flys, and single-arm pulls, I do 4 sets to 15 reps or muscle exhaustion. For the other two back exercises I do 3 sets.

I'm headed out to Atlanta tomorrow morning and then up to Chattanooga for the weekend. Maybe this time I'll finally get to see the choo-choo. At the very least I expect to get to Distant Replays, and hopefully at some point a Shoney's breakfast buffet, and at some other point a big pile of barbecued meat. The event is the national championship of popular culture trivia, aka TRASHionals, and I am part of the group that runs the thing. The only things I can guarantee are fun questions, wackiness, and a lot of sub-referential humor. I can't wait to tell you all about it next week...