How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift? — Episode 4

The girls and Satomi-sensei learn how to improvise their workouts to match their environments.

Episode 4 — “Did You Have a Nice Summer?”

Hmm.

The theme of this Dumbbell episode is “going with the flow.” There’s a lot of life lessons here, like “don’t sweat the small stuff,” don’t be so rigid in your thinking, adapt to your circumstances, be like the swaying reed instead of the unyielding oak, etc. The point is, if you’ve set apart some time to exercise and things don’t go exactly as you planned, find some other way to exercise. All three scenes captured the theme pretty well.

Akemi’s snobbery about free weights versus isolation machines is a real thing in strength and weight training. I share it too, even though my fitness preference is for endurance sports. Lifting barbells and dumbbells and handling them makes you strong, period. Truly. You’ll find moving heavy things in your office, garden, or house just easier because free weights emulate those conditions. Weight machines isolate muscle groups, so you’ll get really good and strong at that one motion, but that strength won’t apply to many real world situations.

However, what Machio said was correct about those machines: they have their place in your training program. Sometimes you’ll want to isolate a certain muscle group because you want to get it bigger or a bit stronger than its opposite partner in the same location. The triceps and biceps pairing is a good example, because triceps get bigger faster than biceps. An arm curl machine will target the biceps without exercising the triceps during the negative motion of lowering a dumbbell. The machines are a good tool for rest and recovery for those opposite muscle groups too.

Aside from getting over the hate for machines, the rest of the episode showed how a little imagination and experience can let you work out wherever you find yourself. If you can’t get to that bench press station, go to the machines. If all your gyms are closed, use your own body and some books in a bag for weights. Your time is precious, so don’t just give up on your plans if things go wrong. That’s a good lesson for every aspect of life, not just adhering to a fitness regime.

Heh.

Peak times for the gym change during the Summer. Also, January. Akemi has been disappointed by fickle muscles before, but weight machines are good for isolation workouts. Or rehab. Akemi is a free weight snob!

Macho Man is so positive. Machines have their own charm. Free weights are the foundation while machines are the supports.

Macho Man isn’t posing for emphasis, Hibiki. He’s got a nervous tic on the word “muscle,” making him pose.

Exercise Video time! It’s the Chest Press Machine.

Machines isolate the intended muscle group, so there’s no need to stabilize the core to maintain balance or work other muscles to move the barbell or dumbbells around during the workout.

Hibiki pressing her chest in bed is a totally different concept! Why does Akemi always have the sexier face than Hibiki when working out? Practice? The girls are just feeling their chests… Should they be doing that in public?

Akemi got her switch flipped! She’s not a free weight snob anymore. Ahahaha! It’s truly a magical sweatsuit! Look at Macho Man shrink! Fun! Ayaka has joined the gym as a boxing instructor. Oh no, Ayaka. Stay away from Macho Man. But maybe she’ll like his muscles? Aw. Satomi-sensei sees another student at the gym. What is with this place?

Girlfriends date? Oh, they’re trying to get sweaty together, er, work out together. Akemi still wants to get macho, but Hibiki’s still not so mucho. D’oh! Denied everywhere. What’s up with that? Yay! Let’s got to Akemi’s big house. It’s just her sister and her there. When do we get to meet this macho older sister?

The Souryuuin sisters didn’t want a home gym. They like that social aspect of a real gym. Akemi gives a nice analogy to a home theater vs. a real movie theater.

Akemi’s sister has interesting tastes in workout videos… A macho English Lit professor? I’m concerned he teaches at a women’s university. His muscles have minds of their own! There is no way Professor Toshio got that big just by isometrics. No dumbbells were harmed during the making of this video.

Dips are good for using your whole body as the weight. Negative movement is used all the time with free weights to make sure you maintain balance and don’t hurt yourself.

Nice moonwalk Professor! Akemi is losing it over all those muscles! This Professor Toshio is hilarious with his camera angles. And what is Macho Man doing in there with the bald macho men?

Hibiki is still reading that HINA magazine…

Aw yeah! Beach bikini episode! With Satomi-sensei too! Oh ho. Satomi-sensei wanted a summer fling!

Aw. They had all these nice beach bikini plans, but they can’t swim because of sharks. They can still wear their bikinis, though.

Akemi says they can’t use the ocean, but they can use the sand. She’s the only one who wanted a workout at the beach, but since they don’t have anything else to do, why not? Burpees are hard. I did these in high school physical education, but we called them squat-thrusts. Our coach ominously called them “Sets,” as in “Gentlemen! Extra sets!”

Hibiki and Satomi, the soft ones, match their fitness levels. Ayaka and Akemi are paired well too.

Reverse push-ups for the omake. What office is this? The faculty room? Manga editors’ office?