Hand Weights

Well, when I was 16-18 I rode my bike constantly, more than twice a day on weekdays. And my bike had the kind of... alignment? Construction materials? that made riding it require a lot of force compared to other bikes. So my legs, as now from hiking and unicycle, were in good condition and my arms were just sad. I bought some 5 lb weights at Ross for around $7. They looked like this:
I used them for several weeks, but very early on I noticed that I had to lift them millions and millions of times and my arms didn't get tired. Except the behind your head lifting thing that makes your..... ughhhh.... language.... well, it is the muscle that gets sore on a trampoline. I should really just find a diagram, but I am taking a tiny studying break*, and so I want to make this a quick post. So it is the muscle bordered by your shoulder, back, and elbow. But for other exercises they were not cutting it. So I went to Big 5 and for $12, or $15 or so, I bought some ghastly, ugly black ten lb weights. Now, those were heavy! (to me.) I actually never got to the point where I was doing exercises with them for millenia without getting tired, so I never upgraded again.

Then I moved, and since Nick really wanted the 10lb weights and also hated the 5lb weights, and since I had a free (well, mandatory part of the undergrad campus fee) gym membership and he had none, I left them home. So I just have 5lb weights, and they are not that fun to use. I prefer the 7lb weights at the school gym. Everyone else uses weights in the 25lb range, even ones who don't look like they are super fit, but I have always been the only girl using weights except once. Looking at it that way, I am not representing very well. Whatever, back to my sad weight story:

The dog got out of her playpen, and chewed a lot of stuff, including the foam covers of my weights. Ashley offered to replace the things, but since I got my weights 3 years ago on a good sale (online they are $25! And I bet shipping is a lot, too.) and they weren't in great condition, just usable condition, I thought that wouldn't be fair. So I peeled off the ruined foam, and the rest of the foam also, and now I have naked weights. They are cold and rough now, but that is pretty standard I think. What is more annoying is that now they weigh like 8.75 lbs.

How does foam even weigh more than a pound? That is amazing. (My scale is about accurate to the gym scale but I am not sure it is spot on for really low weights like 8.75 lbs.) Also, you will note that I now have ~4lb weights, which are probably only produced for children and people overcoming serious, atrophying incidents, like a long term coma or debilitating surgery. Or people whose arms offer a lot of resistance already.

While finding the "before" picture, I noticed there are some really nice weights.
And then I was going to say you can make perfectly good weights from waterbottles full of water or sand, or milk jugs if your arms are too strong, and I found this picture of shoes fashioned from water bottles:
And now I feel like never, ever buying anything, particularly nice weights.

*Oh, man, I was just going to have lunch, but I put on history channel while I was making lunch and then it was the show Mega Disasters and I had to find out how vulnerable NY is to a hurricane, so after I finished eating lunch I painted a grey plesiosaur on the couch, and then I had to make a wet paint sign, and then I found my weights, and oh man I am going to take myself to the Science and Engineering Library because this is absurd.