Is anyone in the D.C. area up at the crack of dawn?

[ms_irreverent]

If someone out there is already up and coherent at 5:45 a.m., maybe you can watch this (http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/02/28/060228181106.0amnm6nc.html) and find out once and for all what this woman can or cannot bench-press. ;)

[Tom]

She started out benching 500, then did a bent press with 300 pounds while chugging a liter of beer, and finished off by biting a 20-penny nail in half.

Just kidding. She just did some ab work and light cardio. But the series runs for 2 more days; so I figure this was just an "active rest" workout and she'll be moving on to some bar-bending bench pressing tomorrow.

[vinay]

Wasnt there an article about her handling some heavy weights? Ofcourse not 500 bench, but something pretty good. I never found out if it was a fake or not.

[ms_irreverent]

Yes, supposedly she can bench 145 for 10 reps or something like that. I'm hoping this series will provide a concrete answer.

[Tom]

Well, today she was doing some leg presses, some light dumbbell work, and some exceedingly high squats in the Smith machine (tsk tsk). Still no massive display of bench pressing power, though. :)

[ms_irreverent]

Could you tell how much weight was on the leg press? Curious here.

[Tom]

Looked like 5 or 6 plates (she was using a Cybex machine or something similar). Nothing too awe-inspiring.

I'm pretty sure that she's not benching 145 for 45 reps.

[Tom]

You can find the video segments here:

http://www.nbc4.com/health/7570624/detail.html

[guitarfreak]

I'm up at the crack of dawn.... but I'm also out walking before I jump rope and then lift and missed these although I had read an article about them. Thanks for posting the link Tom.

[vinay]

This is what freaked me out!

See part one. While the broadcaster is talking, they show Condi squatting on the smith machine in the background (blurry). The trainer keeps "touching her" on each rep. I just found it funny :). Ok, who else noticed it ?
:lol:

[Tom]

FYI, Barbara Harrison, the reporter who conducted the interview, will be having an online chat at noon today (3/3/06). Here's the link.

http://www.nbc4.com/health/7617072/detail.html

[Tom]

Well, the question has been asked, and she said she'd follow up on-air next week.

[Tom]

From http://www.nbc4.com/dietblog/index.html

One of the questions I was unable to answer concerned the amount of weight the Secretary of State is able to bench press. I spoke with her trainer who told me she has not "bench pressed" under his guidance. Perhaps the articles describing the weight she "presses" are referring to workouts that he has not conducted. He tells me that in the weight lifting exercises she does do with him, the goal is "repetitions" more than heavy weight. He says if he had to guess, he would say she could easily handle 100 pounds with 15 reps. He also said, if someone wants an idea of how strong she is, she can do 50 marine corp push-ups without breaking the count. I can't!

So much for hard-hitting journalism.

Actually, the Marine Corps counts pushups on a 4 count, so 50 Marine Corps pushups is 100 regular old pushups. I'd have to see that to believe it, too. Ditto with the 100 pounds for 15 reps. I'm not planning on starting a one-man protest outside the State Department over it, though. :)

[vinay]

thats impressive.

[CinnamonGirl]

One of the questions I was unable to answer concerned the amount of weight the Secretary of State is able to bench press. I spoke with her trainer who told me she has not "bench pressed" under his guidance. Perhaps the articles describing the weight she "presses" are referring to workouts that he has not conducted. He tells me that in the weight lifting exercises she does do with him, the goal is "repetitions" more than heavy weight. He says if he had to guess, he would say she could easily handle 100 pounds with 15 reps. He also said, if someone wants an idea of how strong she is, she can do 50 marine corp push-ups without breaking the count. I can't!

I'll believe it when I see it with my own eyes. Actually, I'll believe it if Tom or Ms_I sees her do 50 marine corps push-ups. And that goal of repetitions really makes me suspicious.