Ghost shrinking his waist by 10"...major kudos!

RS, I've been casually lifting weights for years now. At your age and fitness level, you'll pass me up in no time!

Yeah, it's nice to have a spotter, but a woman can never be 'one of the guys,' at least not in my case. I remember in early high school, the kid across the street would come over and we'd work out on my father's bench (similar abilities). We knew how to spot each other, using only our pinkies to assist and only when we had too, making sure the lifter was still giving everything they had, while trash talking them the entire time. My wife gets too concerned when I'm struggling, like I'm going to drop the weights on myself, and is too quick to grab the bar and pull up on it. Even if I was by myself and couldn't get the bar back up, it's not like 130 lbs. (60 kg) is going to seriously hurt me, I can roll it off my chest if I had to. And forget about trash talking, no giving or receiving, nothing more than polite encouragement when what I really need sometimes is R. Lee Ermey screaming in my face!

But I do have a spotter at least, as well as a dedicated workout partner (taking turns being the motivator), and at my age it's probably best that I don't push too hard. Plus she agrees that AC/DC's "Back in Black" is excellent workout music (that album goes back a long ways with us).