Black hole, escape velocity, going up? I do know nothing can escape a black hole, and I understand popsci explanation of geodesics of space-time around and inside the event horizon. 

I however have some trouble with following thought experiment, given there are many references that crossing event horizon of SMBH should be totally unnoticeable for the subject falling through: 

I am at gym - a regular one, on Earth. Escape velocity of Earth is around 11.2 km/s. Yet I can lift weights up say one meter even at slower speed, say one meter per second. 

Next, consider me hovering one meter above event horizon. As far as I know, for non-rotating BH this is totally possible. Similar to earth, I could lift weight up one meter at speed less than escape velocity (which at this point is speed of light minus x). 

Now, I’m hovering one meter below the event horizon. Would I not be able to lift the weight up one meter at speed less than escape velocity (which at this point is speed of light plus y; not sure if x and y are equal), or would I not be able to hover at this position?

Assuming answer is no to either or both, how this would appear to me as the subject?
Nothing can be stationary inside the event horizon and everything, even light must travel inwards. Therefore there is no way that your analogy can work and is why using the idea of escape velocity is a really bad idea in General Relativity.
i.e. You cannot be at a fixed $r$ coordinate to lift a weight. You must be falling inwards, as must any weight you lift, as indeed must a light beam you direct radially outward.