I’m not sure how to jump into this so…I’ll just hold my nose, close my eyes and jump right in. I’ve been lurking about the site for a little over 2 months. The site, particularly this forum, is a godsend. It is inspiring to see others, in similar circumstances, pursuing similar goals. It has definitely given me hope, where melancholy had tried to set up camp. Thanks to all of you.
I have gleaned a lot of useful information from the articles and experiences of the folks here. Definitely enough to realize that I have pretty much been walking around in the dark my whole training life…(Perhaps the days of maxing on bench, 5 days a week, weren’t the brightest of moves). If, any of you have any advice, please offer it up. I am neither too proud nor too dogmatic to give it a go. At this point, I just want my numbers to go up.
A bit about me…I am 39, will be 40 at the end of May. I have a good bit in my profile. So, I will try to avoid repeating myself. Back in January I started lifting again. As I only had a home gym (160# stack) and dumbbells (up to 65#), what I could do was limited. I had been lifting, off and on, as dictated by injuries and other life events, for a couple of years. I wasn’t much interested in strength, since my main goal was weight loss (I was 330#). I dropped 110#, but have since put back on 30#…both muscle and fat. After skulking about the site for a month, though, I decided that it was time to step up and go for strength again. I still need to drop some weight. But with my blood pressure normal again (from 155/96 - 2 years ago to 110/70 - 2 days ago), blood sugar normalized and resting pulse in the low 60’s, I figure I can eat well, lift hard and not worry as much about dropping lots of #s.
As I mentioned in my profile, I stopped doing squats and deadlifts 24 years ago. I had/have a pars defect/spondylolysis (too much football). I was told not to squat, deadlift, do push press, hell, to avoid running down stairs. At this juncture, I figure the worst I can do it aggravate it and have to backoff. So, until/unless my body blue screens, onward…
It is worth noting that, a decade ago, I was working out pretty regularly, including legs press, since it didn’t put the weight directly down my spine.
Maxes over the course of my life -
Bench - 290# coming out of high school , 260# when I got to college (I have no idea why it went down), 300# in my early 20’s and 320# when I was working out about a decade ago.
Squats - When I stopped squatting, at 16, I was at 395#…couldn’t quite get parallel with 405.
Deadlift - In all honestly, I had only deadlifted twice when I found out about my back. I have no idea what my max would have been.
Current maxes - Performed on my 3rd workout after getting the olympic set.
Bench - about 290#…I am hoping to get back to 315 by my birthday.
Deadlift - 350#…feels really awkward (which is no surprise). I went for 375# right after, but couldn’t pull it.
Squats - Won’t even attempt a max until I get the power rack. If I ventured to guess, I would say just over 225#
The bench will move up. I have always struggled with my bench. But, again, I have never really had a proven, concerted plan to make it go up.
The squats and deadlift are really depressing to me. A decade ago I was leg pressing 1050# for sets of 10. Now, squatting 225# almost sits me down. As for the deads, I think my legs are what is holding them down. It is my hope that I will make some quick progress on my legs, since it has been so long since I have actually used them. We will see.