Along with that… sub 8:00 mile.
405 squat. Considering the medical shit-storm I have been through with my hip I never thought that would happen. I remember asking my gf who was spotting me if I hit depth over and over because I just couldn’t believe it.
I remember being happy when I completed the Smolov base cycle without missing a rep back in the day.
Weight PRs don’t really do much for me. However, I feel happy like a little kid on Christmas when I figure out some technique tweaks. Maybe I will feel good when I hit that 4 plate bench soon, though.
Man, I still remember my first 225 bench. I was in college, and it was a pretty crappy state university gym in the early 90’s. No one really knew much about training, but the bigger guys all did 2 of the ‘big plates’ on the bench. My being 150 non-ripped lbs, diddling around with one plate and ‘change’ per side for a while, I couldn’t wait to join the “elite” -lol.
S
Oh and new goal which is funny I figured 180 and lean I’d be happy. Then. 190 then 200. Now at 210 an kinda lean I can’t wait for 230-240 lol
Doing a bar muscle up and a hand-stand push up just last month. Until 18 months ago I was an ultra-runner with poor upper body strength. I developed an achilles problem, so I decided to do some upper body work for the first time in my life. I saw a you-tube of a bar MU (think it was Kali) and thought it looked cool. Initially I thought it would take about 6 - 12 months of training, but in the end it was nearer 18 months.
I also remember somebody telling me as a teenager that a healthy adult male should be able to lift his own body weight over his head. I also reached that milestone a couple of months ago. I’m 52 years old. I started weight/stength training when I was 50, so its never too late. Next goal is the 100kg clean & press (currently on 80kg)
Back in HS was it was my first sub-5 minute mile
Sadly when I first started lifting, the ability to bench 135 was a big deal, just because I got stapled under like 65 lbs my first time Benching. Got more excited for that than I did my 225 Bench haha.
Also hitting 200 lbs on the scale was awesome the first time. lol
First time I flexed and hulked out of a shirt… wait, that never happened.
I have tried on a dress with a capped sleeve (band around the bicep type of thing) and got it stuck on my arms so I needed help getting out of it.
And I had this food baby once. Impressive. It looked just like a 6 month pregnant real baby. I have a pic somewhere.
[quote]csulli wrote:
This probably isn’t what you’re asking, but in a way my biggest strength milestones all came from back when I was too ignorant to know how weak I was. I felt really strong and awesome cuz the other kids couldn’t do what I did, but it was only later that I realized people who actually tried to get strong could lift like 3x more. So yeah. My happiest lifting moments were when I deadlifted 405 and benched 225 for the first time.
I’ve never been as happy with a lifting achievement since then. By the time I could bench 3 plates and pull 5 plates I had kind of “awakened” to what actual good lifts were and so after I did them I was happy for a few seconds and then I immediately thought about how shit they were compared to the people at my bodyweight benching 4 plates and pulling over 6.[/quote]
Yeah, I hear ya buddy. After my chicago marathon, I did not realize just how PATHETICALLy weak I was. Couldnt Squat bodyweight(atg), deadlift bodyweight or bench half bodyweight. 18 months later, hit 2.35xBW Deadlift, 1.8xbw atg squat and 2 plate paused bench. Ironically I am just a bit slower than I was went training solely and strictly for the marathon.
Similar to a lot of you, mine all happened when I was a beginner: 135lb bench (lol), 135lb OHP, 225lb bench, 275lb bench. I was ecstatic when I hit each of them. As you can see, my early days of training had an upper body theme haha.
More recently, I was pretty chuffed to get my first solid pistol squat (1 year ago) and, as it happens, today I did my first solid 40kg Turkish get-up (I’ve done sloppy ones before, but this one was controlled). I think I care more about milestones again now as I’m back to being a beginner in a new style of training and I haven’t quite realised how weak I am yet.
EDIT: Oh, and reaching 100kg bodyweight.
[quote]Powerpuff wrote:
First time I flexed and hulked out of a shirt… wait, that never happened.
I have tried on a dress with a capped sleeve (band around the bicep type of thing) and got it stuck on my arms so I needed help getting out of it.
[/quote]
Okay this reminded me of another one. And this was seriously one of my biggest ever milestones.
When I was finally too big for medium shirts.
I’ll never forget, I was standing in front of the washing machine about to take off one of my favorite shirts (size medium). Except it just ripped completely in half whilst I was trying to struggle out of it. And at that moment I finally realized that I had ascended to the level of large.
[quote]Spidey22 wrote:
Back in HS was it was my first sub-5 minute mile
Sadly when I first started lifting, the ability to bench 135 was a big deal, just because I got stapled under like 65 lbs my first time Benching. Got more excited for that than I did my 225 Bench haha.
Also hitting 200 lbs on the scale was awesome the first time. lol[/quote]
Running a mile would probably take me an entire day… maybe a week.
I honestly don’t remember the experience of benching 135. I do remember 200 and 225, but in hindsight, I doubt either lift was to the chest.
I do remember the very first time I tried to bench press. I shook uncontrollably under the 45 lb bar, and didn’t add any weight. I was blown away by the girls at the field house who were benching the bar ON THE INCLINE BENCH. 100 lbs seemed like it would be a hell of a bench press. I was 18, a senior in HS. I weighed right about 125 when I graduated HS.
Still working on that scale weight of 200 lbs, lol. I doubt I’ll get there this year, I’ve gone the opposite direction recently.
135 and 95 were pretty big on the bench for me. I remember getting into jr high and thought I was pretty strong with a 95 bench, but then the 8th graders were using the big plate. Finally hitting that big plate was pretty freaking awesome so I could move up into the 8th graders workout group as a 7th grader. Coming in under 4.5 on a laser timed 40 at a football camp as a sophomore was a pretty big deal too. Looking back, most of the accomplishments that have meant the most to me were all in trying to prove that I was just as good as the older kids. I always wanted to be in that next group up.
Since I have been out of that atmosphere, I have never really felt anything be a big deal lifting wise. I guess its because every time I reach a little something now I want the next something. I have my sights set on a 1300 gym total at 198 in 2 years, then I want to do a comp, so we will see how I feel when I get there.
My first deadlift over 300lbs was a big deal, since that was the bar and every plate that came with the set.
Actually that reminds me, I used to do freerunning when i was younger and around 140lbs and I once did afew muscle ups but never tried again for ages until I was much heavier and i couldnt do them anymore, afew months ago i did a really heavy rack pull which made me feel really light during pull ups afterwards and i managed a couple of muscle ups for the second time ever at double my old bodyweight. Felt great as I had pretty much given up on being able to do them again.
The biggest millstones for me all happened about same time and got me seriously lifting. I hit a 225 bench, 315 squat and started wearing Large shirts. For me, that was the first time a felt strong and became sure I could get stronger.
If I measure it by how excited I was personally it’s dunking a basketball, and nothing else comes close. That first dunk felt so fucking good.
I may have been similarly excited if I could’ve ever broken into 4.4 40 territory but that was never to be, forever 4.5(which I was/am still proud of, but it doesn’t sound nearly as nice, and in fact I was always disappointed to not hear ‘4.49’ so I guess you could say it was the opposite effect in the moment).
As for lifting numbers csulli basically spoke for me, almost 100% agreement.
For me it was hitting 315 in the squat and 405 in the deadlift at 48 years old, after just starting to seriously weight train a few years ago. Now my goal is to be stronger than I’ve ever been in my life when I hit 50 in 6 months.
[quote]red04 wrote:
If I measure it by how excited I was personally it’s dunking a basketball, and nothing else comes close. That first dunk felt so fucking good.
I may have been similarly excited if I could’ve ever broken into 4.4 40 territory but that was never to be, forever 4.5(which I was/am still proud of, but it doesn’t sound nearly as nice, and in fact I was always disappointed to not hear ‘4.49’ so I guess you could say it was the opposite effect in the moment).
As for lifting numbers csulli basically spoke for me, almost 100% agreement.[/quote]
x2 on dunking.
I could never dunk a basketball. The best I did was a tennis ball. I’m 5’11" and had a pretty good vertical and broad jump. Being under 6 foot (5’11") that would have put me on cloud nine.
The biggest thing for me was when I was in HS, our football strength coach gave us shirts when we benched over 200. It had to be some certain weight over our body weight, I don’t remember how much, maybe 25 pounds. When I finally got 205 and got that first shirt I wore the hell out of it. It was a symbol of juvenile badassery where I came from. I still have it. It’s a medium. I may go put it on. I bet it will look awesome.