Haven’t been back to training for quite a year yet (August will make a solid year), but here goes. Last August, I was at a fat and injured 335-lbs. Lifts were as follows from my notes in November (first recorded PR’s after going back to training):
Squat- 385
Bench- 295
Deadlift- 425
Log Press- 195
I had just gotten through rehabbing my shoulder so I could press again.
Currently I’m a lean and mean 354-lbs (well… mean at least).
Squat- 465
Bench- 335 (still fighting shoulder injury to press in horizontal plane, but it’s getting better)
Deadlift- 520
Log Press- 265
Accessory lifts have shot way up. I’m Kroc rowing almost twice what I was a year ago (sets at 190 today). Body composition has gotten better (lost a couple inches off of my waist). Can’t wait to see what a full 1 year will be at for a difference.
This time last year I was struggling to walk having shattered my tibia in a skiing accident. I recently deadlifted 485lbs, trapbar deadlifted 506lbs and ran 10k in 62 minutes. Nothing remarkable, but I’m delighted with my progress.
Edit: I should add those are all lifetime PRs, not just since my injury.
November to now:
I’ve also gotten healthy enough to squat and deadlift again which I’ve been struggling with for years.
Great work! Your before pictures were good, and you still made them look bad.
Any tips for getting and staying healthy enough for squats and deads?
Last April: BW 105kg
Squat 227.5kg
Bench 125kg
Deadlift 240kg
Then whilst on the leg press a venous malformation in my brain popped, I had a small intracranial haemorrhage, and I had to take 6 months off lifting anything heavier than the 24kg kettlebell.
Crap.
6 months, a load of running and BW training later and I came back weighing 98kg, and slowly building my lifts back up from about 50% of my previous maxes. By December I was working at around 80-90% of my previous bests. I played a bit of rugby which was fun and good for me mentally, and kept my lifts ticking over.
Since the season finished I’ve focused on lifting again, and started a cut leading up to summer. I’m now knocking on the door of the 93kg class, and have hit the following:
Squat 210kg
Bench 120kg
Deadlift 225kg
So I’m not back to where I was before but in the face of what I’ve worked around, what I’ve achieved with body composition, and how much fun I had playing a team sport instead of hiding away in the gym not too bad a year.
I wrote about it some in my log. The simple version is that I’m not a professional (or even competitive) athlete. Training is not my job, I’m not making a living. As a consequence, training should make my regular life better. I was sacrificing regular life, getting beaten up, and just generally making my life worse through training. Is your training making your life better? It should. I just plain have a different attitude to training now. I want to feel good and fit and be able to bend over and move every day. I’m just not doing stuff I know is going to take away from my time out of the gym. As a result my auto regulation of training is very different. I train frequently and hard, but I’m basically regulating myself back to the point I feel good after I train (in the morning) and through the rest of the day.
Lots of pressing gain in the last month
Made nice moonface gain too
Lost a bit of a balls gain I had for while
totally agree with this, although the general sentiment of ‘it needs to make my life better’ takes me in the opposite direction sometimes, as I’ve come to realize I’m something of a masochist, lol. Sometimes I need the pain.
True story.
I feel like it makes my life better because I can take out all my anger, stress and hatred in the gym. I keep an anger journal, write down everything that gets me throughout the day and don’t take it out until I get to the gym. Helps a lot and improves my real life more on the mental side. Physical side, i feel like shit most days. Ha
Squat: 5x70kg to 5x100kg
Bench: 5x60kg to 5x75kg
Overhead press: 5x30kg to 4x45kg
Deadlift: 5x80kg to 2x120kg
Body weight probably up about 5kg.
Am still a complete nube… at 45yrs I just got into lifting about 8wks ago. Started at zero… basically. Here my lifts:
April
Squat: 20kg
BP: 30kg
OHP: 20kg
DL: 30kg
Now (5x5)
Squat: 105kg
BP: 65kg
OHP: 35kg (injured myself and took a break here)
DL: 120
Now 1RM:
Squat: 140kg
Deadlift: 130kg
I’m amazed at my improvement on the big lifts but really need to work on the upper body (have had tennis elbow though since December). Due to my age though the 1RM really wear me out and I need about 2-3 days rest afterwards.
Basically in the same place I was a year ago physically, albeit about ten pounds fatter.
Messed up my wrist in the winter and went through the realization that I may never throw again, or if I do, my PR days (even age-graded) are most likely over.
I came to terms with it, reassessed, and set some new goals. I expect a year from now I’ll improve as much physically as the injury led me to improve psychologically this year.
Damn, how tall are you?
I’m 5’11". Lean and mean is kind of an ongoing joke. By calipers I’m around 260 LBM.
I went from 150x6 DB bench to 155x8 and 165x2 in 2 months
ALL ME