Well, I’ve become inspired by this board to get back into my core lifts of squat and deadlifts. (have already been doing bench). Anyway I did squats for the first time in 3 years (used to do them alot in high school because of football). Anyway, even though i’m sore as hell i was kinda suprised at how much i could do.
I started off very light for my first set to make sure i didn’t fall over:
135 for 12 reps. Then I went 155 for 10 reps. And finished off at 175 for 10 reps, felt like i could of got like another 4 reps but i didn’t want to push it to an extrememe my first time back in 3 years. even though these numbers are small to you guys i was kinda suprised, so now i’m really excited on leg days when i know i get to do squats.
Congrats on getting back into the squats, it’s good to see there is a fellow “back from the dead” squatter out there!
I’m in the same situation as you, I have only been doing squats regularly since July after a 7 year break due to a knee injury I had in '96 which stopped all possibility of leg weights due to “doctors orders”. After getting into cycling as a form of leg exercise and building my leg strength back up I then thought I’m missing the leg weights, I’m getting back into squats and haven’t looked back since! As long as I keep doing regular cycling, which appears to help my knee I should have no problems if I don’t go overboard.
And yes, I agree that the numbers posted by guys here seem daunting, sometimes I wonder if I am ever going to get to that level, but then I remember that at 20 y.o. before the knee injury I used to squat 140kg (310lb), so i use this as an inspiration to keep working away at it, knowing that I have been at that level before. After building up a solid base again, thanks to CW’s TBT, i’m expecting to make big gains over the next 12 months.
