Starting this week, I'll be posting my training journal on this blog. Meanwhile, if you'd like to catch up, you can see what I've been up to in the gym on my journal at strengthmill.net
http://strengthmill.net/forum/showthread.php?t=3722
In short, though, this week has been good and bad. Good in that I achieved a squat PR (personal record) of 425 raw. Bad in that I followed it with 5 hours of sleep and a horrible bench workout, where I failed twice at making 285 raw. By comparison, I did 282 with bronchitis 3 weeks ago. By Thursday, my scheduled deadlift day, I felt so drained that I skipped it altogether. So the plan is to deadlift Monday, bench Tuesday, squat Thursday, and light practice the week of the meet. Stay tuned!
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
How I got Bigger and Deffer
Here's the short version of how I got started in all of this strength and fitness stuff...
I'd been a fan of bodybuilding since I was in middle school, reading magazines like Muscle & Fitness, Flex, and Ironman every chance I could. An article about current wrestler Mark Henry in Muscle & Fitness introduced me to several years ago introduced me to the sports of powerlifting and weightlifting. I would work out sporadically, but never really stayed with it because I never really believed I could look like, or be as strong as any of the larger than life people I was reading about.
Fast forward to the end of 2002, or beginning of 2003. My wife of 1 year (at the time) and I were watching TV, and for LL Cool J's video for "Luv U Better" came on. Both of us watched in awe and thought the same thing - "Damn! He's in great shape" - me from a perspective of platonic respect, my salivating wife from, well, you know... Anyway, I told her that if I got up to 200 lbs. at about 8% bodyfat, I would look like LL (relatively speaking - I'm a little shorter than him). It took her a few minutes to stop laughing, but after a while, she pulled herself together, checked out my 5'8" 155lb. frame, looked me in the face and said "you can't do that". I asked her why not, to which she responded "Yeah right. I'd love to see you get up to 200 lbs., but you can't do that."
Here's a link to LL's video to jog your memory: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUOxYQhAE2E
That was it. I hit the weights like a madman and haven't looked back. I proved my wife wrong about 2 - 2 1/2 years ago when I hit a weight of 199 at around 10% bodyfat. Not as lean as my target, but I could see my abs without flexing, so it was good enough for both of us. I needed another challenge, and that's where powerlifting came in .
Right now, I'm training for my 3rd meet - the USAPL Richmond Open on April 11. This will be the first time I compete as a raw lifter (meaning just a singlet, belt, and wrist wraps). I'll do another post soon about my training and prep for the meet, general info, etc., but I just wanted to get this blog going with a little background info about myself. Thanks for coming along for the ride - peace!
I'd been a fan of bodybuilding since I was in middle school, reading magazines like Muscle & Fitness, Flex, and Ironman every chance I could. An article about current wrestler Mark Henry in Muscle & Fitness introduced me to several years ago introduced me to the sports of powerlifting and weightlifting. I would work out sporadically, but never really stayed with it because I never really believed I could look like, or be as strong as any of the larger than life people I was reading about.
Fast forward to the end of 2002, or beginning of 2003. My wife of 1 year (at the time) and I were watching TV, and for LL Cool J's video for "Luv U Better" came on. Both of us watched in awe and thought the same thing - "Damn! He's in great shape" - me from a perspective of platonic respect, my salivating wife from, well, you know... Anyway, I told her that if I got up to 200 lbs. at about 8% bodyfat, I would look like LL (relatively speaking - I'm a little shorter than him). It took her a few minutes to stop laughing, but after a while, she pulled herself together, checked out my 5'8" 155lb. frame, looked me in the face and said "you can't do that". I asked her why not, to which she responded "Yeah right. I'd love to see you get up to 200 lbs., but you can't do that."
Here's a link to LL's video to jog your memory: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUOxYQhAE2E
That was it. I hit the weights like a madman and haven't looked back. I proved my wife wrong about 2 - 2 1/2 years ago when I hit a weight of 199 at around 10% bodyfat. Not as lean as my target, but I could see my abs without flexing, so it was good enough for both of us. I needed another challenge, and that's where powerlifting came in .
Right now, I'm training for my 3rd meet - the USAPL Richmond Open on April 11. This will be the first time I compete as a raw lifter (meaning just a singlet, belt, and wrist wraps). I'll do another post soon about my training and prep for the meet, general info, etc., but I just wanted to get this blog going with a little background info about myself. Thanks for coming along for the ride - peace!
Thursday, March 12, 2009
My New Blog
Greetings everyone!
This is my first post on my new blog. Please follow me on my journey through the world of strength, physique, and fitness.
This is my first post on my new blog. Please follow me on my journey through the world of strength, physique, and fitness.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)