Back in September I took up my Physical Strength Challenge. After lifting for about 6 weeks (and then taking some time off due to Thanksgiving and travelling), I finally did my baseline testing. If i’d done my baseline testing right away, I probably would’ve run the risk of hurting myself. Without further ado, here’s a little video I made of my only “mildly” embarrassing baseline testing in the gym::
I say mildly embarassing because for an ex-college athlete, bench pressing 225 isn’t too tight. 315 on narrow leg squat isn’t too bad at 6’3”
My goal is to bench press 315. This is going to be quite a challenge since bench press is not a strong suit of mine. I’m feeling okay about my chances of hitting 405 on my squat, although I may have to switch from a narrow stance (a lot of knee bend required) to a wider stance.
Haven’t started deadlifting yet, I’ve considered not bothering with it, but me and my friend are thinking about jumping into a power-lifting competition in March and seeing if we can move 1000 lbs total (bench + squat + deadlift). We figure it’ll be pretty funny to be the 2 skinny guys in the mix.
lessons learned
A few interesting things happened during my warm-up period of getting into this challenge:
I increased my calorie intake and got on a 4000 calorie diet. Once I got on this diet (I started lifting again at about the same time), I gained 10 lbs in 2 weeks. I was what you would call “under-trained”, which is how people pull off things you see advertised like “Gain 30lbs of Muscle in 30 days!!!” It’s incredibly mis-leading.
I noticed that carbohydrates during the day kill my concentration. Consequently, I had to cut out carbs during the day which disrupted my diet plan quite a bit, causing me to consume relatively few calories during the day.
next steps
So what are the next steps to take it to the next level?
Well, the very next step is to get my diet back in order. Now that I’ve learned to avoid carbs during the day, I need to find a cost-effective way to replace those calories during the day, and work it into an eating plan that I can consistently follow.
success translates
It’s interesting how much you can learn from a challenge. From this challenge, I’ve already something about my personal nutrition and have learned how to increase my mental acuity. Another good example of how the benefits of pushing yourself and trying to be successful at something spills over into other areas of life. Test your might, often.
-Kevin
12.13.2011
p.s. yes i have typos in the video..whatever…
