I feel that my bench press is improving. I think I am gaining more strength to better control the weight. I paid very close attention to not lifting the bar at an angle and keeping it in a straight line throughout the movement. I think it went well. I had to keep the weight the same as last week's Day 1 due to not having a spotter, but it worked out fine. By far the bench press is my weakest area but I am going to continue to work at becoming better at it. My goal is to be able to press 135lbs, ten times. I am up to 3! So, I have a bit more WORK!!! to do.
My squat is just WAY better than it has ever been. I can remember only being able to warm up with just the 45lb bar, followed by a second warm up set with 65lbs. At that time I was not even doing a full squat! I was probably doing a half-squat and that was okay, because I was by myself most times and I DID NOT want to suffer an injury... period. My 1st set warm up is now 135lbs for 15-20 reps (A2G), followed by 185lbs for 10 and then my sets begin. It's crazy because I can recall a very short time ago just wanting to be able to squat 135 one time. I never imagined I would be able to do it more than that, but I was wrong. Only a few months ago, I attempted to squat 225lbs and I had to be rescued from the attempt by 3rèFit and Boo. However, I can now successfully squat 230lbs, five times! So yeah, my squat has greatly improved in a relatively short period of time and I'm super pleased with that.
My first weightlifting love has always been the deadlift. Not sure why, but it seems to be the lift in which I find the fastest progression. I love deadlifting for reps, although I will take a one repper if it is a beautiful, new, high number! Due to a slight change in the training schedule on our Day 3 (the heaviest day), the test for a new high number has been postponed until this week. I'm positive that I will be successful at whatever that number is. Due to my affinity for the deadlift, I don't even have to know the amount of weight on the bar and I'm gonna attempt to lift it and usually I do. I have been pleasantly tricked in this way before. I have also had failed attempts, which used to just kill my soul. I mean I would silently cry inside while in the gym and wait until I got to the car to drop real tears. I would only get this emotional when it was related to the deadlift. LOL! Now, I have pretty much gotten over the desire to cry after failing an attempt. I just get angry. Angry enough to plan out how I am going to make the lift happen at the next opportunity. My last attempt at 315lbs was a fail. I can't say it was an epic fail as I was able to get it off the floor but was not able to complete the lift with it. Although I was not happy about it, I didn't plan for this lift and I did get it off the floor. This was a spontaneous, let me see if I can do it lift. An, Eric left 315 on the bar, monkey see monkey do lift. Lol! Yeah and like a monkey, the bar just hung there! Lol! This week will mark my next attempt which is supposed to be 300lbs. I can probably do more but I will start there. My goal at this point is to get that 315lbs with no problem. Then it will be to rep that 315lbs five times. When I get there... man!!! CAN'T WAIT!!! And it just boggles my mind to think of the time in which I was deadlifting 95lbs (1-25lbs plate on each side), raised up on 45lbs plates (so that I could effectively reach it) and maybe doing 10 reps. It's just absolutely crazy!
All of this just goes to show that YOU CAN DO ANYTHING THAT YOU ARE WILLING TO STICK TO AND SEE THROUGH! No, the physical results may not come as quickly as you want them to, but if you keep at it, they will come! No, you may not go from lifting 10lbs to 100lbs overnight, but if you keep lifting and taking baby steps forward you will eventually lift more than that 100lbs! No, others may not understand why you are doing what you are doing at the time, but IN TIME, they will not only see why, but also be inspired in some way by what they see. The key to success in ANYTHING is CONSISTENCY. I don't care how slow you go, AS LONG AS YOU ARE CONSISTENT in your efforts YOU WILL ARRIVE! AS LONG AS YOU ARE CONSISTENT you WILL get STRONGER! AS LONG AS YOU ARE CONSISTENT, you WILL SHED THE WEIGHT! AS LONG AS YOU ARE CONSISTENT, you WILL become more EFFICIENT! But the absolute best part of this is, AS LONG AS YOU ARE CONSISTENT, this WILL become HABIT and will progressively get EASIER for you to REMAIN CONSISTENT, which equates to SUCCESS!
So, never quit striving to get where you want to be! Never lose your beautiful vision of a greater you! And most importantly of all, NEVER, EVER GIVE UP!
~me
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