Last month I declared that this:
I am putting a greater emphasis on exercise vs nutrition.
And that was with the idea that I'd been focusing on what I've been eating and then not getting to the gym. Well I had a doctor check-up and found out I have some reasons to focus on my nutrition in specific ways.
All in all between a greater focus on exercise I'd committed to before, and some very helpful specific guardrails on nutrition from my doctor, I feel like I'm in a pretty good place.
Overall, I had a great month of fitness. I made it down to my basement gym more days than not and made some progress on my weightlifting goals.
Goal progress
I've mentioned that my only specific goal I currently have in mind is 2x bodyweight bench press... which encompasses both getting to a healthier bodyweight and achieving strength goals which are, frankly, just fun to shoot for.
As for progress on that front, I'm not at a place where I want to put the pressure of measuring where I am as a percentage of 2x yet, but I anticipate that I will ultimately want to hit the goal at approximately 350lbs @ 175lbs.
My background is that in college I hit 400lbs at 225lbs as a football linebacker and all around sturdy fellow. Shortly after my playing career was done, I could hit around 375 at about 200. Since getting out of competitive sports, I've seen my strength gradually degrade, but now I'm in a good overall mindset. Despite my past records, I've never hit 2x bodyweight, so I'm excited that I might achieve that milestone, hopefully before I turn 40 (7.5 years from now). 😅
The highest 1 rep max in bench press I attempted and hit this month was 265lbs, which isn't really my "max" as I don't want to push too hard in my gym by myself, but I am feeling pretty good about that. I think I'll be able to make steady progress towards 300 in the not-too-distant future, but I'm taking it slow and steady all around.
I'm doing full body exercise, but still not at a place where I care to push myself too much in a lift such as deadlift. I don't know how much I want to push myself in different lifts. Bench press as a single metric is more for the vanity of it all anyway, but not necessarily an indication of an overly singular fitness focus.
My biggest win is that I am in the mindset to go after personal records again, and am enjoying that. My overall health and fitness is more important than the numbers, but I'm enjoying the pursuit once again.
Happy flowstating ❤️
Top comments (8)
Here for all the cheerleading, @ben - thanks for sharing your goals, progress, and some of that history too.
We do a lot of chest-and-shoulder-openers in our Tue/Thu Zoom calls (16:45 UTC) if you ever want to counter some of that benching with some stretching with your coworkers.
Oooo interestings, what is this zoom call then? 🤩
Haha @lee with the curiosity...
Well, those Zoom calls are something we offer at work (Ben and I both work at Forem) but I would be down for doing a weekly flowstate.to Zoom call if you want so people can ask questions and maybe get some exercise or nutrition advice?
If you want to organize something, DM me and we'll figure it out.
This is a good call. I should start coming to these — I've been busy lately, but I'm also a little self-conscious around all things group fitness, but I can get over it. 😅
@lee some kind of live fitness or stretching on Flowstate could be cool — Or at least maybe a community-wide async challenge.
That would be cool… @ellativity thank you as always 🌈 I’ll drop you a message 🧘♀️🌞
Once I get to a threshold where I'm really excited about my progress I'll start recording videos to share lifting records here. I'm proud of progress so far, but still short of being tremendously excited about where I am, but I can't wait to get there!
Looking forward to you hitting that threshold, I can't wait to see these videos, especially after seeing what you could lift in college 🏋️♀️
Nice, my bench has always been the weakest of my lifts. 127kg@90kg BW(sorry I only understand metric and can't convert to freedom units).
It's easily the most technical of the 3 powerlifting movements. What kind of preparation are you doing to get to your goal?