I pick things up, and put them down again

[wildeabandon]

Not in the metaphorical sense, where despite efforts to improve, I'm still rather better at the picking things up than the putting things down again, but literally. Periodically over the last, oh, decade or so, I've take up weightlifting as a hobby, enjoyed it for a few weeks and become a bit stronger, usually a little bit stronger than my previous peak each time, and then life has gotten in the way and I've failed to maintain a routine and it's fallen by the wayside.

One positive effect of being stuck at home all the time is that it's made it rather easier to keep a routine going, and I'm extremely grateful to past me for buying himself a squat rack and a decent quantity of iron that then sat barely used for the last few years, before they became like gold dust! I've been mostly following Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength programme, which is bloody hard work, but does seem pretty effective. I have a goal of being able to do all the lifts at the "Intermediate" level according to these standards, at which point I'll drop down to lifting just enough to maintain my strength and focus on running again. This is a goal I've had for, I don't know how long, but years, and last week I hit the target in squats*, which I'm delighted by. I'm nearly there with my deadlift, and perhaps a few weeks away with the upper body lifts. (I suspect because when I've not been lifting I've been running, so my legs have been maintaining their muscle mass better inbetween periods of getting stronger.)

I might not be strong by the standards of serious weightlifters, but knowing that I can squat with one and a half times my own bodyweight on my shoulders feels pretty damn powerful to me :D

*technically this isn't quite true, because I've based it on the body weight I started at, but have been eating for muscle gain and am now heavier, but also I did 3x5 reps, and the standards are for 1RM, which should more than balance that out, so if anything I'm ahead of target.

Comments

[halojedha]

Yay lifting! The rush and sense of power are so good. I love being stronger. And it makes food even more delicious 😋

[hilarita]

Yay for lifting things!

[robert_jones]

Those standards look odd to me, e.g. an un-trained 75kg man can bench press 55kg, but only squat 50kg. Obviously 'un-trained' covers a wide range of people, but it seems inconsistent.

According to this, your 1RM should be 112% of your 5RM.

This has strength standards based on their user data. On that basis, intermediate 5RM at 75kg would be something like bench press 80kg; shoulder press 52.5kg; squat 107kg; dead-lift 126kg.

[sfred]

I intend/would like to start properly doing this. If I say so here I might do it!