It's weird to think that Amazon can function as a sort of "archive" of one's past, but I was wondering how long I'd actually been weightlifting, and the answer lay in my past orders! August 2023, I invested in a squat rack, weights, and a bar.
The first bar I bought was a 33-lb "petite" bar, which I figured would be more manageable in our relatively low-ceilinged basement. Unfortunately, despite being advertised as working with a standard rack, it's like half an inch too narrow between the collars to fit comfortably in the J-hooks, so I had to add a standard 7-foot 45-lb bar. that said, it's actually turned out to be helpful to have 2, though even if the short one is awkward! I can have the big one set up for deadlifts on the mat, and set up the short one for lower-weight exercises like overhead.
It's been more than a year, but I started using Boostcamp to track my lifting on the GZCLP program in December last year, so I think of it as coming up on one year. I went back and checked where I started on the four compound lifts, vs. where I am now. These are the T1s, so this is the weight I can do in 5 sets of 3 (as opposed to my "rep max" of 1).
December 2023 --> December 2024
Squat: 72.5 --> 95
Deadlift: 105 --> 125
Bench: 52.5 --> 75
OHP: 38 --> 55.5
The only one of those numbers I know has been higher is the deadlift, because I hit 135 in July, right before we went away to visit Sara and Zach, but then a combination of Daniel's wedding and getting Covid turned into a "deload" period that I've been coming back from the entire fall. I'm also more hesitant on the deadlift weight than on any of the others, since I tweaked my back with poor form several times in the first few months. That said, I did 125 yesterday and managed 5 reps on the last set, so that means it's time to go back to 135 on the next round. Whoo!
Obviously I have not been the most committed lifter. For example, I didn't start really paying attention to protein, or rather how little of it I was actually eating in a given day, until...this summer, maybe? And god knows I haven't given up wine. But I'm still pretty pleased with how much stronger I am! I just have to remind myself that I am also 39, so I can't expect to get crazy results with a fairly moderate approach to strength training.
One of the things that's been frustrating is the knowledge that you can't do everything. Before I got the barbell, I was mostly doing Caroline Girvan workouts, which I really enjoyed - they combined cardio and strength, usually, so I felt both wiped and like I was getting stronger. But I couldn't do her workouts and the GZCLP program. Now I just do one of her longer stretching videos on the weekend (or today, which felt like a weekend even though it wasn't). For a while, though, that meant that I was only doing the weightlifting, with no real cardio, but recently I've been trying to alternate lifting with cardio. Since I'm now very aware that my "running" days are over (thank you, drop-foot!), it's been boxing. I found a good YouTube channel of a guy that does fairly no-nonsense training. He uses the numbers, which I often have to take a moment to figure out what's supposed to be happening (and some numbers that I didn't know existed, like 8 for "overhand right" and 7 for "shovel hook"). I'm also southpaw, so when he stands in orthodox and says you need to "duck right" I have to mentally convert to "duck toward rear leg...go!" While I was getting ready to box today I decided today to give myself the gift of a two-month free trial of YouTube premium. Do you know what's more annoying than a video being interrupted by ads? When you have to take one of your gloves off to hit the skip button! But at least until February 24, that won't be me.
Another "set your expectations" realization I've had is that I have to accept what I can do with the limited time I have in the morning. We get up at 5am, so as long as I drink coffee/eat a banana and am downstairs by 6am, I can warm-up, work out, stretch, and be eating breakfast by 7:10, which gives me enough time to shower and head out at 8:15. That limits the kind of lifting programs I can follow; GZCLP works because it's T1 5x3, T2 3x10, and then three T3s 3x15, which works out to about 50 minutes (especially if I super-set two of the T3s). I see some of these programs that women rave about on /xxfitness and the estimated time per workout is two hours. Like, what? Who has time to do that 5 times a week? It bums me out sometimes that I don't have time to work on getting stronger at X, Y, or Z, but I have to pick and choose, and I've tried to focus on stuff that will actually help the compound lifts. Unfortunately, as I've moved up in weight I've realized that I need to start incorporate warm-up sets at lower weights, which adds another 10 minutes. That means I might have to start getting downstairs by 5:50. Boo. Hiss.
Finally, some goals. Or at least one goal: I would like to achieve a bodyweight deadlift in 2025!