The "1000lb Club" and Racquetball

At the gym a few weeks ago, I noticed some new things on the bulletin boards.  The first one that caught my eye was a new "contest" that the campus recreation department is doing.  The goal is to list 1000lbs combined in three lifts. The lifts are the classic bench press, squat, and deadlift that are staples in all powerlifting competitions.

There is also a "500lb club" that the rules state is for women, but since I first saw the board, they've added quite a few more pictures, most of them for the "500lb club" and all of them are men.  I'm not sure what's going on there, but they got their 500 lbs in two lifts, bench press and their choice of squat or deadlift.

Before I stopped lifting for a while, I had a total of around 800 lbs for the three lifts, which I feel is very respectable, especially considering I did it at 17.  Since then I've lost a lot of strength, but I hope this program stays around for a while, because I'd like to try it out.  It'll take time, but I know I can do it.

As a side note, one of the people listed as having done at least 500lbs over two lifts had 185lbs for their deadlift, and I believe 335 as their bench.  This is terrible.  The only reason your bench press should be stronger than your deadlift is being paralyzed from the waist down.  I mean, if you can bench over 1000 lbs, it's understandable that your deadlift might not be as high, as you've devoted your life to having the highest bench press weight in the world.  At these weights though, I find that completely unacceptable.  People just don't train their legs enough.  They don't train them because most people don't enjoy leg workouts, they're hard, and they'd rather have a huge upper body. News flash: Try and show off around any real muscle-heads and you'll get laughed at for not training your legs nearly as much as your upper body.


In other news, there will be a racquetball tournament on campus in a few weeks.  Apparently the winners in the past have always been in the racquetball class for the semester.  I hold no illusions as to my skills in racquetball, but if I can, I plan on participating in the tournament, for fun and the extra play time it will give me.  Winning, or even doing really well, would be awesome, but I'm not going to set myself up for disappointment there.