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.

The Past Week in Review

Sorry for not getting any updates posted last week, forgot about the fact that I'm supposed to be updating this blog again.

Anyways...

Last week:

Monday: Racquetball
Tuesday: Weight Lifting
Wednesday: Racquetball
Thursday: Weight Lifting

I don't remember exactly what I lifted, I know I did squats on Tuesday, and I did some upper body stuff on Thursday. Memory's hazy.

Anyways, Today is Tuesday!

Yesterday (Monday, just in case you're lost already) I played racquetball in class, for about 45 minutes.

Today, in weight lifting, the area that the instructor wanted us to work on was out core. He talked about the core for about 50% of the class time, so we didn't get as much time in for actual lifting as I would have liked. I think he's a little too fixated on the core. Anyways, the workout:

Planks - 5 for 45-60 seconds each
Deadlifts - 5x6 with 135lbs.

I alternated planks and deadlifts. I don't typically do direct ab work, since I don't typically do direct anything work, as I'd rather do compound movements and get more bang for my buck, but the planks did their job. The great thing about planks is I can do them anywhere, just like pushups, which I love doing.

On to various injuries, ailments, etc...

My shoulder hasn't been bothering me much at all over the past week, which is really nice. Other than that, not much to report on that front.

In other news, I haven't been really congested, but I'm feeling just a tiny bit congested and such. Hoping I'm not coming down with something, because quite a few people around here have gotten colds, and I don't want to be sick.

So Here's How It's Going to Work

Instead of feeling like I'm spamming my own blog with an unnecessary amount of posts, I plan on consolidating multiple days into single posts, most likely I'll do two days for a log post.

In addition to this, I'll have a weekly "check in" going over some stats and such.

Monthly I'll try and do a "strength test" and check my 1RM in multiple lifts, to see if I've improved.

Scattered throughout this all there will occasionally be short topical articles.

I'll start with the log tonight! See you then!

Let the Torture Continue

Hey! Look! I'm doing it again, another "It's been a while since I last wrote something, I promise to do better this time" post.

Nope! No promises this time! Now, time to cut the chit-chat and get down to business.

Currently I'm taking a racquetball "class" on Mondays and Wednesdays.  This is part of my attempt to get back in shape as well as have a stress free (and relieving!) class.

But that's not all!

I'm also taking a weightlifting "class" on Tuesday's and Thursday's! Amazing, I know!

The reason I put "class" in quotes is because, to be honest, all we really do is play racquetball and lift weights.  Sure, we talk about things for about five minutes when we first show up, but after that, we're free to do our own thing.

It's fantastic!

Over the summer, I took several classes, and was able to lift fairly regularly.  Now though, I'm practically forced to train, and I love it!  I'm still not as strong as I used to be, but I'm coming back quickly and I plan to surpass the old me as soon as possible.

Now, there are lots of sites on the web where you can get information from people much smarter in this area than I am, so for the most part I won't be writing actual articles.  Instead, I'll be using this as more of a public training log.  As I can, though, I'll keep things interesting by posting information on topics that I want to learn more about myself, and learn about them through the writing.

That's all for now!