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Do you even lift?
Does anyone else here participate in powerlifting, weightlifting, strongman, or some other fun strength sport?
Does anyone else here participate in powerlifting, weightlifting, strongman, or some other fun strength sport?
I competed in my first powerlifting competition this summer, and it was so much fun. My lifts are currently 455/300/545 Squat/Bench/Deadlift after about a year and a half of training for powerlifting three times a week.
Those are some impressive numbers. Did you work with a trainer at all? How long would your typical work out be?
Thanks! Workouts have gotten longer as the weights have gotten heavier, so they're now around 2-2.5 hours. When I started it was about half that. I am currently benching three times a week, squatting twice a week, and deadlifting once a week, and the squat days usually take me the longest.
Good lord.
Right?! My deadlift was 300lbs back in HS. I can't even fathom those #s.
I used to....powerlifter in high school and college to go along with football and baseball.
I miss powerlifting meets. The thrill of a successful lift and new 1RM. My best lifts ever were 425/350/450 @225 lbs back as a Freshman in college.
Obligatory "Gods I was strong then!"
Those are nice numbers, particularly the bench! The meets certainly are fun, I was nervous as hell but it was a really supportive environment and filled with adrenaline
I lift, but not heavy. Since I turned 40, I've been trying to find a balance of a resistance training program for the long haul that keeps me strong enough and doesn't kill my joints. I never lift anything over 300 lbs these days. The core of my workout is squat, bench, dead, OHP, and rows, along with supplemental bodyweight exercises like pull-ups, sit-ups, dips, and sometimes rope climbing.
I'm kind of wondering when that turn will come for me. I'm 37 and while I do mostly feel fine lifting heavy, I know it's not sustainable.
Sounds like you have a good routine going with some solid fundamentals! I hope to still be physically active when I'm your age, not that 40 is old but I am not quite there yet :)
I've been powerlift training for about 4 years. I've never gone to tournament; I know in the community it is frowned upon to say you are a powerlifter if you've never competed.
My personal bests are 435/280/465 at 180 lbs. That's a Wilkes of 360. But this is all just in my commercial gym, never in competition, so take with whatever grain of salt you'd like. Your numbers are insane for only a year and a half. I am honestly flabbergasted by your progress. You seem like you have a real potential of going pro given your insane progress.
I review programs as I run them, and do some general philosophizes on wisdom from the gym on my blog, which is here: https://medium.com/@ErikCieslewicz
Nice numbers, your wilks is a bit higher than mine since I am 6'4 310lbs. If you have any interest, you should definitely compete! You will do pretty well in a small competition
Seems like people like this show up out of the woodwork when you go online. I am also very much impressed at such huge numbers after so little time. Makes me wonder if he has a long background in sports like football.
Never played football, but the coaches always wanted me to. I've always been big and strong (and fat, unfortunately) without any physical activity, but I was playing video games rather than sports
Seems to be a lot of us gamers turned lifters (well, I haven't given up gaming either, I just value my health more now) on the internet. Glad to hear you're doing more to support your health. You might want to work on slimming down and doing more cardio to respect your body in the long run. I think you'll find you have a lot more energy once you make those changes, too.
Yeah, I still game but it doesn't interfere with gym time, that comes first. I've slimmed down a bit, 385lbs at my peak to my current 310lbs, and while I feel way better I'm still really overweight and can't run a 5K or anything like that. I'll probably hit some strength milestones and then shift focus a bit, I think it will make life more enjoyable and probably improve my performance too in the long run
Absolutely. Gym > game.
Glad to hear you have some good priorities!
I'm getting older so the numbers are really starting to stagnate and the joints are punishing me a lot more. My numbers are not good enough to compete and win anything, so I mostly stick to the gym (home gym now, as of a few months ago, love not having to wait on a rack) and try to lift at least 4-5 times a week.
I've found myself drifting towards cardio more lately, as my cardio sucks and I hate it, but I probably should do it more given my age.
I used to lift a lot, but now I'm focusing more of my time into eating healthy, slimming down, and doing more aerobics. I do a bunch of dumbbell lifts though (hammer curl, press, clean, swing). I did do some amateur strong-man events when i was around 19 or 20; that's the only time I ever "competed" with it though (and that was 20 years ago). I threw a caber and managed to get that telephone pole to go over properly, so that was good enough for me.
I seem to lift for around 3 months out of every 6. I notice back pain start creeping in and it re-prioritizes me to make some time in my schedule for squats, deadlift, cable pulldowns, bench, and a little bit of sprinting; usually about an hour and a half, 3 times a week. I get into a routine, manage to get back to my previous best plus a little, then something comes up in life and gym isn't critical enough to keep it regular anymore.
I never did any sports in school and am hitting 30 next year. Discovering lifting in early 20s completely changed my health and outlook on personal maintenance, eating and more. Given my lackluster commitment and propensity to back injury from a once-herniated disc I'm happy with my PR of 90kg/80kg/130kg 5x5/5x5/5x3 at 90kg bodyweight.
I'm hitting a point where I have time to gym again, so hopefully I'll be able to get to higher PR this time around, and maybe life will let me keep up my pace next year.
A couple things I have noticed on my 8 year journey of lifting.
I do not compete but love lifting for exercise. I must admit I do not bench and my squat is lacking, but I adore the deadlift. The other day I got my new 1-rep PR - 90kg! I know it's not much, but my goal is double my body weight (100kg) so it is nice to slowly be crawling closer to that. I've also started focusing more on OHP and bringing my weight up in that pretty quickly. In addition, not really a strength sport, but I really like kettlebells (swing and snatch being my favorite moves)