The last couple of days I have been doing the blog over, as I plan to start increasing the frequency of posts here. While doing so I ended up reading a few of my old posts. I came across my very first post that I put up right after the accident.
http://extendingmyspine.blogspot.in/2012/12/this-blog-has-been-created-to-record-my.html
In it I mention that I thought that before the injury, I was "pretty strong". And then I went on to note my numbers-
"I could squat 330lbs, deadlift 400lbs and bench 250lbs, all at a bodyweight of 160lbs."
Today looking back on this I realize just how far I have come. I don't think any numbers I will ever be at will be strong enough. I am today stronger than I ever dreamed of back then, and back then I would have been happy to match my old strength again. This is where I think the accident was a boon in disguise, because it taught me to open my eyes and understand just what the human system is capable of.
I now realize strength is not as simple as an X amount of weight you can lift or your 100m time. Strength is the ability to believe and know that there is something more than what you can currently do, in every thing. It is the desire for constant and never ending self improvement. Read more books, train more, meet more people, learn new things, there is no end to what can be done to improve ourselves. The real point here is not what can be achieved or what you imagine could be possible.
The real lesson I have learnt from all this is that you have to enjoy the process of improvement. You are not doing it for the end result, but rather to do every thing that you can to make yourself better and to gain wisdom about yourself and to cherish that understanding. If you keep worrying about the outcome, you may just never get there. But as every serious lifter and athlete knows, if you focus on the little goals and enjoy the journey, you may just land up somewhere you never thought possible.
If you are interested you can see what I can currently do in the stats page. And here is what I think would be "pretty strong" at this stage. These are all 3 year goals for me now. I am sure it will change if I ever get there-
Deadlift- 230kgs for 20 reps
Squat- 230kgs for 20 reps
Bench Press- 140kgs for 20 reps
Military Press- 140kgs for 1 rep
One arm Chin up- 5 reps per arm
Vertical Jump- 30 inches
100m- 10.6s
4min mile
http://extendingmyspine.blogspot.in/2012/12/this-blog-has-been-created-to-record-my.html
In it I mention that I thought that before the injury, I was "pretty strong". And then I went on to note my numbers-
"I could squat 330lbs, deadlift 400lbs and bench 250lbs, all at a bodyweight of 160lbs."
Today looking back on this I realize just how far I have come. I don't think any numbers I will ever be at will be strong enough. I am today stronger than I ever dreamed of back then, and back then I would have been happy to match my old strength again. This is where I think the accident was a boon in disguise, because it taught me to open my eyes and understand just what the human system is capable of.
I now realize strength is not as simple as an X amount of weight you can lift or your 100m time. Strength is the ability to believe and know that there is something more than what you can currently do, in every thing. It is the desire for constant and never ending self improvement. Read more books, train more, meet more people, learn new things, there is no end to what can be done to improve ourselves. The real point here is not what can be achieved or what you imagine could be possible.
The real lesson I have learnt from all this is that you have to enjoy the process of improvement. You are not doing it for the end result, but rather to do every thing that you can to make yourself better and to gain wisdom about yourself and to cherish that understanding. If you keep worrying about the outcome, you may just never get there. But as every serious lifter and athlete knows, if you focus on the little goals and enjoy the journey, you may just land up somewhere you never thought possible.
If you are interested you can see what I can currently do in the stats page. And here is what I think would be "pretty strong" at this stage. These are all 3 year goals for me now. I am sure it will change if I ever get there-
Deadlift- 230kgs for 20 reps
Squat- 230kgs for 20 reps
Bench Press- 140kgs for 20 reps
Military Press- 140kgs for 1 rep
One arm Chin up- 5 reps per arm
Vertical Jump- 30 inches
100m- 10.6s
4min mile
I like your philosophy of self-improvement, it's pretty on par with mine. Right now my long term goal is obtaining 2 series of 10 of one arm pullups since I've been stuck with singles and doubles for too long... How's your one arm training going?
ReplyDeleteI can currently do a single on my right but not on my left. My all time best was three with my right and 2 with my left when I used to weigh 75kgs. I want to be able to do 5 one arm chins at a bodyweight of around 100kgs. I now weigh 91. What method are you using?
ReplyDeleteI'm doing the "hand sliding progressively down the arm" method (uneven pullups in convict conditioning) and I'm training one arm dead hangs as well, my form is the same cisco is using in the first one or two he does in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xc7IrWy9tI except that I wait one second at the top portion and one second at dead hang. I have a similar problem with my weight since when I started I was in the 63/65 kg range and now I'm more in the 68/70 one, I know if I lose muscle it would be easier but since I'm on the same exact diet I was at the beginning of my training I think this is all functional muscle so I don't want to lose it, btw 75 to 100 is a pretty big increase, how tall are you?
ReplyDeleteI am exactly 6 foot tall. To be fair I gained this weight over 3 and a half years. And not all of it is muscle.
DeleteThe thing is as you get larger, your biceps lose leverage in the chin up, so you have to make your lats stronger to get good at the one arm chin. So using weighted chin ups works better than unilateral variations, as they throw weight on the lats. Thats how I got the one arm chin back after many years and at a larger bodyweight. I kept doing uneven chins and drove myself crazy until I figured it out. If you plan on gaining weight this is something to consider.
Also, as a former Mr India once told me, the shoulder joint is very sensitive to weight fluctuations, unless you have narrow shoulders that are unusually developed for their width. Losing weight almost always makes your chinups, military presses and bench presses worse, unless you were fat to begin with.
Thx for the explanation, the hardest part for me is getting my chin over the bar so I think it's my arms that need some specific work
ReplyDelete