The beginning.

The purpose of this blog is to track my gains in strength over time. I'm not trying to make it entertaining or funny, I just wanted to start keeping track of what I did every workout, including weights used so I can track my progress. I'm doing this for me, but figured making it public would maybe make me want to make even more progress.


I've been active all of my life and have lifted weights in the past, but haven't in a long time. I have started lifting again consistently about 6 weeks ago. I've been lifting at 2 weight rooms at my university. I have been going an average of 3 times per week and playing racquetball on days off. I play racquetball for fun so aerobic conditioning isn't really the priority, just a secondary benefit.

My primary goals are to gain strength and and if I get bigger then that is a plus. I'm 5'10" and weigh around 182 pounds. My weight fluctuates during the day, so I will try to weigh myself in the mornings after waking up to get consistent readings.

I've been planning on keeping up with my progress, but I guess I'm starting now because I'm bored and have the time. I was planning on just using pen and paper, but just got the idea to use a blog and went with it. If I described my strength level I would have to say I'm a weak little pansy or maybe little girl-esque. I have been lifting for 6 weeks now and have made progress though. I re-discovered how much I like lifting weights and immediately look forward to my next workout.

I did lift today, and everything was going well til they made me quit doing Romanian deadlifts because of their 'no deadlifting' policy, which is complete crap. They said it was so the floor didn't get messed up, and even though I wasn't doing true deadlifts and only doing RDLs (where the weights don't even touch the floor) they still made me stop. The weights are coated with rubber so how the hell are they really gonna mess up the floor? It wasn't the guy's fault, he said he usually looks the other way but his boss came and told him to tell me to stop. Well that puts a kink in things since the wellness center (where the football players lift) is now closed to students (so I heard) and thats the only place they have those deadlifting mats. I'm going to raise some hell and get them to either let me use the wellness center or get a mat for the rec center. To make matters worse I pulled or striained a muscle really badly. I came back to my apt and layed flat on the floor for awhile and couldn't get up. Anyways, so the workout started out good but got bad real quick. I hate to start this on such a bad workout since I've been doing so well lately, but you have to start somewhere and it might as well be the bottom.

Lower Body
It's been awhile so I'll try to remember my exact weights.

Back Squat
135x5
155x5
165x5
175x5
185x5
205x3

RDL
145x6
caught

Dumbell RDL (these are fine, but barbell RDLs are against policy...what a load of crap)
65x6
70x5 POP!!
The back strain wasn't because of the weight (it felt really light), its because I lost my form and rounded my back close to the top of the movement. I think it was because I wasn't used to using dumbells for this exercise. I was still disappointed in myself because I try to do every rep with as perfect form and weight control as possible.

Seated Leg Curl
90x10
100x?
This was just to try to not have my entire workout ruined, but I only halfway tried cause I'm not a huge fan of the exercise and my back hurt, so I just went home.

What a terrible first workout to post, but oh well, I couldn't do anything about it. I know one thing though...they will let me deadlift one way or the other. Sorry for the bad grammar and run ons.

I can't wait to redeem myself.