Lifting Heavy Ass Weight in the Gym at Near 49

Some of last weeks heavy lifts. Do I lift heavy weight because I have big muscles or do I have big muscles because I lift heavy weight? I prefer to think I have big muscles because I lift heavy weight meaning I did the work to get like this.

When people say you have a lot of muscle and that's why you can lift so much weight they may not realize they are suggesting that you have some sort of advantage because you are just muscular in nature when this is often not the case. A lot of very hard work most people are not prepared to undergo is involved to take yourself to the highest levels.

330 Pound Bench Press Personal Best - 46 Years Old at 198 Pounds

Here is the other Personal Best (PR) video I mentioned was on the way, I am still working on my 405 pound squat but I crushed my 315 pound Bench Press goal and even got a little bit more weight on the bar for this PR :)

So two Personal Best goals down (Bench and Deadlift) and one more to go (squat of 405 pounds). Yesterday I did kind of feel out how things where going with my squat and lifted a pretty solid 360 pounds but this is still a bit far off from my goal of 405, mind you I was not feeling it yesterday and may be coming off a bit of a bug since I have not felt 100% the last few days...

Still I am supper happy with hitting two of my long time PR goals and now I can focus on the hitting my Squat to get all three PR's.

Still Hitting Those PR's - Always Pushing Forward.

I haven't shared a PR (Personal Best or Personal Record) with you guys in a while and probably because I rarely go for any singe rep PR's since for me at my age it is a bit risky in terms of getting an injury and what's the point really, just so I can say I bench "X" amount of weight.

I prefer to measure my Personal Bests with how many reps I can do at a certain weight and usually that weight is more than many people my age can even do 1 reo for, not to brag but just to put it all in perspective.

So here are a couple Rep PR's I got in the last couple of days:

Yesterday was Deadlift day and I was not into it at all starting out but as we progressed with the workout I was starting to feel pretty good and the weight was moving well. We had programmed reps of 5 starting out at 225 pounds and working our way up sticking to 5 reps per set. Here is how it turned out... 

• Set 1 - 225x5
• Set 2 - 275x5 Reps
• Set 3 - 313x5 Reps
• Set 4 - 363x5 Reps
• Set 5 - 403x5 Reps
• Set 6 - PR of 453x8 Reps

We also programmed in 5 Strict pull-ups in-between sets and finished off with 3 rounds of straight leg Barbell Deadlifts at 225 pounds x 10 reps again with 5 pull-ups in-between. View my Heart Rate Info for this workout!

My next PR was today in Bench Press, again I generally refrain from going under 3-5 reps at a time since it usually leads to a peck or shoulder injury but my bench has been getting stronger so today we did our warmup and then loaded 245 pounds on the bar for 4 sets of max rep Bnech Press. I was kind of surprised at my results!

• Set 1 - 245x14 Reps
• Set 2 - 245x14 Reps
• Set 3 - 245x13 Reps
• Set 4 - 245x12 Reps
• Total of 53 Reps for 4 sets at 245 pounds

At the end of the workout I performed three rounds of what I call Fly-Presses, this is where I start out doing Dumbbell Chest Flies and then switch to Dumbbell Bench Press. I used 50 pounds per arm for 8-10 reps per set per movement. View my Heart Rate Info for this workout!

Bench Press PR @ 199 Pounds - 205 x 20 Reps

Today at CrossFit Langley, Darren and I set out to perform some higher rep Bench Pressing, basically 205 pounds on the bar times 4 rounds hitting max reps for each set.

I generally don't record higher rep PR's but a while back when I hosted a YouTube Contest with Mark Macqueen where we had to bench our body weight for max reps. At that time I was pretty lean weighing in at 194 pounds so my bar weight ended up being 195 pounds. I managed 18 clean reps for that contest.

Skip ahead to today's morning workout and at 199 pounds body wight with a bar weight of 205 pounds I managed to bench press 20 clean reps. So 10 pounds more on the bar with 2 extra reps. Small gains perhaps but I have been nursing some slight shoulder and chest injuries which have held me back a little bit.

Things are feeling pretty good in general and I even managed to get an additional 19 reps on my second set, 16 reps on my third set and I finished off with 14 reps on my forth set for a total of 69 reps with 205 pounds on the bar.

Bench Press PR @ 197 Pounds - 305 Pounds x 2 Reps

I have a goal for this year to hit 300 pounds in my Bench Press, 400 pounds in my Squat and 500 pounds for a Deadlift, for a 3 lift total of 1200 pounds!

I would like to do this while being under 200 pounds body weight which should not be too difficult since I rarely get up and over 200 pounds.

Well today I hit 305 for 2 reps in my Bench Press at a body weight of 197 pounds, so one out of the three is accomplished :) Yesterday I went for a Deadlift of 502 pounds but perhaps after a bit too much pre-work. I did get it off the ground but was not able to finish it. I am fairly confident that on a different day I should be able to hit 500 pounds in my Deadlift.

The lift I am not so sure about is the 400 pounds Squat, I have done 2 Box Squat reps at 403 but they are a bit easier than a conventional Squat. I will be working to imporve my Squat and I know that if I can get my Squat up, it will only help my Deadlift numbers.