You Are Not Born Strong - You Must Become Strong

I always find it funny when people assume that a person is just born a certain way. Sometimes we just assume a person is naturally lean because they are lean most of the time, or they are naturally strong because they lift a lot of weight in the gym, or they can eat a lot of food because they have a fast metabolism.

People make these judgements or assumptions because they only see part of the picture which is the final result, they don't see how that picture became what it is, what was involved in the making of that final result.

I stay under 10% body fat all year round but that does not make me naturally lean. It takes commitment to my diet and making sure I burn plenty of calories each day with exercise. I can get fat just like anyone else.

People tell me my strength is only because I have a lot of muscle on me, did they stop to think where I got the muscle from. Was this muscle always there? Did it just magically appear overnight? Or maybe it has taken years of pushing myself at the gym way beyond where most people are comfortable to venture. Muscle is a byproduct of strength, strength is a byproduct of effort.

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.

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.

Full Week of Workout Videos - Friday Chest and Triceps Accessory Home

1:16 minutes - 669 Calories - Average Heart Rate 119 - Max Heart Rate 166.

• Garmin Heart Rate Monitor Session Link

Location: Home Gym

Warmup & Mobility:

• Rotator cuff work and Stretching

Strength:

• Decline standing cable flies x3 sets (Chest)
• Incline seated cable flies x3 sets (Chest)
• Flat seated cable flies x3 sets (Chest)
• Various position pushups x3 sets max reps each (Chest & Triceps)
• Tricep cable extensions using curl bar x4 sets (Triceps)
• Tricep cable extensions using rope x4 sets (Triceps)
• Crunches and leg raises (Abs)