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Welcome to the Nerd Fitness Bench Press Leaderboard. Below you will find the top Bench Press lifts (that have been reported) on the Nerd Fitness forum organized by Wilkes Points. For more information about the Wilkes Coefficient, go here. The following are the rules for using the Nerd Fitness Leaderboards. You must have at least 50 posts - We don't want random people just showing up and posting just to be on the Leaderboards. If you don't have 50 posts yet, be an active member and come back when you do. You must have been active in the last 6 months - This is meant to be for active members. If you are not active for 6 months, you will be removed. If you once again become active, you are more than welcome to post your new PRs and join back up! Your lifts must be current - No posting 'This was my lift 2 years ago'. All lifts must have been completed since joining NF. You must update your lift at least once every 2 years to stay on the Leaderboards. - Similar to the previous point, we want the Leaderboards to be current. Therefore, entries that are older then 2 years old will be pruned. Weights should be reported in KG, not pounds. - This is the weight system power lifting competitions use. If pounds are your mass measurement of choice, just multiply your total by 0.454 to find the equivalent mass in kilograms. Yes, I know pounds are a unit of force, but you know we use it like mass when it comes to body weight. You can report a weight in a set that you've done. - You will only be given credit for the weight you lifted in terms of the leaderboard (i.e. if you did 100kg for 5 reps, you'd only be given credit for 100kg on the leadreboard). That said, if you provide a set with reps, I will calculate the an estimated 1RM for you. Just check out that column after I get the entry updated. If you'd like to be put on the Leaderboards, please reply this this thread with the following information: Gender Bodyweight Weight Lifted and number of reps (typically your 1RM) Also, if you enter any of the NF Virtual Lifting Competitions, entries for those will be migrated to the Leaderboards (only if it improves your Wilkes score). I will try to update the Leaderboard after each challenge and/or virtual lifting competition. If things haven't updated in awhile, harass me via PM (profile can be found here). NOTE: if you are viewing this on tapatalk, it may not work. Please view from your browser.

Welcome to the Nerd Fitness Squat Leaderboard. Below you will find the top Squat lifts (that have been reported) on the Nerd Fitness forum organized by Wilkes Points. For more information about the Wilkes Coefficient, go here. The following are the rules for using the Nerd Fitness Leaderboards. You must have at least 50 posts - We don't want random people just showing up and posting just to be on the Leaderboards. If you don't have 50 posts yet, be an active member and come back when you do. You must have been active in the last 6 months - This is meant to be for active members. If you are not active for 6 months, you will be removed. If you once again become active, you are more than welcome to post your new PRs and join back up! Your lifts must be current - No posting 'This was my lift 2 years ago'. All lifts must have been completed since joining NF. You must update your lift at least once every 2 years to stay on the Leaderboards. - Similar to the previous point, we want the Leaderboards to be current. Therefore, entries that are older then 2 years old will be pruned. Weights should be reported in KG, not pounds. - This is the weight system power lifting competitions use. If pounds are your mass measurement of choice, just multiply your total by 0.454 to find the equivalent mass in kilograms. Yes, I know pounds are a unit of force, but you know we use it like mass when it comes to body weight. You can report a weight in a set that you've done. - You will only be given credit for the weight you lifted in terms of the leaderboard (i.e. if you did 100kg for 5 reps, you'd only be given credit for 100kg on the leadreboard). That said, if you provide a set with reps, I will calculate the an estimated 1RM for you. Just check out that column after I get the entry updated. If you'd like to be put on the Leaderboards, please reply this this thread with the following information: Gender Bodyweight Weight Lifted and number of reps (typically your 1RM) Also, if you enter any of the NF Virtual Lifting Competitions, entries for those will be migrated to the Leaderboards (only if it improves your Wilkes score). I will try to update the Leaderboard after each challenge and/or virtual lifting competition. If things haven't updated in awhile, harass me via PM (profile can be found here). Note: leaderboard only shows in your web browser and not on tapatalk

Welcome to the Nerd Fitness Deadlift Leaderboard. Below you will find the top Deadlift lifts (that have been reported) on the Nerd Fitness forum organized by Wilkes Points. For more information about the Wilkes Coefficient, go here. The following are the rules for using the Nerd Fitness Leaderboards. You must have at least 50 posts - We don't want random people just showing up and posting just to be on the Leaderboards. If you don't have 50 posts yet, be an active member and come back when you do. You must have been active in the last 6 months - This is meant to be for active members. If you are not active for 6 months, you will be removed. If you once again become active, you are more than welcome to post your new PRs and join back up! Your lifts must be current - No posting 'This was my lift 2 years ago'. All lifts must have been completed since joining NF. You must update your lift at least once every 2 years to stay on the Leaderboards. - Similar to the previous point, we want the Leaderboards to be current. Therefore, entries that are older then 2 years old will be pruned. Weights should be reported in KG, not pounds. - This is the weight system power lifting competitions use. If pounds are your mass measurement of choice, just multiply your total by 0.454 to find the equivalent mass in kilograms. Yes, I know pounds are a unit of force, but you know we use it like mass when it comes to body weight. You can report a weight in a set that you've done. - You will only be given credit for the weight you lifted in terms of the leaderboard (i.e. if you did 100kg for 5 reps, you'd only be given credit for 100kg on the leadreboard). That said, if you provide a set with reps, I will calculate the an estimated 1RM for you. Just check out that column after I get the entry updated. If you'd like to be put on the Leaderboards, please reply this this thread with the following information: Gender Bodyweight Weight Lifted and number of reps (typically your 1RM) Also, if you enter any of the NF Virtual Lifting Competitions, entries for those will be migrated to the Leaderboards (only if it improves your Wilkes score). I will try to update the Leaderboard after each challenge and/or virtual lifting competition. If things haven't updated in awhile, harass me via PM (profile can be found here). NOTE: if you are viewing this on tapatalk, it may not work. Please view from your browser.

I really just wanted to do a Rick and Morty themed challenge. This one is more of the same - right now my life is revolving around the 2016 Hill Country Strongman Classic YEAH!!! It is going down Saturday, June 25th at the Austin Convention Center (as part of the Naturally Fit Games). I sprained my wrist about 2 weeks ago, which really sucked. It was a giant wrench in my carefully planned training and peaking program, which was quite frustrating. Thankfully now it is on the mend thanks to bone broth, RICE, e-stim, acupuncture, and all the fruits. ALL THE FRUITS. I wish there were more weight classes for women. At this NAS competition there are only three: 1. less than 140# 2. 140-160 3. 160+ This is lame because a 165# 5'5" woman would be competing head to head with a 220# 5'11" woman. I know they do it that way because not enough women compete at local events to break the classes down further, but it just doesn't seem right. However, as a woman who currently weighs 214#, at least I don't have to worry about cutting weight. So for the month of June I'll be doing this:

GOALS NOW ADDED (original post below) I have confidence in me Say something nice about yourself every day and share with the class. Push It Eat 2600 calories a day (or an average of 18200 a week) and evaluate based on how my weight fluctuates. I like to move it, move it Do yoga once a week. Go to pilates once a week. Have a massage once during the challenge. Sing Sing. Don't care when or how or if I post video, but just to spend a little bit of time once a week singing either at the piano or along to musicals. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Okay, so I'm hitting the post-comp low. I'm feeling like I only won because I was lucky and everyone else is improving faster than I am. I hit comp PBs across the board and still I feel like I'm rubbish! I really need to sort my mindset! I'm going to keep this challenge simple. Lift things. Make friends. Try not to whine as much. Meh... I'll try to work out the challenge in full later. Ideas welcome!

I am sure that everyone here is nerdy enough that I dont need explain what kryptonite is or what it does to Superman. But for the sake of this challenge, we are going to try and harness the power of kryptonite and defeat super(heavy)man. Goal 1: Defeat Super(heavy)man A few years ago before the IPF weight class standards, the super heavyweight class was 308lbs+ for most federations as I am told. I'm competing in a local competition August 20th which doesn't have a weigh in since its really just person vs barbell so this is more of a personal vendetta against the scale. I have been kind of stuck near current weight of 317 for 2-3 months now bouncing between 309-318lbs. I'm not too upset about the stall as focus has really been on increasing lifts so I have been trying to eat closer to maintenance to account for a new program. I know for a fact that I ruin almost every week by eating poorly on the weekend when I eat back all the calories from the week. Typical week would be a 310 weigh in Friday and 315 on Monday morning from all the bad food and bloating. No longer want to be in that super heavyweight class so going to tighten up my diet and drop below 308. Ideally I would drop to 300 and have room to gain back some weight in muscles. Goal 2: Prevent kryptonite from sapping strength New program has been rewarding with big gains and some milestone PBs. The last challenge I hit my first 3 plate(315lb squat) and am closing in on the 4 plate deadlift(405lb). Despite trying to cut some weight, there should still be a little bit of room to gain some strength since the calorie deficit already exists during my weekday lifting but is ruined during my two rest days on the weekend. I know progress may be a bit slower since the weekends wont be a big re-feed. Just hoping to see some improvement during the cut time and then start having some more gains once I reach goal weight and start eating maintenance again. Also, daily mobility counts towards my workout for the day. Have really been seeing the benefits of ROMWOD during my lift sessions and daily recovery so really want to stick to this as part of the program. LUYL Goal: Leaving Krypton Lease at current apartment ends at the end of June and already signed a lease near Boston. I got a friend to help move my big things in two weekends so I really need to start packing. There is crap everywhere and work has required long hours so packing has just kind of been second priority. Need to focus so I am not up all night the day before loading random stuff into boxes with no organization. I am super excited to be close to the city. It puts me 10min from my coaches gym which is where my friends lift at which I cant wait to start going to on a regular basis. Right now its 45+ min away so I only go to do some form checks on occasional weekends. The gym is group training focused but with emphasis on different goals throughout the day. There is a nighttime class that basically runs my current program but in a group setting. I really look forward to the group support with the class structure and being in close proximity to my coach come competition time. The only downside is the time I save getting to the gym gets added to my work commute which goes from 20 min to almost 50min. This is going to require some organizational work to make sure I can get to work early in the morning so I can constantly make the nighttime lifting session. Going to work on getting up earlier and getting to work early in the next few weeks so waking up isn't so hard when living farther away.

So I competed in the UPA Clash of the Titans push-pull meet this past weekend in Kenosha, WI. This was my first meet since August 2015, my third ever meet, and my first with a 24 hour weigh in! I had injured my left psoas and adductor back at the end of March so this meet was a maybe for me until about 5-6 weeks out when I fully committed. So coming in, I wasn't "mentally committed" so to speak. I didn't think I would be my best, so I just came in wanting to have fun and compete, no pressure. (I think this actually helped me a lot in the end) Coming in my comp. bests were 180/100/205 (lb) at ~60kg and gym bests of 210/105/215 (lb). The cut I started my “diet” about 5 weeks out from the competition at roughly ~143 lbs. My goal was to compete in the 60kg weight class which equates to roughly 132 freedom units. I didn’t really start logging data until about 3 ish weeks out. I followed a carb-cycling type of approach, with higher carbs on workout days, lower carbs on rest days. Towards the later 2-3 weeks I upped carbs more and lowered fat because my energy was being affected. DATA!!! Averages from 5/2/16 - 5/29/16: Calories:1768 Protein:120 Fat:58 Carb:173 Starting 5/30/16 (M) I removed nearly all carbs from my diet. Carbs that I did have were trace amounts in things like protein powders, nuts, etc. I didn’t eat any dedicated carb sources. Starting this day I also was drining 1.5+ gallons of water a day. My last sodium containing meal was Wednesday at lunch. In hindsight, I probably would have made this my last meal on Tuesday, but I already meal prepped sausages and didn’t want them to go to waste. Meals were things like eggs, unsalted nuts, and low-sodium protein powders. Thursday I didn’t drink any water, only what I needed to swallow my food essentially and minimal sips throughout the day. Maybe about 20 oz total. Averages from 5/30/16 - 6/2/16: Calories:1346 Protein:133 Fat:75 Carb:38 Weigh in was Friday morning and I woke up about a pound too heavy. I went into the steam room for about 10 minutes that morning and toweled off to sweat out some of the weight. (SOOOO THIRSTY). I went to weigh in and was 0.1 kg too heavy (dammit) so I spat in a cup for a few minutes and was able to spit out the weight and weigh in at 59.95 kg. YAY!!!! Replenish and Rehydrate After weighing in, I needed to replenish my water, sodium, glycogen etc. So I relied on food and lots of it on Friday: Coconut water 2 coca colas, 1 root beer Plenty of gatorade + whey powder or BCAAs throughout the day Juices - OJ and cranberry Pringles Reduced fat oreos Donuts Pretzels Enchiladas, chips and salsa Porkchops and potatoes for dinner Sour patch kids And I think I probably should have ate/drank even more than I did. I also ensured I took my multivitamin and creatine, to replenish what I had been missing the past few days. Day Of the competition! Weighed in at the home scale about 137 lbs, so I gained about 5 lbs over the course of Friday. Breakfast was more porkchops, eggs, and potatoes. Also juice. Got to the competition site and as I’m walking up to the venue my waterbottle (with BCAAs and gatorade) spilled out over my entire gym bag. Everything got wet: shoes, belt, singlet, wrist wraps, everything. UGHHHH So I attempted to towel dry off all of my items and then get ready for the day. Lifting was scheduled to start at 10 with rules meeting at 9:30, but they were running a bit late. I was the first bencher of the day so I was getting warmed up fairly early, prior to rules meeting. Warmups went fast because #povertybench only requires a few warmup sets. Ended up having to compete with still wet wrist wraps. Rules meeting happened and I come out to find @Flex Luthor and @Laghail waiting for me! YAY!!!! Bench My opener was 42.5 kg which equates to roughly 95 lbs, which I’ve hit for as many as a set of 6 before so NO PROBLEM here. Went up quick and easy. Second attempt 47.5 kg which is essentially my current max. Also was pretty good, a little struggle on the lock out, but not terrible. Third attempt 50 kg. Speed and control on the descent was good, but I hit too low on my chest and wasn’t able to get it to move more than a few inches. Deadlift Set my opener at 90 kg which I was fairly confident in. I debated setting it higher, but I wasn’t sure how the cut would affect me so I felt safe with 90 kg. First attempt, fast, easy. No problem. Second attempt, 97.5 kg. Again no problem. This was basically my existing PR. I got some help from friends setting my third attempt. I wanted 100 or 102.5, but based on how attempt 2 went, people were saying I should shoot for 107.5 or 110! I decided on 105. Third attempt: YAY!!!!! I kind of wanted a fourth attempt because it felt FAST! Barely any struggle. I have had this mental barrier of 225 in my head for SOOO long and I absolutely smashed it. It’s soooo all in my head. It was also really cool to have all the big guys from my gym who lift 600+ cheering me on as I pulled that Results: Closing thoughts: Good to know that I CAN do a cut with a 24 hour weigh in successfully, but I’d prefer not to. I don’t anticipate ever competing in 60kg class ever again. If I compete this fed again it will be 67.5kg or stick with 63kg for IPF classes. I literally made myself nauseous from all of the food, water, and sugar that I was consuming to replenish myself! Also, everything is all in my head. All of it. I can lift more weight than I think I can if I get out of my own head.

Deadlifts have always been my sticking point in competition. I'll go to pull the second or third lift and it'll feel tough and I'll just give up! Third attempt deadlift (135kg) - 2 December 2016 - Commonwealth Powerlifting Championships Yesterday I did my first competition for six months. My coach took charge of my attempts. I opened at 130kg (I've done it in training whilst feeling like death, so no fear on that) and then put 140kg in for my second attempt. I was terrified. It was tough. It went up but, as many of you will be aware, there are times when you go to pull a deadlift and a little bit of wee will leak out. It was just a tiny bit at 140kg but I locked out! My coach then put in my final attempt. He didn't tell me what it was. He just told me to cling on for dear life and not to stop pulling with no sense of self-preservation. Whatever happened, don't stop pulling until you succeed or the lift would fail to be legal (i.e. hitching or foot movement). So I did. I grabbed onto that bar, I pulled through my sticking point, I tried to lock it out. I tried so hard that I wet myself and the platform but I didn't let go. I didn't give up on myself! I didn't give up on myself! I may not have locked out that deadlift but I beat my deadlift demons down and I'm walking away thinking that there's a lot more there rather than hating myself for giving up when I could have got it!

i had the same dilemma many people probably face, my gym had one power rack and 8000 pieces of isolation or cardio equipment. i hated having to go late at night just to ensure that i would be able to workout without waiting forever just to do squats and not being able to take a break between sets. i started looking around at home gym setups and what kind of workout i could do to make it worth investing in minimal equipment, since i would have to purchase all of it. i found (like most people) the Stronglifts 5x5 workout. it even has a handy app and a good amount of info about each lift and what equipment you need to buy. i started with the dick's special (against many recommendations online). i got a bench/stand combo, 300lbs of metal plates, and an olympic bar. i figured it would be a long time before i would have to invest in new things or more weight (even though i had squatted 315 recently, i didn't see me banging out 25 in a workout). i flipped the cups around and squatted off the back of it, even though it was a little short me. anywho, i didn't know what any of my max's were so here's where i started: Squat 95lbs Bench 75lbs Row 75lbs OH Press 45lbs Deadlift 135lbs now i did have to take a week off because i was traveling overseas and couldn't workout. i don't recommend it, i was completely free of DOMS, feeling great, and motivated. coming back i ignored the 10% deload recommendation (recommend following it) and was whipped. i was sore and didn't feel like doing it after the first night back. ridiculous turn for only a week off, but that's why i would do it on a schedule where you will not miss. either way, here's where i'm at currently: Squat 240lbs Bench 185lbs Row 185lbs OH Press 100lbs Deadlift 275lbs if you're familiar with the program you can guess that i skipped up a bunch of weight. i think i undersold how much i could lift and the exercises were not taxing. i recommend the program. the loading schedule, exercises, and app are all great. i don't know about the guy who runs it, i've read some stuff saying he's a little out there, but i've read most of his articles about the lifts and recommendations and they're not bad. i do not subscribe to emails, and i think that's where the issue some people had were. i do the pay version of the app and i feel it's worth the $10. which of course is peanuts compared to what i'm going to say next: spend the damn money on nice equipment. here's the truth of what i spent: $500 for my whole setup from dicks. this lasted me 5 weeks and i just had to replace almost every piece of it. the only thing i kept were the actual weights. i injured my hip/lower back unracking the weight (i have to unload off of the spotter bars to make it work and it's too short), and the next day when i pulled weights off the collar slid with it. the cheap bar had come unscrewed and i was lucky it did while i was unracking 25lbs instead of repping 250lbs. so i had to buy a new stand/rack, bar, and i went ahead and got some more 45s because i was tired of using so many change plates. this cost me $1000. i'm trying to sell the old bench/rack setup now, and it would be good for someone a little shorter or who wanted to do adjustable bench work. for me though, it wasn't optimal and i put price ahead of functionality and basically burned some money. you live and you learn, but if you have any questions about my setup, my experiences with 5x5, or anything else let me know. it's been fun.

I’m a bit late to posting my challenge as life has been crazy with work and grad school. Now I’ve found some time to settle down and actually write this out. So here goes my first challenge, counting to 4! I just put down my entry fee for a powerlifting meet at the end of August which will be my first meet. The meet is part of a bigger GoRuck weekend event so rather than strict PvP competition, the event is based more on hitting certain totals to win ruck patches. Patches are awarded for 1000lb, 1250lb and 1500lb totals. My goal for this competition is to break the 1000lb mark and I know it will require some dedicated training in the next few months leading up. Currently sitting at a 930 estimated total: 305 squat, 250 bench, 375 dead (155 OHP not included) with I think a few more pounds in reserve but haven't tested 1RM in a while. Quest 1: 1…2…UHH...3…... This was my original lifting goal before the competition signup and I’m sticking with it as a good intermediate step towards the 1000lb total. 135lb OHP, 225lb bench, 315lb squat, and 405lb deadlift would be 1,2,3,4 45lb plates per side. I have already gotten the OHP and bench but squat and deadlift are not quite there. I’ve got a new strength program with a coach that I have been running for 8 weeks now and seeing awesome improvements that helped me hit the OHP and bench goals so staying on track with that routine. Goal: Squat to up 315lb and increase deadlift (405 is stretch for 1 month of training but would be bonus PR). Quest 2: #SwoleAndFlexy New favorite hashtag. Started doing ROMWOD a few weeks ago to help with range of motion and flexibility. Its 20min a day(40min on Thursdays) which I have no reason not to make time for regardless of what else I am busy doing. Goal: Keep doing this daily. Quest 3: Eat the right things Nutrition has always been a struggle for me. I got stuck in a weight loss mentality for a long time trying to eat <1800cal at 325+lb BW and it was killing my ability to do anything especially lifting. Slowly working my calorie intake up to break this cycle, currently 2300-2500 on lifting days and 1900-2100 on rest days. My lifts feel better with high daily protein intake and carbs centered on lifting sessions so going maintain that trend. Goal: Keep tracking on MFP to keep honest with calorie intake and macros.

Alright, first challenge, let's do this! Been running a battle log for the past couple of weeks and will link to it in my sig when I get to it. I'm a powerbuilder. I train to increase my numbers in bench press, squat, and deadlift while also training and eating to have an aesthetic physique. Over the course of the past two years, I lost 45lbs, gained back 30, lost 30, and recently gained back 10 rebuilding my strength. My 5'10 self has been sitting at 210lbs for the past month. I've recently been eating about 2800-3200 calories a day and I train about 3-4 times a week. I stopped doing cardio about a month ago. Main Quest: My conservative goals are to meet or beat the following 1RMs by the end of the year without getting fat (I'll make that more quantifiable in the future): Squat = 455lbs Bench Press = 315lbs Deadlift = 455lbs I haven't tested my 1RMs since last year when I was 230lbs, so here are my most recent working sets for context: Squat: 5X5X350 Bench Press: 5X5X235 Deadlift: 5X3X385 Challenge Quests 1. Training: Train Bench Press and Squat at least twice per week and Deadlift once per week. Perform a bodybuilding style upper body accessory workout once per week. By the end of the challenge, find/develop a program that I can follow consistently through the end of September. 2. Macros: Track macros as accurately as possible 6/7 days per week. I will use MyFitnessPal for this. I will be eating the 2800-3200 calories that I've been eating for the past week and I will weigh myself daily and take weekly progress pictures. By the end of the challenge I will analyze macros/weight/appearance/strength and adjust my macro goals accordingly for the next challenge. 3. Sleep: Get 7 hours of sleep each night. I want to work my way up to 8, but for now 7 is a reasonable goal. I am a night owl and I'm at work 8-5. 4. Level up your Life: Find a new gym. I don't like my current gym because it's crowded and full of shady people. I had a pair SlingShot Gangsta wraps stolen from my bag when I was squatting. They have a ton of equipment and are powerlifter friendly, but I hate the overall scumbag vibe of the place. By the end of the challenge, I want to find a gym where I can get my training done in a clean, friendlier environment. To get things started I'll report on today. 05/08/2016 1. Training: Bench Press 5X5X235lbs Deadlift 3X5X385lbs Current Week Training Progress Squat: 0/2 Bench Press: 1/2 Deadlift: 1/1 Bodybuilding: 0/1 2. Macros: Ate a TON at a Mother's Day brunch. Starting off this week with my no tracking day. 3. Sleep: I'll report on this tomorrow. 4. Gym Search: Haven't begun, but I know which one I'm going to look at first... more on that later.

Something has changed within me, something is not the same. I'm through with playing by the rules of someone else's game. Too late for second guessing, too late to go back to sleep, It's time to trust my instincts, close my eyes... and leap! Okay... I'll stop with the lyrics! I realised that it's crazy that I've gone so long without a musicals themed challenge! I'm through accepting limits 'cause someone says they're so. Some things I cannot change, but 'til I try I'll never know. I care too much about what people think... I'm not going to make that my challenge, but it's something that I'm aware of. This is more about the run-up to my next competition, which is the day after the challenge finishes. I'm fluctuating between absolutely terrified and just utterly resigned. I'm training in such a different way that I think things are going really well but I don't often push myself. I suspect that I can make some progress in this comp but it's not going to be show-stoppingly awesome. Powerlifting is all about defying gravity, as it's your real competitor. I'd like to beat it a little better than last time, kthxbai. Anyway, the goal here is to just keep training, to try to stay calm, not to tell myself that there are limits but just to shut up and lift! The other part is to do my MFing accessory work. Seriously, @Jaymul, can you nag me? Perhaps, just perhaps, I'll be unlimited... As someone told me lately, "Everyone deserves a chance to fly." And if I'm flying solo, at least I'm flying free I'm finally getting my lifting classes off the starting line. The challenge here is to get them started. Assess after each session (I'll share my thoughts on here) and gain confidence. This is ALL me and I'm terrified. I also need to register as self-employed, set up my online accountancy stuff and remember to invoice the gym for each session! Not really going to treat them as goals, but they're things I need to do at some point. Nobody in all of Oz, no wizard that there is or was, is ever going to bring me down! Two parts here... Both about being happy and doing things that make me happy. One, get back to singing. I suck now, but I spent years training as a singer and then let nasty comments bring me down. I stopped singing altogether when I got together with Grant because he basically hides when I sing. The goal here is to make time once a week to get to my piano and sing and share a short video with you guys. I'm really, really self-conscious about singing now, so I need to build some confidence back up. The second part is to make time for Grant and to spend one night a week playing games with him or going on a proper date. When it comes down to it, he's my best friend. This isn't officially part of the singing challenge, but this is a song that made me think of you guys. (Yes, I know it's not good... but it's unrehearsed and I'm ill today. )

With the return of Game of Thrones, I dedicate my challenge to every warrior’s favorite character The mountain. My goals are to eat, train, and sleep like the mountain to prep for my push-pull competition, which JUST SO HAPPENS to be the last weekend of this challenge. https://www.facebook.com/events/1531902903773755/ (If anyone is interested! I happen to be the only female registered thus far, easy way to lock up first place. Haha) https://www.buzzfeed.com/andyneuenschwander/the-mountain-from-game-of-thrones-revealed-his-diet-plan-and?utm_term=.ce2vemVvA#.sxqY8pdY3 http://www.gq.com/story/game-of-thrones-the-mountain-workout Now that my hip is feeling good and I’m back to moving without pain it’s going to be easier for me to get my workouts in and start getting my mind right! (and my food right!) I'm going to continue to post my workouts in my BATTLE LOG but might x-post here. I might also post gymnastics fun here, because who doesn’t want to learn about cool shit that I’m doing in gymnastics. Expect this post to be full of copious Game of Thrones spoilers and me fangirling over the Mountain. 1) Train like the Mountain I have training programmed out through the 24th with 9 sessions between now and then. Also have 4 gymnastics sessions between now and then (will be 5 adding in the following week). The goal is to complete all of my training sessions, but also be PT focused. Complete all training sessions and all gymnastics classes. Scale back if I need to. Do my prescribed stretches/therapy and/or foam roll 5x/week. 2) Eat like the mountain (Rollover from last challenge) My nutrition is still all over the place. If you’ve been following me, you know that this is a thing I've been struggling with. Injuring myself and spiraling into emotional eating did nothing to help the problem. I need to cut a little to make 132 class by my competition. If I don’t, no sweat, I’ll compete at 148, but I should be able to if I reign in the diet a bit. My challenge is finding BALANCE between tracking compulsively, yet still eating enough to fuel my body and my workouts. If I don't track, I don't eat enough or eat in proper ratios. Especially fat, I am ALWAYS low on fat, it's just so much easier to eat proteins and carbs! I also binge eat, so my calories will vary from 1400- 3100 over the course of a week; which is unhealthy, inconsistent and unsustainable! Last challenge the goal was to focus on the weekend, and I didn’t find any real improvement by focusing on that. This challenge the focus will be meal prep and trying to get back to a carb cycling type of diet. Meal prep: Ensure I always have protein sources prepped and available for lunches and dinners (aka meat). 1-2x/week prepping should be sufficient. Do that carb cycling thing again: Track my macros. Aim for P/F/C = >135/~70/[<100/~180/~250] based on that day’s activity level (rest=low, gymnastics or cardio=medium, lifting=high). Doesn’t have to be perfect, just try. Start up the creatine again. This fell off once I injured myself. I was having issues with it, mainly digestion and headaches. This leads me to believe I’m not drinking as much water as I should be. The goal is to drink at MINIMUM the half gallon of straight up water a day, in addition to any teas, coffees, diet sodas, etc I have throughout the day. Take creatine daily. At least half a scoop, more if I can tolerate it. Drink half gallon of water daily to ensure maximum pumpitude. 3) Sleep like the mountain I don’t usually have a problem with going to bed or falling asleep, but I have issues with waking up in the morning. Goals will reflect me waking up and getting a good start to my day! Similar to what Thor does! Phone doesn’t get charged in the bedroom. Must be charged outside of the bedroom so I don’t wake up and check social media in bed forever. Must actually get up out of bed to turn my alarm off and start being productive. Eat breakfast. Every day. Before I leave the apartment. (Before the move I was really good about this! Now that I have a more lenient start time at work, my habits have fallen apart) 2 days/week cardio and core in the morning. Preferably non training days to avoid multiple showers. A third cardio and core day should be done, but not necessarily in the morning. Life Goals for this year will be COMPOUNDING as appropriate. The idea is to produce HABITS! 1) Don't be a hoodrat (challenge 1) Look fabulous. Take selfies. Post here for everyone's pleasure. 2) Don't get too fat (challenge 2) Crushed this goal last time at 1x/week so I’m going to up it! Walk or bike to work. 2x/week minimum. Note: This goal is highly dependent on my hip and it’s continued healing. If I am having issues, I will nix it. 3) Read (challenge 3) Although I pretty much nixed my last challenge from the beginning, the reading stuck around. Continue reading at least 3x/week. 4) Don’t be a hermit (challenge 4) Weekends I have a terrible habit of laying on the couch watching Netflix and doing housework all weekend. It’s rare if I see sunshine. I need to do SOMETHING that involves leaving my apartment on non-work days. Go to the store, go on a date with Mr. J, go to the gym, nerd meetup for tea, or just go for a walk or bike ride. Just something so I don’t fall into that deep red glow of Netflix that is so comforting. Leave my apartment on either Saturday or Sunday. With the eventual goal of making this both days.

I'm new around here and I love the idea of having an online Battle Log to consolidate my notes on nutrition and workout logs. This will also give me something to do before my first challenge and give me a place to organize my thoughts. I'm a powerbuilder. I train for strength in the big three lifts, but I also eat and train to increase muscle size and overall look hot. To that end, I mix in bodybuilding workouts with my compound lifting and carefully monitor my macros with MyFitnessPal Premium. I do like to have a few drinks and a cheat meal with girlfriend once or twice a week. I've found that with lifting a lot and throwing in some quick high intensity cardio now and then, the extra calories are negligible. To begin, I'll just put down my lifting program for the week and my macros for the day. I join the rebellion at a time when I am tweaking my programming, macros, and schedule. This is a work in progress. I'm also shopping for a new gym because my current one is overcrowded and full of shady people. My Slingshot Gangsta Wraps (awesome wrist wraps) got stolen during my last session. I intend to have something tentative for the next challenge and a summer routine finalized by the end of it. My goal is to gain strength while keeping my fat gain in check. I determine my macros based on my own empirical evidence and not an online calculator. Workout Program - Week of 04/24/2016 Sunday: Bench Press 5x5 Squat 3x3 Tuesday: Chest, Shoulders, Arms, and Back BB Workout 20 minutes of Max Incline Treadmill Powerwalking Thursday: Bench Press 5x5 Squat 4x4 Saturday/Sunday (Not sure which one is going to work best yet): Bench Press 3x5 Deadlift 5x5 Sunday's workout went as such (all weights are in lbs): Bench Press: Warm Up / 5x5x225 Squat: Warm Up / 3x3x375 Tonight's BB workout at my apartment complex gym will look something like this (dumbbells only go up to 50): Standing Dumbell Overhead Press: 3x10x50 SUPERSET Lat Pull-Downs 3x10x100 Dumbell Incline Press: 3x15x50 Seated Rows: 3x10xTBD (haven't done these in a while) Dumbell Bench Press: 3x20x50 Hammer Curls: 3x10x35 Max Incline Treadmill Powerwalk: 20min Time to hit up the gym. I'll get into my macros in another post. Later, nerds

I'm going to continue to post my workouts in my BATTLE LOG but might x-post here. I might also post gymnastics fun here, because who doesn’t want to learn about cool shit that I’m doing in gymnastics. 1) HEAL / Do less I have an owie somewhere in the general region of my left hip flexor. It’s been bothering me, I have some stretches and things to do. My friend is massage therapist who is going to try to help me diagnose it. If not, I’m going to see a doctor. To prevent other injuries from happening and to help this one heal, I’m going to · Do my prescribed stretches/therapy 5x/week. · Foam roll 5x/week · Rest if I need to · Heat/ice if I need to This is conveniently timed (I guess?) with my program. As my workout starting tomorrow eliminates all assistance work and is solely big 3! (As I’m running up a peaking program, aka do less) 2) GET BIG This again a rollover goal from last challenge, modified slightly. I've started taking creatine, it’s pretty much habit now. But I’m having issues with it, mainly digestion and headaches. This leads me to believe I’m not drinking as much water as I should be. I’ve ordered a half gallon water bottle that should arrive at some point soon. The goal is to drink at MINIMUM the half gallon of straight up water a day, in addition to any teas, coffees, diet sodas, etc I have throughout the day. Take creatine daily. At least half a scoop, more if I can tolerate it. Drink half gallon of water daily to ensure maximum swoleness. 3) GET FAT My nutrition is still all over the place. If you’ve been following me, you know that this is a thing I've been struggling with. My challenge is finding BALANCE between tracking compulsively, yet still eating enough to fuel my body and my workouts. If I don't track, I don't eat enough or eat in proper ratios. Especially fat, I am ALWAYS low on fat, it's just so much easier to eat proteins and carbs! I also binge eat, so my calories will vary from 1400- 3100 over the course of a week; which is unhealthy, inconsistent and unsustainable! Last challenge the goal was to focus on the weekend, and I didn’t find any real improvement by focusing on that. This challenge the focus will be meal prep and trying to get back to a carb cycling type of diet. Meal prep: Ensure I always have protein sources prepped and available for lunches and dinners (aka meat). 1-2x/week prepping should be sufficient. Do that carb cycling thing again: Track my macros. Aim for P/F/C = >135/~70/[<100/~180/~250] based on that day’s activity level (rest=low, gymnastics or cardio=medium, lifting=high). Doesn’t have to be perfect, just try. The part I will score is on the low carb days: all carbs should be coming from fruits, veggies, beans, etc aka all NATURAL sources. No breads, cookies, ice cream, pop tarts, cereal or other junk on low days! I’m still going to allow them on medium and high days, as I suck at going cold turkey and think that I still need some leeway there. Life Goals for this year will be COMPOUNDING as appropriate. The idea is to produce HABITS! 1) Don't be a hoodrat (challenge 1) Look fabulous. Take selfies. Post here for everyone's pleasure. 2) Don't get too fat (challenge 2) Crushed this goal last time at 1x/week so I’m going to up it! Walk or bike to work. 2x/week minimum. Note: This goal is highly dependant on the progress of my hip. If I am having hip issues, I will nix it. 3) Read (challenge 3) Last challenge I did really well with reading more. I didn’t finish the books like I intended to, but I read more than I was. This is good. Continue reading at least 3x/week. 4) Don’t be a hermit (challenge 4) Weekends I have a terrible habit of laying on the couch watching Netflix and doing housework all weekend. It’s rare if I see sunshine. I need to do SOMETHING that involves leaving my apartment on non-work days. Go to the store, go on a date with Mr. J, go to the gym, nerd meetup for tea, or just go for a walk or bike ride. Just something so I don’t fall into that deep red glow of Netflix that is so comforting. Leave my apartment on non-work days. Other things I’d like to accomplish, but aren’t necessarily goals Finish my cosplay by this weekend Buy presents for my cousins for next weekend. Sell things that need to go Set the April budget (sooner than later)

Hello everybody and welcome to my lifting log. I will post my workouts and other important stuff here to keep myself accountable and to have a place where I can go back in a year or so and see how far I have come. I don't really want to write a long introduction so here are my starting stats: Age: 26 Height: 183 cm Weight: 100 kg Deadlift: 160 kg Squat: 125 kg Bench: 95 kg Press: 70 kg I have been lifting about one year now and have been on different programms but for the future I just want to keep it very simple and standard. I workout 3 days a week and I will do the big compound exercises. At the moment I am doing Deadlift, Squats, Bench, Press and Chins. Diet wise I am folowing the IIFYM approcach because that is the only approach I can stick to longterm and it is working good for me so far. I started the year with 106 kg and my goal weight is something around 85 kg. At the moment dropping fat is more important than getting my lifts up but I try to still progress on my lifts. I want to get my bodyfat from ~ 20% down to ~12%. For my lifts my goal is to reach a wilks score of 300. If you have any more questions then just hit me up. It is late night here and I am too tired to go into more detail. So far, margo

Okay so pretty much a natural continuation of my last challenge but with a competition and holiday dropped in! The big things happening in April are: I compete again on Sunday 17th of April. It's a big one because I need to hit a qualifying total (525kg at 83kg) to qualify for the Scottish Classic this year I have two weeks off work from Monday 18th of April (SOOOO HAPPY ABOUT THIS) I go on holiday to Spain for a week on Thursday 21st of April I should also break the 500 lb mark in the deadlift either tomorrow in or competition itself. I don't normally pay any attention to weights in lbs but a couple of people commented that my 225kg deadlift in February was just under 500 lb so time to break that! Update: with challenge goals! Deadlift 230kg/507lbs This is another step along the way to hitting a triple bodyweight deadlift, which is one of my medium to long term goals. I've done 225kg with ease in competition so this one should be something of a gimme. Qualify for the Scottish Classic The Scottish Classic at the start of June is basically the national competition for unequipped lifters in Scotland. There's the British Classic, which is a level higher, but I'm a ways away from qualifying for that. So qualifying for the Scottish Classic is a good interim goal. I need to hit a total of 525kg or higher when I next compete on the 17th of April. Continue to log my weight every day Even though it's only of interest to me, I've found it very useful to make a note of my weight on NF each day and it also encourages me to post every day, which is good. Relax I've had a really stressful couple of months at work and I need to unwind a bit. I've been playing a bunch of old video games in my spare time to relax so I'm going to keep that up. I've also got a holiday the last two weeks of April. I have two weeks off work and in the middle of that will be going to Barcelona in Spain, then heading to the coast for a couple of days. The plan is to be more or less off the grid for that week.

The Introduction Hello, dearies! If you can't tell from the above gif, I have been watching a lot of Once Upon a Time lately. At first I thought of it as a guilty pleasure, but then I started to realize that this show is actually quite good. Modern takes on fairy tales, not only having kick-ass strong female characters but the entire cast essentially being strong female characters, having Disney characters being gay, amazingly creative costuming and makeup, and overall incredibly imaginative plots that totally switch everything up that you thought you knew about fairy tales is completely inspiring from all angles. I love how they address a lot of the issues with fairy tales and make fun of themselves too. (At one point, in reference to Beauty and the Beast someone says "not that I'm saying you should love someone who is keeping you prisoner, what kind of message would that send to girls everywhere?"). So refreshing. And don't even get me started on the villains. The characters and backstories they create are so imaginative I have a lot of respect for the writers who take something so old and used and turn it into something so fresh and exciting. Also, Snow White's character is SUCH A FRAKKIN RANGER IT'S RIDONKULOUS. So anyway, the more I thought about this the more I realized that in all honesty, fairy tales are quite nerdy. In fact, fairy tales were possibly one of the first things that were ever nerded out about. I started looking into the origins of modern fairy tales and discovered that the Brothers Grimm were some of the first fantasy nerds to really make a name for themselves. They didn’t *write* fairy tales. This would have made them authors, not necessarily nerds. But they were obsessed with the fantasy stories of German folklore, they not only wanted the story, but they became cultural explorers, researching at a collegic level the cultural affects and representations of folklore. They developed a methodology for collecting, recording, validating, and researching folklore. They not only were nerds, but they opened up a whole new area of study for others to nerd out about in the future. And at its core, they were fantasy stories! If that’s not nerdy, I don’t know what is. Also, for a lot of us fairy tales were the first kind of fantasy we were exposed to. Think back to the first time you heard a story that took you away to another place. When you were a tiny child, whether it be a movie, a radio broadcast, a TV show, a book. Chances are it was some sort of fairy tale (Disney-version or otherwise). As you grow up, you transition to stories that fit your likes, dislikes, and age. But at its core, fantasy and science fiction stories are really all their own kind of fairy tale. So here I present to you without further ado, a throwback from a way old school nerdom themed challenge with a modern twist – Once Upon A Time in Raxie’s Enchanted Forest.

That's right, it's time to actually do abs. I had just started reliably incorporating ab work into my routine when I injured my back. Now it's even MORE important for me to do core work. So, onto the goals Zero Week Goals (will probably continue into challenge proper): -Do PT ab work every day (I got to level 2 last night! Much excitement) -Do PT stretches every day + pigeon -DO NOT OVEREXERT WITH YOGA OR LIFTING - if something hurts, twinges, feels off, feels uncomfortable, etc I am to stop immediately. I'm 'allowed' to go back to the gym for lifting tomorrow, but I need to be VERY careful. *will insert gifs and actual challenge goals later* Goal 1: Do not hurt thyself young Padawan. The weights will still be there. Continue on finding ways to lift that don't hurt. The new bench setup thing was gold. DL's the other day were fine, but I think yin yoga after was too much. I have evil DOMS, and some back tightness (not pain, but I don't want to wait until it gets there to take a breather). This means: stopping if feeling twinge. Not overdoing it. Taking weight increases slow. Goal 2: Do PT exercises/stretches, every day. No exceptions. Minimum stretches and 1 round of Level 1 exercises. More than that is better, but that's the minimum. I like doing them before bed. Goal 3: 5 workouts a week, of any kind. Yoga, walking for >2 miles, gym time, etc. PT exercises don't count - Post one video to Instagram or NF a week for form check. Even if I don't post it to actual form check, I think I'm just educated enough that I could spot anything terrible by just watching the video myself. I'd prefer to post it though. I have a bench one I need to post, it's on IG. I'll figure out how to embed it. LUYL: Okay, I got it. Instead of doing a food number goal (which sounds stressful) I'm going to do a recipe goal again. 4 new recipes in 4 weeks. Boom. Hopefully this will help me explore food without making me stress about cooking things, not liking them, then having to worry about how to put it in MFP

Challenge is gonna look something like this, details in the second comment below. Eat your damn vegetables already Stop eating all the calories Find balance between strength, cardio, and mobility Get shit done So I don't turn into this:

Placeholder at the moment, but there will be housework-related goals, some focus on positivity after a few months of being peeved at feeling fat and useless, loads of pictures of me jaunting around Thailand and preparation for doing so. SpecialSundae sparkles with positivity Look for something in every day that is positive and share it. Bounce with happiness when I can. Try to ignore the demons but share them to allow other people to help when it's bad. Say something positive about every workout. Do your accessory work (maximum two sessions compressed into one, which means two sessions a week at minimum, aim to do it after each actual training session but we all know that won't happen) and aim for progression. SpecialSundae sparkles with innovation Find a way to get the letter of authenticity for REPS registration. Plan out the first four weeks of the barbell training course Plan out social media engagement and announcements Plan out booking scheme SpecialSundae makes her house sparkle too Clean the kitchen and bathroom every weekend until I go away Hoover the living room and bedroom once a week Change the sheets once a week Do at least two loads of laundry a week Put away all laundry at the weekend SpecialSundae spreads some sparkle to her spouse Spend quality time with Grant Spend at least one night a week playing Marvel Superheroes with Grant until we go away Leave the phones in our room (or at least switched off) for at least one evening meal out of two whilst in Thailand Spend time with Grant planning a few excursions and pre-book as needed - thinking of doing a cycle tour in Bangkok and a visit to a Thai boxing match in Ao Nang In the meantime, here's my thought for the day from yesterday... Any time you feel strong, squat with someone who lifts triple what you do. You'll suddenly feel very weak and insignificant!

Hello! So I started lifting in September 2015, am 113 lbs, and the most I can lift for a single rep is 140 lbs. I have been having trouble with stalling on this lift both for trying to raise the amount I can lift as a single rep and also in trying to string together reps of lower weights for a set of 5 (I am doing a vaguely stronglifts-like program.) I'm wondering if it's partly because I'm wearing myself out during my warm-up set, which is usually 5x115 lbs. For instance, yesterday I started with the 5x115 but then wasn't able to do the 5x125 I wanted to work on all in a row-- I failed the third one, and then did the rest as singles, which didn't feel particularly heavy except that I couldn't do them strung together. Could not doing this set or lowering the weight on it could help when I work on the weights that I actually want to get more comfortable with? Do I actually even need to warm up with the deadlift movement if I'm already warm from squats/mobility work?

Hey guys! First meet report (and first meet) here, had a total blast and wanted to share and hopefully get some advice on further training and progress. TL;DR: Went 7/9 (failed 3rd squat attempt (complete fail) and 2nd bench (technical)), left some pounds on the platform but still set some PRs. Amazing experience for my first meet and reinforced my stance that everyone who ever thinks about doing a meet, competition or race should just do it. PLAN YOUR WORK. WORK YOUR PLAN! TRAINING: Going into this meet I ran Candito's 6 Week Strength Program, which has been amazing. However for various reasons the cycle was awful: lack of sleep, poor nutrition, and just awful posture...all due to a new, non English speaking U.S. citizen arriving in my house (and sharing a bed with my wife) a few months ago. So safe to say this meet was a bit last minute and the training was bit rushed. I was able to make just about every training session, but hip issues made my squat pretty disappointing leading up until the Monday before the meet where I hit my PR pretty smoothly. Bench was feeling amazing and deadlifts felt strong. MEET: Got into the gym around 8, thankfully the gym is only a 5 minute walk from my house, so there wasn't much planning needed for travel. If any of you know me or follow my challenges/battle log, I'm a fatty with no will power when it comes to burgers, beer, and cookies. So I was very worried about making weight, but after some water manipulation I came in at a pretty light 81.9kg/180.5lbs and easily made weight. Brought a bunch of food and a decent amount of candy and didn't really eat much of it to be honest. After weigh in I was able to run home, eat a sandwich, make breakfast for the family and change into the above. The meet started at 10:30, but was delayed by about 45 minutes or so due to difficulties with the computer. There were a total of four flights and about 10 lifters in my weight class. SQUAT: The only thing I was really worried about coming into the day was how to time warmups. My gym is awesome and there are about 7-8 places to squat, so we didn't have any issues of 5+ guys per rack, so warmups went pretty well and everything was feeling good. I just warmed up during the 2nd attempts of the first flight and that gave me more than enough time to warm up properly, but not have to run to the platform after my last single. Opener was super easy (as an opener should be) at 160kg/352lb. I was supposed to go for 172.5 (a PR) if I felt good and 170 (current PR) if things felt bad. I did not follow this plan. Second attempt was a pretty easy 170kg/374.8lb. I then jumped up to 177.5kg/391.3lb and completely failed it right out of the hole. So unfortunately there was no squat PR on this day. Had I worked my plan I should have taken 172.5 for my second and just 175 for my third and gotten a 10lb PR. A lot of lifters were getting red lighted for depth or weak/soft lockouts, not an issue for me as I often waste depth and never worry myself about it. BENCH: Warmups for bench was fast...because I'm weak and use light weights. I was 6th or 7th in my flight with squats, but maybe 4th for bench. Opener again was super easy at 92.5kg/203.9lb. Commands were super easy to follow and I ended up using a hand off though I didn't expect to being that I never get a hand off in training. Followed the plan here for choosing my second attempt and went up to 100kg/220.5lb for my second attempt and FAILED it. My butt and heels came up off the bench and I didn't have to sit up to see the red lights and know I failed. The actual lift felt good, so I took a conservative jump to 102.5kg/226lb despite the miss. Came back and nailed it, small grinder, but the butt and heels stayed in contact though it was CLOSE. DEADLIFT: And the embarrassment begins. My deadlift is by far my worst lift. So I went from 6/7th on squat, 4th on bench and then like 2nd/3rd on deads. My third attempt for deads I went second, only after a 70 year old lifter. Anyway, opener was super fast. 2nd attempt was a very modest (1.8lb) PR which was easy. So at this point I had to figure out if I wanted to go for over 405lbs or if I wanted to play it safe and break 1000lb total. If I missed my 3rd attempt I would end up at around 997lb total and I just couldn't let that happen, so I played it safe and went with 182.5kg/402.3lb, despite a fellow lifter telling me my 2nd attempt looked super easy and I should go higher. I stepped up to the bar and easily pulled 182.5kg and right about at my knee I got pissed that I didn't go higher. RESULTS/WRAP UP: Went 7 for 9 with one complete miss and one technical lift. Ended up getting 2-3 PRs and finally broke 1,000lbs. A good number of lifters bombed out for various reasons (not listening to commands, not knowing the rules (they needed @SpecialSundae to tell them to RTFM), or just poor attempt selections). The one guy I hung out with most of the very long 10 hour day went 2/9 and missed all squat and bench attempts. I, surprisingly, had absolute no issues or nerves going into this meet besides making weight. Also, I thought I would have had a bit more nerves dealing with the commands and just having 150+ pairs of eyeballs watching me lift, but the commands were easy enough and I honestly didn't see the crowd whatsoever on any of the lifts. The meet was absolutely amazing and it really helped that my first meet was at my own gym. I mean it made EVERYTHING easier - "travel", food, knowing the equipment, et cetera, but the best part was that I spoke to about 10 lifters that I see in the gym regularly that I never talk to and everyone from my gym was super loud with cheering when I was stepping up to the bar. This was my first powerlifting meet, but not first competition and every time I'm still shocked at how nice and supportive EVERYONE is at these things. Unfortunately I got no footage at all of any of my lifts as we couldn't get a babysitter and the room where the lifting was, was just WAY too stuffy and packed for my wife to have the baby in. Though I did get to have the kid on my shoulders to watch a few lifters squat and he absolutely loved it and apparently when he left he was telling strangers about his dad lifting weights, so that was great to hear. RANDOM THINGS: Masters lifters are the coolest lifters at any meet. 70 year old lifter bombed out on squats due to depth, but he went thru and finished the meet. Just really cool watching him and he likely got some of the loudest cheers.Two spotters got hurt. The first was an issue with the bar loading, one loader went to raise the rack height while the loader on the other side was changing plates at a lower height. All the weights slide off making the bar drop, and then once the plates were off, that side came flying back up into his groin/crotch reason. Had that been me, the meet would have been postponed/suspended cause I would have been rolling on the floor in a puddle of vomit, so he is a much better man than I. The other one was more serious (if that's possible). Lifter squatting 585lb dumped the bar over head and said bar landed on the spotter's foot and apparently there was a lot of blood and a good chance of several broken toes/broken foot.MOVING FORWARD: Again I was really happy with this first meet experience. Going into it I was looking forward to getting it over with and being able to relax for a bit. However, as I walked out of the gym I was just thinking about finding my next meet and was up at 3am or 4am that night looking up deadlift programs to fix my baby deadlift. I'm looking to increase my deadlift about 90lbs and my bench about 40lbs by the end of the year. Sounds very aggressive in my head, but I feel like both lifts need to be drastically increased to make me a bit less pathetic. I'm thinking about paying $40 for George Leeman's P.R.O.M. deadlifting program. For bench I might run Candito's Advanced Bench Program at some point this year. I don't know and I don't really have a plan as of yet. All I know is that bench and deads are holding me back.

So at this point making it to my scheduled workouts as a goal is kind of cheating/easy A... Which is awesome, but I need to move on from my new easy mode. Also, I ended last challenge with a 2lb weight loss after I finally got my ass in gear and I want to keep the momentum up. And it's time for some serious spring cleaning (In FL it's already back in the damn 80s so there is no excuse with the amount of work that needs to be done to the house). Goal 1: Embrace the Keto I have notice on a ketogenic diet I tend to feel better in general, and it does help with losing weight. I have to stick to a 90% keto/ 1 non keto friendly meal a week max. Goal 2: Embrace the supplements Not a crazy amount, but I need create and stick to a set that helps me feel better and get stronger. I must have fish oil, MCT oil, magnesium, and a probiotic daily. Goal 3: Embrace the Clean Ben (my SO) and I finally got a decent amount of work on the house done this past weekend, but we both still have SO MUCH STUFF.... And we tend to let chores go to hell by mid week. This challenge I will make sure we clean up the kitchen daily, have one larger (1hr+) project to work on during the weekend, and spend an extra 20 min 3 times a week to keep other areas clean. This weekend, and possibly the rest since it's a super huge job will be tearing up the back deck so that we can redo it. The people that installed it never sealed the damn thing so it was rotten by the time Ben bought the house. Fortunately only the top and railing need redoing, and we can save the frame.

Time to shift focus for a little while. In the longer term, I want to move down a weight class, because the other superheavy girls are just crazy strong and I'm scared! I also (very foolishly) signed up for another marathon this spring, and there is no way I can get out of it because my friend is running her first on her birthday, we're all going and there will be cake. Oh, and I also need to figure out how to swim a mile, but that one seems a lot easier.* The challenge then becomes: How to run a marathon (or at least not "die" trying) without doing too much actual running? Bonus points: How to avoid losing strength? The solution I'm going to try is focussing on metabolic conditioning and strength training, and hoping for the best (<-- lots of this). I'm also going to make a more deliberate effort to improve my nutrition. This way, the goals break down quite neatly: 1) Nutrition: Week 1: Start tracking. I'm not going to count calories or weigh things, I'm just writing things down. This is to figure out where things go off track. I already know breakfast is an issue, so I'll use week 1 to make sure I'm stocked up on easy breakfast foods. Week 2: Add prepped lunches Monday - Friday, and actually take them into work! This will be a great money saver as well. Weeks 3 & 4: TBD. Depending on how the first two go, add something or improve something. 2) Strength: Week 1: Actually get some rest. One super light recovery session on Wednesday, and weightlifting on Friday. Weeks 2-4: Back to training, stick to the plan (programme not out yet, so I don't know what this will involve). Note: A "session" includes mobility work. 3) Conditioning: Swim at least once per week. I'm counting this as conditioning because I'm swimming laps as fast as I can (not very fast!) and resting between laps, so it's basically intervals. Sprints once per week, starting week 2. Add one metcon type session per week to my training weeks 2-4. Can be a finisher. Kettlebells or whatever, need to get creative. 4) Life: Do house buying things. *Reading this back, I'm worried I might get kicked out of the warriors!! These are "hangover" goals from before I got more serious about strength training.