Greetings from a nerdy weightlifter!

[Lampito]

Hello, all! I've just joined Nerd Fitness and signed up for this 6-week challenge. I haven't really participated in any forums before, but I feel like this will be a good place for me. So here's a bit about me and where I'm coming from. 

 

I got really into weightlifting around 8 years ago, when I was in 10th grade. I was always a terribly un-athletic kid--slow, small, klutzy, and miserable in every gym class from kindergarten through 9th grade. Then in 10th, we had to choose an elective gym class, and I signed up for strength training. My reasoning was that, if I had to spend an hour of every school day doing something that wasn't academics or music, it had better be something with a real, measurable benefit. 

 

The coach for that strength training class also coached the school's Olympic Weightlifting team. The first day of the semester, he had every one of us doing back squats. I struggled with the empty bar that day, and my legs hurt for days, but I loved seeing my strength go up as the weeks went by. 

 

Our coach also started teaching us snatches and clean-and-jerks within the first week. I'd never heard of those lifts before, and I didn't know anything about weightlifting as a sport. But it turned out to be the first sport I was any good at. At the end of the school year, the coach encouraged me to sign up for summer strength training. By the end of the summer, my technique was good enough that he talked me into joining the competitive team the next year. I competed in 11th and 12th grades. I was never amazingly strong, but I qualified for the state meet both years and I loved every practice. Weightlifting completely changed the way I felt about myself. It gave me so much confidence to be good at something athletic for once. And I can still remember how excited I was the first time I noticed some muscle definition in my arms!

 

I found a small team to compete with for a couple years in college, but work and studying kept me a bit too busy to focus as much as I should have. Now I'm out of school and working at a boring, tedious desk job. A couple months ago I finally found a small, independent gym with a couple squat racks and (best of all) a platform and a barbell with bumper plates! I started following Bill Starr's 5x5 program to get my strength back up to where it used to be. Then I started the olympic lifts a couple weeks ago. It's all so much fun!

 

I have a lot of numbers-related long-term goals, but the biggest one is to keep lifting regularly for a whole year. I may have a move coming up in a few months, as well as some big life developments, but lifting is a key to staying happy and confident through it all. 

 

As for a summary of me as a nerd.... I always loved school and miss it now that I'm done. I'm a bit of a language nerd (majored in Greek and Latin, and trying to keep up with the Latin post-college). I love to read a huge variety of stuff. Some of my biggest loves are Dickens, Tolkien, Brian Jacques (I was practically raised on Redwall), and anything that takes me back to my Classics major days--Corelli's Mandolin, The Secret History, some stuff by A. S. Byatt. Reading satisfies my lust for adventure for the time being. I'm one of those people who gets super attached to fictional characters. I re-read a lot of my favorite kids' books every few years, and it always feels like visiting old friends. 

 

Also, I'm overly wordy, in case you couldn't tell. Hopefully I'll learn to be more concise with the thrice-a-week challenge updates! 

[Ba'sini'on]

Hey Welcome to Nerd Fitness!

 

If you like powerlifting and strength training then the Warriors would be glad to have you on their side! I'm an Adventurer because...well I don't know where I would fit in.

 

I'm a big book Nerd to, in fact all the authors you've mentioned are my favorite to (Brian Jaques R.I.P). I'm currently doing a challenge and I've asked reader to vote for a book which I am to finish in a week. The lucky one this week is 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne. I've never heard of A.S. Byatt, but I'll check them out!

 

Hope your challenge goes well!