About five years ago I went to the gym for basically the first time in my life. I'd been before of course, but only for a short while before never going back. Also I was doing lightweight stuff at the time, nothing serious. That changed when I decided I needed to actually get into shape and I joined a powerlifting gym and started using freeweights.

I had a relatively good track record, up until a few months ago. I had a minor injury to the cartilege in my rib and used that as an excuse to take several months off. At the beginning of September of this year I finally was cajoled by some of my online workout support network to start again. I'm really glad I did. I feel so much better when I'm working out.

This blog didn't exist before, and I was using fitocracy to log my workouts before. That site isn't very easy to use and all I really want is somewhere to write them out so I'm going to try logging things here. I think combining the workouts for a week into one post seems right to start.

Here are my current PRs from days gone by:

Barbell Squat 300lb x 1 rep Feb 2014 Barbell Deadlift 435lb x 1 rep Feb 2014 Bench Press 200lb x 1 rep Feb 2013 Overhead Press 155 x 3 reps July 2013

At the start of this year I did have goals that are by now untenable due to my time off, but here is what they were. The weight goals are still the same, I just don't expect to get there by the end of this year like I originally planned.

Current goals:

Barbell Squat 315lb x 1 rep (Three plates) Barbell Deadlift 480lb x 1 rep (Advanced level according to exrx strenght standards for my weight) Bench Press 225lb x 1 rep (Intermediate) Overhead Press 185lb x 1 rep (Advanced)