DoglovingJim wrote:That sounds awesome LunarTeaHouse, maybe get a rooster as an alarm clock too. Once I achieve making a perfect garden (my little slice of Eden I'd call it) I wouldn't mind to raise a few chickens like you and KryingKraken both desire.
Malfeasinator wrote:Doodle Dee. Snickers wrote:- Publish a novel
- Drink more
- Bench 315 lbs
- Drink even more
- Make over 50k a year
- Continue drinking
- Die young and have my ashes scattered into a headwind to spray on the person standing behind the scatterer
- If I do fail to die young, survive long enough to witness Armageddon
- Maybe have a few more drinks while Armageddon happens
*adds "Bench 315 lbs" to my Reverse Bucket List*
Wow, 315 lbs? That's around 140ish kg right? How much can you bench press at the moment Mr. Snickers?
As for Malfeasinator, you already lifted 315lbs? That's impressive, how much could you lift now? When did you achieve that?
I can't lift CRAP now. I well, I don't know, maybe around 200 if I went right now, realistically 180, probably, but I was young, I was 24, 25, (so, 2005) and I'd been lifting on and off since I was 16. I had a couple co-workers I lifted with at the time, and they were good spotters and motivation. I also had some lessons from some older and more experienced lifters and I ate like mad.
My maximum bench ever was 515 lbs. I got 540 half-way up but I don't count that one. I was doing negatives with 630 (that's where you have someone help you raise it up and then just make the descent as slow as possible coming down - I learned that you could usually hold up more than you can push up, and you're still resisting against more weight - doing that helped my bench grow in leaps and bounds).
I stopped lifting like that for a couple reasons: one, after the 450 mark, the whole experience changes, and it's not just a lift anymore. You are being crushed, and it entirely feels like it, even down in your bones. It's a completely different experience and it's never pleasant. It was always kind of scary for me and I was relieved when the lift was over.
The second reason was that my co-workers made other plans. The one guy changed companies and careers to make more money elsewhere, and I don't blame him. The other guy started a serious relationship and spent all his time with his new girlfriend, a lady he's married to these days, with children. It was hard to do what I was trying to do all by myself, and I didn't really know anybody else at the gym to ask them to help me out. I'm not sure how many of them actually could help me out. I pretty much required 2 spotters.
A third reason, and this was more maybe after the fact, was that I started to feel like I wasn't really following my own goals, that my power had been something that I was achieving for other people. If I'd thought better of it, I would have trained more for just general fitness and maybe to look better.
I was lifting by myself one day, on a safer machine instead of free weights, so in case I dropped the weights, they wouldn't crash because there was an opening in the center. I put 450 on there and got it up for one rep. There were these young guys who accused me of being on something, saying stuff like "I could lift like that too if I was on steroids." I thought "What are you guys bitching about? You're in great shape, you're young, girls probably don't leave you alone. What's the problem?" And then I realized I would have rather looked like them. I didn't want to be big. Being big isn't attractive. It frightens people away.
So that's probably a little more info than you asked for but I hope it's a satisfying answer to your questions.