Comparing years

Since starting back in with weights and running, a few things have changed.

Since the demise of my athletic shape over the past 4 years I have, not surprisingly, gained weight. Quite a lot and quite annoyingly. I've found it ridiculously hard to lose any weight the past year with dieting.

Apparently the day you turn 40 your metabolism goes to shit. But I shifted focus from weight loss to muscle gain to great results! I'm realizing that while I was much trimmer, I wasn't nearly as strong as I thought I was.

I went back and viewed my blog entries during my peak excising years. My squat was at 175, I believe I was benching just barely over the bar, and deadlifting a mere 105lbs. As I recall I could push press about 45lbs and that was it. I never did the clean and jerk, I'd never heard of the snatch, and overhead anything was really just with the bar.

I remembered seeing this woman at the YMCA who was back squatting 65lbs from an over head press. I thought it was totally crazy. Little did I know about weights back then. And this was when I was taking classes at my first crossfit gym.

I think this is a good indication how crossfit boxes vary from place to place. While we did a lot of body weight and moderately weighted exercises, but very little time with us using the barbell.

I was actually one of the stronger girls in my first crossfit gym and I am one the weakest in my current gym. And that's with significant improvements from years ago. I cannot express enough how good coaches make such a difference.

Now I bench 85 at 3 reps, Deadlift 135 at 5 reps, push press 100 at 1 rep.

This revitalization of this blog will be to chronicle some of my daily ventures but primarily to track and obsess over lifting weights, getting stronger and increasing my numbers.

Oh and since dieting is off the game plan (I have a meal plan, but not a low calorie type) and I've been focused on weights I have lost weight. Its slow, consistent, and my goals are much more realistic. So there's that too!