Part 1
December 31, 2021
The end of the year means think pieces presented in blogs and foggy, faded memories from the first half of the year are attempted to be remembered. Why should my blog be any different? I will split this essay up into two different entries: Year in Review and Lessons from 2021. The former won’t be an exhaustive look back at the year, as I have already posted the things necessary for a reader to piece it all together themselves. Rather, it will be looking at the big picture view as opposed to the more in-depth detail oriented Lessons entry. Taken together, they help give a sense of how 2021 was.
This past year has been a year of marked improvement in strength and muscular development. I started the year with maxes on 3 main powerlifting lifts well below what they currently area: 275 pound bench press, 405 pound squat, and 375 pound deadlift. 2020 was a major year of change in strength training in almost every way. I brought back lifts I hadn’t done in years, embraced strength development in ways I hadn’t before and most importantly took more control of my training than I had before by purchasing equipment. Those 2020 changes acted as the bloom that appears on a fruit bearing tree before it gets to its final form. It was the base for the improvements that I made in 2021. By the end of the year, I had bench pressed 295, squatted 415 pounds and deadlifted 405 pounds, both with and without straps.
A huge part of that development was the emphasis I put on strength training in my lift this past year. I don’t think it actively made it to the obsessive stage but it definitely came close. It absolutely dominated my life from beginning to end. It changed how I approach work mentally. Work was becoming far more mentally taxing than it ever needed to be, especially since it’s one of those jobs that it stays there when I leave the building. I have known for years that my job was physically demanding and always kept me on my feet, but the long hours of 2020 and at the start of 2021 marred what that could be in my mind. I realized somewhere in the middle of part of the year that the blessing my job was giving me: Getting paid to do my necessary conditioning. Lifting the way I do safely and healthily wouldn’t be possible without having to take time to do cardio and conditioning if I had an “easier” job. Once I had made the choice to go all in on strength training and I made the connection between the benefits of my job and that decision, my mindset got instantly more positive. There are frustrations that never go away but they are gotten through much easier and more positively. The heavy lifting makes the physical tasks I do at work (moving palettes, throwing them, carrying them and totes of variant weights, etc) much easier to do so it helps my conditioning and recovery. The cycle of development has been very apparent.
That dominance extends to all the other things in life that need to be accomplished. Lifting is what everything was planned around. I have said many times that I work, eat, sleep, lift and golf sometimes. That is because that is what I can afford fiscally and what time allows me to do. I am not interested in being a jack of all trades. I definitely let some things slide I shouldn’t have. Anything that interferes with my training definitely got treated as the enemy. I changed my lifting pattern during summer to take advantage of weekends for golf, especially after learning last year that any tee time after 8 am resulted in a 5 hour round. I have written before that I used to be a golfer who lifted and now I am a lifter who golfs. This is the year that statement became true. I definitely improved on the course this year. I shot the second 79 of my life and was more consistent in general. I have no doubt that all the gym time helped that happen but I couldn’t even begin to explain why. This concept of something taking over ones life isn’t new to anyone. Careers do this, especially now more than ever with remote job, predominantly. I personally have never subscribed that one has to do a job they love, but they do need find something they can fully embrace and use their job as a way to aid in their ability to do it.
Another part of the improvement is the equipment I acquired for the garage. It has helped vary training, especially in the area of being able to do overloaded sets. The biggest piece of equipment purchased this year was a Rogue Cambered Bar. I haven’t used it a ton so I am still very much in the first stages of learning how to be proficient at using it. The vast majority of what I have bought for the garage has been support equipment. It largely acts as as a force multiplier for the larger pieces I got in 2020. The attachable handles for the power rack help unlock the safety squat yoke bar’s full potential. I thought about getting them in 2020 but didn’t pull the trigger on them. I got axel locks to replace the one my friend has. I’ve noticed they were’t capable locking as necessary. In August I ordered deadlift mats. They allowed me to start using the deadlift bar’s whip to full advantage when doing partial movements and targeting my hamstrings. The last piece I bought is an EliteFTS adjustable box squat. I’ve been looking forever at a different one they sell, the soft box, but supply chain issues has kept it out of stock forever. The price to ship the adjustable box squat has also always been astronomical so I took advantage of they cyber Monday sale. It knocked off over $100 in shipping. I had been doing box squats with my bench, but the box allows me to go lower so it was a change that was necessary. It’s yet another support piece that acts like a force multiplier. Learning how to use the equipment has been extremely important this past year because I lifted solo the entire year.
The back half of the year I decided to make a concentrated effort to develop a lifting plan for 3 months and follow it through all the way to “test” weeks. Those test weeks were my way of replicating a meet to focus my energy. I did that after a 12-week program for the summer and after a fall 12-week program. For the last couple years, my lifting has been fairly organized but not ever done with physical peaking in mind for specific weeks. The last 6 months of 2021 was most commitment I have made to strength training to date because of my desire to learn how to program myself effectively. I felt the improvement and the numbers back that feeling up. The result of that process of self programming was that I got a better understanding of how to do it, what that felt like, and a clearer vision of what I wanted then how to get it. The fall program was an eye opening experience, especially the last 4 weeks, because I pushed myself harder than at any point before, mentally or physically. I now have a much clearer vision of what the next few years of lifting could be.
I started the year weighing in between 270 and 280 and never really deviated from that range so I kept the weight off that I lost in 2020. I never made losing weight a goal so my eating patterns reflected that. I have lifted mostly for strength gain but muscular development has come along for the ride. I feel it in my upper body mostly, especially shoulder and upper back area. I’ve had people talk to me about it, so it seems the growth is noticeable. Legs are definitely developing as well. I can see it in the quadricep muscles and feel it much more in the hamstrings, especially after the deadlift mats arrived back in August. I’ve mostly been doing block pulls from 3 inches off the ground since they arrived. I think I can count on one hand the amount of times I have pulled from the floor since so I have been hammering my hamstrings. On the movement side of things, I found that the more I trained legs the better my initial burst and following running felt. I still have no desire to jog or run at that speed so my cardio and conditioning practices has changed. Weighted conditioning is my favorite way of getting that task done. When I’m not getting paid to do it I usually do heavily weighted sled pushes.
Part 2 will be coming out soon.
Life Through Lifting 