Skip to main content

Strength Goals: April - June 2010

For the last few months my goals have always been around weight, fat and muscle. But this time I want to try something different. I am finding it really hard to make sense of the varying weight and fat numbers. So this time I want to have strength goals (which always should go up). Again these can vary a bit too, but I want to give it a try and see how I do with strength goals.

At the end of March 2010, the numbers for some compound exercises are as follows (able to do 3 x 5):
  • Squats: 175 lbs
  • Bench Press: 125 lbs
  • Rows: 95 lbs
  • Shoulder Press: 65 lbs
  • Deadlift: 200 lbs
Looking at the past trend for most of my compound exercises, I see a 5 lbs increase per month in the weight that I can lift. Extrapolating that for 3 months I should be able to lift about 15 lbs more than I lifted at the end of March. Just to make it a bit more challenging I throw in an extra 5 lbs to the goals. So the final goal for each of the compound exercises should be a 20 lbs increase in the lifts.

But wait! I am not done setting my goals yet. First, I am doing better at my deadlifts then other compound exercises, so I want to have a higher goal for deadlift. Instead of 20 lbs gain, I want to have a 40 lbs gain in deadlifts. Next, my current rows and shoulder press weights are pretty low to start with. I cannot expect to gain a full 20 lbs on those exercises, which is why I want to gain about 15 lbs on those 2 exercises. The final goals one more time (3 x 5):
  • Squats: 195 lbs
  • Bench Press: 145 lbs
  • Rows: 110 lbs
  • Shoulder Press: 80 lbs
  • Deadlift: 240 lbs
Looking forward to another 3 months of strength gains...

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Stats for Oct 2009

So it has been a month since I started bulking up. How am I doing so far? Here are the raw numbers Exercises Squats: 170 lbs, 8 reps Deadlifts: 185 lbs, 10 reps Bench Press: 110 lbs, 4 reps Pull ups: Body weight + 25 lbs, 7 reps Overhead Press: 75 lbs, 6 reps I am doing well in all exercises except bench press. The exercise that is already closest to my goal for end of december is my pull-ups. I can already do 7 reps with 25 lbs hanging off my waist! You can check out my previous post for the goals I have set. Body weight and fat Weight: 120.8 lbs Fat %: 12.2% I am able to add weight as expected. But my body fat % shot up too much. My goal for end of december was to weight 125 lbs at 12% body fat. But I am already over the limit for my body fat %. So I have to lower it and at the same time increase my weight. Very unlikely. I might have to revise my goals, but I will see how it goes and hope to make better predictions for my next bulking phase. It is not at all easy to ke...
12 comments
Read more

Updates for 2012: Part II - It comes at a cost

If you missed my previous post , you might want to read that first . Like I mentioned in my previous post, the goal for the year 2012 suddenly took a U-turn. Instead of continuing on with weight gain phase to reach 154 lbs, I decided to start a fat cutting phase, just for the simple reason that I am unable to gain any more weight no matter how much I eat. It is now June 2012 and I have decided to lose fat. I cut down on my forceful over feeding and went back to good old 3 square meals a day with a snack in the evening. All the meals were regular sized ones, i.e. when I felt full, I stopped. Unlike before when I had to force feed. I felt way better with the normal diet. No more feeling of full all the time. My stomach was also feeling great. No more ahem, flatulence. I was gradually losing weight and fat. As is always the case with cutting down phase for me, I was losing a healthy dose of muscle as well. Come July, I had to do another US trip for 4 weeks this time. And again I to...
Post a Comment
Read more

Workout Update: August 2010

Image via Wikipedia Last few weeks have not been very fruitful. Even as I was working out as hard as I used to, I kept losing weight. Adding insult to injury was my fat gain. In any case I decided to change my workouts yet again to "fix" the weight loss program that I got myself into. I intend to do only 2 whole body workouts per week. Each one consisting of 4 to 5 exercises depending on my motivation. I also decided to go with 3x8 for all exercises like I usually do every other 3 months. Here is my new routine Monday (back and biceps affinity) Incline Bench Press Squats Rows Bicep Curls Calf Raise Thursday (chest, shoulder and tricep affinity) Bench Press Deadlifts Shoulder Press Tricep Press Leg Raise I have been doing a lot of lower chest exercises in the last few months including decline bench press and dips. I have a feeling that my upper chest is holding me back. So I removed dips and decline bench press and added incline bench press. That should...
2 comments
Read more