Realistic Strength Goals and my progress

Goals are extremely important. setting realistic achievable goals is a challenge however. goals need to be measurable. Progress has to come in the form of hard numbers running, jumping and sometimes slowly creeping closer and closer to those preset goals.

"I want to be healthy"

"I want to get stronger."

"I hope to lose some fat."

"I wan to build some muscle."

These are some of the typical goals expressed by persons when they start going to the gym or try to change their diet. I focused on getting stronger. More strength means more muscle. More muscle means more work for the body and more calories burned. Hopefully after a while the balance will shift and the pounds will start dropping on their own.

A great set of goals then would be strength training goals. These goals are based on targets that are numbers set before hand. setting quantifiable targets and tracking your progress over time is better than setting targets and a time frame. Strength is not a sprint and giving yourself deadlines is not always the best way to approach it.

I did  considerable research on strength training programs before starting on my journey. I needed to set goals based on numbers. I searched around a bi and found a couple that suited me. Since I had planned to start the Stronglifts program I decided that the goals as laid out by the program would be a good place to start.

As I understand it some of the goals of Stronglifts are:

1.5x bodyweight Squat

1x bodyweight Bench Press 

2x bodyweight Deadlift

There is no fixed time frame to achieve these goals but following the Stronglifts program these goals should be attainable of you're starting with just the empty bar alone. I started the program at the same time I started this blog. It has been about two months and my lifts have gone up tremendously. I'm not quite to these goals as yet but here is my progress thus far:

Start Date: Monday September 29th 2014

Starting Weights:

Squat: 85lbs
Bench Press: 65lbs
Barbell Row: 65lbs
Overhead Press: 35lbs
Deadlift: 150lbs

Current weights:
Squat: 185lbs
Bench Press: 115lbs
Barbell Row: 120lbs
Overhead Press: 75lbs
Deadlift: 255lbs