#88
Post
by bobmen10000 » Mon May 14, 2018 6:57 pm
No training to report, have a mini-respite until Wednesday. The following is more of a mission statement/rant-on-self:
Nearly four years ago my mother passed away, due to the nature and flexibility of working for myself, I was able to spend most of the last few months with her. During that time I had what I now believe to be a mid-life crisis, or as I later learned the first in a series of midlife crisis(es). I decided going to the gym was a healthy and productive way to let out the pent up frustration and sadness associated with watching my mother slowly die. I had sporadically went to the gym since college, doing a variety of series bullshit, however this was the first time I constantly trained. Now, it was still mostly the same silly bullshit I had always done, most of my work involving very light dumbbells, machine assisted movements and the leg press (probably the most useful and therapeutic of those exercises.) I also ran quite a few 5K races, and while I hate running as a rule, 5ks are fun because you can drift behind elderly ladies until last half mile, pass them up and hear their curses as you demonstrate your superiority over their frail septuagenarian selves. After about 5 months, spurred in part by mother's passing, I wanted to try something different.
I knew of starting strength, had really enjoyed reading the forum posts and eventually used the wiki (not the book so I did not do the program) to formulate a barbell program. I stayed with it for 4 or 5 months, which included my first foray in deadlifting and squatting, both of which (still) terrified me, managed some decent enough progress with some minimal coaching guidance (lift like this, not like that, good enough, pay me now) - 315 squat, 240 bench and 425 deadlift, lost a lot of weight and then stopped because of another mid-life crisis which was spurred by not having an adequate retirement plan. (3 years later, I still don't have a good plan, although I do have some actual real assets and much less debt, and I fine with the government/my girlfriend (maybe wife) taking care of me when I am old and frail)
Anyway, I didn't do any real exercise for next 30 months and spent a lot of that time in a bit of an existential funk/reading & watching videos of kittens and other people lifting weights. Last September, I was diagnosed with type II diabetes after several months of testing to deduce the cause of severe acid reflux and nocturia - note to self, my online medical file mentions fat deposits on my liver, something my doctor probably should have mentioned as a likely a symptom and/or cause of metabolic syndrome that predated my diabetes diagnosis by many, many months. I decided that being super fat and lazy, while arguably super awesome in a decadent Roman Emperor sense, was probably not a great long term staying alive strategy so I cut out soda, lost a bit of weight (enough to move down from Type III obesity to Type II, morbid no more) and reduced my A1C from 7.3 to 4.4 in a few months without medication with most of my exercise involving a prowler and sled. Since I so easily defeated diabetes imagine what I could do if I was really strong - I am joking, not about defeating diabetes because I totally did but being strong wasn't really a motivating factor. Thus I started training again last November, in large part because exercise makes me happy, I consider myself a hobbyist lifter.
Being much fatter than last time, and formerly diabetic, seemed to makes me stronger, at least on the bench and deadlift, so within a few weeks I had eclipsed my old PRs (except fucking squats which shouldn't count) and am here now. All told I have been actually training with a barbell on the squat, bench and deadlift for about 13 months total with 30 months in between efforts; most of that time has been fairly inefficient, the last month or so with the Montana Method is the first real program I have ever strictly & consistently followed. I hope to stick with it this time. I really enjoy working out, training or whatever you want to call it. I need to lose more weight though and learn how to juggle.
