Milestones

Couple of quick personal lifting-related notes for this post…

1st, I finally broke the 80 lb. barrier for dumbbell shoulder presses. For months, I hadn’t been able to move up past the 75’s. I always felt that if I could actually successfully get them above my head, I could get a good number of reps in with the 80’s, and it turns out my “feeling” was right. (I was able to rep them 9 times for 1 set.) Anyway, I don’t think anyone gets that hyped over shoulder milestones…it’s not like reaching a new one rep max when you’re benching or squatting or dead-lifting, but it was long-awaited, and I feel like my shoulder strength at least somewhat makes up for my (at times) disappointing chest strength.

2nd, I randomly weighed myself the other night. It was the 1st time I had weighed myself since the beginning of summer I believe, and I’m not sure exactly what brought this idea on. I believe it was just the curiosity of not having weighed myself in several months and seeing if my body was actually still changing as a result of lifting and whatnot. I have definitely gotten stronger in the gym, but I don’t take pictures of myself or measure myself in any other way really, so I didn’t really have a good idea of what I would weigh. Also, when I look in the mirror I don’t look drastically different (fatter or more muscular), and it’s not like I have had to buy all new clothes that fit either. Anyway, I figured I would weigh pretty much the same (between 190-195), but to my surprise I weighed-in at 201.5! Now, this was after dinner on a day that Krissy and I took off from the gym, but I have never weighed that much in my life. I weighed myself again the next morning before breakfast to get a more accurate measurement, and I weighed 198 lb., which is still my heaviest weight to date. With everything I said before regarding some small gains in strength and no noticeable difference in appearance, I guess this means that I have just gradually put on a few pounds of muscle. Still, anytime my weight goes up like that I do get a little nervous, so maybe I will just monitor it a little more closely in the coming weeks just to make sure I’m not stuffing my face or slacking on my cardio too much.