kinkoshinkai’s BodyBlog

Several months ago, before my blood clot and being told to back off my workouts, I officially benched the 300.  All the "1 rep max" calculators said I should be able to, so I tried it and did it.  Not something I do often, and not generally recommended, but it felt satisfying to know I could.

Today, my plan was to be back in shape and do it again for my 50th birthday.  The calculators again said that I should be able to do it.  Sadly, they were mistaken.  Maybe it was an off day.  Maybe I’m not fully back up to strength.  Maybe my warm-up sets were insufficient.  But I didn’t make the lift after repeated attempts.  Still, I was close.  Did 275 twice on my way up with the warm up, but when I went for 300, kept getting stuck. 

So, though today wasn’t the day, I’m still at it, regaining 6 months of lost strength, 2 months away from hopefully getting cleared medically and off the coumaden, and another half of my life ahead of me to keep growing and pushing.