jnickels
05-24-2012, 10:20 PM
The last four years I have really dedicated myself to working out. I was kinda taken under the wing of a body builder in the gym I work out at and have been "raised" a body builder in the gym. It was, I liked the workouts, the thought getting "jacked" and all the vanity that comes with body building. The last year and half though everything has stalled, lift not getting better, not getting any bigger and just losing drive to workout....going through the motions. I've always loved training heavy and throwing around weight, getting a pump and "pleasing physique" was more of an after thought. I gave up any attempt to stay conditioned at all, just doing whatever to put on every pound possible. I was sweaty all the time and had no "functional strength". So I finally realized, I wasn't hitting a plateau in my workouts, I hit a plateau in caring about working, I just wasn't doing what suited my real goals even though I didn't know what they were yet. I've heard of Westside Barbell, seems like an AWESOME program but being so new to powerlifting it seemed like a bit more than I would have cared to think about right out of the gates. My glass is VERY empty. After a lot of reading and "googling" powerlifting workouts I discovered, I found a lot people talking about this 5/3/1 program, basic, straight-forward easy to wrap my head around and allows me to focus on getting in and getting the workout done not wasting time. Been reading reading reading, got his book, reading articles by him, about his training program and just strength training in general. I've only been doing this for about 3 weeks now but it's great to have that desire to get back into the gym. I actually am thinking days and weeks of workouts in advance. Conditioning is something I'm doing again (well once my stupid ass softball injury heals up I will) hill sprints, stairs and other things I haven't done since football in high school. I have that sense of accomplishment back that too, driven to push myself harder and a bit further than the last workout. All this rambling is just my way of saying I'm stoked to see where power lifting takes me and what I can accomplish with my body. I can't help but think this is what I should have been doing from day 1 but, you live and learn I guess. So here goes....