I am still lifting.
I guess.
I was flipping through my old training journal and trying to find the exact point where I switched from weightlifting over to powerlifting. I am guessing it was around two years ago, give or take. Toward the end of May this year I started WW and as I began to drop bodyweight, I stopped focusing solely on the heavy lifts. It was such a mental struggle to continue to work toward lifting a certain amount while at the same time trying to drastically change my body. The two weren’t matching up for me and since I wanted to lose weight more than I wanted to lift heavy, that is what I pursued.
Fast forward, and I am down a couple of weight classes now. That is a great feeling except for when it comes time to lift heavy again. In my mind, I know what used to be on the bar. That isn’t what is on the bar now. As I learn to be OK with that, I am also faced with the reality of needing some type of estimate to work off of. I could always retest everything, but mentally, I am not there yet. I took the total amount of weight that I lost and figured up the percentage loss. Then I used that same percentage to lower my estimated 1RM on the big three lifts. So far, that has been the best way for me to gauge where I am going to be working for now.
I noticed that my squat was the first thing to go.
I stopped squatting regularly which did not help at all. There was one morning where I went out to do a few 200m runs and I realized after the first run how good my lungs felt for a change. So the next four runs, I pushed pretty hard. It all felt great until the next day when my right knee tightened up to the point where I had trouble bending it. Box squats helped as did stretching and other intentional movements. I am squatting again, but feel very much like I am at square one.
My deadlift and bench are hanging in there, however. Even if it is for dear life, I am still able to push those when I really want. Right now I am looking at this as a rebuilding and even maintenance phase of whatever this is. I don’t need to be pushing the limits of my maxes. I just want to maintain some level of strength and increase the quality of movement in everything that I am doing.