Good kinda sore . . .

Baby steps.  That's what I keep telling myself I'm taking.  Baby steps toward fitness, toward reclaiming or restarting a life that's been on hold for too long.  Baby steps are effective, but only when consistent, and lets be honest, consistent isn't my strong suit.

See, I tend to be an impatient kind of guy.  An instant gratification type.  Hence the over eating and lack of exercise.  So this is a paradigm shift for me in more ways than one.  I've definitely made some positive changes to my nutrition, which seem to be holding.  Now I'm ready to up my game.

The other night we dusted off the ol' weight bench.  My son started it, he decided to start working out again and I decided to join him.  We decided to max to give us an idea of where we are and how much we should be lifting.  It's been a LONG time since I've done any weight lifting, and even longer since I maxed.  To the uninitiated, max is when you see how much you can bench press once.  You typically continue to increase the weight until you can no longer life it with good form without help.  The last amount you successfully lifted is your current max.  It's a good way to measure improvement over time.

At my prime I could bench 315.  I was about 220 pounds then, so that was pretty good.  A rule of thumb for normal sized fit people is that you should be able to bench press your own body weight.

So on this first max in many years I got 165 pounds.

In some ways it was better than I expected.  I warmed up with a set of 115 pounds to get the blood flowing.  I had this fear that I wouldn't be able to bench more than 135.  It's always good to be at least slightly ahead of where you think you are.  I realize this isn't some life changing number, but its a small win and I'll take it.  This morning I woke up with a slight soreness in my chest and arms that I haven't felt in a long time.  It was a good feeling.