So I finally made it to Florida, and in one piece. I was off lifting for about 2 weeks due to the drive and family obligations, etc. It was nice to spend some time with the girlfriend without feeling obligated to lift though. But I finally hit the school gym for a few days. Did some bench and deadlift ramp ups on consecutive days.

The school gym is huge and they have a variety of squat racks and deadlift platforms (which no-one is ever using). But nobody seems to concerned with actually getting strong. Most people just seem to be working on their arms. They only have 2 benches, and you can't bring your gym bag on the floor, which is shit. Overall a good facility though and I think I'll be able to make some gains there.

My first two workouts were crap, as I was coming off a de-load. Trevor and his brother and I are going to do some bench work today...but we went out to Hard Rock last night and got toasted. If I can keep from booting all over the bench it will be a miracle...

So I am in Placerville, CA visiting my girlfriend this week. I have some time off before I start medical school in August. I was hoping to be able to use the time to set some new PRs and to put on a few pounds.

I went to Mallory's family gym first. I turned out to be an executive gym. The only real weight there was attached to a Smith Machine (f'in Smith Machines). I was going to try to make the best of a bad situation, but ended up screwing up my shoulder doing some bench work. Also, I scared the shit out of the old folks working on the machines and ellipticals. So much for that...

I tracked down a real gym with a squat rack and power rack the next day. I sweet talked them into giving me a free pass and got two good workouts in. I did some box squatting on Monday, and debated squat technique with one of the bodybuilding types there. Tuesday I did some more bench work and actually managed to bench 275, even though my shoulder was still bothering me.

Of course I ended up getting a respiratory infection immediately after and am completely laid up. Feeling better after some antibiotics, and am using this time to try to mass up a little and recover. Hopefully back at it on Monday to do some speed work.

So I decided to do this partly to keep track of my progress, partly out of boredom, and partly in hopes that somebody out there in the internets might give me some tips after reading my posts.

I have been lifting seriously now for about 9 months, and got onto the powerlifting train about 5 months ago. I started out just trying to gain lean muscle so I could run faster, but then got hooked on the power after I started deadlifting.

Over the last 5 months I've put on about 50 lbs. I'm now about 5'10" and 205 lbs. I've been using mainly Westside Method.

My current 1 rep maxes stand at:

Bench: 275

Deadlift: 405

Squat: 405