Eventhough I've always and still keep pretyt active (basketball, football), I never really was the one to work out and the only reason I started was because I was in the gym anyway rehabbing my knee from ACL surgery and PT almost 3 years ago. My legs have always been really strong, and I never even thought about working out my upper body because I never could find the motivation to keep at it, like I could with my legs. I would work out my upper body for a few weeks then quit. When I was working out in the past, I would always be amazed at guys my size and even smaller being able to get 200+ pounds on the bench press, not to mention others getting 315 and higher. One of my goals was to at least get 200 some day, but I thought I would never be able to get it. I suppose thats one reason I never had any motivation to continue. The most I had gotten was 180 and I had to work my a$$ off to get to that point before I stopped again. I never thought I'd get much more than that and I pretty much accepted the fact that 200 would be something I'd never get.

This year for some reason I found the motivation to keep at it. My basic upper body routine includes shoulder presses, bench press, preacher curls, chest fly, incline bench press, tripcep press, and a couple of others.

I started working out again earlier this year, and because it had been 10 months since I last worked out my upper body, I could barely get 135 on the bench press, however this past week I was working out with 185, and found it was kind of easy, to when I went back later that week, I decided to test myself to see if I could get 205. And I GOT IT!! I then bumped it up to 225, and even got a few reps out of that before I stopped. I know it's not that much to some of you guys, but I never was able to get past 180 in the past, I never dreamed I'd get to 225. I was feeling on top of the world for the entire day.

Anyway I appear and feel much stronger than I ever have. My body also feel a lot better in general, real hard to explain. However my weight has gone down. I always heard that muscle weighs more than fat, so its thats the case how have I lost 6 pounds? I was 162 in high school and mostly through college. I gained a few after graduating and getting married and for the past few years, I've mostly been between 178 - 182. but now, I'm at 175 eventhough I'm stronger, and I clearly look bigger in the arms and chest. Not really complaining, but I would think more muscle means more weight.

congrats! I remember the first time I got to 225 (granted it was only 3 reps) I was on top of the world!

You are correct with muscle weight more, I believe you dropped all the fat that you were carrying around, then gained some back in muscle. Just figuritively speaking, you dropped 20lbs in fat and gained 14lbs in muscle.....hence the 6lbs extra.

Great job!

Woot.

I hate you

keep up the good work bro. i went through the same thing 5 years ago. was able to only bench about 120lbs when i first start now i'm up to 350+lbs. but i'm a bodybuilder though and take it a lot more serious then most.

you'll be at 300lbs soon if you can control your eating and sleeping.

yeah ive always been skinny....now at age 25 i decided it times to start working out....i could barely lift 120lb....im up to lifting 155 regularly now....but my goal is to get back to atleast 185 like in high school, then 200lbs. if only i wouldnt have stopped...

When you guys talk about lifting, do you consider the weight of the bar? How much does it weight? I know I can put around a 45 lbs. disc on each side and do about 10 reps but that's about it. Is that considered 90 lbs. or more?

^the bar is 45lbs and all of the weights ppl mention include the bar. So one plate on each side is 135 and two is 225.

Nice job Wndu! The sound of those two plates clanging together is a great sound. It was intimidating for a long time. But now I use it for reps.

It was nice to read that someone worked out their legs more than chest. So often in the gym I see meat-heads with huge sholders & chests yet twigs for legs.

^^^

yep, I'm one of the few guys at the gym that actually enjoyed leg excerices more than upper body. There are some pretty big guys at my gym, but their legs are smaller than mine. I on the other hand am trying to get my upper body caught up with my legs.

I bumped my bench workout weight down to 205, because eventhough I can lift 225, I'm still not able to get enough reps out of it to really work out with it. Hopefully I'll be working out with 225 in a couple of weeks or so.


Thanks for all the compliments guys!

How is it going for you now? I just bumped up to 205 myself and I'm shooting for 15+ with 225

Awesome! I still remember being 17 and starting with 105 on the bench.

Not much more since then, I'm working out regularly with 225 now, and even got a few reps at 245, but I haven't tried that much in the past couple of weeks.

Thats huge that you're working with 225 now

^ Thanks!

Great job ... it's always good to hear someone "tracking progress" at the gym and improving/pushing more weight. Just be wary of overtraining (I've known plenty of peeps who were hell-bent on benching 315 after reaching the 245-255 range and they f'ed up their shoulders and elbows with the constant lifting). Get plenty of rest and eat well!

good stuff dude good stuff. u kno, just 3 days ago my cousin and i made a bet about losing weight. i claimed that i can lose 5 pounds in 1 week, my cousin said that i couldnt. a movie+dinner was the wage. well, it is day 3, and i lost little bit over 2 pounds. haha

Congrats.......I'm in the same boat as you.

I'm still coming back from a strained Rotar Cuff injury. I finnally got back to 250lbs at the begining of the month. I want to get back to atleast 275lbs like my college days......I'm 15lbs away!

Keep it up, I weigh in at around 190lbs not bulky, but cut. I want to start to build more mass, but summer is right around the corner and I don't want to put on pesky unwanted pounds for the beach. Sounds like winter is going to be a big weight swing for me!