890 pounds!

So I decided that I am loving lifting weights. I hate to run or swim and so my morning workouts mostly involve lifting weights. I have had a great deal of fun lifting and seeing my progress. Several of my friends are gearing up for a sprint triathlon so I was thinking of doing that but since I would only enjoy the bike ride I decided instead to enter a weight lifting competition. When you compete in weight lifting you have 2 different ways it is done. In the Olympics it consists of one lift over your head. In the other it is a combination of three lifts, bench press, dead lift and squat. For those who may not know what these lifts are, the bench press you lay down on a bench and press the weight up and away from your chest, kind of like a reverse push-up. dead lift is where while standing you reach down and lift the weight up to your waist. The squat is done by putting the weight on your shoulders, lowering your body to a sitting position and then pushing up strait again.

In the competition they add the three lifts and the one who lifts the most wins. I hesitated to make this post and I defiantly hesitated to post the following amounts, because there are those who would look at the amounts and laugh. However I have always known that if you share your goals with others they can help you stay on track and hold you accountable to them, so here goes.

My current:
Bench press - 255 pounds
dead lift - 335 pounds
Squat - 300 pounds
Total lift - 890 pounds

This is the first time I have done this in a long time so setting the goal is hard to do but I decided that I want to see a 20% gain by the competition in October of next year. So here are the goals.

Goal:
Bench press - 300 pounds
dead lift - 405 pounds
Squat - 360 pounds
Total lift - 1065 pounds

Got go hit the weights!