New PR and long time goal - achieved!
I’m mid 40s, lifted a lot in high school, stopped for a few decades and started back up about 2 years ago. I’m 6’ tall, dropped from nearly 220 to as low as 182, stable around 188-193 for the last year. In high school I once benched 3 plates but immediately after realized it was on the girls bar (35 pounds) so it was a 305 lift, still impressive but it’s always been a point of personal contention that I didn’t get to 315.
2 years ago when I started back into lifting, I maxed bench around 185, I got 225 once within a few months. I’ve had the goal of 315 for a long time. Well hard work, consistency, and progressive overload paid off because earlier today I put 3 plates on a 45 pound bar and did a good rep, struggled a bit on the top half but it was a solid steady rep pausing on my chest.
I’m ecstatic that I’ve achieved my personal goal that’s been there for all my adult life.
Now that my ego has been satisfied, I’m backing down on the weight and will continue to lift heavy but no more PRs for me I think, the risk of injury is greater than the satisfaction my ego would feel :)
I’m not posting to brag about the number, just excited about achieving a long time goal that a few years ago I thought was permanently out of my reach. Consistent training with good effort is what I attribute my improvement to, it’s not about a perfect program just a sound program that I’ll actually work and reasonable diet.
Thanks for listening to my TED talk haha!