Yesterday, I benched 185 lbs, a personal record. That’s two 45 pounders, two 25’s, two 10’s with a 25 pound bar.
This is carefully documented to adhere to the famous quote from the popular physicist, Richard Feynman.
“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool.”
That is a good rule for life, the universe and everything. The quote is from Feynman’s Cargo Cult speech. If you aren’t familiar, it’s worth reading now.
My bench max isn’t posted to brag about my performance. I don’t think that either of the people who read this blog care about the bench press. I want to record it for myself to track progress.
It’s not likely that benching more at 64, than I could at 17, is going to inspire anyone. Search for “bench press granny” and many more impressive figures are presented.
The delightfully named, Ernestine, manages to be powerful and slender. I am configured much more like the chunky rascal, Vasily Alekseyev, who was winning Olympic gold medals when I was in high school.
Weightlifting is for functionality, cardio is for longevity and diet is for weight management.
My dad was going on the roof at 80 years old, and my mom didn’t have significant issues moving around at 90 years old. Neither did anything specifically to stay in shape, but both stayed active puttering around. That indicates pretty good genes.
I didn’t start working out to build muscle or plate up. The objective was to stress bones and joints to retain functionality. Now that I am plating up, it’s tempting to focus on the bench press to see how far I can go. I’m pretty certain that in January, I can bench 200 pounds. At that point, I should redirect to less improved muscle groups.
I also need to trim the fat. When a person starts to lift, it’s not unusual to gain some weight. One attributes that to muscle mass, but realistically, I’ve added maybe two pounds of muscle.
The holidays are not a good time to start eating less, but I’m going to try.