Weightlifting

I started going to the gym when I was about 18 years old (2017) because I wanted to be stronger than my dad. I was also inspired by Zyzz and by a serious injury I got when I was only 17. I had been to the gym for a little bit before the injury but without knowing how to train or how to push myself.

I've never followed an actual programme, I just enjoy lifting weights and most days I just do whichever compound I feel like, I spent my first year at the gym squatting almost every second day, some days totalling over 250 reps (with 60-10kgs). I used to keep a pen and paper journal of my workouts I'd say for about 2 years worth of training. I ought to create a page for my gym journal style and breakdown of how I tracked things and rated workouts. TODO.

I spent almost all of 2018 working on my bench press, since I had just achieved 100kgs at the beginning of the year which took about 4 or 5 months since I started training. I would bench every second or third day and almost always work up to my max, I would PR either singles, doubles or triples once a week until I was up to 120kgs for doubles. Then began the long road to 140kgs which took about 2.5 more years.
I finally benched 140kgs on the 12 May 2021 In the morning before work while fasted, I'd had a black coffee and was listening to Fatal Illusion by Megadeath.

My bench has gone up so slowly since then its not even funny, currently when I go for my max I get stuck at the bottom. I have enjoyed taking a step back from singles and doing higher reps, my all time strongest bench is actually 112.5kg x 10. If you put that through the 1rm calculator it says its equivalent to about 150kg x 1... I wish...

My deadlift sucks & I don't train it, LMAO!

I am 6'2 / 188cm

Bench press

122.5 x 10 @ 89kg bw Dec 2023

147.5kg x 1 @ 91.5kg bw early 2023

100kg x 17 @ 97kg bw early 2022

Squat

192.5kg x 1 @ 95.5kg bw start 2023

180kg x 5 @ 95.5kg bw start 2023

Deadlift

190kg x 1 @89kg bw Dec 2023

180kg x 1 @ 98kg bw mid 2022 (terrible progress)

Milestone photos

My first 2 plate bench

This was technically my second, but it was about 5 minutes after my first :)

My first 3 plate squat

Whether or not this was low enough doen't matter now that i hit over 4 pl8

Both these lifts where done early in 2018, right after moving back from Melbourne to Perth. At the time my bodyweight was a cool 100kgs. Funny to look back and see how needlessly fat I got, I was definitely feeling of being a big guy though!

Worth noting that my bodyweight skyrocketed from 70ish kgs mid 2017