Public Goal Setting Challenge

[ramonguitar]

This comes from an idea on /r/fitness. There is a lot of information out there to support the idea that publicly setting goals encourages people to be more committed. Either way this could be a good way to promote some discussion so I'll start with my own goals:



Right now I'm aiming to enter the 1000lbs club 9 months into training. This is taking into account 2 months of mobility work so that I could even begin to squat, and now I'm having to deload due to some adductor trouble.

I'm going for S/B/D 340 / 260 / 400. I'm currently at 245 / 225 / 330 with both my squat and deadlift progressing weekly and my bench progressing every couple of weeks. This gives me around 15 weeks to make the progress I need. I think this is a pretty tough goal to achieve but it's certainly doable if I put the effort in and eat enough.

Another reason this means a lot to me is that I've done all of this entirely on a vegan diet, cutting from 84kg to 70kg at the beginning and now bulking back up (currently at 72.5kg trying to figure out my TDEE with nSuns spreadsheet). As far as I've seen, there are next to 0 athletes that started out as vegan and I want to be able to say that I made all of my progress this way.

 

[saavy]

@ramonguitar I'm an athlete that started vegan. I haven't weighed myself in a while but I'm right around 165-170 lbs. I'm ?/?/215, relatively weak lol. I was in a bad accident 4 years ago, spent a month in a coma, had loads of muscle atrophy on my entire left side. I had separated my shoulder and didn't get reconstruction until last year, and it wasn't until then that I started lifting to combat the atrophy. Having a weak shoulder means absolutely no standard OHP for me, I don't have the ROM for it. It also means I can't press a barbell evenly, so I'm currently using 'Hammer machines' (idk what they're actually called rn) to isolate each side. Same weight for both sides, limited by my weak side. I'm making progress, just finishing my first real bulk now and cutting a bit for the summer.

The muscle is coming back pretty fast I feel, and noob gains rule. By the end of the summer I'd like my shoulder to be strong enough to use a traditional barbell for bench. I can keep an empty bar up just fine, but the disparity between my left/right side becomes obvious as soon as I add a bit of weight.

 

[ramonguitar]

@saavy That's an inspiring story, it's great to hear that you're determined to work to make progress. Have you tried using dumbbells for bench? That way you can work your stabilisers and use a weight much lower than 10kg each side if needed.

 

[saavy]

@ramonguitar I have, and still do, use dumbbells too. Forgot to mention that

 

[dawn16]

@ramonguitar The only athlete to compete at the Rio games for the USA weightlifitng team is vegan. Pretty cool.

1000 pound club is a good weightlifting goal. It promotes all around strength. I recently hit over 1000 pounds for push pull squat and if you're under the 200 pounds, that's a pretty solid strength achievement. Even more impressive if your 180 or less. But youll inevitably put on some weight the higher weights you hit.

 

[ramonguitar]

@dawn16 My aim is to hit it around the 75-80kg mark at the end of my bulk, putting me at less than 180lbs even at the higher end of that

 

[dawn16]

@ramonguitar How tall are you? Those are good numbers. I'm 172 lbs and can get 1000 lbs push pull squat. I feel that being under 6 feet and 180 pounds, 1000 pound club is a pretty solid achievement.

 

[amelia008]

@dawn16 [sup]Mouseover or click to view the metric conversion for this comment[/sup]