Mike (10/5, 10/7) : First Post, First Week Back

First serious week back in the gym for me after the long masters thesis crush and then the trip back home to California.

I've reverted back to a Monday, Wednesday, Friday @ 5/6pm schedule for the time being because a) it fits a lot better with my current schedule and b) it's mentally familiar because it's the schedule I was on last year when I made most of my gains. Over the next couple weeks. I'll start working in cardio on Tuesday/Thursday so I can catch up with you guys.

My main focus for the week was to explore how much strength I had lost during my absence and lay out fitness goals for the coming months.

10/5: Front Squat, Back Squat, Deadlift

10/7: Bench, Standing Shoulder Press, Weighted Dips

The workouts were fairly unstructured so no reps or weights listed. Feels like my core strength has come down quite a bit and while I can still put up a reasonable amount of weight, it doesn't feel as comfortable as before.

As to my goals, my single-rep maxes before I disappeared were along the lines of 315# Front Squat, 380# Back Squat, 470# Deadlift, 270# Bench (bench form is particularly poor), 75 Kg Snatch, 110 Kg Clean. I was about 199 lbs while losing weight and still making weekly strength gains. I had also been working on my mile time and had it down to a pretty comfortable 5:45.

Unfortunately, I've now probably lost a good 20% percent on my lifts (at best) and my cardio is pretty shabby. I'm still thinking about my exact goals but I imagine my first goal will be getting back to my previous maxes at a slightly lower weight.