Hello T-Nation!
I am a LONG time reader, and occasional poster. I am posting now for one reason and one reason only. Accountability. I have a goal, but the problem is I also have the worst training A.D.D. on the planet. I will tell you my goal first and then my story. My goal is to dead lift 500lbs by Christmas and my current max is 455lbs. I will log my training as often as I can, and keep you updated with pics and numbers. I figured if I told a couple thousand people what my goal was it would give me a little more incentive to stay on track. Don’t get me wrong, you will never find anyone who trains with more intensity each and every time I hit the gym, but I get bored quickly and jump from program to program. So I decided to give this a try and see how it works!
Now my story. I have been lifting for about 10 years, and seriously for about 6-7, I have always made decent progress, but my training philosophy was pretty misguided in my early days. Thanks to this site and a few others I am on track and making solid gains. On January 10, 2005, I was on my way to baseball practice with a couple of buddies and a drunk driver turned in front of us and we T-Boned him at 55 mph. We were driving a Ford Escort, he was in a Cadillac Escalade. I was the front passenger and fortunately was buckled in, but we hit so hard that my seat sheared off of its track and I slammed into the dashboard.
Long story short, I wound up with a Tibial Plateau fracture, and a cracked rib(which incidentally was the worst part of the whole thing). A week later I had surgery and had a plate and 5 screws installed in my leg and was completely immobilized for about 3 months and non-weightbearing for 6 months. Needless to say I lost ALL of my strength and lean body mass and when it was all said and done I was a nice soft squishy ball of goo.
But I got back in the gym and built it back up, and came back stronger. This past May I had the plate and screws taken out and was again off of my feet for several months. After recovering, I again hit the iron to regain what was lost. In September I pulled 455 from the floor which was a 20lb PR for me so that was awesome. But now I want more so I am training for 500.
I am starting my new job as a firefighter so I am keeping busy with that, but I will try to post my training and progression as much as I can. Along the way, I welcome any advice or help that the knowledgable membership of T-Nation has to offer.