Benchmarked

After approximately 6.5 months of working out rigorously (4 times a week), I've gotten some noticeable strength and muscular hypertrophy gains. I'm stronger and in better shape than I ever was before, and I could totally take my past self who once claimed I was in the best shape of my life, in a fight. Okay, sure I was only 16 at the time, and I did mostly just cardio to lose a ton of weight. Like 30 pounds. I was pretty gaunt by the end of it, so I was probably doing something rather unhealthily. But I live to tell the tale. And yes, taking myself on in a fight, at least my past self, is an unfair fight. Back then I was a first kyu in aikido, with just enough motivation to do aikido for physical exercise (with some proficiency in the art), and I was 160 pounds. Now, I can max 190 on bench, and leg press 400 pounds, so I can do way more physical feats than my past self. And I'm also a shodan in aikido, with a better understanding of things and a newfound passion for the discipline. That and I've started teaching myself how to box. Sure I'm not good at it, nowhere close as I've only got maybe an hour under my belt, but only 15 minutes of guided training? Anyways, I digress.

8 months ago, in February 2019, my best friend had challenged me to an arm wrestling match. He had beat our other roommate, and was curious if he was the strongest in the room. I gave it my best, but ultimately lost in say 30 seconds? Not too bad I suppose. I'm not even sure if it was that long, so maybe between 15-30 seconds I'll say.

Since I've been working out, I wanted to rematch him. Spoiler alert: I lost the match. But it was truly a valiant effort. I held out for a solid 1-2 minutes? Again, I'm unsure of how long it went because my perception of time seemed to have slowed down for the entire match, but I did last way longer than 8 months ago. I also had more progress than ever before.

So now I have my benchmark in where my strength has gone. I will eventually seek out another rematch so that I can beat him and taste victory. But he might be working out more, so I'll just have to push myself harder than he pushes himself. Lots of weight lifting and lots of boxing should get me into shape. Boxing will strengthen me and give me muscular endurance. Weight lifting will give me the brute force I'll need to take him down. But it's nice to know where I'm at and where I need to go in order to finally win. Perhaps I'll try again in 5-6 months, after it's been a full year of me working out. Plus in that time frame, I'll have been able to improve my boxing skills and endurance.