I began to pay closer attention to my fitness and strength train in earnest just over a year ago. This post serves mostly as a checkpoint and a way to keep me accountable with respect to my year-end goals, which were informally set as New Year’s resolutions.
To contextualize this, my primary goals are firstly injury prevention and secondly weight loss. Since around 2015 I’ve had the impression of having weak knees; soreness and pain in the knees is what would usually end a run (after just 1 mile!) or a session of table tennis. In my mind strengthening the knee joint and surrounding musculature, in addition to losing weight, were the solutions here.
A typical week consists of going to the gym 4 times, alternating between push and pull workouts. Miscellaneous activities like hiking, swimming, table tennis, and (more recently) bouldering get sprinkled in about once a week. The training and dieting mentality is most like a long body recomposition, so there are no bulking or cutting cycles programmed in here. Typical working exercises during these workouts look like:
Push workout
- primary: squat (with overhead press and pull-up in a superset)
- accessory: dip, push-up, fly, calf raise, squat variations
- conditioning: farmer’s walk
Pull workout
- primary: stiff-legged deadlift (with pull-up in a superset)
- accessory: pulldown, pullover, row, back extension, bicep curl
- conditioning: sled push
(note: I am 5 foot 8 inches tall and all exercises below were done as sets of at least 5)
April 2024
- weight: 165 lb
- squat: 95 lb
- SL deadlift: 65 lb
- pull-up: 1 rep
December 2024
- weight: 155 lb
- squat: 175 lb
- SL deadlift: 155 lb
- pull-up: 4 reps
- dead hang: 20 sec
Around this time I also began to pick up bouldering as a hobby, but was pretty severely limited by grip stamina. I started incorporating dead hangs into a few breaks through the day and also pull-ups into every workout.
May 2025
- weight: 152 lb
- squat: 195 lb
- SL deadlift: 205 lb
- pull-up: 9 reps
- dead hang: 75 sec
- can eventually solve most V3 boulders
(goal) December 2025
- weight: 145 lb
- squat: 215 lb (stretch 225)
- SL deadlift: 245 lb (stretch 275)
- pull-up: 10 reps weighted 20 lb
- comfortable tackling V4 boulders
At this point it’s questionable whether the targeted strength gains are compatible with trying to lose about 1 pound per month of body weight, but we’ll see.