That's awesome! Best of luck with your run!

An announcement:

I have decided to take an indefinite leave of absence from the site, which means the thread will not be updated for some time. I hope that the regulars may continue to post in it at least a bit to keep up the thread's impression of being active; but if not I understand. I will continue to hit the gym hard and will even be taking up other active hobbies with the extra time I will receive by avoiding the internet.

Ironically I am leaving for health reasons. It isn't easy to say but what I'm dealing with is something I've had going on for quite some time now; something that just doesn't know how to go away. Last night something happened that slapped me in the face extremely hard. So I'm getting serious about it now, and that means my whole focus has to be on my life away from the timesink that is the internet.

It has nothing to do with the site. In fact I enjoyed my interactions with people here and I enjoyed making a positive contribution to the forums; something I was really going to focus on whhen I decided to apply for an ambassador position. But then my grades fell. All my job interviews resulted in dead ends. I realized that I had made one new friend this year from my college that I actually talk to. I rarely go out. I've made decisions that I really regret. All the time and effort I should have been putting into my real life responsibilities and relationships was instead poured into gaming and social media. I made the internet and video games a priority and made my real life play second fiddle. Once again it has nothing to do with the site and everything to do with the direction my life is heading right now.

There are so many things I need and want to do and I have been avoiding them and running to online forums in order to block out my problems. No more.

Cheers and a happy time to all. This isn't goodbye. There is always a way to communicate with me if you so wish to initiate a conversation. I will keep the same in mind.

Keep killing it!

Well that is saddening, I'll miss you RAM. I'll try to get more fit so you'll be surprised when you come back.

Hope everything works out for you!

All the best to Reim, sometimes you gotta change gears...it's tough

This is a good thread and conversation. I'd appreciate if this type of thread would exist, it could be this or brand new. I just want to keep the positivity going on.

One of the best trends seen in recent years is how the stigma of women lifting weights is going away. Use to be vast majority of women left free weights alone and were on tread mills or elliptical. Not that cardio is bad, I just like it when certain attitudes about having some muscles is not something looked down on in a woman.



Trust me, if you snatch or clean or jerk you know how challenging this is and how strong these competitors are.

So one of my goals is the pistol squat and it is "mechanically" really difficult for me. When I first started I could not even get to the down-position, I am not very flexible. I got into the position assisting with my hand but when I tried to get up from there it felt like I literally had no strenght at all in my leg. Pistol Squat felt impossible the first time I tried. Now I tried it again today and was really suprised that I could actually complete assisted (opposite hand on couch) pistol squat on my own. I've made progress but it is still a long road, maybe in 6 months I could achieve a legit pistol squat but I don't feel it is impossible anymore.

I too am glad that the stigma has largely disappeared. We actually have a female Arnold Classic competitor at my gym who is very strong. A few of the "gym bros" I encounter could learn a thing or two from her haha.

I'll always have respect for olympic weightlifters; they are on another level completely. Lu Xiaojun is probably my favorite. Weighs in at 77kg and has squatted 300kg in training o.O. His quads and back muscles are insane! 

I'm actually considering getting into Oly lifting. I've always been more interested in weightlifting/strongman stuff than I have been in bodybuilding. At risk of opening a whole new can of worms, I consider bodybuilding to be a disgrace ever since they abandoned the "Arnold" aesthetic bodytype and the HGH bloated stomachs took over. Every dude wanted to look like Arnold. Nobody wants to look like a barrel that can't move it's arms. But I digress.

Oh and if anyone cares, here are my stats: https://symmetricstrength.com/lifter/ReimTime

You can also use this handy little scoreboard to see how you stack up against - admittedly - hardcore weightlifters in and around your weightclass: http://score.lifterstoolbox.com/

That is of course if you are into weightlifting at all

Well done ReimTime! Those are impressive numbers, should be proud of your hard work.  

It's funny how been working hard to improve fitness and I didn't really notice how far I managed until actually looked at tracking on various exercises over the months. Also, nice ego boost being around folks do not see often and received multiple "Been working out?" comments.

I'm not near where I want to be, but I feel great being able to do things a year ago were impossible for my body.