Finally got the blog up and running!

Hello there, and welcome to my blog!

I intend to use this as a personal outlet to track things about myself, my training and adventures in the fitness world... plus anything else I can think of. I've been meaning to use an online journal (again) for the longest time, but only recently have I decided to put my thoughts out on the web. It doesn't matter if anyone else reads this, but I was inspired to put down some thoughts since I read numerous sites and forums, and so that I don't keep running the same, tired topics with my boyfriend. Online forums are fun to browse through, but it's not a sufficient outlet for me when I want to rant on my own. I'm not used to writing like this, but I thought it would be fun for myself.

Last night, I decided to look for a possible powerlifting meet to compete in the future, and I found one - the Quad City Power-Palooza meet in Moline, IL on August 27, 2011. Five months prep to heal up and try to break some personal bests? Do-able. Am I going to compete? Not completely sure yet, but I'd been slacking lately. Sometimes I have a bad day keeping my energy levels up, or I had a late night and hardly any sleep... Sure, that's attributed to some poor sleep planning, but other days I'm just missing that inspiration. Watching random videos and talking about working out might get me wanting to hit the gym and do my body good.

Today though, I had to draw on some other kind of focus. Life isn't terrible for me, but certain things can bring me down pretty quick. I've wanted to become physically strong- really strong- for as long as I could remember. Why? I grew up playing with my brothers, and can be described as "tomboyish," though more of my feminine qualities shine from time to time. It probably stems from my competitive nature, but I believe that the strong survive; strong of body, mind, and heart. At the very least, I want to be physically strong enough to help others, especially those I keep close. I feel passionate about my lifting because it really, really feels like something  I am good at, and that feeling is currently lacking in other parts of my life.

I look to draw my inspiration from wanting to perform well at that meet, as well as increase my overall strength. I hope that even if I don't go through with competing in August, I can maintain a productive routine for myself.

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4:55AM. On a different day, I would be on my way south to workout with Abigail, but here I am, starting my new blog... I have to write something about my workout last night at least! I track my stats with GymBuddy on my iPod while I'm at the gym, but I don't put down much feedback besides my sets/reps, exercises, and minor comments in the app. At least I've disciplined myself to tracking my work and backing up the database! It's pretty cool to see my logs from months ago compared to now... plus, you have to figure out if you're progressing or not, right?

A personal goal for myself - Get better at organizing workouts! I have a bad habit of thinking about a general group of muscles for the day (typical chest/triceps/shoulders, back/biceps, legs breakdown) and using it as an outline... a very, very rough outline. BAD! In the words of Alton Brown, "Organization will set you free!!" At least the exercises are grouped into the general muscle groups...

It's a bit late so I'm going to make this brief.

Workout for tonight included:
-Barbell bench pressing in the power cage (inspired by wanting to train for the meet), wrist wraps for last sets up to 130#(pounds)
-Overhead barbell squat (OHSQ) up to 95x5x2 (weight/reps/sets) ...or 5x2/95 (sets/reps/weight)-"T" Pushups
-Flat dumbbell benching x3 sets, up to 65# with wraps (felt like I could use the stability today)
-Dips with 50# weight, last set supersetted unweighted
-Shoulder press DB one arm Arnold-style
-Anterior DB raise, left arm only. Seems like after the dips, I noticed that my left arm wasn't getting nearly as pumped in the front, and the tricep doesn't seem to activate quite as well as the right...
-Hanging leg raises, legs slightly bent
-Twist with DB on stability ball, two sets only, mentally burned out.