About a decade ago (when I was in my early twenties), I took weightlifting moderately seriously for a period of about a year. During that time, I was overweight and primarily focused on losing weight, so I never had a prolonged period of time spent weight training while eating in a caloric surplus (and most of my time was spent in at least a moderate deficit, in fact). After sustaining an injury that kept me out of the gym for a while, I fell off the wagon.
My PRs for the Big Three Lifts were as follows (at a bodyweight of around 200 lbs):
Squat: 245 lbs for 5 reps = 276 lbs 1-Rep Max (1.38x BW)
Bench press: 225 lbs for 5 reps = 253 lbs 1-Rep Max (1.265x BW)
Deadlift: 265 lbs for 5 reps = 298 lbs 1-Rep Max (1.49x BW)
My interest in weightlifting has waxed and waned in the years since, but because a renewal in my interest in fitness always coincides with my bodyweight peaking, I have never bulked (and so have never gotten the advantage of weight training with a caloric surplus).
Well, this year will mark the first time. I'm going to be finishing up a cut next month, and I will begin my first ever bulk in July. My tentative plan is to gain about 15 lbs over the course of 4 months or so. This will probably have me going from around 165 lbs or so up to around 180 lbs or so.
I will be weight training for the entire duration, hopefully averaging 3-4 workouts per week. I will not specifically be focusing on the Big 3 Lifts, but they will almost certainly feature prominently.
My current lifts (2024-05-10) are as follows:
Squat: 150 lbs for 6 reps = 174 lbs 1-Rep Max (versus 276 all-time)
Bench press: 150 lbs for 9 reps = 193 lbs 1-Rep Max (versus 253 all-time)
Deadlift: 205 lbs for 6 reps = 238 lbs 1-Rep Max (versus 298 all-time)
Note that these numbers might plausibly increase or decrease before the beginning of my bulk, depending on how the rest of my cut goes. I will provide an update as soon as my cut ends.
Resolves to YES if, before the end of 2024, I complete at least one set for each of the Big 3 Lifts which converts to a 1-Rep Max which is higher than my historical 1-Rep Max PR for that lift.
Resolves to NO otherwise.
I will be participating in the market, but I will only buy YES shares and I will never sell them. I will answer questions about my progress upon request (and I anticipate that I will probably provide regular updates regardless).
Progress:
Format (all in lbs) = Body weight // Squat 1RM (x bodyweight) // Bench 1RM (xBW) // Deadlift 1RM (xBW)
2024-07-01: 168.2 // 156.8 (0.93x) // 167.6 (1.00x) // 208.2 (1.24x)
2024-07-08: 171.0 // 193.4 (1.13x) // 193.4 (1.13x) // 234.0 (1.37x)
2024-07-15: 172.4 // 193.4 (1.12x) // 200.1 (1.16x) // 246.0 (1.43x)
[Hiatus]
1,000
1.00In the interest of disclosure (and to the benefit of whoever reads this first), I'll go on record saying that there is essentially 0% chance of this resolving YES. During my attempt at bulking, I did not see any meaningful increases in my big three lifts, and I've now transitioned back to cutting.
Even if a change in training variables results in beneficial changes, I don't think there's any way I hit all-time PRs in all three lifts before the end of the year. Perhaps leave a 5% chance for the possibility that I have an existential crisis in the next couple of weeks and hop on steroids, but otherwise I'd say this is free mana.
Apologies to all other YES bettors; I'm happy to pump some extra mana into the market at your request so you can recoup any losses.
Bet you down to 50% to give you some motivation. Let's see them gainz
I appreciate the motivation! It's also a good bet, because my strength on the big three has not been progressing much despite things going relatively well in the gym otherwise, and I might consider doing another weight cut at some point rather than continuing to bulk despite not getting strong. We'll see!
No increases this week. All of my accessory lifts are increasing but I didn't push any of my big three lifts this week. I'm realizing that I need to spend some time working on my squat form to address some asymmetries before I can really afford to push the weight. I'm probably going to hold off with the weekly updates until I get a few things sorted out; it's safe to assume until then that I haven't made much progress.