So how was your 2014? What are your plans/goals for 2015?

DylanJM

Gotta love a cliche thread.

So how did your 2014 go? Did you meet your all goals? Are you satisfied with how 2014 went for you? What did you learn?

What are your plans for the next 12 months? How are you going to meet them? Are you entering any competitions? (You should btw they're great fun!)

DylanJM

I suppose I'll kick it off.

2014 was a pretty good year, well the first 7-8 months were anyway. Goals at the start of the year were a 90kg snatch and a 120kg clean and jerk and total 200kg at a competition.

I finished 2014 with a 87kg snatch, a 120kg clean and jerk and a 205kg total (85+120). However I met these goals in July which on first reading sounds good but I did something really stupid after July. I decided to change my approach to training and as a result went backwards in training for a good few months and I am only really getting back on track recently. So that was my biggest lesson, if something's working don't be a dope and go and change it on a whim.

I don't really regret this however (well maybe a little). During this time I learned quite a lot about what works for me and what doesn't. I also bought a bunch of books on training and spent a lot of time reading. I learned a great deal on programming and planning (still much to learn) and I am confident now that I have a plan for my training in 2015 that should work for me.

So that brings me to my goals for 2015. My main goals are to have a solid year of training (not just 7-8 months like my 2014) and to compete 3-4 times. I have numbers in my head but I don't want to write them down yet.

Alf Veedersane

It was a mostly good year. The injury sucked ass but u happened at the time I was least likely to be training much.

Best thing I did was get a session with COH. I wish I'd had been able to commit to more sessions but even with the one, I learned more than I could have expected and I kicked on to decent numbers.

Last year I set targets of 130kg squat, 200kg deadlift and 90kg bench at a weight of 82kg.

Not sure why I thought I'd hit that weight because I don't think bulking/cutting is going to be the best for me.

I never actually tested the squat after COH's program. I had intended to but it was put back and then littl'un arrived early. But I did finish it with a triple at 127.5kg.

Deadlifted 191.25kg and benched 90kg.

All at roughly 76.5kg so in relative terms I did hit my targets.

Structure might return to a degree and I would take a 140kg squat, 200kg deadlift and 100kg bench this time next year.

But I'll be happy if I keep on improving and feeling strong and working hard.

EmcD123

Im not the biggest strength person but id like to post here anyway.
It was actually a great year for me. I achieved most of my goals so far.

deadlifted my bodyweight(60kg)
and managed to finally gain some weight, up from 53kg's to 60kg's
Did a lot of gymnastics style work over the summer and that benifitted a lot
and most importantly ive managed to stay injury free. Ive suffered badly with injuries over the last 2 years.The worst being a double stress fracture in my foot which knocked me out of sprinting for ages.

ive maxed out the barbell at home now with the 60kg lift and now im working on dad to buy even just another 20-30 kg ,lots of opposition there though

I want to learn to do the olympic lifts with a coach next year to try and cut seconds off my sprint times, theyve always appealed to me because of the athleticism it takes to perform them

Hanley

2015 Goals:
> Deadlift 300kg
> Bench 160+kg paused
> Total over 700kg in competition at 100kg or below
> 5,000sq ft gym with 175+ members
> Travel to Brazil, NYC again for my birthday (..and buy myself a present over there), spend New Year somewhere other than Ireland

2014 Goals;
- 100kg @ <10% [..I made it above 100kg]
- Squat 272.5kg [..225kg beltless high bar a few months ago would have left me set up for this until injury]
- Bench 160kg paused [...hit 155kg comfortable, might have had a shot at 160]
- Deadlift more than I squat [...240kg x4 beltless this year ]
- Spend december in thailand [...went to London and launched an online program instead]

2014 "achievements":
+ opened a second gym
+ launched online program
+ took a group of dudes away for a training weekend
+ moved into a sweet new apartment
+ travelled, A LOT (new york, spain x2, london x2, newcastle x2)

Good year.

The old thread is here for anyone: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=88248102

Nervous Wreck

^^My goals in that thread were as follows:

73kg @&lt; 12% (currently 70 @ ~15%) - Didn't manage this but got to my leanest at 67kg and 12.5%

Squat 170kg - Got 165kg @ 71kg bw. Take it.
Bench 110kg again - Totes fails
Deadlift 2.5x bw - Got 2.65x bw (180kg @ 67kg bw

Learn the oly lifts irrespective of weight loaded - Didn't even attempt this.

Don't sacrifice leanness for numbers (as I always do). - I didn't do this but I did sacrifice leanness for cake.


Goals for 2015 are a little less strength based.

• Drop to <70kg bw again by 1st May
• Remain <72kg for the year
• 1 cheat meal every 4 - 6 weeks
• Any sort of PRs will do, strength-wise

gymfreak

2014 was an absolutely awesome year for me...I made a conscious decision last year that I'd make every decision based on what made me HAPPY. I took a 2year career break from work and it was like a cloud lifted from overhead. Don't get me wrong..I absolutely adore my job...but it was just taking a toll on me and I hadn't realised it.

I also regained my LOVE for Weightlifting...somewhere along the way I'd stopped training cos it made me happy and just trained cos I thought it was what I was supposed to do. 2014 changed all of that... I started training with an awesome coach and I'm now happier than I've ever been training. I also went from always training on my own to training in an absolutely SAVAGE club run by my friends, and I now have an absolutely awesome female training partner.

As for training Goals

2014 Training Goals
I'm setting some big goals for 2014...always best to aim high
1. Get coached and spend lots of time improving my lifting technically.Done!
2. Snatch bw..or as close to it as possible so that I nail it in 2015 Snatched 50kg...so only a few more kg to go!
3. Competition Sinclair of 150..Sinclair went from 120-153
4. Enter loads of competitions for the experience and the fun. Done! 8 comps in 12 months And thoroughly enjoyed all of them
5. Foamroll and mobility work daily.....ehhhh...not so much

2015 Goals
*Snatch Bodyweight
*Clean the Big Red Plates in comp= 70kg
*Take more chances/dont always play it safe when competing
*Grow bigger Legz/legz that actually work

MightyMandarin

Overall 2014 was a very good year for me. Since I'd started that August, I had made great noob gains by January and gladly the progress continued right through the year.

Started at 148lbs or 67kg (15%bf) -> Now at 168lbs or 76kg (13%)
Pretty happy about this as I've gained weight slowly and consistently after a small cut I had around April. Gonna try and get to 80kg by late March and cut slowly until I'm sub 10%.

Gonna try and make strength the main priority in my training this year, and also try and improve my flexibility.

Squat: Jan 2014 80kgx3 -> currently 130kgx3 ->2015 goal is 160kgx3
Bench: jan 2014 50kgx1 -> currently 90kgx1 -> 2015 goal is 110kgx1
Deadlift: Only started doing DL 2 months ago as I stupidly thought they weren't important. Anyway I've realised the error of my ways but luckily I had decent lower back+hamstring strength from doing hyperextensions and hamstring curls so I've done 130kgx3, which is the same as my Squat, so ideally it should be higher; I'd like to try and get to 180kgx1 by the end of 2015.

papu

2014

Bench 100
Was on track to do this before I broke my collarbone , with 95Kg.
Deadlift 150
Smashed this , got 180Kg
Squat 150
Ambitious , I got up to 130 before the end of 2014

2015
Bench 110
90Kg just after Christmas so hopefully I'll be back to hitting PRs this year
Deadlift 200Kg
Squat 150Kg

The real goal though will be to stay injury free for 2015

hidinginthebush

I posted this in the 2014 goals thread not realising this was in the go. Anyway...

hidinginthebush wrote: »

Started Starting Strength last week, so let's see how we do...

All these are 3X5's
Goals
Squat 120kg
Bench 100kg (my old PB from years back)
OHP 80kg
Deadlift 140kg
Weight 82kg
Pullups 3X10 with an aim to muscle-ups

Current at
Squat 65kg
Bench 50kg
OHP 40kg
Deadlift 75kg
Weight 89kg
Pullups 5-3-3

Only at SS a week, so the current levels aren't really killing me, but I'm trying to pace my self adding on the weight, adding 5-10kg per lift per session I'll plateau soon enough I reckon. Maybe it's noob optimism, maybe those goals are completely unrealistic, but hopefully I'll be able to make some good progress.

Hey guys, so I suppose it is time to drag up this thread to see how we all got on! Here's how I did:

When on Starting Strength:
Goals - Jan 2014
Squat 120kg
Bench 100kg (my old PB from years back)
OHP 80kg LMAO what was I thinking!!!??
Deadlift 140kg
Weight 82kg
Pullups 3X10 with an aim to muscle-ups

These were my SS numbers around June (again, 3X5's):
June 2014
Squat 110kg
Bench 70kg
OHP 45kg
Deadlift 130kg
Weight 87kg
Pullups - didn't really bother with them when running SS

So clearly, my upper body lifts were definitely lacking. It got quite frustrating, as in the case of OHP, for example, I could fail the lift on a Wednesday with 5,5,3, but then wouldn't get to do them again until the following Monday. I was also starting to stall on most the lifts, and wasnt really going to go with the starting strength recommended diet of 5000 or so calories per day. With that in mind, I switched for a programme with more volume, and I decided to go more aesthetic focused programme, over the strength programme.

After looking at a few different programmes I decided on the allpros programme. Basically, it is comprised of: Squat, OHP, rows, bench, stiff leg deadlift (I miss the old fashioned ones!), curls, and calf raises (which I didn't really bother with, I have the benefit of fat-child calves). I have recently added shrugs, and pullups, along with hamstring curls (after some knee issues presented themselves early Autumn). The programme goes on lifting 3 days per week, heavy day, a medium day (90%) and light day (80%). Week 1 is 2X8 of all lifts, week 2 is 2X9 and so on to 2X12 in week 5. After which you add 10% weight and go back to week 1 if you complete the sets on week 5. Otherwise you redo the 5 week progression with the same weight.

Current numbers on 2X12's as follows:
Jan 2015
Squat 100kg
Bench 65kg
OHP 47.5kg
Stiff-leg Deadlift 70kg (I was initially lifting much heavier, maybe 90 kg, but wrecked my back, so dialled it back down
Rows: 70kg
Curls: 30kg
Weight 87kg
Pullups - 5,5,4

My own thoughts since switching is that I certainly enjoyed the higher volume workout. Going from doing, say, 3X5's of squats, bench and rows one day, to doing 7 or 8 different excercises at 2X12's, was a huge step. Obviously I couldn't lift as much, but the numbers have crept back up in the last 6 months. While it can be frustrating only adding weight to the bar every five weeks, the app I use to log my numbers displays the 1RM, so you can still see the 1RM creeping up every heavy day.

Also, since it was probably my first year giving lifting a proper go (though I'm sure a lot of you would be doing my set as warmups), I learned the hard way how important form is. The kick to the pride of having to take 20kg off the bar so I could squat properly with proper depth was humbling, but my knees don't hurt anymore, so it's not all bad!

2015 goals are:
- To clean up the diet, not too concerned to what way the scales move, but want to get the bf% down!
- Keep the training up. I'm currently working shift, so it can be tough getting to the gym 3 times per week as the work I do is quite physical, so I can be drained after a long stint
- Happy enough with the programme I'm on, though as I start to stall I guess I'll need to move to a more intermediate focused programme
- I learned from last year's goals that I'm not really at the point that I can put a concrete number as a goal, but I reckon sticking with the programme and deloading as appropriate I can't go too wrong
- I've been toying with moving to a p/p/l routine, but given that in some weeks I might only make it to the gym once, I would be a bad move. Hopefully I'll get a nine to fiver and be able to plan my sessions better.
- if I do manage to get in a regular time job, I'm going to look into joining a club. Seems like good fun! Anyone know of any in the portmarnock /malahide /swords area out of interest?

LuckyLloyd

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

HBBS: 170 (150 currently)
Nope - 155kgs. I spent a portion of the year unable to hammer my squat due to injury so I can understand this one.
Deadlift: 220 (200 currently)
Yep - 230kgs. 15% in a year is pretty good going.
Bench: 125 (112.5 currently)
Nope - 120kgs. Hmm, this is my fault. I never gave this the attention it required at the points in the year where I had the opportunity to do so.
Strict Press: 90 (80 currently)
Nope - 84kgs. Currently trying a 10 week program but probably need to look into targeted assistance work to get this moving.
500m Row: 1:17.9 (1:20.7)
Nope - 1:20.1. Hope to get a little closer in a few weeks at the National Indoors but I way underestimated how far I'd already come on this.
2k Row: 6:34.9 (6:54.2)
Nope - 6:38.5. I don't mind this one tbh. Close and it's going to be hard to knock a huge amount more off it without a lot of specificity in my training.

Lots of work to do!
I worked pretty hard. Over 200 training sessions in the calendar year. I'm not sure how much more is really practical.

1 / 6, but I'm not too disheartened by that tbh.

For this year:

HBBS: 170kgs
Deadlift: 250kgs
Bench: 125kgs
Press: 90kgs
500m Row: 1:18.9

I'm not going to set 2k or 5k row goals. I think power and strength will be the focus for another year. If I achieve all of the above then next year it might be time to look into some bodyweight / bf % goals during 2016. Slowly, slowly we'll get there.

Edwardius

2014 was pretty good, I wasn't broken at the end of it! Some bits and pieces interfered with the plan and some other goals fell by the wayside when I realised I didn't actually care about them all that much! Snatched 100kg in competition which was a surprise.

I'm aiming for 265 sinclair at 85kg this year. Apart from that I'm happy to train, coach, hang with the great people of the sport (and ignore the few toxic ones).

Wailin

2014 was a tale of 2 halves for me, literally. First 6 months were great, started to hit my stride after jumping from program to program and was very happy physically with my appearance.

End of July I had a shoulder injury, which wouldn't go away. After a visit to a physio it was diagnosed as a rotator cuff injury, or more accurately, torn supraspinatus. Weeks of physio followed and all other training was put on hold which knocked everything back. Squats, deadlift, bench etc. all suffered.

Towards the end of the year I started back at the bigger lifts again while still keeping up physio. I hit my heaviest lifts ever on the squat and deadlift (150kg and 170kg), while getting my bench back to previous best (95kg) at a bodyweight of 81kg. Even now, over 6 months later, the problem is there but less so. Still can't do overhead presses with heavy weight, or any lateral raise type exercise whatsoever.

Goals for 2015: Get rid of this goddamn injury, get BF to 12% and increase main lifts- Squat to 180kg, deadlift 200kg, bench 110kg and hopefully OH press to 75kg (from 65kg).

chrysagon

spent the last year with niggly injuries, that actually even affected my work, now in mid 40s, im doing all round, weights and aerobic,
The last month have been more consistent, managed incline bench with olympic bar 110kg x 5

seated military press 85kg x 6
weighed tricep dips BW +20kgs x 10
chins usually 6 or so to failure..
front squat, taking it v easy, 60kg x 15..knee iffy..
Barbell curl 60 kg x5 in tight form at bw of 97kg
Hammer curls 35 kg x 10 and able to run 10km under 48 mins on treadmill....
its a start, my numbers were alot better, but its amazing the affect niggles can have on training..
but as they say "Train hard or go home".. Slainte

dylbert

2014 was a great year for me. I quit crossfit in May to take up weightlifting full time and haven't looked back. Since then I've been training 5 days a week pretty consistently and entered my first competition in July.

2014 goals were,

dylbert wrote: »

2 x BW squat, currently 125 @ 71kg, Didn't get this, I hit 130 @ 69 back in September, 1RM backsquat hasn't really been a priority in my training but I reckon if I tested it properly I'd have a good shot of it at my current BW

BW snatch, currently 56kg, Done, current best is 71kg @ 67

Get lean, which will also help with my first two goals , I'm leaner but still room for improvement

Goals for 2015 are,

Enter more competitions.
167kg competition total.
75+ snatch.
100kg clean and jerk.
Get stronger.

Mellor

2014 was a great year for me training wise.
Stop lifting for 7 or 8 months. But still trained 5-9 sessions per week for a few moths, focusing on MMA. Culminating in my debut fight at the end if June.
After that I reintroduced lifting and had a near perfect 3 month strength cycle where I regained all strength and PR'd most lifts.
End of the year had a different training style, that also went well.

Plans for 2015 are
Two or more fights
Pull 200kg, PR the rest
Keep adding gymnastics, nail a front somersault
Maybe give Oly lifting a bit more time. Maybe not.

COH

F*ck 2014

Spookyspook

2014 was messy.

2015 I want to get obnoxiously fit and go lay on a warm beach. Oh, and squat 159kg. Currenty at 114kg.

CWF

2014
I entered my second PL Comp, Battle of the Boyne. I weighed 94kg.
Squat 170kg (was easy, just rehbands)
Bench 125kg (easy)
DL 210 (true max)

2015
I hope to enter two PL competitions, the GPC Nationals in April and the Battle of the Boyne again. This is what I'm aiming to achieve in the 100kg Open Class.

GPCs:
Squat 190kg (w/rehbands)
Bench 130kg
DL 220kg

Battle of the Boyne:
Squat 205kg (w/ knee wraps)
Bench 135kg
DL 230kg

Blacktie.

I don't remember what my goals were but the job threw them all over the place for any sort of life goal. 2015 is looking to be the same so I'll be going for the very ambitious goal of maintaining my numbers!

gazzer

By the end of 2014 I had hit the following PB's

Squat 135KG (Was 100KG at beginning of 2014)
Bench 120KG (Was 95KG at beginning of 2014)
DL 155KG (Was 100KG at beginning of 2014)

I really pushed myself in 2014 and I am very happy with what I have achieved in terms of lifting but not to happy with how my body looks (the curse of the bodybuilder )

For 2015 I am really going out at and I am getting a coach and I am aiming to compete in at least one competition towards the end of the year.