Welcome back to The strength journal! I’m Giovanni aka @thesalvadoriansilverback on IG

I hope you’re having an amazing day. I appreciate you stopping by and catching up.

If you watch my vlog on YouTube you know that last week I was considering signing up for a powerlifting meet.

Surprise!

The consideration have been made and the final decision is yes. I am going to compete.

Or should I say we are going to compete.

My intention is to document my journey back to the platform.

My life is different now, so this will be something new that I do and I want to have something to go back to so I can reflect on my growth later.

This is something I regret not doing when I started 13 years ago. But the next best time is now, so that’s what I’m doing.

I’ll keep things short and sweet for the most part in order to stay consistent.

I’ll share my thoughts as I progress in training, and if you ask any questions, I can answer those, too.

I’ll also share any posts I create or videos thar I upload. I might even send out an invite or two.

So let’s get into it.

Training Day 1- Squats

I’ve been looking forward to this workout since last week!

My good friend and fellow powerlifter wrote it up for me so I knew it was going to be good.

I’ve been working on my conditioning these last few months since I haven’t been able to lift as much as I’d like.

So today started with a little jog.

A quick 2 miles just to get things moving.

I finished that with some pull upd and dips before I headed home to make smoothies with the girls.

I had a couple of clients today with a business meeting with my network before I could get into the strength portion of today’s workout.

So it’s now almost 2 pm, finished for the day and ready to train.

I start with priming my muscles. Because I’ve been active for most of the day, this is quick, maybe 10 minutes.

Now, working with the barbell, I’m starting to approach it differently.

Thinking about the platform on meet day, establishing good habits with set up and being intentional about each movement.

Eventually working my way up to an RPE 5 @265 lbs.

Did that for a 5×5 belt less.

Followed by 3 second pause squats @185lbs RPE 5

And finished up with some accessories.

My favorite challenge today was the side lunges.

It requires me to be present and reminds me to distribute my weight evenly.

And at this point, I had a pretty nice leg pump as well. 😆

After wrapping up the workout I felt really good. Endorphins were high and I felt really happy.

I called my mom on my way home and ate my second meal. 🙃 (internally, I was like bruh you should have eaten this sooner)

Took Zoé to the coffee shop and shared a chagachino, and pretended to make pancakes and coffee.

Went for a walk with Izel. She loves napping while the breeze is going in the afternoon.

Sometimes, I catch her smiling every time a gust of wind hits her face.

Wrapped up the day with meal 3 ravioli pesto and tempeh.

Now, to get some rest and hit day 2 in the morning, there is no running tomorrow since I’ve been accumulating 14k/10k steps.

Thanks for reading. There will be more to come.

👊