Bucket Lift

Image by @bitterirony using DAL•W

I didn‘t have time to work out today. I had a packed work schedule and a plane to catch later tonight. But I jammed it in anyway. And though the angel on my right shoulder said to play it safe, just do the same lifts as last week, the devil on my left shoulder said I was close enough to go for my bucket list workout, my dream lift, if I could just stop being such a [REDACTED]. Sorry, left shoulder demon is NSFW.

So I flicked right shoulder angel off onto some guy walking on a treadmill and loaded up the bar on the squat rack. I faced the bar, got a solid grip, quoted Ronnie Coleman saying “Easy Lift” and then eased 315 pounds off the rack and squatted 5 times. I couldn’t believe it then anymore than I did when I repeated those five reps two more times.

This was a lift I had aspired to from the first time I walked into a real “lifting gym”. Three plates. I couldn’t believe I could still walk. But I did. I walked around and re-set the rack for a bench press . . . with TWO PLATES! That’s right, 225 lbs suspended above my head as I lifted the bar off the hooks. I was only up for three sets of three for this particular bucket (and the last set was a little wobbley) but I did it. I don’t know why this particular combination was so meaningful to me but “Squatting three plates and bench pressing two” had always been the dream. And now I had done it between work meetings because my left shoulder devil was calling me names.

So what’s next for me? Fame, fortune, obviously, but maybe, just maybe, I could also re-set those buckets to squatting four and bench pressing three! 😈