Strength Basics

What did you accomplish this past year, strength-wise?

Here is what I did.

I set new 1-rep max PRs in the box squat and bench press. I set a new 5-rep max the trap bar deadlift. I progressed to heavier kettlebells for all but my weakest lifts. I routinely lift heavier on almost every one of my accessory lifts. Oh, and I'm also larger and my endurance is better than it was the year before.

But that's secondary. The important thing for 2009? I won my division in Grappler's Quest. All that lifting, training, and hard work paid off in the only thing that ultimately mattered to me - succeeding in competition. My goal was to make it back out on the mat and be competitive. I not only proved that I was competitive, but that I could win. That's why you don't see a lot of numbers in my PR listing - it's not that important, it's not my metric of success. My metric this year was being able to step out on the mat again.

What is your metric for success for the year past, and for the year we've just begun? If you don't know what success is, you need to define it - and define a way to measure it.