Pressing

I am contemplating participating in the Kansas City Corporate Challenge with mckitterick and madmatmax for KU's weightlifting team. My decision depends on two things:

1. The deadline for registering is midnight tonight and not 5:00pm

because

2. I want to see what I can bench press now, pre-training, before I sign up to make an idiot of myself

I hate that they have bench press as the test for weightlifting, but I suppose that's safer than dead lifts or squats since there's less chance of people doin' it rong.

Their point system is (fortunately) based on the weight of the participant, so this is good motivation to get my arms back in shape and lose this last bit of extra fat hanging around my bottom half. To place in the lower third of last year's competitors*, I need to be able to press at least 80 pounds at my current weight (currently 63kg). The last time I did any sort of bench press was when I was using the Nautilus machines at Robinson back in the 90s. I have no clue what weight I was lifting then, so I can't even hazard a guess about what I could lift now.

At miischelle's salon this weekend, I discovered my arms and abs were even more atrophied than I'd thought. Not cool, since arms (obviously) and core (perhaps not so obviously) are crucial to benching a respectable weight. So. Yeah.

Pressure! Shame is a powerful motivator.

* I am fine being in the lower third. I just don't want to be in the bottom three overall.