Right now I'm setting mini goals for myself to get back my military body and strength. At one point I was almost ready to get into figure competitions but ended up deploying lol. I am thinking right now my aim is to in the future compete in either figure, physique or fitness divisions. Possibly get into strongman (woman? Lol) or powerlifting depending how strong I can get. Olympic lifting is something I have considered as well but am not very familiar with the Olympic lifts.

@livetodiscover Well your goals are kinda all over. Olympic lifting, strong women, powerlifting are all wonderful but all those can change your appearance in ways you may not want. All of those activities will develop muscle but not necessarily a balanced development. Also all of them can really thicken your waist. Progressive resistance whole body exercises, especially if you don't wear a weight belt, strongly stimulate your core. This is another way of saying your abs get worked HARD. Your abs are like any other muscle and when worked extensively with exercises like squats, deadlifts, the olympic lifts etc.they WILL thicken. If you're a strength athlete you won't care. If you're after a certain look you will care. For decades I did heavy deadlifts, squats, hi-hip deadlifts without a weight belt and now I have a very thick abdominal wall. Have you ever watched World's Strongest Man contests? A lot of those guys are surprisingly lean yet almost to a man they have thick guts. Once you get that abdominal thickness it's next to impossible to get rid of. Bodybuilders/physique athletes get very strong but they also try to maintain a certain proportional look. It's your body and you get to chose but maybe think about it some more, be as specific as possible with your goals so you can focus on what kind of training to stick with and then start beating the crap out of yourself in the gym! I definitely am a fan of strength sports but I prefer bodybuilding/physique contests if you haven't figured that out already. I hope I've been helpful. If you want to keep contacting me about this stuff feel free. I'm getting a couple guys at my gym ready for a show in October so if you think that's something you might want to try I'm up for that too.

@kmdskit3 yeah, I do realize I am all over the place with my long term goals lol. I do love being strong but have definitely trained more for physique and gymnastic ability in the past (circus arts, pole, etc.) My first step is to try to get my base back that I used to have...then start deciding what to do from there lol. I am deadlifting 185 right now but can't get past 200 without bar slippage. (I do standard grip and shoulder width stance) I haven't tried mixed grip, other stances like sumo, or any sort of assistance yet (straps, belt, etc). I am letting myself more naturally progress into it. Especially since I don't have a very heavy squat yet. 95 ass to grass. I am afraid to do more right now without a spotter as sometimes going that low makes me feel like I won't be able to get up lol.

Thanks! Hoping I can get back to doing more than 20 again. I'm setting small benchmarks along the way. First it was 5, then 10, now I'll aim for 15. Though, the 10 isn't like a very comfortable 10 that I think I could do all the time so 15 might be a ways off yet. I also have some extra pounds I could probably lose that would help lol. (I'm at 132 approx and could definitely be in the 120s lol)

@livetodiscover

I don't think I ever did more than thirty, but that was with loose form, and it was about seven years ago when all I did was work out. My workout routine is more about calisthenics now, so I should be able to do more than five, which is what I am able to do right now. I weigh 201 down from 224, I am still husky, and I am not increasing my calories to get down to 185 so it will take some considerable mental work. Maybe I will get 10 pull-ups with correct form? It's easy to heave weight and reduce ROM for fake performance gains but using pure form is a whole other game.

@DZhukovin I love calisthenics! I definitely have always trained for slow controlled movements with proper form and full ROM. I could probably crank out 15 pull ups if I did kipping or rushed through them but that's not how I like to do things lol. I do them slow so right now I'm getting tired at 10 and going up pretty slowly by then. I feel that this builds strength better than solely shooting for repitions and not emphasizing form. Quality over quantity I guess.

@livetodiscover Slow movements are very good for producing tougher muscle, avoiding stress on ligaments, tendons, but after one month of using them very thoroughly, I noticed that my body was slower, although I did get a lot of deep-tissue effects. I needed my body to keep pace with my mind for commutes and such, so I stopped the slow-lifts. I think the error in slow-lifting is that it puts a retard on a person, which is less positive. I was able to bypass the demand for slow-lifting by focusing on critical ranges in movement, while not using aggression. Aggressive lifting seems to be the culprit in causing overuse symptoms (I have dislocated my wrist with it), which lead to impaired performance in the gym, and out of the gym. I would say that a person should separate their speed training with their heavy lifting training, and should use aggression towards going through the very critical workouts. Yes, quality over quantity is always better. Some people at gyms will cheat rep and diverge through a whole workout program, and then try to hoot and holler about the lack of performance of other people. I never cease to get bothered by those high-strung, windy, juice-squirting types.