Weightlifting Baselines - Measuring Progress

The one nice thing about lifting weights is that it's fairly easy to measure results. As long as you know how much you lifted one day, you can easily see if you can lift as much or more the next day.

While it's not one of my three goals, I am always trying to increase the amount of weight I can lift. By building muscle, I look better and naturally burn more calories. I keep a detailed record of what I lift each workout - and I'm going to post my maximums to compare three months from now.

For the past several months I've been lifting three days a week, separating days for Arms/Shoulders, Chest, and Legs. I also mix Abs into each of the days. While I plan on changing this routine after my wedding, here's what I have so far...

Note: I don't actually know for sure that the exercises I'm doing are named correctly. I find that exercises are called different things by different people, so I'm using the names that I've heard. I do three sets of each exercise, except where noted.

Arms / Shoulders

Almost all of my arm/shoulder exercises use free weights, with the exception of the upright cable-raise. Each exercise gets 3 to 4 sets, each set increasing in weight. I try to get to 10 reps per set, if I can.

Bicep Curls: 35 x 8
Hammer Curls: 30 x 8
Should Raises: 15 x 6
Shrugs: 60 x 8
15's with bar: 40 x 9
Upright Cable-Raise: 75 x 7

Chest

My chest exercises vary between free weights, bar weights, and machines. Each exercise gets 3 to 4 sets, with each set increasing in weight. I try to get to 10 reps per set, if I can.

Bench Press: 135 x 3
Free Weight Press: 45 x 6
Flat Bench Fly: 25 x 10
Cable Fly: 40 x 10
Decline Press (smith machine): 110 x 4
Incline Free Press: 30 x 9
Fly Machine: 75 x 6
Chest Press Machine: 105 x 9

Legs

My leg exercises use mainly machines with heavy weights. I currently use the Smith Machine for my squats and lunges. Each exercise gets 3 to 4 sets, with each set increasing in weight. I try to get to 10 reps per set, if I can.

Smith Squat: 160 x 10
Smith Lunge: 70 x 10
Leg Ext: 60 x 10
Leg Curl: 90 x 7
Calves Sitting: 125 x 7
Calves Standing: 215 x 8
Leg Press: 360 x 8

Abs

I have a variety of Ab exercises which I mix into each workout. I switch them around and do as many sets (of 10-15 reps) as I can.

I'll report back periodically to see how I'm doing. I'm not trying to become a body builder, so getting huge muscles isn't a goal of mine. I plan to build as much strength as I can with my current diet and weightlifting routine as I can before my wedding, at which point I will re-evaluate.