It has been fun at the gym recently, because we are maxing, which means trying to see the absolute most you can lift one time. Turns out that is all complicated. If you're lifting really heavy stuff, you only get to try five or six times* and you have to wait in between and you have to choose whether you want to start off heavy and go up by small increments near the top of your range or if you want to gently approach the heaviest lift, but risk not getting to your max within your five or six times. Strategery.
Anyway, because of all the waiting between attempts, our little group cheers for the others and stretches and wanders around the gym. It is fun. Everything was good last night until I looked over at the Personal Record boards they put up. My PR's are there. And then there was this new girl.
"WHO THE HELL IS CHRISTINE?!" Who is this Christine person, who posts a deadlift max exactly five pounds heavier than mine?!! I've never seen a Christine, and I've not seen a woman at our gym who deadlifts more than me.
Now, I am not good at all the lifts. I'm a mediocre bench presser, and we've only recently started very heavy squats, but I can already tell that they don't feel natural for me. It is going to take an astonishing amount of concentration for me to hold good form. There are lots of things I would cheerfully believe about the other women at my gym. I'd believe some tiny princessy girl has a higher total max (bench plus deadlift plus squat). I'd believe some sixty year old woman has more strength proportional to her size. There are all sorts of ways to measure strength where other women may beat me out. I have no problem accepting that.
But I am a pretty good deadlifter. That's the one lift that felt right from the first time I did it. And I want to know who this Christine is, with her five pound higher max. There they are, both PR's on the board, and hers is higher. This is killing me. Oh Christine. We start a new cycle of deadlift max next week. I intend to WRITE SOME NEW NUMBERS next to my name on the board. I intend for those numbers to be BIGGER THAN YOURS.
*I'm told that your body is limited by the amount of neurotransmitter it takes to fire all your muscles at once. Once those are gone, doesn't matter if your muscles are still good to go. I have not looked it up to confirm or deny this.