I hit a couple of milestones this month that I thought would be interesting to share here. These weren’t really goals that I was working towards, but I’m still happy with the progress I’ve made over the past year or so.
900 Subscribers on YouTube
A couple of days ago, I reached 900 subscribers on YouTube. I’m actually really happy with the growth I’ve seen on YouTube in 2020 and so far in 2021. I got on a pretty good publishing schedule in 2020 and have ramped it up further in 2021.
I’m consistently gaining around 10 subscribers per day on my YouTube channel, so if I can maintain this trajectory I should reach 1000 subs (and eligibility for monetization) fairly soon.
300 Pound Back Squat
In mid-2020 I started the Smolov squat training program. I made a lot of progress fairly quickly, while taking on this squatting program in addition to CrossFit workouts. One of the biggest changes that CrossFit helped me make was getting more depth in my squat. I went from doing mostly “powerlifting-style” low bar, parallel squats to doing high bar, ass-to-grass squats. I took a slight step backwards as far as the weight I was lifting, but my range of motion has increased a lot.
In 2020, I went from a 255 pound max to a 285 pound max in the first couple months of the squat program. I wanted to get to 300 pounds but hadn’t really had a chance to test my one rep max. One day this week we worked up to a one rep max back squat at CrossFit, and I was able to hit a 300 pound lift.
I’m not done achieving my goals for 2021. I still have a long way to go. Stay tuned for my journey.