Kinda proud to have gotten here.

I tore/detached a muscle in my lower back when I was 17, and kinda dodged DLs my whole life until giving them a shot a couple years ago.

Gave up on them when I couldn't groove it and felt it was a risk, but worked on them on/off over the last summer/fall until digging in 12/19.

For my weight and overall experience lifting, this is not impressive.

But it represents my fear; the risk of losing the thing I love to pursue most if I get hurt, and my humility, a lift I am terrible at in both experience and leverages.

315 was my 1RM in Feb. It's my 5x5 now.

More importantly, overcoming it has opened new doors for me in that I was able to learn from the experience and question other lifts I'd avoided (barbell overhead press) that are really good for me, and it enabled what's quickly becoming a new passion: olympic-style weightlifting

I had these wants/goals before the quarantine started, but if the progress since can be reduced down to a cohesive "lesson" it'd probably be to just let go of previous fears and assumptions and try new or dismissed things in earnest.

Let yourself suck and be vulnerable.