Opening Post

Hey everyone :).

My name is Colin McNamara. I am 17 years old, and will be starting my freshman year at Notre Dame in just a few weeks. I figure I should make a blog because it seems like a "normal" thing for college kids to do, and hopefully my blog can help a lot of other people out with the weight lifting and fitness tips I will share. I have been lifting weights seriously since 7th grade (and was doing basic things like push-ups, sit-ups, and chin-ups for years before then). This enabled me to play AAA Hockey and play in a high school football all-star game (along with being recruited to play football at many colleges including Columbia University- which I eventually turned down in favor of ND...go Irish!). Although I am naturally athletic, I definitely far exceeded my natural gifts through the hard training I endured, and hopefully this blog can help you do that too.

My father is my main source of weight lifting knowledge (although I have gathered techniques and exercises from many sources). He grew up in a poor neighborhood in New York and was naturally very small; thus, he was beat up often...Until my uncle (his much older sister's husband) turned him on to weight training when he was around 15. He put on weight very quickly, and soon the tables had turned - he was no longer the small anymore, but one others looked to for protection. He loves everything about weight training, and he has spent the greater part of his life lifting and researching knowledge on this subject. He passed his love of lifting and much of his knowledge on to me over the past 6 or 7 years while he was my "personal trainer".

Yes, this post has been pretty boring, but hopefully most of the posts I make in future days, weeks, months, and maybe even years, will include different exercises for you to try in the weight room (along with detailed info on what muscles they train and maybe even some pictures of how to perform them) and various techniques you can try to help you break through walls you hit in your training. All I really have left to post right now is my personal bests (so you know that I'm not just bsing you)
Squat- 540 lbs.
Bench- 330 lbs.
Power Clean- 250 lbs. (haven't really trained this since sophomore year - when I set this personal best - because of a coaching change in our high school football program and his new philosophies on how to train for football)

PS: I set my signing name as Link (like the dude from the Zelda video games) because that seems like a good internet nickname, but I will probably change this in future posts