Saturday, April 5, 2014

Goals for Summer/Next meet Oct 2014


So next meet is a good distance away. I figured id share some of my personal goals...

Obviously hitting 1700 is a nice mark to shoot for, but honestly more important to me would be to break solidly into the 600s on the squat and 500s on the bench in the same 3 year old single ply stuff. That would mean I am getting stronger.

If I can pull that off before making the switch to multiply, I think we can see some real nice gains once I do.


My deadlift we will continue to grow and I should be knocking on the door of 600 raw.

I did some more analyzing of my squat, and I realized the difference between my first and second attempts were that we tightened up the straps which I think contributed to throwing me forward. I need to do more training work with the straps tighter.

I always did my training work straps up ... but they were always set real loose. Mistake.

... Just some thoughts for the summer..


Missed Squat 2nd attempt.. lost footing..thrown forward..
 






My experiences with Brian Carroll, powerlifter and coach..

With the huge number of people out there offering coaching services, I want to share my personal experience with Brian Carroll and his coaching. I reached out to Brian about 10 months ago stuck at a plateau where I was having trouble hitting depth, and putting all my best “gym” lifts together on a platform. I knew I needed some help. At 41 years old, my biggest concern was making progress on my lifts – injury free. The year before, I had suffered a back muscle strain from improperly deadlifting. This had set my training back 6 months at least. My long-term personal goal is to achieve a Pro total – and I also knew if I kept getting injured and set back like this, my “biological timeclock” was going to run out before I hit my goals.

Brian set me up on a 10 week program built around my goals. At first I looked at it, and I was like “Hey, why don’t we do this, or that?” .. and he said “Trust me, let me steer the ship.” .. he was right. If you are going to hook up with Brian, you need to be all-in and trust him – or don’t waste your time and money.

If you are willing to put your trust in him, and WORK HARD, (more on this later..) you will get results. Period. Its not black magic. Its just when you combine your hard work and dedication with his experience and coaching , good things happen. Regarding working hard – here’s the deal. When I saw the first 10 weeks, I said “Brian, I’ve never squatted and deadlifted both on the same day.” .. he said “Well, you have to at a meet, don’t you?” .. Game on. It was not just about getting stronger, but also making sure I could perform my best all on meet day.

The best part of following his programming, is it gives you the lifter one less thing to think about. Don’t worry about what you are going to do at training tonight. Just trust the program, and do your lifts. Regarding working hard – if you think Brian or anyone else is going to magically make you a pro lifter without working hard – stay home. Getting results requires dedicating yourself to your training and making sacrifices where necessary. I have a wife and 5 kids. If I can train 3-4 days a week, so can you. Stop making excuses and hoping for some magic results. Its 3 days before Christmas, get up early and train. Its family vacation during the summer. “Hey babe, its Monday.. I gotta go squat. Take the kids to the pool. I’ll be back in 2 hours.” .. if you bring the hard work and dedication – you will get the results with Brian.

I’d say 70% of the success comes from his adaptive programming, but at least 30% of it comes from Brian’s psychological coaching, and teaching you how to make your openers reliable, pick reasonable attempts, and peak on meet day so you can hit your best lifts. He is always asking questions like “How do you feel? What do you think about this or that?” .. and that’s a HUGE part of the game I’ve found.. come meet day.. its all about making your lifts, not “calculated misses” from an over-stroked ego.

In closing, I’ve done two meets since we hooked up last may, and in October I put 110lbs on my total, and PR’d on all 3 lifts.. and just this weekend, I put another 50lbs on my total, and again PR’d on all 3 lifts.

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

3/30/14 RPS NE Revolution Powerlifting Meet

Sunday 3/30 was my powerlifting meet.. and all went as good, or better than expectations..

I headed up on Saturday to help my son and friends compete in the 220 and under classes.. It was great to watch everyone hit good PRs... some highlights were Laura Rinke, totalling 820 at 132lbs, and Dan Berlin deadlifting 580 at only 181lbs..

Onto Sunday..

Squat:
Opened up with a text book 530lbs.. all went well.
2nd Attempt.. 570lbs.. should have been fairly easy, but I wasn't used to the straps being cranked down, and I got thrown forward a bit and lost my footing. NO LIFT.
3rd Attempt..570lbs.. Good lift (30lbs PR).. still got cranked forward, but caught myself.

Lesson learned: Train in tight straps so I can get used to arching harder into the bar and staying back.

Bench:
Opened with an easy 430lbs. 3 white lights.
2nd attempt 460lbs.. a bit of a grinder at top.. good lift.
3rd attempt 485lbs (15lbs PR) .. grinder.. GOOD LIFT!
There's a bit of story to this 3rd attempt.. I had told my handler Fred Mackinnon to put in 480, and he kicked me up an extra 5lbs without me knowing it to 485lbs..

Deadlift:
Opened with an easy 500lbs to get in the meet at hit a 5 lb overall PR at 1555.
2nd attempt .. PR 545lbs good lift, good speed.. 1600 lb PR Total.

Overall real happy with this 50lb total PR, and PRing in every lift!