New addition to the Gym.. and Plans for this off-season/next competition

A couple of updates here.. first, I was real excited to pickup our latest addition to our gym, an Iron Wolfe Squat Bar. A dedicated squat bar is good for a few reasons - first we don't have to rotate the Texas Power Bar through the stations, it can stay on the bench.. and if one group wants to bench while the other squats, we can do that too. But most importantly is the quality of the bar for squatting. The Iron Wolfe squat bar weighs 65lbs and is about an 1 1/2" thick with super-aggressive knurlings to really grip your back, and a center alignment ring to make sure the bar is centered on your back.. its also about a foot longer than a normal power bar, allowing for more plates to be used as well as a better grip for side spotters. This bar is rated to over 1400lbs (more than we will ever need lol) and we loaded it down tonight with 500lbs and it barely bends. When we would load our Power Bar to 500/600lbs it would have a noticable bend to it.

Lastly, its what we use when we compete on the platform - so the idea is to train exactly how you compete to eliminate as many variables as you can on the platform - and there is definitely a difference squatting with a thinner bar vs a thicker bar.. the thicker bar must be held in a slightly different spot on the back (A bit higher), and it has a completely different feel. Enough to throw you off on a max-effort lift on the platform.

I'm deloading (Resting) this week after my meet, but Fred decided to give the bar a test and he hit a real nice 500lb squat PR to legal depth, with straps up and knee wraps... If you are wondering why the "odd number" of plates on the bar its because the Iron Wolfe squat bar weighs 65lbs instead of the normal 45lbs.

Upcoming plans:

• Fred and Tyler are going to compete at the RPS Southern Mass Blast II push-pull (Bench/Deadlift) meet this August
• Myself, Fred, Tyler, and Dennis Montembault are going to enter as a team and compete in this October's RPS NE Power Challenge.

There are about 15 weeks until the August meet, and about 25 weeks until the October meet.

We will run about 10 weeks of off-season work, split half into volume work, and the other half into low-rep work, then 5 weeks of prep work for Fred and Tyler for the August meet, while I use some of that time to do some more Gear work and add in my squat briefs.. Then run a 10 week or so meet prep cycle into October.

With the upcoming Easter Holiday, we plan to resume our normal Sunday/Wed/Friday training next week (4/6)... if you are interested in training with us just shoot us an email or inbox us on facebook.