Monday, October 26, 2015

Post meet write-up.. RPS NE Power Challenge TPS Boston 10/17-18/15



Great weekend with the Lakeville Powerlifting team and good friends participating in the 19th Annual RPS Power Challenge.. A ton of great PRs, some great times with friends, and the battle with the iron continuing on for another day. I'll let each lifter tell his own story.. But some highlights were Fred's 600lb squat.. Brian going 9-for-9 in his first meet and totaling over 1500lbs..585-375-575.. Brandon with a big 425 squat, 285 bench, and 475 dl at 165lbs.. I fought a hard battle in the squats chasing depth.. Finally nailing a 640 squat (10lb pr) on my 3rd and final attempt..narrowly escaping a bomb out lol.. Then 505 bench (5lb pr)..and a 555 deadlift (5lb pr) for a 1700lb pr total. Big thank you to Ol Man Fred for working hard all weekend to wrap countless knees for all! And thank you to Dennis for all his wisdom and training assistance over the last 10 weeks... And of course my wife Kellie for putting up with me and my friends training until 10pm in our garage!


This weekend we had Fred lifting on Saturday, and the rest of our team lifting on Sunday so that we could support Fred's coaching needs on Saturday (wrapping knees, etc) and then he could be there for us on Sunday.

Brian and I drove up with Fred on Saturday around 11am to get him ready, as well as for Brian and I to weigh in. We both made weight.. I was pretty close at 274.8 but a win is a win haha.

After Fred was finished, we all drove back home to get some well-needed rest for our day on Sunday.. we got home around 6pm .. we ate like animals then went to bed.

Sunday morning we headed up at 7am, getting to Everett for around 8.. even though Brian and I were in the 3rd flight, I like to get there a bit early so my warmups are not rushed. We camped out in the far corner of the gym and proceeded to loosen up and eat/drink as needed.

Usually what I like to do is get my light warm-ups/mobility work out of the way real early.. about halfway thru 1st flight.. then move into the heavy warmups once 2nd flight gets going.

Squat warmups went smooth, and fast.. a big reason being is our gym equipment is exactly the same as whats on the platform.. we knew what warmups we were going to be taking, and we just followed our plan... but like Mike Tyson said.. "Everyone's got a plan 'til they get punched in the mouth."

Thats where my plan started going sideways.

Brian's squats went smooth, I'll let him do his own write-up, but he went 3-for-3 on the squat, finishing up with 585.

My opener was 605 which was about the lightest I could open up with and still have a shot at depth with my multiply gear.. My first squat was red-lighted high. Not the best way to start out a meet... but if you remember back from an earlier post, I had a plan for that as well.. regardless of what happened with my opener, I was going up. It was champ or chump. I'm not hanging around for a 605 squat (25lbs under my march PR).. originally I was going to go 605-660, but I made a smart decision to go to 640 which was a 10lb PR and a weight I knew I could smoke.. twice if I had to.. and I did...

2nd attempt was fast, but again.. red light for depth.

Now it was shit or get off the pot time. I told Fred, "Don't call me up until either I fall over backwards, or I am definitely deep enough...,.." ... My last squat of 640 again was fast.. and finally.. Good lift!

Now it was time to play it smart.. Obviously an 1800 total was out of reach at this point.. so I made a decision to go for small lift PRs at this time, and at least break 1700 for Total PR.

Bench opener of 480 went smooth.. then 505 went pretty good.. not quite as fast as we've hit in the gym.. but confident. At this point I was going to pass on my third and conserve energy, but I said fuck it, lets go for 520. Everything felt good as I unracked the 520, I just ran out of steam halfway up and just couldn't lock out the last inch or two...

Moving on to deadlifts, my plan is always to get my Total with 2 lifts. The deadlift is a very tiring lift - especially after 3 max effort squats and benches.. and especially after the mental-warfare I went through trying to get my squats passed.. I opened with an easy 520, which gave me a small jump to 555 to lock in the 1700lb total. I felt I quite possibly had 570-580 on this day quite possibly, but it wasn't worth the risk of going for it, then missing it - and being left with a 520 opener, a 1660 total and no PR.

Like Brian Carroll always told me.. Pull for your Total. Pull smart.

In the end, this meet was a huge victory for me in a lot of ways.. first and obviously - it was a 20lb PR total. Not a huge PR to write home about - but a PR is a PR gotta take them when you can... but most importantly this was a HUGE psychological victory.. to be down 0-2 going into your 3rd squat, and needing this lift to just stay in the meet.. after 25 weeks of hard training.. it all came down to one lift.. and to be able to put that lift together, was a big personal triumph.

Then - being a smart and mature enough lifter to make calculated attempts on the next Bench and Deadlifts to be able to lock in individual lift PRs, and still get the 1700... that mental win was more satisfying than you can imagine.

Anyhow.. moving forward, there is a short off-season of about 13 weeks, then we head back into 10 week meet prep for April RPS NE Revolution.. If I put the hard work in, and stay healthy.. hopefully we can take another run at 1800 or better...

Here's my individual lifts:


Saturday, October 10, 2015

8 Days out .. reflecting on Meet prep and next 8 days


Looking back on the last 10 weeks of meet prep, and off-season.. I'm pretty hesitant to say it.. but.. I feel good. Comparing this meet prep to last cycle (March '15 meet).. this cycle things went pretty good.. I hit all my lifts.. made progress.. and gained some confidence in my multiply gear while adding predator briefs in. I remember when I first put these briefs on in June a few months ago, I thought there was going to be a LONG road to get to depth in these things.. thank God they broke in since then lol.

Last cycle was my first meet prep in multiply gear, and squats went ok - but I wasn't able to find my groove in the Metal Jack shirt.. I didn't even have one good clean touch before the meet.. and ended up with a 500lb bench PR. This time around I've gotten good, clean touches - and worked up to 530lbs off a 1 board. Hopefully if all goes well, I'll  grab another bench PR. At this point, its looking like 480-505-520 for attempts.

Regarding squat, I really like how the meet prep cycle we've been running has me hammering the geared squat openers for the most part in weeks 4-5-6.. basically the theory behind the meet prep is make the lifts reliable and confident.. Its not so much about getting stronger during the meet prep (properly peaking - yes.. strength building..not so much).. but rather making sure the lifts will pass on the platform.

6-7 weeks out I was still a few inches high on the squat.. but by weeks 4-5 I was able to get passable depth.. my last opener was last week (3 weeks out) and I feel pretty good about it. Main cues are to make sure I drive my knees out and arch hard in the hole. Bringing my grip in on the bar a little (about one-hand width) has helped me tighten up my back as well. Right now, I'm looking at 605-660-700 for squat attempts. I'm going in with the plan that if anything goes bad on the opening 605, I'm going up no matter what. I PR'd last meet at 630, and I'm not going backwards. Its champ or chump in my mind.  I might drop the 2nd a little (From 660) to maybe 650.. but I'm going all in. Not interested in going backwards at this meet.

As far as the deadlift, we ran a good 12 week cycle of Deadlift work back in late-spring/early summer, and my deadlift feels stronger than ever, with form seeming to be dialed in. I hit a 605 deadlift PR in the gym in July.. my best meet PR is 550.. so anything over 550 will be a win. At this point, I'm thinking 520-560- ?? see how it feels after a long day.

My best total was 1680 back in March, and I'm hoping to break into the 1700s. 1800 would be a gift, and its do-able .. but it requires a perfect day of 700-520-580 to do it.

Time will tell.

This upcoming week, I plan to do some lightweight/bodyweight stuff just to stay loose .. I've been following a good high-protein/low-shit diet (my trademark lol) and my bodyweight was down to 268 this morning.. so weight doesn't seem to be a problem.. any lighter and my gear isnt going to fit!

Last week training plan:

Squat- (Sunday)
A few sets w/225 x 1 or 2
Some foam rolling/hip mobility stretching
Air squats

Bench- (Tuesday)
A few sets w/225 x 1 or 2
More mobility work.. some band flyes/triceps

Deadlift- (Wednesday)
A few sets w/315 x 1
Some reverse hypers/mobility work

Thurs/Fri ... Then rest up for the meet and help support my training partners on Saturday.

We have a bunch of lifters from our team competing on Saturday and Sunday, and everyone's prep seems to have gone well and inline to hit some PRs.. now its a matter of supporting each other, and git-er-done.