4 days out from UGA strongest dawg

Well.. this meet doesn’t matter as far as my powerlifting “career” goes, but the meet means a lot to me bc 2008 strongest dawg is where it all began for me in PL. It should be a solid turnout and I’m pumped too see quite a few 500+ lb squats and dead lifts. Esp those from roommate Pat Chambless. Obviously the meet is raw (knee wraps only) so I’m opening 445 squat, 300 bench, and 545 dead lift. If all goes well and I go 9 for 9 I want to squat 5 and some change, bench 345, and dead lift about 585. I excited to see a bunch of my buddies do their first powerlifting meet ever and I am even more pumped Erica STOOKEY is coming up to watch the meet.

Meet video and report

Squat:

Opened with 474 hit it pretty easy

Moved up to 524 and hit it real easy. We didn’t take a third attempt because the focus was the bench record and I didn’t want to be worn out from squatting

Bench:

opened with 386. It was harder than expected

Went up to 407 which was the record. I got it all the way up but literally couldn’t lock my right arm out the last inch. 

Attempted it again and got nowhere close. Actually ended up dumping it towards my head. Pretty scary. 

Dead lift:

Opened 551 went up real easy

Second attempt went for 595. I did 601 back in september so this shouldn’t have been an issue but like I said… November 21st was not my day

Third attempt missed 595 again.

I only hit 4 out of 9 lifts. This was by far my worst meet performance ever. I believe part of the problem was that I cut too much weight on accident and also I was sick the week before. 5 months until collegiates, there will be some big changes in my training. Although I already feel like my work ethic is the best thing going for me… it just got a little more intense. 

Not my best Day

My dad summed it up best when I talked to him on the phone saturday night “Not our best day son.” Went 4 for 9. Did not get the record. And had my single worst performance on the dead lift in my whole career. Video of the bench attempt to come later. 

 

Night before

Well… for months you train and prepare and train and plan and train some more. Then the last two days… you wait. It is by far the worst part. I dread this. Luckily I didn’t sleep too well, so I should pass out pretty fast tonight. 

Openers for tomorrow 474 squat, 386 bench, 556 dead lift. The focus is the bench press.. hoping to hit 407 and get those records. Just in case anyone is interested these are the drug-free, single-ply records: 

 

Teen 181lbs:

Squat 683

Bench 405

Dead lift 650

Total 1692

 

Junior (20-23) 181lbs

Squat 694

Bench 463

Dead lift 694

Total 1824

 

Open 181 lbs

Squat 816

Bench 557

Dead lift 744

Total 1940

 

 

My take on the whole thing

I am by no means an expert or even close. But in Ramsey people do ask me sometimes what they can do to increase their lifts. This is a pretty simplified explanation of somethings that I think are absolutely crucial:

1) Change your environment. People say of the famous Westside barbell gym that people get stronger just from going in there and breathing the air. While they are joking, there is some truth behind it. You can stay in your regular commercial gym and scream and drop weights but you are still not in a serious environment even though you might convince yourself so. Going to Quest Gym has been crucial to my progression. Along with the advice, having guys around you who all have the exact same goal (pushing higher numbers) does something you cannot do on your own. I cannot explain it. If it is only once a month or once a week like me, it is undoubtedly worth your time if you are serious.

2) Focus on the major lifts. You will not get a big bench doing it once a week. Period. People focus far too much on the unimportant exercises: curls, calf raises, leg press, chest flies, LUNGES, back extensions, shoulder raises etc. If you are a bodybuilder and want to better the way your body looks… fair enough. But if you really want a big squat/ bench/ dead lift…. you have to put 90 percent of your energy into squatting/ benching/ dead lifting. Prioritize these lifts and do them often at varying percentages. 

3) Don’t go too heavy too often. You do not have to max out every workout. I bench three times a week, soon to be four.. If I’m in a raw phase only one of them is completely balls to the wall (two if I am in powerlifting gear). The lighter percentage days are going to help you just as much as the heavy days.

4) Keeping the reps low I know a lot of guys who can squat 315 for ten reps… but none of them can max too far above 405. Again, as with all this advice… if you want to body build then ten reps is good… if you want to get strong, you are wasting your time. Work on sets with between 1 and 5 reps for the three major lifts. For all the assistance exercises, if you want to go above 8 then that is okay.

5) TECHNIQUE!! There are very simple adjustments I’ve made to some of my buddys’ lifting techniques in ramsey that have added 20-30 pounds instantly. I’ve been training at quest for 5 months now and adjustments are made literally every single week. You cannot get perfect form, you can only get closer and closer to it. Find someone who does it better than you and soak it all in. Most importantly, stay back on your heels when squatting.

6) What you put in is what you get out I’m not saying your eating has to be perfect or even clean at all. But you do need to make sure you are getting enough grams of carbohydrates and protein each day. Also, the alcohol will not help your lifting. Some people’s bodies can take it… some people’s cannot. Know yourself. Enough said on that one..

7) Stretch Injury prevention… better squat/ dead lift form… you look goofy doing it. Its two for three on being all around beneficial and in college 67% is usually passing.

Back to the assistance Pick assistance that will help with your major lifts. Yes you want to be balanced but don’t worry too much about this. The assistance that I feel truly helps is: Shrugs, good mornings, GHR, Pull ups (to help stabilize the dead lift and even out the upper body from all the benching), board presses, hip work with the bands, and weighted abs. Outside of variations of the major 3 lifts and these, I don’t do too many other exercises.

9) Sleep 7 hours or more is going to make a difference

10) Gear not everyone needs a squat suit but a good belt, chalk, squat shoes, dead lift shoes, and knee wraps are all beneficial

11) Be patient Appreciate the little gains. Most of my major goals for powerlifting I am at least 3-5 years away from achieving. Consistency is THE MOST important thing in powerlifting. Beating down the weights week after week, year after year.

12) It all comes down to how bad you want it 

Hope this helps. Not saying its all truth just my take on it all. Hit me with comments about what you all think. Even if you think some of it is dead wrong because I love a good argument.

Tapering down

I am on the downhill of the training cycle. El descenso as my favorite mexican calls it. Everything is singles and doubles at 75% or less of my max. I pulled and benched today, Squats only tomorrow, and Bench wednesday. Take thursday/friday off then its go time.

 

Nothing of worth can be given to you. You must take it by force. The more you sacrifice, the more it will matter. The more adversity you face, the greater the reward. The harder you sweat, the more you bleed, and the deeper you gasp for air all determine the degree to which your achievements will matter to you.

11.11.09 Squat/ Bench

Squat:

135 x 5,   225 x 4,    315 x 3,  385 x 1

Squat suit and knee wraps:

445 x 1

475 x 2

495 x 3

Bench:

135 x 5,   225 x 5

295 x 4

275 x 5 x 2

 

That’s pretty much it for the heavy stuff since I’m 10 days out from the meet now. First attempts are looking like squat 474, bench 386, and dead lift 556. From there hopefully a 525 squat, 407 bench, then 601 dead. Third attempts depend on how I’m feeling but it would be nice to re-attempt that 617 that I barely missed at the meet in September. Bench probably 430 that is the most I’ve hit touch and go in the bench shirt. There has been a lot of build up to this bench record thing so I am excited but also ready for the meet to get here because it drains me with the amount of emotion I put into powerlifting.

 

Today’s Veterans day. Guess I’m not very patriotic but my granddad served like 15 or 20 years in the air force. At his funeral this September they did the military burial and just about everyone cried when they fired the shots and then presented the US flag to my grandmother, even my dad, the man who shows no sadness. So putting it in perspective, Veteran’s day actually mattered to me this year.

 

My buddy Jim bought me Andy Bolton’s training footage DVD. A lot of what I heard really surprised me so here are some notes:

1. Asprin is part of his daily supplement regime

2. Leading up to the meet in which he became the only man to ever dead lift over 1,000 lbs the heaviest he pulled off the floor was in the high 700’s for a triple. He did all his heavy work on partial dead lifts off blocks after pulling lighter weights from the floor earlier in the workout.

3. Andy doesn’t go as heavy in his workouts as I expected but uses A LOT of speed. Its the whole Power = Force / Time mentality. Who knew physics mattered.

4. Andy only eats like 400g protein a day and 400g carbs. This is a lot for the average person but not as high as I expected given his mammoth size.

5. Andy bolton appears like a nice guy yet also cocky… aka he speaks in the third person a few times in the DVD instead of using the pronoun “I”

6. My hero on the dead lift platform does leg press as part of his routine… I shed a tear at this point in the DVD. When they said he did calf raises afterwards my world shattered.

7. Andy Bolton is married.. there is hope for me to continue my powerlifting obsessive ways and still somehow convince a girl to marry me. Maybe.

8. Andy Bolton only squats and dead lifts once a week and he does them on the same day.

In summary, I learned a lot. This was not what I expected of his training at all, but he has the highest squat and dead lift  and total in the WPO record books, so all of it is worth considering to say the least.

11/9/09

Dead lift:

135 x 5,   225 x 4,    315 x 3,    405 x 2

Put dead lift suit on:

515 x1

585 x 1

605 x 1

Not sure if the dead lift was locked out fully but I got it all the way up there

Bench:

135 x 5,    225 x 5,     315 x 1

Put old bench shirt on:

3 board:

355 x 1    

385 x 1

405 x 2 x 3

GHR:

25 plate + band x 8 x 2

Squat 11.7.09

Well I wasn’t planning on putting on the squat suit for the November 21st meet, but sherman wants me to so I don’t have much of a choice, he is the boss. So saturday is usually light raw squats but instead I had to throw the suit on to get used to it again. I had to squat in my apartment’s gym which has a squat rack (somehow) dumbbells up to fifty, about 4 machines, a few treadmills, and two bikes. For the average enthusiast its weak but I can squat, bench, pull, shrug, and hit pull-ups in there… so its pretty solid for me.

Squat:

135 x 5,   225 x 4,    315 x 3,

Put suit on and knee wraps:

365 x 2

405 x 2

455 x 2

455 x 4

Kind of random numbers but I am just getting used to it again. I believe at the meet I’ll go 474 then 525 on squat and not take a third attempt because I will need the time to get warmed up for bench as that is the focus of this meet.

Pull/Bench 11.6.09

Dead lift (standing on two inch mats):

135 x 5,    225 x 4,    315 x 3

Put on dead lift suit

405 x 2

455 x 5

475 x 5 (PR)

Bench:

135 x 5,    225 x 5,    295 x 1

Put on new bench shirt (Rage x size 44 by inzer) Awesome shirt btw

3 board: (335 x 2)

1/2 inch board: 365 x 1

400 x 1 with a pause at the bottom

430 x 1 touch and go

410 x 1 with a pause at the bottom

3 board: 385 x 2,    405 x 2,    425 x 2

 

This was a pretty successful workout. I didn’t have anytime to do assistance, all this too well over 2 hours. My benching is kind of inconsistent and that worries me for the meet. Getting the record at this meet all depends on the day. My bodyweight is at about 183.

After the meet, I have got the strongest dawg 2 and a half weeks later. After that, My training is going to be a lot of raw sets of 5 reps until february then its game on for collegiates. A lot in the mix. 

Life has been rough lately, but I have had a lot of people talking to me who seem to actually care and that shit really means a lot to me. So thanks to err’body.