Return of the King

BossArky · 09-02-2010 1:19am

I was told my stance was too wide and should bring it in a small bit. I think I may have been overexaggerating the width of the stance on some sets as here I squat with spotters but no rack.

This feels a bit different. It allows me go deeper but I'm slighly wary of toppling over backwards without the safetys to catch the bar. I'm not used to rackless stuff. So... to cut a long story short I may have been using a wider stance as mentally it make me feel more stable.

brianthebard · 09-02-2010 3:39pm

I've noticed that I sometimes widen my stance when I go heavier, sounds like the same idea. what's a soft suit, a singlet? those crazy aussies :pac: looks like the move has already brought dividends for you boss.

kevpants · 09-02-2010 9:02pm

BossArky wrote: »

Joined a powerlifting club here in Melbourne. Today was first time with the coach going up in sets of 5 so he could find out where I was at. Not exactly on top form due to recent illness, sun burn and general disorientation :pac:

Back to it on Thursday evening. Positive first impression.

This is awesome...

Get to 100kg!

The physical amount of cake you can eat to get there makes it worth it. It's all about the cake.

BossArky · 10-02-2010 12:55am

Tuesday February 9th: 7:30pm - 8pm

Skipping warm up ~5mins
---
Hill Sprints on Grass - 10x ~100m
---
Skipping cool down ~5mins
---

Did the above in Fitzroy Gardens.

I had planned something similar a few days ago around 9pm in the evening. On that occassion I had to abort due to possums popping up out of the ground and trees as darkness fell. I'd never seen a possum before and had no idea if they were friend or foe so I legged it went home.

They come down out of the trees as night falls to scavage in the bins and forrage for food. If you have ever played Mario Kart you may be familiar with the level "Moo Moo Farm" were strange little animals pop out of the ground as you are going aorund corners. Well... it was something like that.

Here is one:

BossArky · 10-02-2010 1:08am

brianthebard wrote: »

what's a soft suit, a singlet?

Yeah, just a singlet which dosen't give any support.

My standard wife beater and running shoes were deemed sub optimal fashion and performance wise :pac:

cardio,shoot me · 10-02-2010 8:19am

BossArky wrote: »

had to abort due to possums popping up out of the ground and trees as darkness fell. I'd never seen a possum before and had no idea if they were friend or foe so I legged it went home.

They come down out of the trees as night falls to scavage in the bins and forrage for food. If you have ever played Mario Kart you may be familiar with the level "Moo Moo Farm" were strange little animals pop out of the ground as you are going aorund corners. Well... it was something like that.

haha that sounds gas!

Hail 2 Da Chimp · 10-02-2010 10:38am

Attacked by possums..?

Sounds like you're enjoying yourself man

BossArky · 11-02-2010 11:57pm

Thursday Feb 11th:

Close Grip Bench
20kg - 1x5
50kg - 1x5
55kg - 3x5
---
Lying Twist
2x3
---
Deadlift
60kg - 1x5
90kg - 1x3
110kg - 1x2
130kg - 2x2
---
Squat
20kg - 1x5
50kg - 1x5
60kg - 3x5
---
Decline Situp
3x15
---

Had my right knee wrapped for the experience (won't be using wraps) and a little talk on how to prepare for the competition. Got my soft suit and deadlifting socks too.

BossArky · 14-02-2010 11:22pm

Saturday February 13th: 5:30pm - 6pm

Skipping warm up - 3x60
---
Hill Sprints on Grass - 10x ~100m
---
Skipping cool down - 3x60
---

Again in Fitzroy Gardens.

BossArky · 16-02-2010 12:05am

Monday February 15th: heavy bench/squat, light deadlift

Bench Press
20kg - 1x5
50kg - 1x5
62.5kg - 1x3
72.5kg - 2x2 ... paused. Easy
---
Deadlift
60kg - 1x5
75kg - 3x5
---
Squat
20kg - 1x5
60kg - 1x5
75kg - 1x3
90kg - 2x2 ... easy
60kg - 1x3 ... trying someones belt. First time ever using a belt to squat
---

That was the last "heavy" day before next Saturday. Thursday will be some very light low volume.

Bench and squat were simple. I must have made some weak impression on the first day I turned up 4 weeks ago. When I finished the 2x2s on the bench and squat the coach looked at me as if I was the messiah. He seemed shocked that I'd actually made them --> "excellent" / "very good" etc. LOL.

The bench and squat were practised under compeition conditions i.e. with judges commands. Apparently I got a "no lift" on the first bench double due to moving a finger slightly before racking. 2nd was fine. They were just being overly anal to drill the rules into my head. Paused bench was fine.

I haven't had squat DOMS since coming to Oz due to the lack of weight or volume. This is grand for the moment as I'm still living in temporary accomodation and trying to get my life togethere here & training just 2 days a week.

I was given a sheet with my prescribed openers, 2nd and 3rd lifts. Nothing spectacular on the bench and squat. The deadlift will end on a pb if successful.

Squat: 95kg / something / 107.5kg
Bench: 72.5kg / 77.5kg / 82.5kg
Deadlift: 135kg / 145kg / 152.5kg (potential pb by 2.5kg)

I weighed in at 80.80kg last night, up 2.5kg on the same time last week.

In case you are wondering, this is what it has costs to get up and running as a powerlifter in Australia:

Gym / club membership 635 AUD
Powerlifting Australia membership 140 AUD
Soft Suit & Deadlifting Socks 75 AUD
Fake Converse 19 AUD
Competition Entry 30 AUD
Total 899 AUD

Hail 2 Da Chimp · 16-02-2010 9:44am

BossArky wrote: »

Squat: 95kg / something / 107.5kg

I thought your Squat PB was approx 120, would you not aim a little higher?

BossArky wrote: »

In case you are wondering, this is what it has costs to get up and running as
[*]Total 899 AUD

Not too bad €588, you'd be hard pressed to find a decent gym membership for that money here.

BossArky · 16-02-2010 11:38pm

Tuesday February 16th: 6:30pm - 6:50pm

Warm up:
Skipping - 3x30
Shoulder Dislocates (band) - 3x10
Pull Aparts (band) - 3x10
---
Hill Sprints on Grass - 8x ~50m ... not flat out
---
Cool down:
Skipping - 3x30
Shoulder Dislocates (band) - 3x10
Pull Aparts (band) - 3x10
---

Quick & easy little session to get a bit of blood flowing.

BossArky · 16-02-2010 11:46pm

Hail 2 Da Chimp wrote: »

I thought your Squat PB was approx 120, would you not aim a little higher?

Squat pb is 115kg. Depending on how the first and second attempts go I may go off-piste and a little higher than mentioned above on all lifts. I guess it will be tiring doing all 3 lifts at once, so I don't want to waste too much energy up front on the squat.

Hail 2 Da Chimp wrote: »

Not too bad €588, you'd be hard pressed to find a decent gym membership for that money here.

Hopefully it is a good investment for the year. Time will tell :cool:

BossArky · 18-02-2010 11:20pm

Thursday February 18th:

Close Grip Bench
20kg - 1x5
50kg - 1x5
55kg - 2x5 ... light
---
Squat
20kg - 1x5
60kg - 1x5
70kg - 1x5
---
Decline Sit Up
2x10
---

Felt rather uncomfy during the squat as I had eaten right before gym.

Weighed in at 81.15kg - very close to heaviest ever of 81.5kg. Obviously a bit of this was the food I had just eaten. I'm aiming to get as close to the top of my weight class as possible ahead of Saturday. The limit is 82.5kg.

I'm still undecided about the weight I should use on my various attempts on Saturday. I may try to equal my squat and bench pbs (115kg and 95kg respectively) and then go for glory on the deadlift. This may be too heavy as I haven't trained that heavy for the past two months. The pause on the bench may complicate things too. This means I would want to have my 2nd bench attempt at a reasonable enough level in case I do fail on the 3rd attempt..... but I don't want to waste too much energy on the 2nd attempt. Decisions, decisions.

I should probably write my attempts down now to be clear in my head. Let's go for:

Squat: 95/105/115
Bench: 75/85/95
Deadlift: 130/140/152.5

brutusthebarber · 18-02-2010 11:32pm

Good luck with the competition Boss!

The openers should be something you will nail in your sleep. In other words you won't have to worry about them at all. So base them from that.

This is the one thing that everyone said to me before my comp.

Looking forward to seeing how you get on.. once you do one comp you'll be itching for more:cool:

EDIT: Good job on the weight gain!!

BossArky · 21-02-2010 10:22am

Saturday February 20th: Melbourne Open (Campbellfield) - Powerlifting Competition

I officially tipped the scales at 78.9kg after a good breakfast 2 hours beforehand. Suprisingly this is ~2.25kg down on 2 days ago. The Thursday scales must have been dodgy. The 15 minutes waiting around outside in the sun at 8am may have caused some water loss, but not that much. I was actively stuffing myself for the past few days and thought I would be up around the 13 stone/82.5kg mark.

From 9am various activities included:

sign up
weigh in
eat
pay 30 dollar entry fee
eat
adjust rack heights for bench and squat
eat more
gear check
eat more

The competition was scheduled to start at 11am. I was in the first of two flights of lifters and began each warm up approximately 30 minutes before each lift. This left plenty of time to sit around and recover fully between warm up sets.

SQ warm up: 50kg x5, 70kg x3, 80kg x1
BP warm up: 50kg x5, 60kg x3, 65kg x1 ... plus shoulder dislocates (band) 2x10
DL warm up: 60kg x5, 90kg x3, 110kg x1 ... plus bird-dogs 2x6 each side

Everything ran pretty smoothly. I was expecting a lot more waiting around between lifts. There were 25 lifters in total between the two flights and it seemed like max 15 minutes between each of my lifts when the competition got going.

So, how did I do? Well... I was pretty chuffed with my performance. I won the sub 82.5kg category with 115/85/152.5 for a total of 352.5kg @78.9kg bodyweight. My efforts earned me a nice shiney gold metal. It is imprinted with a 6-packed kangaroo squatting on a map of Oz! Not sure how many others were in my category - I'll have to check the official results when they come out. I was just there for the experience and concentrating on getting through each lift and therefore was pretty suprised at the end when they called me up for the presentation and gold medal.

Here is how my lifts went:

Squat
95kg
105kg
115kg ... easy, equals pb

Bench Press
75kg
85kg ... handy enough
95kg ... fail, attemping to equal pb. Pause killed me. Probably would have managed 90kg

Deadlift
130kg
140kg
152.5kg ... easy, pb by 2.5kg

Videos of the above to follow soon.

The next competition is in 6 weeks. I'm chomping at the bit to improve on the above. Could have done more on both squat and deadlift. Paused bench needs some work. Coming into this comp I wasn't sure what level my strength after what has essentially been a two month deload. Now I'm a gold metal winner having been in Oz exactly one month :pac: Very satisfied!

There were some other serious performances:

a giant of a woman deadlifting 200kg
a blind fellow deadlifting 200kg+
a 70+ year old deadlifting 200kg+ but dropping it just at lock up. He blamed the chalky bar and stormed off out of the competition like an angry badger

Prior to this comp I thought powerlifting was mainly a young-fella's game. My view has changed now having seen many women and older folk at this competition. It was a good day.

BossArky · 21-02-2010 10:49am

BossArky wrote: »

Here is how my lifts went:

Squat
95kg
105kg
115kg ... easy, equals pb

Bench Press
75kg
85kg ... handy enough
95kg ... fail, attemping to equal pb. Pause killed me. Probably would have managed 90kg

Deadlift
130kg
140kg
152.5kg ... easy, pb by 2.5kg

Videos of the above to follow soon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAz-gPf6ePE

I'm strangely silent in these. Not a single grunt.

On the 3rd squat listen out for where I step back on the spotters toe and one of the judges started laughing.

You can see myself and wifey with our medals in the photo at the end.

brutusthebarber · 21-02-2010 11:16am

Well done to you both!!

Boss, well more in the tank in the squat and deadlift!

First comp and you get a win, savage stuff:D

d'Oracle · 21-02-2010 12:48pm

Good work Boss.

BossArky · 21-02-2010 11:25pm

d'Oracle wrote: »

Good work Boss.

brutusthebarber wrote: »

Well done to you both!!

Thanks guys!

Brutust, I took your advice and went easy on the opening deadlift (well by 2.5kg) and saved it for the last pb attempt.

BossArky · 21-02-2010 11:27pm

Ooohh... I just noticed that it has taken me 1111 posts in this log before coming #1 in something :pac:

Molly · 22-02-2010 12:50am

Congrats to the two of you! Squat looked very easy and deadlift looked like you can do some more too.

podge57 · 22-02-2010 4:44pm

Great work, especially considering you've only been training specifically for it for a few weeks

Looking forward to see how you progress up to the next comp!

BossArky · 22-02-2010 11:17pm

podge57 wrote: »

Great work

Molly wrote: »

Congrats to the two of you!

Thanks!

BossArky · 22-02-2010 11:32pm

Monday February 22nd:

Bench Press
20kg - 1x8
40kg - 1x8
50kg - 1x5
57.5kg - 3x8
---
DB Bench Press
22.5kg per arm - 3x10 ... supposed to be at 60% max effort but was more like 90% as these are the lightest dumbbells available in the heavy weights room
---
EZ Curls
bar +10kg - 3x10 ... @60% max effort
---
Lying Tricep Extension (EZ bar)
bar +10kg - 3x10 ... @60% max effort
---
Deadlift
60kg - 1x8
80kg - 1x5
95kg - 3x8
---
Squat
50kg - 1x8
60kg - 1x5
65kg - 3x8
---
Face Pulls
10kg - 1x10
15kg - 3x10
---
Foam Rolling ~ a few minues
---

I was given the option of taking today off but wanted to get started asap on a new program. It is being written up based upon Saturday's performance and will be on the wall for Thursday. Tonight was supposed to be easy going but was probably the toughest session I've had here. The safety wheels have dropped off and the weight has increased. I'm kinda tired now as I write this on Tuesday morning.

You may be wondering why I'm doing the big three every session. Monday is heavy bench & heavy squat with light deadlift, Thursday is heavy deadlift with close grip bench and light squat. Today was an exception and supposed to be easy going recovery.

Other news includes the fact that my 95kg attempt on the bench last Saturday wasn't actually 95kg. One of the spotters reckons they put an extra 1.25kg on each side, the other thinks it was unevenly loaded with 1kg extra on his side. This would make it 96kg or 97.5kg. Apparently the head judge gave the "bar loaded" command too early, I walked out, and the spotters let me take it as it was. Hmmm. Who needs enemies when you've got friends like that?!

edit - need to remember to keep my elbows in on the lying tricep extension.

BossArky · 25-02-2010 11:37pm

Thursday February 25th:

Close Grip Bench ... found out later I wasn't supposed to do this today as still in recovery mode
20kg - 1x6
40kg - 1x5
42.5kg - 1x3
47.5kg - 3x6

Shoulder Dislocates (band)
2x10

Pull Apart (band)
2x10
---
Lying Twist :eek:
3x10 ... first set straight through, second & third broken into three each. Popped something in my right ear/neck with the exertion. Someone else try these and tell me if they are really that hard or I'm just a wuss
---
Deadlift
60kg - 1x6
80kg - 1x5
90kg - 1x3
110kg - 3x6
---
Squats
20kg - 1x6 ... not supposed to squat tonight as still in recovery mode. didn't realise this until after bar warm up
---
Glute Ham Raise
3x10 ... hands on hams felt easy so started crossing arms on chest like a vampire. Makes it a bit harder but still not too taxing

Chin Ups
3x10 ... last set wide grip pull ups. 29.5 solid reps
---

*moved up into main gym whilst wifey did her lat work*

Lat Pull Down Machine (unilateral handles)
55kg - 1x10

Seated Row Machine (unilateral handles)
55kg - 1x10
40kg - 1x10
25kg - 1x10
---
Ab Pull Down (pulley, long rope)
25kg - 1x5
50kg - 1x10
75kg - 1x10 ... easy. Back in London I would work up to 3x10 at 48kg which felt much harder than 75kg on this pull set up. Must be the way the thing is rigged up
---
Face Pulls (pulley, long rope)
10kg - 1x10
15kg - 1x10
---

Tonight I got my new program, yay. It is stuck on the gym wall for reference. This is to bring me to the next comp in Melbourne on April 10th. Depending on how I go (i.e. if I don't fall apart) then it may be extended out until the following comp in Adelaide sometime in mid May. I'm will try to push my lifts up in each comp. Eventually I'll get somewhere.

BossArky · 01-03-2010 12:41pm

Monday March 1st: Heavy Bench & Squat, Light Deadlift

Shoulder Dislocates (band)
2x10

Pull Apart (band)
2x10
---
Bench Press
20kg - 1x6
40kg - 1x5
50kg - 1x3
65kg - 3x6
---
DB Bench Press
25kg per arm - 3x6 ... @90%

EZ Curls
Bar + 20kg - 3x6 ... @90%
---
Tricep Extension
Bar + 10kg - 1x6
Bar + 15kg - 2x6 ... @90%
---
Deadlift
40kg - 1x6
60kg - 1x5
65kg - 1x3
70kg - 3x6
---
Squat
20kg - 1x6
50kg - 1x5
65kg - 1x3
75kg - 3x6
---

I can feel slight tiredness in my legs. This is probably for the IKEA prowler I was pushing around over the weekend loaded with various household appliances. Finally moved from temporary to permanent accomodation and getting around to sorting life out. Diet has been brutal the last while due to this upheaval. Looking forward to proper cooking going forwards. The gym scales told me I'm 81.75kg today, which is up 0.6kg since I checked on that scales 2 weeks ago.

Tonight was handy enough.

kevpants · 01-03-2010 11:53pm

Just saw the comp man. Congrats!

Fair play to the two of ye for getting straight into the community in your new home. Powerlifting is actually a good sport to compete in if you're new in a country. Training partners and competition buddies in abundance.

Seriously your squat was eeeeasy. Be sure to use those competition nerves to get a big PR in 6 weeks. There's nothing like nerves to help a squat. It's unreal, they mess everything else up but those panic hormones are great for getting out of the hole with more weight than you think you can handle!

BossArky · 03-03-2010 2:17am

Thanks kev!

Joining the PL club definetly helps with the integration and getting the lay of the land. Much better than sitting at home twiddling thumbs.

I'll keep the panic hormones in mind for my next comp squat!

BossArky · 03-03-2010 2:19am

Tuesday March 2nd:

Walk 4km ... home from work

Decided to start walking as it is quite nice & will help counter the dodgy diet of the past weeks.

Return of the King

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