Return of the King

Saturday February 21: Bench

Bench (all paused)
20kg - 1x5
60kg - 1x5
80kg - 1x3
95kg - 10x3 ... alrighty strengthwise - just elbows a bit sore from Squats yesterday. Video'd last set. Looks good.
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T-Bar Row
frame+5kg - 1x10
frame+10kg - 1x10
frame+15kg - 1x10

Lat Pulldown
plate 9 - 3x10

Inverted Row
3x10
---

There ends what was possibly the toughest accumulated training period ever: 4 training sessions compressed into just 5 days. Survived and now confident that I'll add 5kg to Squats and 5kg to Bench for the final 10x3s in 2 weeks time.

Elbows were a bit sore. Usually I'd have a day off between Squats and Bench on 10x3s, but due to other concerns I had to do them back to back this week. Feeling pretty confident I'll hit nice PRs on both when the time comes in competition in a few weeks.

Monday February 23rd: Squat @6am

Squat
60kg - 1x5
**wrisp wraps**
80kg - 1x3
100kg - 1x2
**add belt**
115kg - 4x9 ... fine. Video'd last set
---

That seemed like nothing given the recent Squatting I've been doing. 4th last Squat session.

Wednesday February 24th: Bench @6am

Bench (all paused)
20kg - 1x5
60kg - 1x5
85kg - 6x6 ... fine
---
T-Bar Row
frame+5kg - 1x10
frame+10kg - 1x10
frame+15kg - 1x10

Lat Pulldown
plate 11 - 3x10
---
DB Bench
20kg - 3x10

Inverted Row
3x10

BB Curl
20kg - 2x10
---

Bench worksets were fine (after the initial one which always feels horrendous at 6am). It's always nice coming down to 6x6 after the preceding session 10x3.

I was the only person in the gym again which equates to zero atmosphere. Was listening to some really early Beatles stuff which was a change from the usual GnR or Rage. Usually I try to keep the workouts as "unemotional" as possible (i.e. without physc up or blaring music)... but I feel that in the next 1.5 weeks of training I'm gonna have to have Axl Rose work in with me.

Training alone at 6am is good in a few ways:
- no inane chatter
- can bust through sets quickly
- don't have to unload/reload if working in with someone
- feeling of accomplishment by 7:30am for the day once done

However training alone at 6am it isn't optimal when approaching near max effort weights for the following reasons:
- having a few people watching always stirs up the competitive side of every lifter. Being alone makes the weight feel heavier.
- lack of spot
- general lack of atmosphere.

I feel that if I can get through the next 1.5 weeks of training in my hermit like 6am mode then I should really smash some PRs on the platform when I do have the physiological benefits of:
- an audience
- some atmosphere
- competition
- spotters.

Cannot complain though. Enjoying training regardless of the above and have lots of free time in the evenings for other stuff.

TL;DR - lifted weights - was good.

BossArky wrote: »

Thursday February 26th: Squat

Squat
125kg - 5x7 ... PR for 7 reps at that weight. Took only 37 minutes to do all 5 sets. Actually did 8 on the last set for a further rep PR. Video'd last set of 8.
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Interesting & successfully Squatting.

Hit 125kg for 7 reps as planned on the first workset for a rep PR. Then miscounted on the last set and hit an 8 rep PR. Absolutely powered through them which felt awesome as they should have been heavier/taken lower. Strong++.

Video'd last set. Not the prettiest squatting you'll ever see.

Anyway, two Squat PRs in one night was satisfying.

Monday March 2nd: Squat @6am

Squat
60kg - 1x5
90kg - 1x3
**wrist wraps**
105kg - 1x2
**add belt**
120kg - 1x1
132.5kg - 7x5 ... PR for sets of 5 across. Good. Video'd last set
---

Pretty happy with that Squatting. Felt easier that recent couple of weeks. Seems like I've found an extra gear. Kept the rest to a minimum and got through the 7 work sets in just 57 mins.

I've done sets of 3x5 on 132.5kg before (and up as far as 140kg 3x5), but this morning was a PR for number of sets (7) across at 5 reps.

In the home straight now. The 10x3 day coming up should be easier than the above relatively speaking. The weight will be heavier obviously.

Tuesday March 3rd: Bench @6am

Bench (all paused)
20kg - 1x5
60kg - 1x5
80kg - 1x3
95kg - 8x4 ... alrighty
---
T-Bar Row
frame+5kg - 1x10
frame+10kg - 1x10
frame+15kg - 1x10

Lat Pulldown
plate 9 - 3x10

Inverted Row
3x10
---

The 8x4 bench worksets on 95kg took 72 minutes, which is a bit slower than I usually would get through them. Wasn't pushing too fast this morning as I know I'm on the pigs back and it's just a case of getting through this morning and then the next session on 100kg 10x3 in a few days should be fine.

Elbows a bit achy after second set, so concentrated on recovering properly between each set and not pushing the clock.

Feeling very pleased with how training has been going.

Saturday March 7th: Bench

Bench (all paused)
20kg - 1x5
60kg - 1x5
80kg - 1x3
90kg - 1x3
101kg - 10x3 ... 1kg PR over last cycle
---
T-Bar Row
frame+5kg - 1x10
frame+10kg - 1x10
frame+15kg - 1x10

Lat Pulldown
plate 9 - 1x10
plate 10 - 2x10

Inverted Row
3x10
---

101kg 10x3 is a 1kg Bench PR over last cycle. Awesome.

Programming this cycle was just to reach 100kg 10x3 (to match what I did last cycle, given that I've been busy with moving and other stuff during the training cycle)... but felt good all cycle so decided to give myself a mini PR by adding that extra 1kg.

Bench competition attempts in 8 days will go as follows: 100/107.5/110.

Cannot quantify the feeling of immense satisfaction that one gets after a successfully training cycle completes and you hit PRs.

This cycle I proved to myself that it is possible to train heavy alone early in the morning. Alone and early being the operative words. Think I found another gear physiologically to get me through many of those early morning sessions where the grunt word was done.

Monday March 9th: Deload

Bench (all paused)
20kg - 1x5
60kg - 1x5

Chin Ups
3x6
---
DB Bench
20kg - 2x10

One Arm DB Row
20kg - 2x10
---
Squat
20kg - 1x5
60kg - 1x5
---

Nice easy deload session.

I also tried on a pair of Rehband "S" size knee sleeves. This is one size smaller than the pair I usually train in. It's also two sizes smaller than the original set I bought a couple of years ago. Anything for those extra gainz...

Sunday March 15th: Powerlifting Competition

The build up:
Had a pretty awesome comp. Training cycle over the past 3 months went really well, bodyweight went well and made weight easily.

Competition Day:
Weighed in at 82.2kg, so 800g under the limit for the 83kg male open category. There were 56 competitors in total, of which 18 (!) were in my 83kg category. Crazy numbers. Biggest field I've ever competed against.

The competition was scheduled to run all day, broken into two groups of lifters. Each group had 2 flights. The women and lighter men were in the first group and weighed in at 7:30am to compete at 9am.

My group (83kg males and over) were scheduled to weigh in at 11:30am to compete at 1pm.

I left home at 11am, with the intend that a leisurely drive would take me to the venue about 5 mins before the earliest I could weigh in. I didn't realise that one of the local AFL clubs was having their open day next door to the competition venue... so couldn't get parking anywhere within about 1km of the venue. Spent a good extra 15 mins driving around getting ever more frustrated. In the end I had to park a good way off and lug a couple of heavy bags of clothes/gear/food/liquid to the venue. Not the best prep mentally, but probably a good warm up looking back on it.

Weigh In:
Arrived at the venue and went straight to the weigh in. As luck would have it they had drawn lots and bingo my number was up just as I walked in the door... so I stripped off and hopped straight on the scales in my boxers to register 82.2kg... 800g to spare. Nice one. Couldn't have timed my arrival more perfectly.

Re-feed:
Content with the weigh-in I sat down to munch through a couple of rounds of ham/cheese/avocado sambos, plus a few quarters of peanut butter sambos. Didn't have to go mental stuffing myself as I wisely just cut water for the 24 hrs before weigh in, not food. This mean I was nicely fuelled up, but dehydrated by a couple of kgs... just enough to fit nicely into the 83kg category.

Threw 2 water soluble rehydration tables into my 2 litre flask and sipped on that over the course of the next 30 mins as I munched away happily. Was feeling decent in everyway: weigh-in good, food good, rehydration good... couple of friendly chats with PL buddies - good.

The group which started earlier in the morning was delayed by 30 mins starting. There was then another subsequent delay, so the start time for my flight was pushed back from 1pm to 1:30pm. No bother to me, I'll just sit here and keeping sipping away and smashing the sambos. Ommm Ommmm Ommmm.

Into the last 45 mins pre-comp start we go. I leisurely started putting on my softsuit/socks/knee sleeves/oly shoes. Found out pretty swiftly that the S-sized Rehband knee sleeves were tight enough to be mildly painful after a couple of mins, so turned them down around my shins until time to warm up.

Started Squat warm ups with 30 mins to go. Turns out I was 5th of around 11 competitors in my flight. Weighed myself in the toilets just before starting to warm up and I was already back up to 86.5kg (a full 4kg+ over what I weighed in at).

Squat:
Squat warm ups went as follows: 20x5, 60x5, 90x3, add belt, 110x2, 125x1 ... felt alrighty

As outlined a few posts ago the plan was to go 140/150/160.. and that is exactly what happened.

Squat 1: 140kg - handy enough
Squat 2: 150kg - alrighty
Squat 3: 160kg - 2.5kg PR. Oh yeah! Possibly the best grind of my Squat career. Pretty chuffed to have broken 160kg.

After my flight finished Squats there was probably a good 20 mins sitting around eating and drinking before even thinking about starting to warm up for bench. Spotters and loaders were pretty inexperienced and competition would have moved at a much faster pace if more experienced guys were on hand. This would have implications for my first bench as you'll see when you read on. Drank another 2 litres of water with 2 water soluble rehydration tables. Weighed myself just before bench and was clocking in at ~87.5kg - more than 5kg over what I weighed in at! Rehydration going well.

Bench:
Bench warm ups went as follows: 20x5, 60x5, 80x3, 90x1 ... everything felt like nothing (not the best grammar but I like how that sentence implies the leaps and bounds my bench has taken so I couldn't be arsed rephrasing)

Bench 1: 100kg - TECHNICAL FAIL

.... inexperienced middle spotter yanked me up in the air on lift off, shoulders came unglued, lost tightness, got distracted and said something like "WTF?" to him whilst holding the weight overhead. The distraction then caused me to skip the start command, which I heard just after I was 10% of the way down. I locked it out like a 1/10th rep and got up pissed off. I informed the spotter how to lift off correctly and stomped off into the warm up room to take the 100kg back there so I'd have the benefit of it under my belt fully as a warm up for attempt 2 which was definitely going heavier. I wasn't going to let a dodgy lift off screw up my plans of going 100/107.5/110 which I'd had in mind for the past weeks. Got the 100kg easily in the warm up room then went back out to wait for attempt 2.

Bench 2: 107.5kg - alrighty & 2.5kg PR! Whoop whoop! Was pretty confident of getting this, but even so there was a voice at the back of my head thinking what if I missed this attempt and ended up bombing out. Well, I didn't. It lagged slightly on the right side, but handy enough. Paradoically, this felt harder than the next heavier attempt.

Bench 3: 110kg - 5kg PR. Delighted. Really nice clean rep. Ref held both the pause on chest and time awaiting rack command for what seemed pretty long at the time. Need to rewatch the video below to see if that was just a figment of my imagination or actually what happened. Nevertheless I got it. A 5kg Bench PR! That is the kind of thing that powerlifting dreams are made of. All those hours and hours and hours and hours and hours of benching half pace smolov style have paid off.

So, now Squat and Bench are done. I retire to the warm up area to munch on a couple more bananas, sip some gatorade and root around in my bag for another quarter of peanut butter sambo. They say the last meal of a condemned man tastes the finest. Now I've never been condemned but I can certainly tell you that a Powerlifters meal 2/3 rds of the way through a comp after PR'ing on both Squat and Bench tastes pretty good. By this stage I was 7.5kg ahead of my best ever subtotal (Squat +2.5kg, Bench +5kg).

The pre-comp plan was to go something like 157.5/170/180 on Deadlifts. That would mean opening "light" with 157.5kg instead of the rounder 160kg. This approach (opening "light") worked well for me in competition last Oct. So, why change a winning forumla? Anyway my calculations told me that if I went with 157.5kg followed by 170kg on Deadlift 2 I'd hit a PR Total by 2.5kg, allowing me the option of pushing the Total even higher on Deadlift 3.

Ok - makes sense. Locked in. Mental tick. Munch munch, sip sip, swallow swallow. Change into Deadlift slippers, time to warm up and go get that Total PR. Weighed myself just before Deads and was down a kg from 87.5 to 86.5kg as all the water started to flow through me.

Deadlift:
Deadlift warm ups went as follows: 60x5, 100x5, 120x3, 140kgx1 ... not feeling bad, but not particularly snappy either. Felt a bit rusty on Deads warming up. Hmmmm

Deadlift 1: 157.5kg - Good. Easy enough but felt it swing out away from my shins. Sloppy.

Deadlift 2: 170kg - Good & that made it a 440kg Total (PR by 2.5kg) . Got it but felt like a 100% max effort. I remember thinking to myself "why the f**k does this feel so heavy?". I kept pulling but it kept sticking to the ground. Eventually got it moving but this was ominous for what was gonna happen on the third attempt. Prior to the beginning of the Deadlift round I was pretty confident of hitting 180kg on the third attempt, given how my Squat had went so well & I was assuming it would translate to Deadlift. However, given how terrible 170kg felt I revised down a tad and opted for 177.5kg on third attempt... and feeling pretty certain that it was gonna stay bolted to the floor.

Deadlift 3: 177.5kg - FAIL. Barely moved. Perhaps got it up a couple of mm. No excuses. Just wasn't strong enough on the day. My lack of Deadlift training this cycle (on the naive assumption that heavy Squats twice a week would magically increase Deadlift too)proved my downfall here. The feeling of heavy weight in my hands freaked me out. Just wasn't used to it.

So, in summary:
Squat: 140/150/160kg (2.5kg PR)
Bench: 100x/107.5/110kg (5kg PR)
Deadlift: 157.5/170/177.5x (sh!te)

Total: 440kg (2.5kg PR) @bodyweight 82.2kg.

Going forwards:
Gonna stick with a similar approach for my Squat and Bench going forwards. It worked well this cycle and the plan is to eek out another 2.5kg on each for the next competition in 3 months.

Deadlift will require a programming change. I'm cancelling my subscription to both the "only Squat to increase Deads" & "don't Deadlift above 70% whilst Squatting heavy twice a week" approach.

May revert back to pulling heavy triples off blocks. This will at least give me the feeling of heavy weight in my hands once a week. I removed it last cycle as I thought it was a bit of a fluffy farting about movement, but I Deadlift 175kg in Oct last with more in the tank, so it probably did work.

Regardless of my Deadlifting woes above, I'm pretty happy. Very excited that both Squat and Bench are on the move upwards. It is much easier to bring up a lagging Deadlift than it is to build a bigger bench. Pretty chuffed that I reached some nice new round numbers with the 160kg Squat, 110kg Bench and 440kg Total too.

Immediate aims are to continue my incremental progress as ever on Squat and Bench, whilst making more headway on Deadlift. It's been the forgotten black sheep for too long & has so much potential to add to my total. Many of the other 83kg guys in my category are pulling 200kg+. I need at least a 200kg Deadlift to be taken mildly seriously. It's my worst lift by a country mile now. One guy (a junior) came up and pulled 286kg at 83kg bodyweight for a national junior record in his first comp. Jesus.

I'm build to Squat and Bench, but that is no excuse for avoiding training the Deadlift due unfavourable levers (i.e shorter arms). I should still be able to struggle on and make progress with it.

Video:
Hope you enjoy the 1 minute video as much as I enjoyed the three months training to get here.

Saturday March 21st: Bench

Bench (all paused)
20kg - 1x5
60kg - 1x5
72.5kg - 6x6

T-Bar Row
frame+5kg - 1x12
frame+10kg - 1x12
frame+15kg - 1x12
frame+20kg - 1x12
frame+25kg - 1x12
frame+30kg - 1x12
---
Shoulder Press (DB, seated)
20kg - 3x10

Efferding Curl (BB, trying to take the shoulder out of it)
20kg - 1x10
25kg - 1x10
30kg - 1x10 ... felt crap, didn't get much bicep contraction
---
Bicep Curl (one arm at a time, band)
~8x~10 ... lost count / didn't really track

Tricep Pushdown (one arm at a time, band)
~8x~10 ... lost count / didn't really track
---
One Arm DB Row
20kg per arm - 3x10 ... concentrating on swinging DB out in front a bit before each rep to get max contraction in lats, as learned from Stan Efferding video with Mark Bell
---

Tried some different stuff to change up the assistance.

I've been watching the youtube channels of some of the best 83kg IPF lifters. Very inspirational:
- Brett Gibbs (NZ) ... has benched 204.5kg in training recently in build up comp in a few weeks
- Jonnie Candito (USA) ... narrowly missed 302.5kg deadlift at Arnolds (USA) recently
- Connor Lutz (Canada) ... had the bench world record (or maybe still has) of something like ~190kg which Brett Gibbs above will take off him soon

I'm finding it a lot easier to relate to the lifts of these 83kg guys vs the likes of Andy Bolton / Benni / Mark Bell / the Lillebridges / Zahir / CWS / Lilly / Dan Green, etc.

BossArky wrote: »

Monday March 23rd: Squat & Deadlift

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Deadlift ... alternating sumo & conventional each set
95kg - 2x5 ... video'd last set for comparison purposes
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Felt good to Deadlift and GHR after Squats, for the sake of variety.

Just building Deads up slowly and twice a week for the moment at light weights to get body used to them again. You can see a comparison of my Sumo and Convo in the video. Sumo looks way better in my opinion.

Thursday March 26th: Squat & Deadlift

Squat
20kg - 1x5
60kg - 1x5
90kg - 1x3
**add wrist wraps & belt**
110kg - 7x5 ... felt terrible
---
Deadlift ... alternating sumo & conventional each set
60kg - 2x5
85kg - 2x5
100kg - 6x5 ... video'd all sets from 2-6. Even = conventional. Odd = sumo.
---

Still not feeling 100% due to various bugs going around. Haven't slept too well in the past few days. Those are the excuses for 110kg 7x5 Squats feeling terrible.

Did a heap of Deadlifts afterwards. Got marks on my shins from conventional for the first time in ~3 years. Alternated between sumo/conventional as I went through the 6 worksets. Getting some volume in whilst weight is low.

Felt fat in belt whilst Squatting also.

ninamc wrote: »

Great reading your competition post, well done. Love your honesty with yourself, onwards and upwards with your Deadlifts

"Weighed myself in the toilets just before starting to warm up and I was already back up to 86.5kg (a full 4kg+ over what I weighed in at"

Must have been done amount of sambos!!!!

Haha. Thanks Nina. Mainly liquid made up that 4kg gain!

Saturday March 28th: Bench

Bench (all paused)
20kg - 1x5
60kg - 1x5
82.5kg - 8x4 ... fine. Done in 18 mins, supersets with T-Bar row.

T-Bar Row (close parallel grip)
frame+20kg - 8x12 ... concentrating on deep elbows
---
Shoulder Press (DB, seated)
20kg per arm - 3x10

Barbell Curl
20kg - 1x3
32.5kg - 3x8
---
Inverted Row
3x10 ... video'd sets 2 & 3 for the sake of it.
---
Tricep Extension (DB, standing, one arm at a time)
2.5kg per arm - 1x10
5kg per arm - 1x10
7.5kg per arm - 1x10
10kg per arm - 2x5
7.5kg per arm - 2x10
5kg per arm - 2x10
2.5kg per arm - 2x10
---
Band Curl
1x10 per arm

Band Pushdowns
2x~10
---

Rattled through the bench and T-Bar Row supersets in 18 mins for the 16 sets (8 bench & 8 rows)

Inverted row looked slightly sloppy. I was expecting my body to be more ramrod straight, but it looks a bit loose. Happy enough that the ROM is more or less the exact opposite of my bench press groove which is what I was hoping for with this exercise.

Always gives some red hot tri DOMS the day after doing tricep extensions standing one armed with DB (which I can feel as I type). Probably zero carry over to anything, just for the sake of variety.

Monday March 30th: Squat & Deadlift @6am

Squat
20kg - 1x5
60kg - 1x5
80kg - 1x3
**add wrist wraps**
100kg - 1x1
**add belt**
115kg - 10x3 ... all 10 sets done in 18 mins
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Deadlift ... alternating sumo & conventional each set
60kg - 2x5
85kg - 2x5
105kg - 6x5 ... video'd all sets from 2-6. Even = conventional. Odd = sumo.
---

Rattled through 10 triples on 115kg Squats in 18 mins. Basically did a set then walked slowly around the side of the gym by the stereo and behind 2 monos before coming back into my Squat rack and doing the next set. Had just planned to do that for the first 2 or 3 sets to save time, but it was going well so I set myself the goal of doing all sets more or less back to back with minimal rest.

Probably ended up getting through the Squats quicker than the Deadlifts. Deads were fine too. Enjoying Deadlifting again. Actually makes me feel like a Powerlifter doing sets of 5 on Conventional.