Cmanuel's 531 Log for USAPL Raw Competition

[djl236]

last night...

squats
worked up to 455x2 all time PR

Bench
275 for 4sets of 5

Seated Lat Pulldowns
3x10

Nice. Big squat dude.

[Cmanuel]

So, I strained my lower back last monday. I worked up to a really easy 520x1 Deadlift opener, and at the top of the lift, something knotted up and gave me a shooting pain in my lower left back area. Probably just a minor strain, but I am probably pulling out of my meet this weekend to let it heal properly. I'd hate to go there, try 600 lbs, only to hurt myself.

With no contests on the horizon, my new focus is to improve on conditioning and diet down a bit. I've gained a bit of fat recently that I'm looking to lose. I'm 220 now, would like to get down to 195-200ish.

[DRice311]

Dude - that blows.

I'm sorry to hear that - I was looking forward to seeing you smash the 220 class. I actually did something to my tricep/shoulder while deadlifting last week. I have no idea what I did - it feels like a deep muscle bruise, but there is no bruising or swelling. I was doing the same thing as you - easy work up sets to my opener, and on 485, I felt a tweek, but I wanted to get at least 500, so tried it and felt a burning/numbness in the area. I use mixed grip, and its the arm that was under. I can still bench, and squat, and think I can actually still do deadlifts, I am just going to have to change up which hand is under, which sucks, because I definetly feel much stronger when my right arm is under.

[Cmanuel]

Gonna bring this back from the dead.

To sum up the last 4 years: Trained hard and competed regularly through about 2014. Ended up even hitting a nice 491 squat in competition (PR for me), bench and DL remained pretty stale. In late 2014 my gym closed in Raleigh NC, and my PhD schooling started getting quite hectic. Trained off and on (but not seriously) through 2015. Living in Wisconsin now and outfitting my basement with equipment over the next few weeks.

Hope to get the basement gym built soon so I can bring this back to life!