Tonkatron's PL Log

[Tonkatron]

I’m a 30 year old living in Solihull, UK. This week, I competed in my first meet, so I thought it would be a good time to start a log. All weights will be in kg.

Height: 5’9”
BW: 93
Squat 1RM: 200
Bench 1RM: 130
Deadlift 1RM: 215
Press 1RM: 92

I’ve been lifting for about 4 years, with a layoff of about a year in between. Up until 8 weeks ago, I had been running a 3x5 linear progression on squats and presses. My squats stalled at 160kg, so I decided to transition to Texas Method, with triples on Intensity day, in the lead-up to the meet.

I train with a couple of guys from work, who have only recently got into barbell lifting (around 4 months in). They’re mostly running a Starting Strength style programme. We lift at a local leisure centre, with pretty crappy equipment. I’m planning to lift at some “serious” PL gyms in the near future, with some of the guys I met at the meet.

My weekly schedule looks like this:

Tuesday - Volume
Squats 3x5
Bench 3x5
Dips (weighted) 2x8

Wednesday - Assistance
RDL - 3x5
Chins (weighted) 2x8

Thursday - Light
Squat - 2x5
Press 2x5
Curls 2x12-15

Saturday - Intensity
Squats 1x3
Bench 1x3
Deadlift 1x3

I’ll be alternating press/bench each week, although my first 8 weeks had a bench focus due to meet preparation. I'm currently resting for a week post-competition, and will be starting back up on Tuesday 3rd.

[Tonkatron]

Meet Write-up: GBPF West Midlands Open Powerlifting Championship - Hatchford Brook Community Centre, Solihull, 24th November 2013

I recently competed in my first PL meet, so here is a write-up of my experiences on the day. It was meant to be a quick summary, but ended up pretty long. The TL;DR: I had a great time, went 9 for 9, hit 200/130/210 (squat and bench PBs), and missed out on qualifying for nationals by 5kg.

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I arrived early, so that I would have plenty of time to get settled in before weighing in. As it turned out, the weigh-in area was available so I opted to weigh in early. The scales said 93.0kg, so I was bang on the limit for the 93s. I wasn't too worried about weight class, as I had decided not to worry about cutting weight for my first meet.

I logged my openers, and on the advice of the weigh-in official, dropped my squat opener by 10kg to 170kg, just to make sure I got it in. Bench went in as 110kg, deadlift 150kg. My targets for the day were 195/125/180, for a 500kg total. These were fairly conservative, matching PBs on squat and bench, but way below on deadlift (as I had only started regularly training deadlift when I decided to enter, 9 weeks prior to competing - previous best was 215kg, 2 years ago). I really just wanted to go 9 for 9.

The meet started on time, with 2 groups in the morning session; all of the women, and men up to the 83s. From chatting to people, I discovered my group would be just the 93 (8 of us), and we would be lifting after the bench only group, alternating with 105s and up. The initial estimate for our start time was around 2-2.30.

I was immediately struck by the sense of camaraderie, and by how friendly everyone was. There were a few larger clubs cheering on their lifters, but everyone seemed to be cheering, especially during the real grinding reps. Little did I know how helpful this would be!

I got chatting to one of the 93s, who turned out to be a pretty experienced junior lifter, who helped me out a lot with general advice and weight selections throughout the day. There's no doubt that without his help, I wouldn't have had such a successful meet.

As the day went on, it was clear that we wouldn't be lifting until after 4pm. I kept trying to stay hydrated, and snacking to keep my energy levels up. Just as the bench only category was announced, I went through to warm up. I tried to grab another bottle of water from the shop, but it had closed. Disaster! I only had half a bottle to last the rest of the competition. Lesson learnt: bring more next time!

Squats

I was feeling good in warm up, and creamed my opener (170kg). The spotters knew it was my first comp, and helpfully called "wait" after I unracked, and after I'd finished the squat, so I wouldn't miss the judge's commands.

I immediately forgot to lodge my next effort with the scorers, until one of the other competitors asked me what I'd gone for. I ran back to the table, and requested 190kg, knowing I'd hit a fairly comfortable 195 in training (my PB of 2 years).

Attempt 2 went equally well. This time I figured out where my focus point was (under the middle judge's chair), having forgotten after my opener. Good depth, and it felt strong. Before the comp, I would have been happy with 195, but I knew I had more in the tank. I called for 200.

I had never attempted anything above 195, but walked onto the platform brimming with confidence. Down, up. PB! I maybe could have hit another 2.5kg, but it was a tough effort. 3 out of 3, I moved onto bench warm up.

Bench

My training prior to the meet had been a succession of PBs, as I had previously had shoulder trouble from benching a couple of years ago. I had worked up to 127.5kg for a single, and 117.5 for a triple. My opener was pretty conservative at 110kg, because I had never benched with commands. It was a bit of a strange experience, not being able to see the judge. The calls from the spotters were helpful again, ensuring I didn't jump the commands.

The lift felt great, so I called for 122.5kg. It flew back up, so I threw caution to the wind and went for another PB, knowing I was still on target due to my squat. I called for 130kg for my final attempt.

I felt great and really believed I'd get it. As I pressed it back up, the bar slowed right down through my sticking point; almost to a stop. When I noticed the shouts of encouragement from the crowd, it was enough to get me through the rep. 6 out of 6, and another PB!

Deadlift

My deadlift training was pretty rubbish leading up to the meet. I had only been pulling regularly for 9 weeks, and my grip didn't seem to be progressing. My gym doesn't allow chalk, and the bars have some pretty smooth knurling. As a result, I had entered a very conservative "last warm-up" of 150kg, with a final target of 180kg, which was the most I had pulled in training.

It soon became apparent during warm up that the issue was completely solved by good bars and chalk. On the advice of one of the other lifters, I upped my opener to 165kg, thinking I could pick my second and third based on how that felt.

165 still felt like an easy warm up. I requested 190kg for my second, which would give me an idea of what my final attempt. That also went up easy peasy, so I immediately thought about going for a PB. I decided to play it safe, to get 9 out of 9 for my first meet. 3 PBs seemed a bit greedy, especially given my training.

It went up like it was nothing! I immediately wished I had gone for more, but had to remind myself that I was 40kg over what I considered my "best case scenario" at the start of the day.

Summary

For my first meet, my target was always to go 9 for 9, and lift over 500kg. I achieved this, with a couple of lifetime PBs and a total of 540kg, so all in all I would have to call this a successful result. The only negative from the whole experience came when I looked at the qualifying totals for GBPF Nationals. 545kg… I was 5kg away! I remember looking up the qualifying totals back when I decided to enter, but put the figure out of my mind because I thought it would be a distraction.

Overall, I found the whole experience very enjoyable. The competition seemed well-run, and everyone I spoke to was friendly and supportive. If anyone is wondering whether to compete, as I had been for some time, all I can say is do it!

[Tonkatron]

Monday 2nd December - Volume

Squat: 130x5, 140x5, 150x5
Bench:85x5, 90x5, 95x5
Dips: BW+16x8x2, BWx15

Eased back into it after resting for a week post-meet. Matched my last volume day before the meet, with ascending sets of 5. I’ll hit sets across next week. I felt like crap after squats, and had to lie down for 5 minutes. I almost ditched the session, but decided to stick it out. Bench and dips went fine. Felt a little soreness in my hamstrings, which I rolled out when I got home.