Das Zurechthämmern von Karl: An Attempt at Block Periodization

[Karl Schudt]

Brief Meet Recap:

A little background: I already owned the record for powerlifting total in 100% Raw 275lb class as well as the squat and bench press records for Masters 40-44. For Masters 45-50 there aren't any records. Nobody has completed a full power meet. There are no records worth getting in this federation once I turn 45, which will happen May 26.

So, I needed to do whatever I was going to do before my birthday. I have gone down 28lbs (more on that later, perhaps), and Giovanni Giuliano owned the record for 242 40-44 masters total. He had a squat of 501.6lb, a bench of 352.7, a deadlift of 655.9 (human orangutan), and a total of 1510.2. My goal was to take three of those records.

BW: 235.4lbs in the 242 class.

Squat: I opened light at 507. I failed my opener. What? I really don't know what happened. I know that I was upset with the speed of the meet and the quality of the equipment. I also know that I'm always teetering on the edge of disaster at meets. I'm not what you would call an "athlete."

I recovered to smoke 507 on the second attempt and 529 on the third. I might have had 550 if I hadn't done my usual screwup.

Bench: Opened light (see above) with 407, but got it easily. I called for 441 which would tie my meet PR set at bodyweight 258. It was easy. I decided to try for 451, which would be a PR and a meet PR. It was close. Didn't go.

So, I've taken the squat and bench press records. In fact, I beat the open record for bench press by 20lbs. Two out of my three goals were accomplished.

Deadlift: I have switched back to conventional deadlifting, AKA "the deadlift", as a result of Robert Santana's nagging and good coaching. I tried sumo about a month ago after training the conventional for a year, and I hated it. Let it be consigned to the ashbin of my powerlifting history. We called for 507 deadlift opener, which would be the first time I've gone over 500 conventional. It went up reasonably well.

At this point, I had nothing left to prove in Raw Powerlifting. I wasn't going to win money if I got a bigger total, but I wanted a shot at Giovanni's record total. So we called for 547.5. Alas, I'm not strong enough for that yet. It remained glued to the floor for the last two attempts.

5/9, two state records, matched my bench PR after dropping 28lbs.

A good day.

[ajvd]

A good day.

Great work Karl! That would have been strong without the weight loss. It's epic work with it.

[Chris McCarthy]

Sweet!

[manveer]

Really nice work, Karl. Congrats! Will you stay around the same bodyweight going forward?

[Clay Simczyk]

I'd quote Churchill here ("Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm."), but since that won't be possible without a Benjamin Button's machine you'll have to be successful at something else. Highland Games is pretty welcoming to the older gentleman who has no athletic ability. Rockford has a couple of good games.

Nice work. Really impressive how you can have as much control over your body size without much loss of strength.

[Aleli]

Congratulations on all the records!!

I say you go and throw some numbers up on the Masters 45-50 class, just for fun.

[Karl Schudt]

Today's log:

Just some fun time.

Press: 236x2. Bodyweight double.

Press: 246x1. Bodyweight + 10lbs single

Pullups, various

Squats: 405x5x3. Just some work to keep trained until Santana unloads the new stuff on me.

[Karl Schudt]

Great work Karl! That would have been strong without the weight loss. It's epic work with it.

Sweet!

Really nice work, Karl. Congrats! Will you stay around the same bodyweight going forward?

Thanks, guys. I will probably drop a bit more. USAPL has a 231 class. Plus, I want to keep an eye on the blood sugar stuff. It's better, but not optimal, and given the myriad things that go wrong, I don't want to mess around. A1C was 5.4 today, down from 5.5 in January and 5.8 the previous two years.

I'd quote Churchill here ("Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm."), but since that won't be possible without a Benjamin Button's machine you'll have to be successful at something else. Highland Games is pretty welcoming to the older gentleman who has no athletic ability. Rockford has a couple of good games.

Nice work. Really impressive how you can have as much control over your body size without much loss of strength.

Thinking about it.

Congratulations on all the records!!

I say you go and throw some numbers up on the Masters 45-50 class, just for fun.

This is complicated by the lack of meets in Illinois. I've had to drive 5 hours the last two years.

[kfreeman85]

I'll second anything to do with Highland Games. They're incredibly fun.

[FuriousE]

Congrats on the meet results, Karl!!