Good work man.
Anyone ever suggested you have scoliosis Tom? Or is it the light.
Hi, I'm Tom.
Basic Information:
For those who don't know about me:
Age / Height: 23y/o, 5'6"
Current Weight: ~170lbs
Meet PRs (the only ones that count):
Squat: 551w @ 218lbs
Bench: 320p @ 218lbs
Deadlift: 535c @ 218lbs
Most Recent Competition
3/22/14:
Federation: USPA
Meet: Nevada State Open / Southwest Regional
Weigh-in: 24hrs
Specifications: Squats walked out, no knees wraps, feet flat and head down on bench, and a deadlift bar was used.
Performance:
Weight: 73.4k / 163.8lbs (woke up at ~171lbs the next day)
Squat: 185k(407#) / 195k(429#) / 200k(441#)x
Bench: 105k(231#) / 110k(242#) / 112.5k(248#)x
Deadlift: 185k(407#) / 195k(429#) / 205k(451#)
Total: 510kg / 1124lbs
Meet Video:
I placed 2nd by a rather large margin (~100lbs). More importantly, this performance qualified me for National's (Men's Open) and World's (Junior Only).
Training Cycle Data:
In the future, these evaluations will be more elaborate. I am working with limited data unfortunately. Going forward, I will be tracking NL (number of lifts), volume, normalized volume, e1RM, and a variety of other metrics that I consider important. I have to develop the spreadsheets still.
Training Data:
Best Lifts:
Squat: 405x5@9.5 - e1RM ~476 @ 178lbs on 2/24
Bench: 235x6@9 - e1RM ~290 @ 181lbs on 2/7
Deadlift: 415x5@10 - e1RM ~483 @ 185lbs on 1/31
Projected Best Case Total: ~1249 @ ~185lbs on ~2/1
Frequency/Volume:
Squat: Varied from 1-2x weekly, 5x5 ramped
Bench: 2x weekly, 5x5 ramped both days
Deadlift: Varied from 0-1x weekly, 5x5 ramped
Body Composition Data:
Nutritional Protocol: Rapid Fatloss Diet by Lyle McDonald (a crash diet; a PSMF where only protein, essential fats, and fiber are consumed)
Average Macro Nutrient Intake: 188p/30c/30f/30fib
Composition Changes:
1/1/14: 200lbs, 37.25" Waist, 17.25" Neck, ~21.1% BF, 157.8lbs LBM
2/12/14: 182lbs, 34.5" Waist, 16.75" Neck, ~16.6% BF, 151.7lbs LBM
3/19/14: 171lbs, 33.0" Waist, 16.25" Neck, ~14.5% BF, 145.9lbs LBM
Start/Finish:
Technical Considerations:
Primary Errors:
Squat: failure to keep knees out, major fault
Bench: overall lack of tightness
Deadlift: failure to keep knees out sumo, failure to maintain extension conventional, failure to dedicate myself to one particular style thus overall technical proficiency is extremely poor in both styles (compounded by lack of frequency)
Training Cycle Analysis:
Training / Programming:
Due to my nutritional protocol, both my frequency and volume were far too low. This led to significant detraining and contributed to the muscle loss that I experienced towards the end of the cut. To remedy this situation, I will be upping my bench frequency to 4x per week, squat frequency to 3x per week, and deadlift frequency to twice per week.
Nutrition:
I was able to get away with doing a crash diet for two months with little to no ill effects. Although the drop from 157lbs of LBM to 151lbs of LBM in mid February looks troublesome, I can assure you this was nothing more than transient LBM. Primarily, my glycogen stores were depleted which, of course, leads to far less water being carried. My performance peaked in mid-to-late February. This is evidence enough that the diet was initially successful.
However, it is clear that as I dropped below 180lbs I began to lose LBM at a rapid pace and my performance suffered greatly. Frankly, this was bound to happen. When you crash diet, performance will not be maintained optimally. I knew this. I chose to do it anyway because I let impatience and emotion get the best of me. Going forward, emotions will play their usual massive role in my training, but I will endeavor to eliminate them entirely from my training analysis (and training logs).
Technique:
My bench is technically sound in my opinion. I could be more efficient, but no major faults exist.
My squat suffers from valgus knee patterns. This has been the case for a long time. Not only does it cause pain, but it is inefficient. I feel my descent is too slow lately as well, but "getting my knees out" is my technical focus on the squat going forward. To facilitate the transition to a more healthy, more efficient "knees out" squat, I am going to employ a technical max rather than a true max. If my knees cave, the set is over.
I have long arms and a short torso. This predisposes me to a strong conventional deadlift. However, my wide squat stance, which I demonstrably use more weight with, does not seem to carryover very well to my pull. That said, it does carryover to the sumo deadlift very well.
Going forward, I will not be performing conventional deadlifts. I used them in this meet to ensure qualification as the conventional pull is currently substantially stronger for me.
If you've read my articles on deadlift technique selection, you'll know that I prefer the sumo deadlift for a variety of reasons: http://www.powerliftingtowin.com/pow...deadlift-form/. I believe in practicing what you preach. I simply prefer the sumo deadlift more.
Technically, I don't have enough of a training history with the movement to establish technical priorities. Frankly, I need to establish a style first. My technical priority for this training cycle, on the deadlift, is merely to do just that: establish a sumo style. I need to get an idea of my baseline technique before I can set about perfecting it.
Moving Forward:
Next Competition:
Federation: USPA
Meet: Rocky Mountain Regional in West Jordan, Utah on 5/17
Category: Raw, no wraps
Division: Junior division
Weight Class: 67.5kg / 148lbs
Goals:
1) Improve upon my Wilks of ~366 from 3/22 (PR is ~394 with wraps/mono),
2) Qualify for IPL Worlds as a 148 with a 975 total
Training:
-Mike Tuchscherer's RTS - Generalized Intermediate Program
-I am on a waiting list to have a personalized program from Mike T
Nutrition:
-Macronutrient counting as taught to me by Jordan Feigenbaum
-Shooting for 0.6-0.8% BW loss per week, adjusted as per performance
-Probably will hire Jordan one month out to help make 148 if he's available
Technique:
-Squat: 2" Outside Shoulder Width Stance, correct knees out fault
-Bench: Max width grip with biggest arch possible, focus on overall tightness
-Deadlift: Toes-to-plate sumo, improve hip mobility, establish passable technique and set a baseline PR
Thanks to everyone who continues to support my lifting endeavors! It is truly appreciated.
I will be back in the gym on Monday 3/24.
Good work man.
Anyone ever suggested you have scoliosis Tom? Or is it the light.
Never heard that before, but I guess might.
My god, the man even has different pairs of knee sleeves for the squat and the bench.
Welcome back to the big boys' and girls' training logs, Tom.
I'm glad you finally started a log - I love the Powerlifting to Win web site, BTW. And damn, is this a detailed analysis or what?
Looking forward to following along!
Strong work at the last meet.
I'm curious to see how training to a 'technical max' works. In theory it should be great provided you have enough volume to undo a heavily ingrained motor pattern.
Keep up the good work.
Good job Tom!! I hope they did better with your name this meet.
What's going on with your sumo? Knees collapsing, butt moving away from the bar, something else?
Thanks, man.
Mike T has successfully used training maxes to help people unlearn rounding their back for conventional pulls so I feel like this can be an effective option as long as I do my best to keep myself in check.
Steve Denison actually said my name right. Not even like right for a white person, but he pronounced it correctly in Spanish. Was 'mirin. The announcers just skipped my last name though, lol. They spelled everything right shockingly.
There is really so much wrong with my sumo deadlift that it isn't practical to pick one aspect. Primarily, I need to work on breaking the bar from the ground with knee extension. My form is pretty good at lighter weights and medium-wide stances. But I don't have the flexibility or strength to hold my knees out with a toes-to-plate stance. That, and my knees tend to extend without the bar actually leaving the floor. At heavy weights, I just back pull the shit out of it.