Dave "Bull" Abdemoulaie's Heavy Ass Training Log

[DeriHughes]

Thanks man - appreciate the insight. I've been looking at TSFOSB myself for when I need longer than weekly progression so good to see it working. And great job on the singles at 600!

[David Abdemoulaie]

Monday, August 24

Bench: 2x2x315
Dips: 2x6x380 (+135)

Tuesday, August 25

Squat: 2x5x405
Power Shrugs: 5x705

Thought I was going to have a rough day my 675 warm-up felt slow, barely shrugged it. Let loose my inner animal and blasted the 5x705.

[David Abdemoulaie]

AWPC World Championships - Friday, September 4

All weight in kilos.

Squat: 255, 275, -290
Bench: 167.5, 172.5, 182.5 (+10 training PR, +17.5 Meet PR)
Dead: 240, 265, -275

Total: 722.5 (+15 PR)

Standing:

• 2nd - Open Raw 110 kg
• 1st* - Submaster Raw 110 kg (only one in this division )
• 3rd - Overall Open Raw (20 points back from best lifter)

Bodyweight: 108.7 kg

Well, I'm mostly disappointed with this. I lost my weight class by just 2.5 kg, to the guy who beat me at Nationals (he won that time by 15 kg). I added 15 kg to my total, but he added 2.5 kg to his. I do feel pretty good about getting 3rd across all weight classes.

Squat

This is where I lost the meet. I opened 5 kg higher than typical, this was great. I went conservative and went with 275 for my second attempt; my PR is 277.5. In hindsight I should have done 280 and cemented the "baby PR". 275 was easy. I got ballsy and decided to go for 290; I "knew" I could get this based on my 3RM of 265 and 5RM of 250; I didn't. My un-rack was a little unstable, my back felt slightly strained before I even descended. Came about 4" out of the hole and the bar stopped completely. In hindsight, I should have been smarter here. I could have gone 280, 282.5, or 285 and gotten the lift. All would have been a PR. Oh well.

To some degree I was afraid of my nemesis benching 240, which he had just barely failed to do at Nationals, this is why I was trying to cement a big squat PR.

Going into the bench I had a 45 kg lead.

https://youtu.be/9MfkrVP3e7Q

Bench

This was perfect. Opened *above* my best competition PR (I had done an easy paused 5x1x172.5 in training). The bench was setup in a shitty location on the platform though, and my feet were sliding during my setup; I was concerned about this affecting my subsequent lifts, so I took a conservative 5 kg jump. Thankfully they adjusted the bench so that my feet would no longer slip by the time I got to my second attempt. This was even easier than my 5x1 in training. I decided to get a little crazy with my final attempt. I felt 80% confident I could pause a ~400 lb. bench, my 1RM training touch-n-go is 405 lb. It was the right call, it was a fair struggle but do-able. I left only 2.5 kg on the platform, if any. My nemesis benched 227.5, wtf.

Going into the deadlift we were tied for 1st. He weighed 0.5 kg less than me, so I had to pull more 2.5 kg more than him to win.

https://youtu.be/_v_JXAG14nw

Dead

My halting dead and rack pulls had gone completely to shit during my last few weeks of training. I was scared, and hoped I could eek out some miracle here. I was honestly unsure if I could even match my best lift. I opened at my usual 240, it was harder than it has been in the past. My nemesis opened at 250 and got it. Next I went to 265, my PR; he went to 267.5. I got mine, but it was hard (not as hard as it was the first time I pulled it) and I strained/hurt my pec as I typically do during 1RM deads. He barely eked out his 267.5.

He entered a 3rd attempt of 272.5; I knew there was no way I could get a 275. My best hope was to get 270 and him miss. I pulled 270 to the top of my socks and ran out of steam. He missed his 3rd too, but it didn't matter. He won by 2.5 kg.

https://youtu.be/qul6bGxILYI

Next time.

[manveer]

Dave, it must be disappointing to lose by 2.5 kg, but adding 15 kg to your (already impressive) total is damn fine work. It's apparent that you're fiercely competitive, so I'm sure the loss will add some extra fire to your training between now and the next time you face off against your nemesis.