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Was supposed to squat last night, but after getting home from work my left knee felt funny (i.e. inflamed a little) and kept popping (like a knuckle). I decided to play it safe and went to bed early instead.
It feels better this morning but still not 100%. Weird.
From last night, 9/30/15
Bodyweight 195.95 (the stricter diet is paying dividends)
Bench - 225 for 5, 5, 5, 5, and 6. Wrists felt funny so I wore my wrist wraps. Barely any noticeable elbow discomfort. Paused all the first reps. I actually thought this went pretty well.
Squats - my left hip felt weird during warmups, so I worked up to 315 for 5. That went well enough that I threw on my benchmark 5RM and did 345 for 5. I made a deal with myself that if I did 345x5 then I would finish up with another set of 315 and call it a night. And that's what I did.
I'll probably skip intensity day this week seeing that I'm behind schedule. I'll do another heavy volume type workout on Sunday/Monday and then work up to openers on Wed/Thursday which I think should put me in a good place to hit the numbers I'm after on Saturday.
From Saturday, 10/5/15
Body weight 196.6
Bench - 225 for 5, 5, 5, 5, and 6. No belt or wrist wraps and the 6th rep was faster than last time. Felt good.
Overhead press - 115 for 8, 7 then 95 for 8. I hadn't done these in quite some time and just wanted to see where I was at. Not quite as strong as I hoped. Close though.
Push ups - 30, 20, 20.
This will be my last heavy workout for upper body. I'll work up to openers on Wed/Thursday.
I developed some cold symptoms on Saturday, so I decided to take Sunday off instead of squatting. Feeling better today so I will do some volume squats and that will be my last heavy squat day until the meet. In the home stretch now.
From last night, 10/5/15
Body weight 196.2
I felt mostly normal for the rest of the day. Some extra sneezing here and there, but all in all pretty energetic. It also helped that I was able to lift right after getting home but before the rest of the family got home, instead of after the kids going to sleep.
Squats - 345 for 5, and then 320 for 5 and 6. Squats felt strong today. I got have got at least one more rep at 345 and I could have done a couple more on my last set of 320 but the bar was sliding down my back and I didn't want to reaggravate the tendonitis which is doing much better these days. In each case, I decided to play it safe and not go for the rep PR. I'll do that on Saturday! I felt like I could have squatted 405 today in just my sleeves, which is still a goal of mine, but it wasn't worth the risk of tweaking something.
I decided to skip any deadlifts today. The family had gotten home and I was quite pleased with how this felt.
My buddy is coming over Thursday night to practice some bench liftoffs and wrapping my knees while I work up to openers. No other strength work is planned for this week. I feel like everything is in place, it's just a matter of execution now.
Hit it hard Caveman!
Look forward to seeing your results
Thanks Mexmick! Honestly, I'll be glad when the meet is over.
Last night worked up to a couple of squat singles at 375 with loose'ish wraps, and then with pretty tight wraps. I'm glad we practiced wrapping, he was having the same problem I sometimes have with tucking the end to complete the wrap. He was sweating more than me by the end.
Bench worked on handoffs all during warmups up to 225. The handoffs at 185 and 225 were smooth. My elbows bothered me just a touch at 225 so I called it there. I'm sure I'll be able to hit 235, or rather 231 as I decided round down during the conversion to kilograms.
Skipped warming up deads. I had to head into work, and my back felt a little creaky.
Naked on my scale at home I weighed in at 194.2 this morning. Clothed but with empty pockets I weighed in at 196.2 at the weigh-in. I wasn't sure what to expect and went wearing my work clothes, though I had brought all of my gear and singlet. Weigh-ins took forever. Got there at 8:45 and walked out around 10:20AM.
Rules briefing is at 8:15 tomorrow morning and I'm lifting in the 3rd flight which is supposed to have a start time around 10:30'ish. I'm hoping that eating a fair bit today will make me feel better. I just felt old yesterday and today though I did feel decent after getting warmed up last night.
MEET RECAP from 10/10/15
Bodyweight 194.8 (my stomach shrunk so much during the last couple of days losing weight that I couldn't eat very much before I was so full that I felt ill).
Arrived right around 8AM. Rules briefing happened around 8:15am. Initially they said that if you were going to set a record and had made your previous 3 attempts you could get a 4th. Then they apparently changed that rule to only if you were going to set a national record because of how many lifters there were. I was a little bummed by this because I was planning to err on the conservative side for my attempts and the 4th attempt would have let me try to really go for it. Anyways, I'm glad I checked after my squat opener, as it really didn't change my strategy much. I was in the 3rd flight, which was scheduled to start around 10:30. Got my rack height for the monolift, first time ever squatting in one of those, but more on that later.
Started squat warmups as soon as Flight B started their first attempts. My hips were feeling tight and I had spent some time earlier in the morning stretching them and some foam rolling. They had squat bars. Meaning 55 pound bar weight and a little thicker diameter. Honestly, this bar felt awesome on my back. Had to change my warmups slightly because everyone there was a monster. So I started with 1 plate per side (145lb) instead of just the bar, then up to 2 plates (235). Then I realized that Flight B had started their 2nd attempts yet and slowed things down. Added my belt and lightweight wraps for a single at 285 and 325. I can't remember if I hit another single at 335 or 345. Flight B had just started their 3rd attempts and I was going to be 3rd up in Flight C, though at the time I was under the impression I was going to be 2nd. There was a 5 minute break between flights and so I had my buddy start wrapping me with 1 minute to go. After he wrapped the first leg I realized my mistake and had him wait a minute before wrapping the second one.
Squat Attempt #1 170kg (374.8 lb) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eD7JEqgLT5k Walked this out of the monolift, felt like I was going to fall down while walking back. After watching the video I think this was because the monolift is not as solid as my squat rack at home and the bar hadn't settled down from my wiggles of locking it into my back. That and walking anything back with wraps on is more challenging for me. Fortunately, I did NOT fall down AND waited for the squat command. I unintentionally buried this squat which made coming out of the hole a little more difficult than it should have been. 3 white lights and not much of a confidence boost.
Squat Attempt #2 182.5kg (402.3 lb) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fucKNkJxOpc Decided not to walk this out and let the spotters know that in advance. Squatting over 400 pounds at a meet was one of the primary goals for this meet. The lack of a walk out felt surprisingly natural, with the added benefit of not having to worry about waiting for the rack command, you can just stand there until the monolift arms are put back into place. Sweet! This squat felt great, though it did feel a little harder than the video showed, it felt great!
Squat Attempt #3 190kg (424.4lb) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxYpZVCHigc I really wanted to put more weight on the bar, but this was a 20lb lifetime PR, so I opted for a more conservative final attempt. This went really well, smooth and possibly one of my best squats technically ever. I'm pretty sure I could have gotten 440 lb. Regardless, I was ecstatic to have gone 3 for 3 and hit 424, which I'm calling 425.
Bench Attempt #1 105kg (231.4lb) - No video my buddy was doing the liftoffs. Butter, as intended. I did help rerack the weight when given the command and my whole entire back didn't like that movement for some reason, so for each additional attempt I let the spotters do their thing and slam the weights back into the uprights for me.
Bench Attempt #2 115kg (253.5lb) - I thought I felt the bar stall ever so slightly about 1/2 way up. Because of this I went conservative on the 3rd.
Bench Attempt #3 120kg (264.5lb) - This shot up with no drama. Probably good for 275 today. That would have made me happy, 264 was acceptable given the circumstances and how crappy my elbows have been feeling. Just not something I was overly psyched about.
Deadlift Attempt #1 175kg (385.8lb) - I got a couple of warmups in with the deadlift bar, the rest were on the stiff bar. It's noticeably more bendy than my bar at home and I'm a big fan of it. The little bit of give really let my get tight before initiating the pull. This flew up.
Deadlift Attempt #2 190kg (418.9lb) - This also went right up.
Deadlift Attempt #3 200kg (440.9lb) - Decided to go for my aggressive 3rd choice because squats had gone so well, and I was feeling pretty good. This was hard, but felt like it moved pretty well. I think I could have gotten 450, but 440.9 was also a lifetime PR by a pound and with much better form and better bar speed this time around.
So I went 9 for 9, set an Oregon state record for each lift for my age and weight class, hit lifetime PR's twice and came home with a first place trophy. It'll be hard to top this experience!
Even though the meet was well run, it still took forever to get through the day with only one platform running. I got out of there around 8 PM. That's a long day, and much like drag racing, where you wait around for an hour and then do something useful for a minute, followed by waiting around for a long time again.
Random notable things:
I went and shook Chris Duffin's hand before leaving.
I watched Jesse Burdick lift. That dude is massive!
I watched Amit Sapir (?sp) squat 782 pounds at a body weight of 195 pounds in SBD sleeves. Damn!
I watched a 132 pound Asian dude pull 479 pounds.
I saw many squats failed for depth, even though all their buddies said there depth was fine. It wasn't.
I saw several people fail their openers in each lift badly. Though all of them were able to nut up and grind out the attempt on their 3rd to avoid bombing out.
From last night 10/14/15
Bodyweight 196'ish.
Finally felt kind of ready to head into the garage and lift. My body has felt ready, my mind was more fatigued/burned out.
Decided to keep things light and just have fun moving weight around.
Bench press - 185 for 12, 10, and 10. That's a rep PR for 185 and there was at least one more in the tank.
Overhead press - 95 for 10, 10, and 10. Did these a little more strict than normal, meaning less shooting hips forward and back to get a pop to start the lift.
Tricep pull downs - 40 for 10, 50 for 10, 60 for 10. used the rope attachment.
Pushups - 20.
I had a pretty decent tricep pump going after this. Elbows felt great, no pain at all. I think one of my goals moving forward is going to be focusing on strengthening the triceps to try and drive the bench up.
From last night 10/16/15
Bodyweight 197.5 (OK my week of eating whatever I want is almost over, sad face)
Well, I had planned to follow a similar routine as yesterday. Stay late and get some relatively easy 10 rep sets in and call it a night. The problem I had was that although I have successfully squatted over 400 pounds a couple of times now, the original goal was to squat 405 pounds in my knee sleeves, not with wraps. Could I do that? Dunno, but I planned to warmup like I was going to try it and be honest if something didn't feel good I would abort.
My last "warmup" at 365 felt OK. I wouldn't say it was easy, but it moved well. So 4 plates went on the bar. I took a couple whiffs of the Nose Torq that I didn't use at the meet, which honestly did seem to help with focusing to the task at hand. Success! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMg224n7ycU
I've chased this lift for a long time!
Finished off with 315 for 5, 5, and 5. These were kind of hard actually. Somewhere between RPE 8 and 9.
Sumo deadlift - 185 for 5, 225 for 5, 275 for 10. I haven't done these in forever and wasn't sure where to start. A couple of reps at 275 bothered my right knee a little, but it went away before the end of the set.
Dumbell rows - 37 for 10, 55 for 10 and 10.
I was spent after this. I need to get used to doing more work after squats. No more one and done for a while.
From Sunday night 10/18/15
Bodyweight 198.5
Bench press - 205 for 8, 8, and 10. 2nd set I tried index fingers on the rings. Meh, it was OK, that set felt harder than the first set.
CGBP - 185 for 8, 7, and 6. Arms were toast after the first set.
Tricep push downs - 40 for 10, 60 for 10 and 10.
Push ups - 20 and then 11. I gave up at 11, I was done.
