caveman goes for 5/3/1 for 300/400/500

[caveman]

Tuesday 11/5/19
Bodyweight 190.7

Bench - 245 for 5 and 5, first rep paused in each set. Didn't feel particularly strong today, but it has been the best my left shoulder has felt in a long time. Definitely wish I could have pushed the intensity and volume a little more the last few weeks. It's going to be close...

Hammer curls - 20 for 20
Tricep rope - 90 for 30
Incline dumbbell bench - 50 for 10

then some misc. shoulder stretching. My arms were done after this, which was a little disappointing that they felt fatigued so quickly...

[caveman]

Thursday 11/7/19
Bodyweight 191.1 (2nd day in a row heavier than 190. I really want to be under 190 before i start the water cut. The meet is also starting an hour earlier than posted so maybe it's time to wake up earlier and do a fasted walk before hitting the shower. Yuck.)

Squats - 405 for 2. not too bad. Form did not feel on point, and I also felt kind of blah for these. Hungry mostly, I guess... That's my last heavy squat until the meet. I will work up to openers twice next week and that's that.
Backoff squats - 365 for 4 and 4. Meh, was going to do 5, but just didn't feel like it.

had to go pull on the xfit platform because some doofus started deadlifting as soon as I racked my last squat rep. then as I started to warm up, I overhead some other guy telling his buddy that he wanted to pull today. Even though he didn't ask to work in, I decided to be a decent human being and go over to him and ask if he wanted to work in. It was kind of nice to lift with someone stronger than me for a change (and I'm not even that strong...).

Deadlifts - 435 for 2. These felt pretty good. Though it was on the deadlift bar and that makes it noticeably easier for me. I definitely could have pulled 1 more, probably 2, so the outside shot still remains at pulling 480 on meet day. Hopefully, adrenaline, ammonia, and atmosphere will add 15 pounds to my pull! My gym buddy for the day pulled 525 for 5 sumo style.

Backoff deads - 405 for 3. Felt good. Stopped at 3 because my low back was starting to get tired.

No accessory work because that took forever and my shoulder is still bothering me. The deadlift bar also tore up my hands a bit.

[caveman]

Friday 11/8/19
Bodyweight 189.95 Woohoo - milestone!

Did this at home.

Bench - 255 for 3. First rep paused, the rest were touch and go. Tried for a 4th and was denied. I should not have gone for it in hindsight because my elbows were already pissed off and this just made it worse. it sucks watching my bench numbers plummet.

I did some hammer curls and pushups for rehab work.

[caveman]

Sunday 11/10/19 - ONE WEEK OUT!!
Bodyweight 190.0

Worked up to openers at a different gym with a bunch of people competing at the meet. We went full dress rehearsal so we were all wearing singlets. Actually, I ordered an IPF legal singlet, which has not arrived yet, so I wore my Asics wrestling singlet from my last meet. Pretty humbling to be covered in spandex...

Squats - worked up to 365 as my opener. Moved well, shoulder was feeling reasonable to a change. Form didn't feel on point for the opener, and my right hip was tight, so maybe that was the cause. Commands went well, need to make sure that I wait for the rack command. I waited, but it was by accident and not intentional. I'm always surprised how long it seems to take to get the squat command.

Bench - I only worked up to 185 for 5. My elbows were still pissed from Saturday's effort and I already have a good attempt plan in my head for bench. I did one extra rep at 185 with commands and that went fine, but it's always easier to be patient when the weight is not challenging.

Deads - worked up to 405 and that felt really really good. that flew up quickly and the video showed that as well too. I am very curious on deads go on comp day. I think 405, 445 (meet PR) and 465 to 480 for a 3rd set me up for a PR total and possible state records...

Did some more hammer curls and that was that. I will probably work up to openers one more time this week and then do last warmups later in the week. The work has been done and now it's time to play the hand that I have.

[caveman]

Water and sodium loading started today.
Peeing every 15-30min is annoying AF.

[caveman]

From 11/12/19
Bodyweight 191.0 Water load is in full effect.

Worked up to openers mostly at home.

Squat - 365 for 1. Felt fine.
Backoff squat -315 for 3. Just needed to do something else...

Bench - 225 for 1. Paused. No pain in shoulder or elbow. Decided to sneak in some volume, rather than trying to ramp intensity and piss something off again.
Backoffbench - 225 for 8. With 1 in the tank.

Deads - 405 for 1. Moved well, maybe not quite as snappy as on Sunday, but there was a lot less hype and motivation today.

[caveman]

Thursday 11/14/19
Bodyweight 189.8 (surprising, did not expect weight to go down while doing the water/sodium load. However, I am trying to kinda of eat the same portions so it could be related to that?)

Squats - 315 for 3, 225 for 5. these all felt good.

Bench - 185 for 1, 135 for 5. These did not feel good at all. Left shoulder was tight and felt some discomfort on 185 and shut it down instead of going for the triple. I spent some time trying some different foot positions because I am worried about my butt coming off the bench for the heavier attempts. For me there is a balance between lifting up slightly sometimes and a lack of leg drive/week position to guarantee it stays planted.

Decided to skip deads totally.

Hammer curls - 20 for 20
Tricep rope - 80 for 30
Inverted row - 10

Just trying to get some blood flowing through my arms without going crazy. Mission accomplished.

I'm pretty sure that's my last session until comp day. Need to keep drinking water and then stop and hope that all of this nonsense pays off.

[caveman]

COMP DAY RECAP

The water and sodium loading was mostly successful. I also cut out all food and drink 17 hours before weigh in and still had to suck on a bunch of jolly ranchers to get the last 1 to 1.5 pounds off. In the end, I was able to drop from 190 down to 182.9 (exactly 83.0kg) in a period of 24 hours. Because of life I didn't get to weigh myself as much as I wanted to try and determine which weight came off for which reason. If I had to guess I would say that 2 pounds from water loading, 1 pound from sodium loading, 2 pounds from fasting/surviving, and 1 pound from spitting into a Gatorade container and 1 pound from my scale reading higher than the comp scale. The comp scale was a whole other issue, and the one I was originally assigned too was taken out of service (after my initial weigh-in because it was 1.5 to 2kg reading higher than what people were expecting, myself included). I definitely almost lost my shit when 84.6kg came up on the scale.

Anyways, I made weight, but burned up a lot of my refueling time while trying to sort out all of the crap above. Luckily I was in the 3rd flight, so I still had about 2 hours to refuel.
I did not feel very good during squat warmups, but the weights were moving well and my form felt pretty decent for a nice surprise.
My strategy so far has been to pick a fairly light squat opener so that I can bury depth and not worry about being able to overpower any other mistakes that are made due to nerves or unusual equipment or whatever.

Squat opener was about 365 (meets are held in kg's for some reason, and for powerlifting, I think in pounds). Last warmup was 315. Opener was 3 white lights and felt good.
2nd attempt was 408, definitely felt like I could triple that so I decided that I would go for the record as this was the one I felt the most confident at grabbing.
3rd attempt was 430 (195kg). I knew as soon as I unracked it that I was going to get it as long as I hit depth. The weight got a little forward on me out of the hole but I got it. yeah buddy! That's an all time PR for me regardless of body weight. My previous best was 425 for a triple at the gym, but I never went for a max single and that was at a bodyweight of about 210. This attempt was really a turning point for me. It took all the pressure off because I had hit my goals of making the 83kg class, which a lot of my friends and family didn't think was possible and I also got the state record while lifting a PR weight. it also meant that the deadlift record was now within reach because I usually have about a 40-50 pound difference between my pull and squat and I felt that I had 5-10 more pounds in my squat.

Bench opener was also way light for me because I wasn't sure how my elbows and shoulder were going to feel. I took a bunch of Ibuprofen before squats and another dose before bench to try get as much help as possible. Well it worked because my shoulder felt fine and my elbows also didn't bother me either.
Opener was around 225. The rack height seemed a little high and I definitely would not have been able to unrack it without the liftoff. The liftoff guy also picked it way up so that took a little getting used to as well. Elbows and shoulder felt great on the pause and I crushed the weight up fast and banged it off the j-hook. I was able to keep control of it and get the rack command. Made another mental note to setup a little more under the bar to get some more distance from the uprights.
2nd attempt was something around 255-260. I was nervous about this one, because I grinder would mean that the record is off limits. This needed to feel like an easy triple. Well it did. Still hadn't quite adapted to the handoff, but the setup was better and this rep was clean and smooth.
3rd attempt was for the record, 127.5kg (281), and I honestly did not think that it was there. I haven't benched this much weight in a long time, let alone with a competition pause. I made the right correction to stay as tight as possible after the hand off, and the combination of some ammonia, honey, meet hype and hearing my kids cheer for me as I was setting up and I was hyped AF. Rep came down in the groove and I felt solid for the pause. got a good hit off my chest and was able to power through the stick point to get the rep. It was just a smidge faster than a grinder would be. I couldn't have doubled this, but maybe could have done another 5pounds. Yeah buddy! The shit was going down today!

deadlift warmups weren't going the way that I wanted. They were going way to early and hitting weights above where I wanted to go. I peeled off and setup my own bar. So I redid 275, once pretty early, and then again once the previous flight was starting their openers. I finished with 365, which I pulled double over hand without even thinking about it. My plan was to pull this mixed grip to save as much grip as possible. In any event, my start position was feeling good, strong and tight. Between my squats and this feeling I knew that I had a shot.
1st attempt was 408 and that felt good. Real good.
2nd attempt was 452 and while that felt heavy it was so much faster than the 455 I pulled at home a few weeks earlier that I knew I had more in me and should go for it.
3rd attempt was 220kg (485) and when I started pulling I knew I was in for a fight. I felt like it tugged me forward just a bit but I was able to get it back and just kept pulling for the life of me. I stood up and felt like I could have held that fucker for a long time. Got the down command and 3 more white lights! Oh yeah, that is the 2nd biggest deadlift of my life and again the best by far in terms of bodyweight.

So I went 430, 281, 485 for an 1196 total. I made the 83kg class, got 4 state USAPL records, had the chance to lift in front of my kids, friends, and wife and am so pleased with my performance that I cannot put it into words. It was an awesome day and I doubt that I will ever try to water cut 7 pounds again. It was awful, yet something I believe everyone should try once so that you know what your limits are.

[caveman]

Thursday 11/21/19
Bodyweight 190.9

First day of hitting they gym since the competition. I never really felt beat up after the meet, but definitely drained. Decided to keep it light and will wait until it feels right to start up an 8/5/2 block.

Beltless squats - 275 for 5, 5, and 5. Meh.

Beltless front squats - 185 for 5, 225 for 5. these were easier than I thought they would be. If I setup just right, it did not bother my left shoulder. Which is still not 100%.

static hang for a few seconds. Still does not feel great on my shoulder...

Farmers walk - 80's. Pretty easy. I did an extra half loop because it was so easy.

Decided to just call it there. Was lacking motivation at this point and wasn't planning on doing anything important anyways. Time to start slowly getting accustomed to volume again and then we can start trying to make gains.

[caveman]

Unlike the last time I went to a meet and accomplished everything I wanted too, this time I have goals ready that I can start working towards. In no particular order:

bodyweight of 185 pounds (real weight, not due to a water cut!)
1200 pound total in competition (probably could have done this at the meet, but that wasn't the goal and I was already stretching to hit what I did)
bench 300 in competition (don't care too much about body weight, so doing it 182 pounds vs 185 pounds, different weight classes, doesn't really matter to me)
deadlift 500 in competition (same bodyweight comment as above)
OHP bodyweight
more grip work (close a CoC #2 with both hands, rolling thunder >150 pounds with both hands, static hang for 100 seconds (state fair event)
freestanding handstand
lift a Thomas Inch dumbbell

so I have work to do, and am not worried about losing my way for a while. I am worried that I will get a little too relaxed with the holidays and my food choices after being strict for such a long time...