Question for Rip

[Maybach]

The way to add 35-45 pounds to your lifts is to pull your head out of your ass and get up to a reasonable bodyweight. I know you think you're at a reasonable bodyweight. That's the problem. You are not. You know, to be walking around at a strong 210, you have to GET to 210?

No one gets fucking knee injuries from weighing 210 pounds, and doubly so if they got that way by pushing their lift numbers up. It straight up doesn't happen. I don't care how many "quick COD movements" they have to do. If you push your bodyweight up while pushing your lifts up, you get strong enough to carry yourself comfortably and safely at that bodyweight. Every single person who has done this has found it to be the case. I don't see why you are so convinced you will be the sole counterexample.

Your objections to gaining weight to get your lifts up are, to a one, horseshit. They will not get less horseshit if you ask us nicely for them not to be. Sorry if that wasn't what you wanted to hear.

[Jason Donaldson]

... which is like thinking you're going to start having war flashbacks from an airsoft league

Hey, you weren't THERE, man! YOU DON'T KNOW!!!

[Satch12879]

Fuck, it’s flag football, not the CFL.

(No, that’s not a typo; I meant CFL for emphasis of the ridiculousness.)

[Jovan Dragisic]

I'm 42 y/o... I'm 5'9 currently about 180lbs. My best 1RM, which was last year in the fall, was 275 Bench, 405 Squat, & 495 Deadlift.

...when I hit my maxes I was about 183...

You should go back to whatever you were using back then!

[Yngvi]

...Now if you say gaining weight and getting stronger doesn't hurt your knees but helps in flag footbal

The rules of physiology that apply to bodybuilders do not apply to you.
There is no way mere mortals could could understand the pressures a superathlete like you puts on his joints by gaining 15lbs.

Good luck with your flag football career; I can only imagine the glory and achievement of competing for senior's rec league mvp in your town!
You might even get your picture on that Wheaties box!

[dalan]

575-645...is that your DOTS score? Sorry, not sure what you meant.

[Maybach]

I think he's referring to his total in kilograms, which is a bit confusing. He's saying that in the 83 kg weight class, what he considers "competitive" is a 575 total. So he wants to add 40 kgs to his total in three months without gaining a pound. Which I believe is the powerlifting equivalent of "I want to look shredded for a wedding next month." I assume the extra ninety pounds of force production will come from extra grit and determination? This is a strength training forum, however. I don't know that this program works strictly for developing "gumption," though it is a purported side effect.

Taking the temperature down a little, laprcnx, your approach to this powerlifting meet is particularly ass backwards. You know what most powerlifting coaches consider a good outcome for a very first meet? A total. Not a medal or even a PR. Just at least 6 white lights. Because that is not a foregone conclusion.

You should definitely not be trying to compete in the weight class you are already at the top of. Best case scenario, you make little to no progress on your training, and just wear yourself out for three months. Worst case, you bomb out as you frantically cut water weight a week out from the competition. You don't want any of that smoke.

You don't know enough about yourself as a powerlifting competitor to know what weight class you are most competitive in. For all we know, it COULD be 83 kg. Maybe you push your lifts up weighing 220 and can cut back down to 180 without losing a pound off the bar. Probably not, but maybe. If you've never seriously tried to put numbers on the bar, and that includes gaining some muscle to do so, you don't know where you're strongest. So picking your weight class based on how close you are to the top *as you are now* is just silly. You don't know what 220-pound you can lift.

To put the math in perspective for you, a 600kg total for an 83 kg lifter is a DOTS score of just about 400. This is considered very good for an amateur: being able to just rock up and post this at your first meet would be a feat, but not one that anyone would really care about. You certainly shouldn't be basing your decision to compete based on your ability to hit it. Like I said, you are looking for six white lights. Anything north of that is gravy.

Your current numbers have you at a DOTS score of 359, which is about standard commercial gym hero numbers. If you gained 20 pounds, anything more than a 50 or so pound increase in your total would constitute an improvement. And I am telling you that 50 pounds will happen literally without you even trying. If you are training through that 20 pound gain, you can easily add a hundred pounds or more to your total. I couldn't tell you what my 1RMs are but at 5'9" and 220 your numbers are about where I was for this week's 5x5 work. And these are not impressive numbers for my weight. YOU might be gifted.

Granted, to improve your DOTS all the way to 400, you would have to add a whole 200 pounds to your total, which is a taller order. But honestly it's not outside the realm of possibility to theoretically get a 500 pound squat, 575 pound deadlift, and a 325 pound bench in the next few months if you really apply yourself. And of course, stop the flag football and pick up the fucking fork. I'm not saying it will happen, but you might as well try, even if you "only" get your deadlift up to 540.