Turned 51 Tuesday-tried a few max singles for a total

[John Janecek]

I usually do my 5's or work up to them but thought a gift on my birthday would be nice. Did a mock meet total. I slept well last night.

51yrs

6' 225

Squat-450
Press-165
DL-455

Bench and press are a work in progress, been doing the "competitive olympic lifter" style stuff for so many years this got put on the backburner..

Back to the fives...

[Meshuggah]

Nice numbers, and happy birthday. I hit 55 on the 17th, and was training for a new Deadlift PR, but a lower back issue prevented it.

[Red Finn]

Vera nahce.

[old guy]

I usually do my 5's or work up to them but thought a gift on my birthday would be nice. Did a mock meet total. I slept well last night.

51yrs

6' 225

Squat-450
Press-165
DL-455

Bench and press are a work in progress, been doing the "competitive olympic lifter" style stuff for so many years this got put on the backburner..

Back to the fives...

very nice - congrats.

[John Janecek]

Appreciate it.

[kpsmiley]

I usually do my 5's or work up to them but thought a gift on my birthday would be nice. Did a mock meet total. I slept well last night.

51yrs

6' 225

Squat-450
Press-165
DL-455

Bench and press are a work in progress, been doing the "competitive olympic lifter" style stuff for so many years this got put on the backburner..

Back to the fives...

Happy Birthday! Those are some great numbers!

[John Janecek]

Happy Birthday! Those are some great numbers!

Thanks again.

Honestly can't remember the last time I had 450 on my back or pulled over 455 off the floor. Has to have been back in my 20's(?)

Kind of funny how I came to this point,

Been competing in olympic lifting for about 20+ years and could never do a good "high bar" back squat so always left them out. Went years and years (late 90's to 2007) doing front squats only while competing and made it as far as qualifying for American Open in the late 90's (99?) and going to alot of Texas State meets and a few Masters Nationals. Best lifts in my late 20's to early 30's was 112.5/140.

I started about age 29 and had no illusions of high level performance, more like a serious hobby to stay in shape and maybe be a competitive masters lifter. I was an ex football player/wrestler from college looking for a sport to compete in, since I was a college strength coach and loved lifting well, there ya go..

I was at the 2007 Texas State meet (age 41) and did 92.5/137 and barely stood up with the last clean. Ran into Rip in the audience (he had the "Bone Unit" team lifitng) and we got to talking. I had his first edition book but never tried the back squats like he used thinking they would result in the same thing (usually hurt back enough to quit doing them). Rip spent a couple minutes showing me where to put the bar on my back and also said "you just need to get stronger" and "don't be afraid to deadlift once a week heavy"..

I added those two things to my training for the next year-heavy low bar back squats and deadlifting (even wrote it as "low bar squat" for awhile in my training books) and took out front squat.. Worked up to 405x5 on both but never heavier cause I thought that was good enough(?)

A year later, same Texas State meet (same wt class, 42 now) hit 102 snatch and lifetime PR CJ of 141....

I felt stronger..

I wish I would have ran into Rip when I was 29 instead of 41...