When you've been training for over 20 years, actual PR's are hard to come by. After about 5 years, you reach a point where training needs a smarter approach. Continuing to add pounds each week just doesn't happen.
Running conjugate style training since about 2001, I had alllllllll my maxes written down.
SSB 12" box with light bands
SSB 14" box with light bands
SSB 15" wide stance box squat with 4 chains
BUFFALO BAR™ bench with 2 chains
Close grip 2 board against minis
You name it. Every variation was written down in the back of my notebook with a "max" written next to it. I'd come back to those variations once every 4-6 months. Sometimes longer. If I broke that record by 5 pounds, I'd scratch out the number and write the new number. It helped me gauge roughly where I should be for those lifts, and also pushed me to beat them.
And sometimes I didn't. Sometimes I'd hit exactly the same as before and sometimes I'd fall short. Regardless, it was a gauge, a sense of measure.
After dabbling in some bodybuilding for awhile, getting out of geared lifting and transitioning to raw, I didn't keep track as much, mostly because I didn't have the same equipment as before. But there are some things you just know.
You know how fast an 80% deadlift should move. You know how a good speed bench day feels. And let's just say it had been awhile since anything felt amazing.
Reworking my squat, figuring some things out on deadlift, working through a few "injuries"... I just kept trucking along. It was frustrating and most days felt off.
It wasn't until about 4 months ago that things started to feel better. My back healed up almost 100% and I could squat with zero pain. As we started this new training cycle for the meet in December (that Christian signed up for, and I'll probably do it as well), things felt great. No pain, position was 100 times better... it was coming together.
But when you are doing variations of lifts (different bars, chains, boxes, etc) it's hard to gauge where your actual strength is. I just knew I could push and grind through lifts that I couldn't before.
So on Friday we did our normal speed squats and moved onto heavy deads.
Stiff bar, 4 chains.... just stay in position and pull. Everything felt good warming up. Things were moving fast. I took 295x3 and was like wow. That was easier than I expected.
(Now, quickly back track... Pulled 330x3 in February of 2018, then immense quad pain set in every time I pulled sumo. Competed at the Arnold that year, only to pull 350 conventional because of the pain. Barely pulled 330 in December at my meet, but another ounce more and probably no go.)
Knowing my mind was in a good place, I told my training partners to leave 3 plates on. I knew if I could break it off the floor, it would be easy. I needed to start challenging myself again since my body was physically feeling good.
I pulled that first rep and didn't feel a break in position at all. I knew the next 2 would be easy. I let the bar down and had an emotional reaction, one I haven't had in a looooong time.
Clenched fists, a mumbled "YES!" and I walked over to the weight tree, put my head down and tried to fight the tears. I was beyond ecstatic that things were coming back together. Not because of the number, not because I want to be a certain status.
But because I had persevered and stuck it out.
I didn't give up, even when I wanted to. Even when I thought I was too old to keep training this way.
That's what training is about. That's how you work through the hard spots and the plateaus. That's how when you feel like it's just not going well, you keep going.
It's kinda how life is too. You surround yourself with the right people and resources. You do the little things that are in your control to keep moving you in the direction you want to go.
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