I just finished up competing at Record Breakers down at CSA gym in Dublin, Ca. hosted by Jesse Burdick. I’ve done this meet several times and I know what to expect when I show up and that is I will be taking care of and the meet is about the lifters having a good time and being successful. I don’t go to many meets where that is the case so it’s nice to know that this one will be that.
What I have learned over the decade of competing in strength sports is that how you train is always how you perform. There is no it will be there on game day, you set your standards in training and you execute them day in and day out. If you don’t it will always show so when you squat high or you don’t hit the numbers you thought you were supposed to hit that is on you no if’s, and’s, or but’s about it. Your magic peak and deload won’t give you a 700lbs squat if you best squat was a slow 650lbs. It is all about setting realistic expectations so you are able to hit as many lifts as possible on meet day and you don’t start chasing numbers.
With that in mind my meet went exactly as training would have dictated. It wasn’t the start of prep I would have dreamed of but it is what it is and all I could do is focus on getting better from where I started and that’s what I did. My body is feeling better than I started and I’ve mad progress each week for the most part. It is certainly not as strong as I was this time last year but it was an improvement from how weak I was when I started. I ended meet prep with my best lifts of 645lbs squat, 473lbs bench, and a 661lbs deadlift.
I flew out to California on Thursday and weighed in on Friday at 236lbs, it was nice to eat up going into the meet as I was 232lbs the week of the meet, by far my lightest I have been since I started powerlifting without trying to cut weight. Is it ideal to be light, the answer is no but that was the plan going into this meet so I can build into the year 2020 and quiet honestly I just feel better being lighter.
The meet started at 10a.m. on Saturday and warm-ups began around 1045 for my flight. I did my normal routine of some light cardiovascular work to increase the body temp and break a quick sweat making sure I keep my sweats on so I can stay warm-up which the science shows can keep performance higher while waiting for my time to go. I went into my dynamic warm-up and started with an empty bar for 10 reps. Everything was feeling good and hit my last warm up around 506lbs with my opener set around 589lbs. The goal was to end with 660lbs but for the life of me I couldn’t keep the bar on my back. As soon as I unracked it the bar started sliding down so I was never in a good position to start the lift and it only got worse as the attempts got higher. This has never happened before but that is just how it goes sometimes and it will be something I address and fix before my next meet.
1stattempt- 589lbs good
2ndattempt- 622lbs good
3rdattempt- 644lbs no lift
I knew after squats my strength was there but I had zero room for mistakes. Bench I felt really good about because my shoulder finally started to feel good around 2 weeks out and I had zero pain so I was happy going into this after I hit a very solid 473lbs in the gym. The only issue I was having was I didn’t have the best stability in my rotator cuff because it was injured the entire prep so I had to lower the weight fast and learning that concept will definitely help moving forward. That was the fix for my shoulder and a huge decrease in bench volume. Warm-ups felt great and my last warm-up was at 405lbs and it felt really light so I knew it was going to be a good bench day.
1stattempt- 440lbs good
2ndattempt- 473lbs good
3rdattempt- 485lbs no lift
Deadlifts this prep I worked on a new start position so it was a little hit or miss but I feel like I dialed it in just before the meet so I was feeling pretty good about things going into the meet and I feel really good about the future. Because the meet was running perfectly I felt fresh and ready to go in the warm-up room. I hit my last pull at 584lbs and it felt good. I knew I wasn’t going for a big meet PR total so all I wanted to do was hit 661lbs and have it move better than it did in training. That way I can get right back into training for the next meet in 12 weeks.
1stattempt- 639lbs good
2ndattempt- 661lbs good
https://www.instagram.com/p/B4q5e7LHaw7/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
That was a wrap I went 6/8 and hit a total of 1757lbs at 242lbs in sleeves. Far from my best but I always show up and compete regardless of how things go or how they feel. I was always taught that whatever you start you finish and far too many people quit when things get hard or if things don’t go the way they want them to. If they start quitting now they will quit everything they do when adversity strikes. Now onto the next one.
4 Comments