Today our lifters hit some upper body movements. We did our normal mobility work prior then they hit speed bench, DB mil, shrug variations, some band variations triceps, then a boatload of ab work.
I went in and coached and did some light curls, rice digs, and manual neck. Feeling ok just tired all the time due to the meds.
Before is post Kyle's experience at the Boss of Bosses I have to say a few things from a coaches point of view on what happened. Kyle was on track to dominate. The problems I saw came from getting off the game plan. He was maxing out (if not at high percentages then to failure almost every lift) way to much. Almost everyone's body will shut down or an injury will occur. I feel that Kyle was to wrapped up in tagging certain people and getting his name out there during training instead of focusing on peaking at the right time =at the meet. Also injuries caught up with him and his body was just too beat up to get to 2100 or even 2000. As I have said to all my lifters if your total goes down (following the program to a T) it makes sense to go back to drawing board and switch it up. Kyle can get 2100 at the Arnold this year and even higher not much further out but needs to stick with a plan, and learn from this meet. Regardless he still is a up and coming lifter and writhing a couple years will be a force. Will eventually twist his arm enough also to get in gear (or a bench shirt minimum). Here is his write up,
Boss of Bosses 3 - My First Experience Competing Alongside the Very Best
A few months back I received some of the best news I’ve ever got, Dan Green invited me to compete at Boss of Bosses 3. This would be my first chance to compete alongside my heroes and to conquer a few of my goals that were finally within reach – a 600 pound raw bench and a 2,000 pound total. I immediately talked to my coach, Chris Janek, and he told me to do it and that he would customize my programming for the meet.
A month into training I had a minor hip injury which made it almost impossible to squat anything heavy for the last two months leading up to BOB3. Prior to the injury, I hit 515 x 11 reps in knee sleeves and now I was lucky to hit it for a few reps. I was so full of doubt that I waited until two weeks before the meet to book my tickets because I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to compete, which ended up costing me a lot of money. Long story short, I was able to rehab myself back to about 90% and was thrilled I could still do the full meet.
Once I got to BOB3 for weigh-ins, I was immediately star struck. Getting out of the car I ran into Larry “Wheels,” walking up to the building I saw Pete Rubish doing a video interview outside, and then inside I saw Robb Phillippus, Kevin Oak, and Yury Belkin. For the first time, I knew I was about to get destroyed at the meet the following day, but I knew it was going to be amazing to share the stage!
I didn’t feel like I even began to fit in with all these powerlifting stars until meet day when Pete Rubish walked up to me and said, “Kyle, you going to do some crazy benches today?! Every time I see your videos it blows me away.” The dude I’ve been watching on YouTube for years knows who I am and watches my videos?! What?! Then we warmed up together on squats in Dan Green’s legendary orange squat rack. This was definitely one of the highlights of my day, even though my squat was by far my worst lift and I got a horrible nose bleed. I missed my third attempt which made a 2,000 pound total almost impossible - I would have to hit 600 on bench to get it now, which was doable since I hit 585 just a month prior at a bench only meet.
After squat, we moved onto bench and everything was moving quick in the warmup room. My first attempt of 550 could have passed for a speed rep on dynamic day it moved so quickly. Second attempt (578) felt great and a lot easier than my 585 from the month prior. Then it was finally time to put 600 on the bar and break into that elusive big bench club. I was the only person even attempting 600 pounds, which felt great considering I was the first guy in the flight on squats and opened it up with lightest squat - another humbling first for me. I laid down on the bench, got my best arch, and my handler, who flew in with me just to hand this weight off and wrap my knees, stood up and readied himself to hand the weight out. The weight felt good in my hands and I knew I had it as it lowered to my chest. Then the weight sat on my chest and as I waited for the pause the weight felt exponentially heavier. I blasted it about 10 inches off my chest before it came to a sudden halt. %#*!, I missed it! Damn it! Not only did I miss my main goal, but now 2,000 was also out of reach.
I was so disappointed, but then I realized that even with my two failed attempts I was still sitting with the same subtotal I had at the Arnold back in March because my bench had increased enough to make up for the poor squat. I’ve never missed a deadlift in a meet, so I had confidence that I could still hit a PR total. I had only pulled 700 pounds once in the last four months and it was slow, but my hip didn’t bother me nearly as much on this lift and I had felt fantastic after deloading. I began warming up with Aria Attia, who also was ridiculously nice and cool, and made some of the biggest jumps I’ve ever made deadlifting, but it felt great. I went 265 for my first rep after missing the initial warmup reps, then 375, 465, 600, and finally 645. They all moved quick! My attempts were 705, 733, and 744 which was a 14 pound PR and moved my total up to 1,975. I think I was good for 760 that day, but kept my last attempt conservative to make sure I ended on a good note.
The meet was ran so smoothly, and all of the athletes were so encouraging and motivating. I was surprised Dan Green came up to me during the warm ups to talk for a few minutes, it just made me feel so welcomed. Brandon Lilly gave me some fantastic advice and recommend that I start doing Spoto Presses to get past my sticking point. He also put me at ease that I missed those two attempts and made me realize that I’m going to freaking hit it, just not today.
Now that the meet is done, I’m more motivated than I’ve ever been to get back in the weight room and to train with a purpose each and every day. Luckily my girlfriend is also super motivated, so she was pumped that I recommended amping up our meal prep too. I’m going to hit 2,000 at my next meet, that’s a promise. Heck, Chris Janek thinks we should just skip 2,000 altogether and go for 2,100 with a low 700 pound squat, 600 pound bench, and upper 700 deadlift, which is definitely doable! He claims to have a killer plan for the Arnold in March, so stay tuned!
Kyle Stewart 275lb class