Ok here it is the full run down of my meet which ended up being a total flip flop day. Where my squats were supposed to be great and my bench was supposed to be bad and lo and behold it was a real switcheroo there.
Squats had been going pretty smoothly during this training cycle and I definitely had the anticipation of easily hitting 550+. But, if powerlifting has taught us anything, it;s that OUR EXPECTATIONS DON’T REALLY FUCKING MATTER. I am a believer in visualizing your attempts and your success and blah blah and what not (does it make a big difference for me? I don’t know. But I do it). But I think more importantly, you have to disassociate yourself from this image you conjure up of the perfect meet and how your attempts are going to go based on training and just roll with how things go on meet day. Save yourself the stress of taking unnecessary jumps and the disappointment of not living up to the 9/9 meet you came up with in your head. I realize as I type this is sounds cynical but it’s not. I had 0 expectations for my bench and I went 3/3 for the first time ever. My expectations were just to try my hardest. Sure, I had numbers in my head based on where I thought my strength was but I had no idea what was going to happen. So I just fucking tried.
Ok down to the nitty gritty.
Opened with 500 and it was fine. Not amazingly speedy but fine. Definitely not as amazingly speedy as I thought it was going to be. Dave called for a small PR jump of 525. I’m still not really sure what happened but I forgot how to squat. My knees shot out and were all over the place and I did a little up and down and got the lift but it was red lighted for the up and down. Todd was helping me with my gear and I pretty much just told him to strap everything in tight as fuck. In between attempts we had a little heart to heart about the fact that getting all my shit too tight was probably detrimental (Dave has been telling me this for like years but I’m never quite convinced). I told him to do whatever he thought would be best since at this point, my way wasn’t working. He loosened some of the leg straps and the top straps and I didn’t get my belt as disgustingly tight as I do sometimes. And my squat was fine. OK NOW I’M A BELIEVER.
I also think I will take some more wrapped attempts on warm ups (I currently take 0). So I took a shitty last un-wrapped attempt high cause it felt weird and called it there. I should actually take the time to do a last good warm up and not just rely on the fact that I think I’ll be good for the platform.
On to bench. If anyone has spoken to me for like 5 seconds these past 6 months, they know that I touched maybe 2 out of 100 benches. I think this is actual numbers and not hyperbolic.I was in my shirt a lot of training cycle and I really sucked at it. I really just had one idea for the day- don’t bomb. Obviously I wanted to bench over 300 since that’s what I hit last meet and I didn’t want my total to take a hit. Also somewhere in the back of my mind I thought it might be ok. I don’t know why. Since I had so much trouble touching, we didn’t even set the shirt. We pulled it up as far as it could go which means it’s easier to touch but you don’t get much out of it. Once I got out there I was just trying to think about pushing my heels down which keeps my belly up and keep my hands and back tight/pull with my back instead of trying to pull down with my hands. That seems to make a difference for me. And wowee I touched. Went for 305 on the second (I think I put 300 in my video. Maybe it was 300 I don’t remember but it doesn’t really matter). Did the same thing and got it. Dave put in 315 for the third and we set the shirt just slightly but he didn’t want to make any big adjustments since it was going ok so far. Went out and did the same thing and got it. Holy shit. 3/3 on bench. That’s a first.
I figured deadlifts would be based on how I felt from the rest of the meet. Usually my back is so tight and cramped from bench that pulling on meet day is not much like pulling on a regular heavy deadlift day. Also, here’s a real fucking GAME CHANGER. I got an electric heating pad/cape that I wore between flights and my back felt pretty darn good before deads- better than it normally does after taking 3 shirted bench attempts. Also it nicely accentuated my power belly. Anyway opened with 400. Nice and easy. Took the jump to 435 for a 5 lb PR. And then here we were again. In the place I have been twice before. Ready to take 450 for a third. Twice I have failed at lockout. It was not going to be thrice this time. Yessie finished her deadlifts and Dave gave her a nice full hug. I told Dave IF I GET THIS YOU HAVE TO GIVE ME A HUG TOO. And that was all it took. The promise of a gear daddy’s love. No but really we did more deadlifting this cycle around and I was also not going to fucking miss it again. And I got it. Looked at the lights, and promptly announced on the platform “HUG ME DAVID” and I got a half hug. Ok I’ll take it.
Was I pleased with my meet? Of course not! I look forward to the day when I am. I went up a weight class and I feel like I could’ve stayed at 148 to hit what I hit at this meet.
Every meet I get less stressy. I waste less mental energy worrying about the meet. For some reason, this week I was mildly stressy. It was gone by the time I got to the meet but I know it doesn’t do me any good to get anxious and restless when I try and sleep when I know the only thing it is doing is holding me back. But alas, I’ll work on it next time.
One of my biggest takeaways from this meet is that gear doesn’t solve everything. In fact, it can be a hindrance. I always feel like the tighter my suit is or more jacked my shirt is, the more I’ll get out of it. But I finally get that tighter gear can actually fuck you up. Aside from just not touching in a shirt or getting down to the bar for pulls, my lack of confidence in my own ability to squat (and hoping the tightness of the gear would help) really fucked me up. THE GEAR CAN MAKE THINGS WORSE. I’ve learned my lesson. I’m putting it in writing. My squat got better when my suit wasn’t squeezing me like a venomous snake, I touched all my benches when my shirt wasn’t jacked, and I pulled my third deadlift when I wasn’t as tightly bound in my sausage casing as I insisted I needed to be. It should be enough to help, not enough to hinder.
As always, the biggest of thanks to Dave. For all of the time and effort and energy he puts into my (and all of our) training. All the time. For all the years. Literally the only reason I am where I am now. I can not put into the words everything he does for us. Well that is the word I guess. Everything.
Thank you to my amazing training partners and meet helpers especially Margaret and Nate and the rest of our lifting crew who helps in training week after week after week (like T bone don't worry I didn't forget about you). Thank you to everyone who has helped us and came to support us. And thank you to Hybrid Performance for all your ~body work~. It was great sharing the platform with my lil guy Nate and teammate Yessica finally!!
I also keep forgetting to put my total. 1290. 40 lb PR total.
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