Yesterday I competed in the XPC Semifinals, in Newark NJ
My goal for this year has been to return to the XPC Finals at the Arnold Classic as a 198, after a couple of years bouncing between 220 and 242, mostly benching, mostly unsuccessfully. My last meet was a tune-up, to see if I could even make 198. This meet was my chance to re-qualify for the Arnold. Although I always want to lift well, my most important goal was to total more than 1925@198 to hit the qualifying total, and hopefully win my class to secure an automatic invite.
The plan for the day was to plan smart attempts, take conservative jumps and cruise into a qualifying spot.
As with most lifters below super heavyweight, my meets generally start about a week earlier than the lifting, when I start taking steps to cut water weight for weigh-ins. My bodyweight has been hovering around 210 for most of the cycle, which should have been an easy cut. But since leaving the 198 class for a couple of years and changing my body composition (for the better) making weight is a little bit of a challenge. This time, I actually wound up overshooting it, and coming in 3 lbs lighter than I intended to, weighing in at 195.
While I made weight easily, the fact that I cut 15 was a little bit of an issue because I would normally use an IV bag for a 15b loss and since I hadn’t planned on that big of a cut, I didn’t have one ready. So I just did it the old fashioned way with tons of pedialite, gatorade and sodium, not to mention a post-weigh-in pancake breakfast with lifter friends Eric Halvorsen, Yael Nelson and Katelyn O’Donnell.
By the time I was ready for bed, I was a bouncing 217.
Woke up the next day feeling a little tired. I generally don't sleep well with a huge bloat, but I felt good enough that to have a good day of lifting. In fact, I can't remember ever lifting in a meet where I didn't wake up groggy and a little sleep deprived.
Once I got to the meet site, I met my training partners for breakfast and then got going on warmups.
Felt pretty good though my squat warm-up sets, although the last one was a tad slow and high.
My opener was 720. Ferret (The Iron Ferret if you want to be formal) was my knee wrapper. I told him that I didn’t need them cranked too hard for my opener, and boy did he take that to heart. As soon as I unracked the weight, my left wrap popped right off. Although I know I can re-set before the squat command, I knew I wouldn’t have time to re-wrap my knee, so I just said “f*ck it” and went for it.
Despite the wrap, it came up nice and smooth.
720 felt good, but not great, and since conservative jumps were the plan, I went up to 760.
Although it felt light on my back, 760 was a grind, most likely because of the overly aggressive weight cut. But it was good. Rather than jump again and risk a miss or injury, I elected to pass my third, and get ready to bench.
Bench warmups went smoothly, finishing with 550 to a 1-board, in preparation for a 600 opener.
600 felt as smooth as glass and got 3 whites. Called for a 35b jump on my second.
635 came off my chest fast, but I didn’t arc it back enough, which forced me to work my ass off to lock it out. I had to pull every trick out of the bag to get it, but I got it. went up 25 to attempt a 5lb weight class pr.
660 came up ok, but I got called for a soft lockout… because it was a soft lockout. At least it was close enough that I didn’t feel dumb for trying.
Deadlift was next and this is the one lift i’ve given the most thought in the last few months. On one hand, my back has never felt better and I feel like I’m due for a big pull soon. On the other, my grip strength has been down and I can’t hold on to weights anymore. I’ve been trying to address grip strength over the last month, and was looking forward to seeing the result. My opener was set at 565.
565 went up nice and easy, but I lost my balance forward and lost it.
Repeated 565 and got it.
While I had planned on attempting a pr with at least 625, I knew that my strength was not at 100% today, and I wanted to finish the meet on a high note. I decided to take a smaller jump to 605 because it would give me a 2000 total, as well as a 600+ pull, neither of which I’ve done at 198 in two and a half years.
Pulled the 605 solidly. I did feel like I had a few more lbs in me, but this was the smart move. No grip issues, no back issues. This pull definitely left me optimistic about the upcoming training cycle, but I can also see how much work I have ahead of me.While it wasn't my best day numbers-wise, I do feel like I did about as much as I was capable of that day, with no injuries.
I was not the only lifter from our crew competing at this event. Today (Sunday) one of our female lifters, Tina "T-Bone" Rivera was competing in her second meet. She’s had about a year of training since her first meet, so we were expecting a big day from her, and we were not disappointed.
Tina had an awesome day, going 8/9 and hitting prs in every lift, finishing with a huge 50lb on the deadlift. I believe her final numbers were a 250 squat, 145 bench and a 330 pull. I know better than to guess a woman’s weight without knowing for sure, but she is in one of the lighter classes, lol.
All in all, I’m really happy with how everything went. For starters, I know I can afford to be way less aggressive with my weight cut for March (and I will also use an IV bag no matter what). I’m happy with my current gear at this bodyweight, and I feel like my grip issues are getting better, with plenty of time to improve.
I also got the chance to catch up with friends I don’t get to see all that often, including Joe Mazza, Danny Dague, Kenneth Richardson, Bob Merkh, Bill Fritz and a whole bunch of others I'm probably forgetting
I have to give a huge thank you to my training partners Anthony Ditillo, Justin Enes, Mike Stuchiner, Steve “Iron Ferret” Rizzo (even though he wraps knees like a dickhead). Karen Jo, James Jack and Tina Rivera.
Thank you to Gene and Ame Rychlack who ran another flawless meet. The equipment and venue were outstanding, the judging was on point, and they moved us through briskly, without rushing us. These events have tons of moving parts and it’s difficult to pull them off. I really do appreciate how much effort the RPS puts in to the sport.
Thank you to Dave, Traci, and all of my elitefts teammates. The next best thing to having a great lifting crew is having a network of amazing athletes across the country to draw from and share with. I’m lucky enough to have both.
Thank you to Liz, my wife, who takes care of everything so I can focus on my lifting undistracted. The life of a powerlifting wife isn’t always easy, and her constant support means the world to me.
That’s it for now, thanks for reading!