*treadmill

Cambered Bar Squats

  • bar x 10 x 2
  • 150 x 10
  • 240 x 5
  • 350 x 3
  • 440 x 2
  • 540 x 1

The 540 felt like a house on my back so I called it there. The weekend of handling at the APF Nationals took more of a toll on me than I thought it did. I felt lethargic and had no drive even after drinking my Whiplash. I packed up my stuff and headed home to spend the rest of the day with my family; I'll worry about training tomorrow.

Please take time out today to remember the fallen. They made the ultimate sacrifice for our country and deserve our undying gratitude and respect.

 

On Saturday I tried to help Brandon Smitley at the APF Nationals. He got his opening squat without a problem, but then for his second I had problems getting his knee wrap on an secured so Spud helped with that one while I wrapped up his other knee. We got him on the platform with 10 seconds left and he had to rush to get the squat command in time and missed his attempt. This kind of set the tone for the rest of the day as he missed his third squat too, got his opening bench, nissed his second and third bench, got his opening deadlift on his second attempt and narrowly missed his third attempt since the bar got out in front of him. He got and best lifter on three attempts and did qualify for world which was his primary goal.

On Sunday I was handling Neal Cotton and helping handle Schwab and Jeff Sevor with depth calls so I was running from platform to platform and to the warmup room for a while. Unfortunately I called Neal about an inch high on his opening squat according to the judges, but we jumped to his second attempt (920) since we knew he could get it and had done so in training. On his second I got the depth call right, but somehow or another something happened and a side spotter inadvertently touched the bar and he missed the lift. On his third attempt he was battling leg cramps and wasn't able to grind out the lift and was out of the meet. I blame myself for this because if I'd have called his depth correctly on the first one and he'd gotten it in and in the meet then everything else would have been less stressful and he'd likely have had a good day. I'm contemplating retiring as a handler at this point. lol. I's especially proud of Neal for the way he handled what happened and focused on helping Schwab the rest of the day. He's honestly one of the best training partners I've ever had and he has a ton of potential to do well in this sport.

Jeff Sevor bombed out on squats too which upset me because I wasn't able to help him as much as he needed, but I know he'll do better at his next meet.

Schwab got his openers on all of his lifts and placed first, but reaggravated his hamstring on his opening pull so decided to call it a day rather than risk doing more damage. Congrats on the win, brother.

I do have to say the meet was well run with two platforms going at the same time. There were no misloads and no one got hurt, the judging was pretty reasonable and consistent from one platform to the other too. However, there's always room for improvement. Never saw Kieran Kidder show up though....