This past weekend I competed at the UPA Winter Rack Attack at Old School Iron Gym in Cleveland. I have an article that will go into more detail on the meet later this month, but I wanted to post a short recap with the highlights and takeaways.
Leading into the Meet: The few weeks leading into the meet were pretty hectic but overall training went well. I've been traveling almost every week for work and seminars, so I had to be flexible with when and where I was training. With time constraints I kept my training pretty bare bones, which had both positives and negatives (I'll cover that later). The week leading into the meet I got this sickness everyone seems to be getting, and then my grandfather passed away the day before the meet, so it wasn't as ideal a week as I would've liked but such is life. Overall things were good going into the meet. I wasn't cutting weight (my BW has been sitting right at 218-220 so I just didn't go crazy eating) so that was easy. This is my second meet competing raw since XPC Finals (multi-ply) in March.
Meet Day: For squats, I opened with an easy 490lbs and got all white lights. I moved to a small raw PR at 528lbs and got that easily as well. I jumped to 562lbs for my last squat (38.5lb PR) and while I shifted away from my left hip a little bit, I was able to get it fine.
It was a large meet and was running a little on the slow slide for bench, so we had a few hours to wait before bench, and I think this is where being under the weather and the long day caught up to me. I was feeling more exhausted than normal but my opener (330lbs) for bench moved fine. I went to 352lbs and got that fine as well. My best competition raw bench is 370lbs and I went for a PR but couldn't lock it out.
After another break we moved on to deadlift, and I opened with 585lbs, which was easy. I debated then whether I should take a 605lbs or jump straight to a PR (my best raw pull is 623lbs). With feeling low on energy I decided to jump straight to the PR, but missed it twice right at lockout. I've made a lot of progress with my deadlift lockout, but it just wan't happening on this day.
Overall I finished 6/9 with a 1499lb total and a 38.5 Squat PR.
Positives:
- Finally seem to have found a good squat style that allows me to make progress despite my hip joint issues. A solid PR was encouraging in this area.
- I left everything on the platform - Last meet I was a little more conservative and went 9/9; and while I typically prefer to compete this way and for a goal total, it was nice to go for some PRs and know that the missed lifts are within striking distance.
Things to Work On:
- Don't reduce training volume too much - While I think keeping my training simple led to a lot of great training efficiency, I think some additional volume will be helpful.
- Keeping in the supplemental and assistance work that helps address weaknesses. I will add back in some work that made a difference last training cycle; and will cover this more in a training log post later today.
Competitively - My last competition was the UPA Winter Rack Attack on December 17th (competed raw at 220lbs). It was my second meet back transitioning to competing raw, and my goal entering next year is to qualify for a larger raw competition (whether it be at the Arnold or elsewhere).
I'm currently the Fitness Director at Ohio University as well as Event Coordinator for EliteFTS. I'm also involved in coaching and public speaking on topics relating to powerlifting, coaching, education, student development, and mental health.
For Coaching & Programming Questions, feel free to contact me at joeschillero@gmail.com
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