2018 APF/AAPF IL Raw Power Challenge 12-15-18
A week after being brought onto Team EliteFTS I was competing in the Arnold pro day, after my performance at the meet my total was less than that of a lifter wanting to get qualified for the meet. In the middle of the meet, Dave Tate asked me how I was doing, I laughed and said, "terrible". He proceeded to ask how my training went to which I replied, "it went great!" Dave looked me square in the eye with a straight face and said, "well there is your problem, you cant have a great training cycle and a good F****** meet, you can either have one or the other never both at this level".
I cite this incident cause this training cycle, predominantly my peak is not going "as planned". Not just mine, Julia is having a rough go as well and I am fully responsible as I put together our training cycle. Looking back at what we did the Conjugate portion of our training worked perfectly, the issue area came from our "transition block" to prep for "peaking". We should have had a recovery week but we kept pushing and both of us know what week we were firing on all cylinders and when we went too far. We both are currently backing off and trying to salvage the strength we have accumulated hoping we have not missed our window. With the theory that you can hold onto your strength for around 28 days, we may still be on task for a better total than my last meet which is all I care about, the taxing part now will be making weight.
This is my crap show of a deadlift session that comes 2 days after max effort squat where I had a GREAT session moving my second attempt VERY well. Something is going on where my lats, hips, and grip are WAY off. As you see on my later pulls I start shifting HARD to my left, this lead to overthinking and everything falling apart. I will be skipping my next heavy deadlift session in hopes this was just a fluke and everything comes together on the only day that matters, meet day.