This...

Me too

11/12

UPA Power Weekend

Squat
683 - 3 whites. I got a bit forward, so I made it harder than it should have been, but I got 3 whites.

733 - f at bottom
733 - f at bottom
They were calling depth worse than at USAPL meets, red lighting a lot of good squats on Saturday, so my guy calling depth buried me. Both fails I felt like I went lower than necessary. It felt like once I got too low, I had nothing to move it up with.

At this point, I knew I had zero chance to qualify for the Arnold, but I still had a great chance at a meet PR bench.

bench
496 - f near the top with right arm
496 - f very close to top with right arm
My teammate who was handing off noticed I wasnt using my lats enough, so I focused on locking them down on my last attempt. They announced to the crowd that I needed this lift to continue in the meet, so everyone cheered me on. No pressure or anything, lol.
496 - smoked it like I should. Whew.

Disaster averted. Still, I left 50+ lbs on the platform and missed a great opportunity for a bench meet PR and UPA national record here by not using good form on the first two attempts. ****. If I would have gotten another attempt, I would have smoked 546 in my new shirt. ****.

DL
606 - 3 whites. Smoked it.

650 - 3 whites - smoked it.

683 - barely broke the floor.

I am happy that I seem to have found my DL form again. The weight moved fast on everything before 683. I think my cue that I had been forgetting was to make my arms long and lock in my lats. I did that and all my reps went well. I need to go through a full training cycle pulling well again to build my DL up again.

Total 1829.8. I think that's about my 3rd best total. meh. I can do a lot better.

I dont feel like I exerted myself all that hard this meet, especially benching. For that reason, I decided to try to get into a local APF meet on 12/3. This is the first local money meet we've had since I started competing. They have $750 for 1st, $500 for 2nd and $250 for 3rd. Even if I dont get in the money, I at least want to set meet squat and bench PRs. Also, my coach said this might qualify me for the Arnold.

The highlights of the meet for me:
My daughter, competing in her 2nd meet, set three meet PRs including a 66 lb DL PR (319) by pulling the longest grinder DL ever. It was awesome to see.

My team won the team competition! woot!

I did contribute to the team by taking 2nd for open geared in my weight class. I missed 1st by 33 lbs. If I would have not ****ed the pooch in the bench I would have beat this guy, who is in his early 30s. I did not get the benefit of an age multiplier.

My daughter took 3rd of 5 in the junior raw against some more experienced girls.

One teammate, who I've kind of taken under my wing, smoked his pulls, including a PR 512. I dont know if the words I use changed during his warmups, or if he finally started listening. Maybe I gave him some different cue, but his form never looked better. He had a weird thing happen. After his first pull of ~435, I told the gal 220 KG (485) for his next attempt. I watched her write down 220 and heard her radio the scorers table 220. He goes for his second pull, which we assumed to be 220, and he smoked it. Someone on the team noticed that the board said 200. I'm like, wtf!!?? I talk to the guy running the meet and ask if my guy can pull 485, then do a 4th attempt. After some discussion, he considered it a misload, and granted the extra attempt. My guy pulled 485, then 512 ez, like he never has before.

Bad things that happened:
One of our best female lifters lifted for the first time in gear. She bombed out due to several things. Her second squat was probably good but they called it high. She was a 148, but decided to cut 5 lbs in the last week. She came to town starving and dehydrated. She weighed in at 131, then had the runs from trying to eat and drink too much too fast. She got a new canvas squat suit a week prior and used it once, then used it for this meet instead of using the suit she had gotten used to. Too many moving parts. She will do better next time.

The spotters on Sunday were the worst I've ever seen at a meet. They dropped ~429 lbs on a girl who missed her 2nd squat attempt, then again when she missed her 3rd attempt. She hurt her hip on the last one.

They missed grabbing the weight when a guy failed to squat 705. One knee blew out, presumably a torn patella, and the bar fell on his other knee, presumably breaking that leg or something. The guy was laid out for about an hour right on the monolift before paramedics came to put two air casts on his legs and hauled him out on a stretcher.

After that, we had our spotters spot our squatters. One of our guys missed his 2nd attempt, I think ~485. Our guys caught it and started to bring it up, and the idiot running the hooks closed them so the weight hit the bottom, making it very difficult on everyone to get it into the mono. We replaced the spotters and the hooker for his third attempt. The judges looked at us funny when we kicker the idiot hooker out. wtf you morons, dont you pay attention to anything????

For bench, the spotters missed 403 lbs and it fell on a guy's chest. He dislocated his shoulder and I dont know if he broke any ribs or had any internal injuries. We spotted our lifters on the bench and also spotted a friend of the team as well.

This spotting was inexcusable. These guys were afraid of the weights. I just mentioned the worst of it, but there were a lot of other ****ups by these clowns. I'm so lucky to have my teammates. We fail and catch weights way bigger than this on a regular basis and never have any incidents.

This venue is a pretty big deal for PLing meets, but its a long drive for me, and with the way the judging was this time, I'm fine if we dont go back.

I'm going to start back up training my squat tomorrow.

I'll put together a video when I have time.

Sounds like an interesting day! The injuries sound awful, hard to read about let alone lift around. I'm sure you'll turn it around quickly too

I've had my fair share of dumb hookers but yours would make me want to pull my hair out of I had any

You gained some experience, bench should be on point next time.

Squat depth is such and odd thing, and probably the most controversial part of powerlifting. Back when I competed in squat I just accepted that the acceptable depth of the squat was decided on the day. Alternatives is higher standards for judges or video judging, I guess.

Deadlift you also seem to know how to improve now.

Get a good total in 03/12-16 and then smash it next year!

This. Looks like this was a great warmup for the 12/3 meet for you .

Thanks!

For the record, the injuries all happened day 2. I lifted day 1 with the open class.

lol

yup. I dont disagree.

Thanks!

Thanks, that's what I'm hoping.

Nice writeup Cha. How long has your daughter been training?

Thanks!

She's started lifting with us, but at first not to be a powerlifter, off and on during summer break from college summer 2015. She did her first meet March this year after deciding to do it about a month or so before that. She got hooked on the sport after that meet and loves our team.

She comes home about once a month and trains with us once or twice each of those weekends. She trains alone in the school gym when she isnt here.

Missed benches and DL (someone probably has the missed squats, but I dont have them yet):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPdFLu-BNrA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLOgI3gn8JQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moFLka8tj3U

Bonus: My daughter's 66 lb meet PR DL (epic grind, and look at her face at the end of the side view video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYpTqLraVyY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PPY2HFYTbY

She said after, "I was not letting go!"

I am confirmed in for the 12/3 local meet. This one pays out cash to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. They have weird multipliers that make it so raw and drug tested and geared and untested and male and female can all compete. 1st pays $750, 2nd is $500 and 3rd is $250. This will be my first money meet. I probably need to set a lot of PRs to have any shot at money.

11/16

Coach says train as though your training cycle never stopped for the meet. I actually feel pretty good, so here we go.

squat
140x5
230x5
320x3

briefs
410x2

suit, straps down
500x1

straps up
600x1

knee wraps
690x1 - went a bit quicker than 683 did at the meet

770xf - I can do this, but my form needs to be better. My butt shot up just a tiny bit out of the hole and that killed it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaP91kmKL7I

730x1 - Good form and fast. This is how I need to squat all the time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi8uh-UuT0U

Epic WIM on your daughters DL.

Looked at your benches, cant say much more than 3. looked easy. 1. and 2. looked weak on lockout + bad groove, but not best angle, so you probably know best.

thanks!

1 & 2 were simply not engaging my lats like I should. I blast weight off my chest very fast when my lats are locked in.

Awesome lift Mini-cha!

Wow and wtf at the trip report and injuries. Sorry it didn't go as well as you hoped but it looks like you got some good experience there and you are getting even more dialed in.

770lb squat video...hard to say this when you have 770lbs on your back but yeah be more aggressive and confident. Because after all it;s just 770

Meet DLs looked pretty good to me.

Those spotting stories make me cringe and I don't even lift. :-/

When you say the next meet "might" qualify you for the Arnold, what is it dependent on?

lol, yeah, just 770, thanks!

It hinges first on if I can hit a 1990+ total, then on my coach's ability to convince the people who decide who to invite to pick me.

Great job! Nice keeping focused on the task at hand and not getting distracted by the seeming incompetence of the meet organizers.

Thanks!

11/16

speed bench
45x15
95x10
135x10
185x5
225x3
275x3
315x1x3

My right arm felt kinda bad, so I stopped pressing.

band tricep extensions
20x3

band face pulls
20x3

machine rows
200x15
260x15x2
I used a strap on my right hand to alleviate arm/elbow pain. It worked. I should have tried this months ago.

11/18

DL
235x5x2
325x3x2
415x2

briefs
505x1

suit
595x1
665xf
645x1 - a little forward, so it was harder than it should have been, but it went up fairly quickly.

reverse hypers
130x15
180x15

11/20

bench press
45x15
95x10
135x10
185x5
225x3
275x2
315x1
345x1

size 50 single ply super katana
495x1 - smoked it

size 48 single ply super katana scoop
550xf - I used up way too much energy touching and ran out when the weight got close to the top. I needed to touch faster.

550x1 - PR. I touched a little faster. The lockout was a grind that probably took longer than any other good shirted rep I've ever done, but it was a good lift. I did not have the ends of the sleeves turned in. Doing that makes it slightly harder to touch, but gives a little more tricep assistance. My coach said that I probably have another 10 lbs in me if I do that, and I can clean up my form a little by turning my elbows out a little sooner. He says I should turn the ends of the sleeves in for my second attempt of 546 at the meet.

With the right arm issues I have been having, I wanted to take it easy after this and just work on form with light weight.
225x3x3

band tricep extensions
20x3

band face pulls
20x3

machine rows, strap on right hand
200x15
260x15x2