Good work. Looks like you nailed the premeet food requirements. It was probably the triple with mayo.

Thanks! That had to have helped

A super-strong powerlifter I know (he DL'ed 800 @242 bw at a meet several years ago) has promised to bring his Okie DL bar over tomorrow so I can try it out. We used his Texas DL bar (the bar I fell in love with) at the meet last Saturday. I talked to him about which he likes better and he likes them both in different ways. The Okie has a little better knurling and the Texas has a little more bend to it. I'm excited to try the Okie.

The squat bar we used at the meet was also his, and it was pretty awesome too - its a Texas squat bar - very thick, lots of knurling in the middle and a ring right in the center to line up. If I wanted a squat-only bar, I'd get one of the Texas squat bars, but I kind of like my Ivanko bar for squatting.

Excellent job at the competition! Did you find that lifting during a competition felt different than working out on your own?

Thanks!

yeah, its different in several ways. The way you warm up is a lot different because you're trying to both not wear yourself out by doing too much or too heavy, and you're not exactly sure when your turn to lift will be. There's some standing around waiting. I used to worry about the timing my first couple meets, but now I realize as long as you're standing around, you're not going to cool off too much.

Also, having the whole crowd and all the lifters cheer you on is very cool.

That's just off the top of my head. Maybe some others who compete can add some stuff.

If you're thinking about competing, I highly recommend it, no matter how much you lift.

6/5

DL - new program. Its based on the Magnusson/Ortmeyer program, only I substituted heavier TBDLs for straight bar for the last set,which is lolcardio high reps.

237x5x2, 329x3, 384x4x4, 441x2x1

TBDL (this would have been 384 if I had used a straight bar)
455x10
lolcardio

The program does not call for assistance work, but the first week is pretty light and I had some energy left, so I did some.

reverse hypers with strap
110x15, 140x12, 160x12

GHR
15x2

The guy with the Okie bar no showed, so I used the Ivanko shin shredder and wore neoprene calf & knee sleeves as usual when I DL with that bar. Apparently work is crazy busy for him right now.

This. I wish I competed earlier than when I started. Biggest thing for your first comp is set the bar low. Don't try to go out there and try to prove you are the best there is. You will most likely screw up if you do. Take a low, almost token first attempt on all your lifts to get you in the groove.

The timing thing is a bit of an issue. You need to time your warm ups so you are ready to go when you are called, which you don't know when that is. I know I go late in squats, early in bench and fairly early in DLs for our comps here so I can at least gauge a rough estimate fairly well. Good thing going for me is that once I'm warm I usually am not bothered by waiting around for my lifts.

Wendler says its never too early also. But I thinks that's a lie. I wouldn't want to compete and put a 260 squat. Lol. Put up the same numbers as skeletors' 14 year old daughter??? Lol lol. Cha would probably be on the floor laughing.

Gotta lift for a couple years first and maybe get close to 1000 and then go? I mean come on let's be serious guys. I know you guys would laugh. I think for sure people would call me a troll. I mean the bodybuilding shows get trolls and they probably get laughed at nonstop. If I get to 1000 I would try out it out in the 165lb division. That seems half decent.

Loco,

Seriously no one at meets cares how light someone else lifts. At the IPL worlds I did last year in vegas, a 220er totaled 850 something. No one cared. This event was live streaming on the web.

The only reason i even know is cause i looked at the meet results like a month later. No one has any idea what anyone else is doing at local meets unless there is a really strong guy that everyone is watching. Everyone has been really helpful and nice at all the meets ive been to

Another thing that no one's mentioned is it really makes your training that much more fun. It's not just a "healthier lifestyle" anymore, but it's both a sport and gives you hard dates to train for. So much motivation.

+1^

+1^

Late, but nice comp results!

I will also +1 Weasel's above comments.

Thanks!

6/7

new bench press program. I'm basing it partially on this: http://strongestman.org/?p=207
and this: http://ironpupil.blogspot.com/2012/1...h-program.html
I need to do something a little different.

bench press
55x10, 105x10, 146x10, 196x3, 226x3x8

DB rows
114x10x3

hammer curls
25x10, 30x10, 35x10

flat DB bench press
75x10x3

face pulls
125x15x3

swole.

My brachioradialis muscles have been acting up, especially on the left side. For a long time, I had been avoiding stuff like heavy DB rows and DB pressing and hammer curl type movements that work that muscle. Recently I've become aware that this issue is related to the radial nerve being entrapped somewhere, probably largely due to my triceps being as hard as rocks and having ridiculous adhesions.

I figured this out by doing some googling. I found & bought a book written by a guy who wrote part of the Biomechanics class for ART. There is a good radial nerve flossing movement in there that I remembered my chiro showed me a while ago. I've been doing a lot of that and its helping, but the issue is still there. I have a ways to go. I think working that muscle and doing the radial nerve flossing between sets is good.

I'm pretty sure this issue has been affecting my bench press the past few months. The radial nerve pain on the left side was pretty bad after squatting at the meet. I'm pretty sure that affected my arm strength.

I've also noticed that a lot of very strong benchers say its good to do hammer curls. I'm going to try to keep doing them at least once a week and see if that helps my bench. The goal right now is to press 330 at the meet in Vegas in July.

I like this commentary by Mark Bell on a bunch of different people deadlifting:

6/9

did a lot of mobility stuff to open up the hips & ankles - felt good for squatting, but I broke a red voodoo band

front squat
55x5, 105x5, 146x5, 196x3, 237x3, 252x2, 272x2, 292x2

GHR
bw x 10, held 25 lb plate x 6, 10, 10

ssb box squats
220 + 8 chains x 2, 3, 4
thats heavy, hard work imo.

RDL
237x5, 287x5, 329x5, 379x5, 421x5

I was just looking through USPA national records. I'm probably not all that far from the DL one (242.5 bw, 45-49 years old). So that got me thinking about how to take a shot at it. I'm a month out from the meet, but here's what I'm thinking for attempts right now:

squat (PR is 457)
419
441
463

bench (PR is 345 in basement, but only 325 at a meet, and I failed 325 at the last meet twice)
309
325
336

DL (PR 529, but I think I might have had 550 in me at the last meet)
496
540 (I should get this)
573
The existing national record is 568. I might as well take a shot at it. The IPL world record minimum is 595. No one has done that yet, so that gives me a good long term goal to shoot for.

Anyone have any thoughts on this stuff?

Deadlift looks good

Bench maybe 303 319 336

Not sure about squat yet. 457 in your last meet seemed like a true max so maybe it is good the way you have it set up

Right now I'm pretty sure I'll have the bench fixed enough by this next meet so 309 will go up fast. If I have any doubts about that at meet time, I'll do what you're suggesting.

yeah, 457 was damn hard. I should be able to get 441. I'd be very happy if I hit 463.

DL - yeah, cool. I've been taking what you have said and what some people at the last meet said to me about this sort of set up. Relatively big jumps in weight seems like a good way to DL in a meet.

Thanks!

6/11

light bench
55x10, 105x10x2, 146x5, 191x5x5

pulldowns
200x15x3

hammer curls
30x10, 35x10, 40x10

chaos pushups
7, 8, 8

1 arm cable rows
125x12x2

face pulls
125x15x2

Pretty cool, although I skipped the first part but hearing him break down lifts like that is quite helpful.

6/12

deadlift
237x5x2, 329x3, 384x4x4, 441x2, 491x2

trap bar DL
465x10

I watched some mobility WOD vids I hadnt seen before that look pretty good:

sumo your groin:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vA2D...s_digest-vrecs

batman hip opener:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlSy...s_digest-vrecs

setting the shoulder:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVQB...s_digest-vrecs

I was trying to order a Texas DL bar yesterday, but no one had them in stock. The place Weasel got his TPB from said they didnt know when they'd get a new shipment. EliteFTS said 2-4 weeks. Other place was 4 weeks +.

Westside Barbell didnt answer their phone, so I left a message. They took a full day to call me back, but they not only have them in stock, their price is better than all the others. I ordered one from them. Hopefully it comes in time for me to DL next week, but it might take til the following week to get here.

Nice! How much was it? I either want to get that or a texas squat bar next