Gogogogo

Thanks!

Thanks!!

Thanks!


and I tweaked my low back getting out of bed. Its the facet joint thing. The only thing I seem to be able to do on my own that helps is heating it.

I see my chiro Wednesday. Hopefully he can fix this well enough so that I can at least do my openers - I think that's likely. 2,000 seems unlikely. A PR of 1,906 seems possible, but less likely than not. Openers get me 1,764 and that's probably plenty to qualify for worlds. Likely second attempts would get me a 1,879 total and meet PRs for squat and bench - right now, I would be very happy with that.

Wat?

You bombed out of the meet?

I bombed out on the squat at APF nationals. The first two attempts, I got light headed at the bottom. The first one I got up, but they said it went up and down. The second was a disaster. The third, I got down quicker, avoided the light-headedness and then shot forward on the way up. 1st ever (and hopefully only ever) bomb. I think this is probably related to some medications. I will figure this out and come back.

It really sucked to watch the rest of the meet that day. I would have been opened with the heaviest bench (502, same as 1 other guy) and I would have opened with the heaviest DL by 99 lbs. There was one other guy in my age/weight class (242 / 50 - 54 years old). I didnt see his total, but none of his attempts were near as heavy as my openers. I should have beaten him by about 400 lbs.

The bright spots were I helped a teammate have a good meet and win SHW 50-54 and set a national record squat with 804. Also, I helped another friend who ended up winning the belt for best lifter - I helped hand off his bench and I gave him some good DL advice. The best lifter belt was very cool. This guy probably would have beaten me handily even if I had a good meet because of his age (~57) and body weight (195) multipliers. I still should have won the 1st place medal for my age/weight class and gotten an invite to worlds. I still might get invited to worlds on an exception - I need to email the lady in charge.

Rough one. Was it because you couldn't find a good steak place? (lmk if you're back in the area!)

In all seriousness though, maybe you changed your patterning slightly because of your back thing the past week, even subconsciously? Bounce back and keep up the good work.

Bright spots on Friday:

My wife won her age/weight class by about 70 lbs total and she set meet PRs for squat and total. She is going to lift at WPC worlds.

One teammate won best female SHW classic raw in a very tough field. She will be lifting at WPC worlds.

My coach won open 242 bench only with his opener (705). He missed 804 and 810 later. There was some miscommunication about the start command that screwed him up. APF recently changed the rule so there is no start command. On his opener, the head judge yelled start, so my coach thought there was a start command during his 2nd attempt. He would up holding 804 for several seconds waiting for the start command. That fried him. The reason he attempted 810 on that last attempt was because that was either a national or world record.

Saturday:

I got to see Dave Hoff break an all time WR with a 3014 total (1223/975/814). I got videos of his lifts and his last squat warmup of 1055 which looked like me doing about 4 plates. Awesome.

I met Louie Simmons and got some pictures with him. I told him I was the guy who ordered the reverse hyper in 2011 and then blew out a disc in my back and emailed him for some advice. He said he remembered my name.

My teammate set meet PRs in squat (865), bench (502) and total (1917). He took 4th in a loaded 220 open field.

I saw a lot of other awesome lifts and lifters as well. Two other guys open squatted over 1000. One guy who weighed 253 opened with 1019. Opened. Hoff opened with 1140.

lol - I will!

I really dont think the back bothered me at all on these squats. It definitely affected my benching and DLing near the top end during training though. I'm pretty sure this light headed stuff at the bottom of heavy squats is just a medication issue I need to figure out. Here are some other details that affected it - the early start - I was in flight A and was warming up at 7:30am. I stepped on the platform at about 9:10. I am not a morning person. I couldnt get much food or water in me before I had to go. Usually I dont start squatting at meets until about 11am because they put me in flight D. The flight I was in only had about 10 or 11 lifters, so there wasnt much time to recover between attempts. Typically this medicine I take is out of me for about 36 hours before I train squats on Tuesday nights. It was less than 24 hours for this meet. Apparently that isnt enough. I'll figure it all out and fix it.

edit - the monolift we used is different from other ones I have used before. I think I had my feet too narrow when I set my height. When I got on the platform, I just set my feet a bit narrower than normal so I could pick it up. I should have asked them to lower it instead. I still should have got this weight regardless, but this was a small detail that didnt help.

Never bombing just means you haven't lifted long enough. It happens.

I saw video of Hoff's 814 pull. loooooooool @ that getting whites.

why do you say that?

Seriously?



Rules state xxx in APF, etc... But that wouldn't count anywhere else.

He stepped backwards before the bar was returned to the ground.

You are correct. I didnt see that before. The argument I had heard was that he had let go of the bar early, which he didnt - the bar hit the floor with his hands on it.

edit - He passed on his third attempt. I dont know if he had enough left in the tank to pull this again.

Unlucky on your meet but sounds like it was still a great experience and pretty successful for your team overall.

yes, thanks!

Woot! I got invited to worlds!

edit - my wife is happier than I am about this - she's in tears, jumping up and down in her cubicle at work, lol.

APF has no rule that you cannot move your foot during setting the bar down. A nationally certified judge I know just told me he would white light that lift after watching that video - he said he just had to lower it in a controlled manner after he was given the down command, and he did that.

Congrats, super sick! You are definitely one of the people that I look up to on here.

Niiice! When and where is that?

Yea, that's exactly why I said...

Thanks!!

Thanks!! November in Orlando.

When you first said it, I did not know that particular rule, so I thought it should not have counted.

All federations have their own rules. Some federations like SPF allow half squats to pass. Some allow board shorts during benching so judges cant see when a lifter's butt comes off the bench. Those federations are stupid. None of that happened on Hoff's lifts - his last squat was an inch or so deeper than parallel. His DL was locked at the top and didnt hitch or ramp on the way up. I dont see moving the foot after receiving the down command as a big deal. Controlling the bar is what the rule is, and that happened.

6/15

DL
225x5
315x3
405x2
495x1

suit
585x2x2

briefs only
405+black bands x 3
405+black+green bands x 3

GHR
15

iron maidens
3 sets

RDLs
335x5
425x5
475x5

My hamstrings are fried.

what are iron maidens? Those are some strong RDLs.

Thanks. I go heavier sometimes if it hasnt been so long since I did RDLs.

We call them iron maiden. Other names for it are nordic leg curls, Norwegian leg curls or poor man's GHRs. They are a lot harder than GHRs on a machine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CG4CSPxSz34

6/17

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

size 54 Rage X shirt
2 board press
455x2
505x1
535x1
All went well.

raw with chains
225+2 chains x 3
225+4 chains x 3
225+6 chains x 3
225+8 chains x 3

TRX rows
15x3

face pulls
72.5x20
77.5x10

Ah yea I’ve done those before, just never heard them called that. I really liked them but don’t do them often since they seemed to work best with a partner that can hold down your feet but I guess I could set it up how he does in the video. I did them with a band to help rebound back up instead of pushing off the ground.