Thanks!

Congrats on gold.

Thanks for taking the time to write such a long and interesting trip report.

Thanks!

I left out a bunch of interesting stuff, but I figured that was long enough for now.

The screaming lady won best female masters lifter. Most of you have probably seen her on youtube before. She screams during all her lifts. I think she's about 75 years old. She was fun.

Wife's PR DL:



She was kind of happy, lol.

My best lifts, and a near miss on the 573 bench attempt:






Watch the right elbow^. And the look of disappointment on my coach's face....

Medal presentation



Pre-meet meal: 24 oz of filet mignon, a dozen strips of bacon and a sweet potato.

great TR, congrats on the medal. some badass stories with the guy pulling with the torn bicep and the girl coming back from the hospital to bench after tearing her ACL. wife's reaction was great too, good stuff.

Thanks!

11/16

I had not thought this through all the way before I was on my way to the gym. I needed to do 100% squat and DL last night in order to stay on schedule for my next meet. Ugh.

My left knee had felt great after the meet last Saturday, but I twisted it Sunday morning in the hotel. It didnt seem like a big deal at first, but it swelled a little and got very tight. On Wednesday, I went to the Timberwolves game. I could not bend my knee the way sitting there requires for more than a couple minutes. Luckily, the seat in front of me was open, so I stretched my leg over the chair for basically the whole game. When I got up, the bottom of my left heel was numb. Apparently I smashed the fibula nerve.

I did some IASTM on my leg and put some capsaicin on it. After loosening up a little, I put knee sleeves over the capsaicin. That seemed to loosen it up more. I figured I would try to warm up squats and go as high as I could. It worked out better than I figured it would.

squats
155x5
245x5

briefs
335x3
425x2
515x1

suit
605x1

knee wraps
675x1 (~opener)

735x1 (between 2nd & 3rd attempts)

I'm very happy with that, especially considering what has been going on with my knee.


DL
briefs only
405x2

suit
495x1
605x1 (~opener)
655xf. I weigh about 248 now. I had a lot of trouble getting to the bar with my back in good position. It was rounded and I was forward, so I missed this and it hurt my back a little. **** it. I am probably going to lift at ~250 bw in this next meet because it really doesnt matter what weight class I'm in - everyone is competing with everyone else. I need top 3 to win some money. Also, the 242 APF bench record is out of reach for me. The 275 bench record is 600. I have a chance at 606, especially if my weight is up a little. For DLs, if I weigh ~250, I will need to open my belt up a notch.

I feel more beat up now than I did after the last meet.

100% bench on Sunday, then openers next week.

edit - foot is still numb. Doc says not to worry about it.

Nice job on all. That 735 looked good. You a beast in that medal pic.

Thanks man

Some more meet pictures:

11/18

bench press
45x15
95x10
135x10
185x5
225x3
285x2 - I started setting up on my toes here. The tightness in my left knee made it miserable.
315x1

size 54 Rage X
2 board press
475x1

off chest
515x1 - harder than it should have been because of bad leg drive with left leg

SDP
565x1 - This actually went well, considering the circumstances.


You can see the shaking of my legs and as soon as I locked it out, I had to move my left foot out because I couldnt stand having that leg bent anymore due to the pressure in the knee. This was much worse than squatting was the other day because I was only in the bottom of a squat for a couple seconds at a time. Benching was like staying at the bottom of a squat for a long time.

605xf. I got it down to within about 3" of touching before my left hip cramped up and I couldnt take the pressure in my left knee on this attempt. I had the spotters take it.

I did a few light pulling things after this.


Assuming my knee tightness subsides (probably even if it doesnt, lol), I plan to take 606 for my 3rd attempt at the meet 12/1. The APF record for 275, 50-54 years old is 600, so I am going for the 275 record. The 242 record is out of reach for me. This upcoming meet, there is no one else to compete with in my age class in either 275 or 242, and it will be everyone vs everyone using coefficients and gear multipliers, so coming in at ~248-250 wont effect that very much for me and it will probably help my bench a little. I am 248 as of this morning.

11/20

squat
155x5
245x5

briefs
335x3
425x2
515x1

suit
605x1

knee wraps
675x1 - ~opener

Knee is a lot better than it was, but its still not great right now. I saw my chiro yesterday. He put dry needles in my leg and hooked up electric current, then he did art on everything above and below it. The dry needling brought the swelling down and helped loosen it up. The ART loosened it up too. The swelling came back today, but it is much looser. I asked my chiro if squatting today would be ok. He said that since I already squatted 735 on Friday and it was ok after that, it should be fine to squat tonight. You have to love having doctors who know about lifting. I didnt mention this Sunday, but my PRP/stem cell doc lifted with us Sunday and he saw me lifting and didnt have any problem with anything I was doing.

Part of the problem I am having is probably due to looseness in my superior tibiofibular joint. Apparently, I have about 10% or more looseness in that joint in both legs. I am going to have PRP done on them, along with some on my SI, the Friday after my next meet. I will need at least one additional treatment on the tibiofibular joints about six weeks after the first treatment. Doc says it will feel different when I squat. It will also go a long ways towards correcting some nerve pain I have had in my lower legs since I can remember. The SI treatment will address the issue I am having when I bench heavy that gives me pain in the right piriformis.

11/23

DL
225x5
315x3
405x2

suit
495x1
555x1
605x1

I loosened the straps on my suit and I loosened my belt a notch. This made getting down to the bar a lot easier than it was last week.

I weighed 250 this morning and I plan to try to stay about this weight for the meet because I think this gives me the best chance of beating the APF 275 50-54 bench record of 600. DLing is harder at this weight, but benching should be easier.

11/25

I weighed 253 this morning. The Thanksgiving bulk has been a success.

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

size 54 Rage X
2 board press
475x1 - smoked it

off chest
505x1 - hard to touch. I smoked it once it touched.

SDP
545x1 - A little slow to touch, but it was not as hard as the 505 was in the Rage X. I smoked it on the way up. I'm going to open with 551 at the meet. I love this shirt.




I did some light pulling after this.


My left knee still isnt 100%, but its way better than last week. I was slightly unstable on my last couple raw sets because of it, but once I put the shirt on, I was stable. I'm guessing the extra weight stabilized me a little better. right now, I think I have a great shot at the APF record press of 606. I think I will go 551/579/606 for bench.

The plan right now is squat - 672/711/750
DL - 601/645/683

If I go 6/6 on squat and bench, I will only need a 645 DL for 2001. I'll do 645 on my 2nd DL so that if anything bad happens, I can come back and try it again on my 3rd attempt.

Hey cha, I stumbled on your blog and have read a few pages. The meet write up was excellent - I really enjoyed reading it.

Is there a good site where I can read about benching in gear? It's new to me and I'd like to know more about it.

Thanks!

EliteFTS has some stuff that is good.

Brian Carroll's site is very good: https://www.powerrackstrength.com/about/

What kind of shirt(s) do you have? Do you lift with a team?

Oh no, I bench without anything and didn't realize all this existed. I just wanted to read more about it.

The first thing you should do imo is find some powerlifters near you who are good at shirted benching. You do not want to get into this without having very good spotters every time you bench in a shirt. Where do you live?

I'll +1 cha.

To really understand it you have to try it.

But great you have the interest, I liked the metal militia stuff from 10 years ago on shirted benching. Other than that, for me it has been mostly learning by doing.

I officially weighed in at 248.7 this morning for the meet tomorrow. I'm currently eating all the food.

If any MN people reading this want to come and watch, here's the info:

The meet venue is in the the Inver Grove Heights Community Center at 8055 Barbara Ave. You need to enter through DOOR I (that's letter I). The gymnasium belongs to the Minnesota National Guard.



Its a very well run meet and there will be a lot of great lifters there. Lifting starts at 9:00 am. I'm in flight C, so I am guessing I will start squatting around 10:30.

Good luck! I'm looking forward to the trip report

Thanks!