Took a trip to Vegas. We found a good gym with good equipment - Iron Addicts. Its owned by CT Fletcher. Everyone there was pretty nice and they helped spot as well as they could, but it was not like having my team there.
4/19
squat
55x5
145x5
235x5
briefs
325x3
415x2
505x1
suit
625x1 - very ugly. I tried taking the slack out of the top part of the suit and that made it so I couldnt descend with a full breath of air. It forced my air to come out when I was coming out of the hole.
625x1 - Not great again, but much better until the very end when I was trying to rack it. The left side sunk a little below the top of the hooks, and the spotter on the left had a hard time helping me get it over the pin. We got it without anyone getting hurt, but I figured that was enough squatting for the day. If I go back there, I will need to lower the pins a notch for heavier squats.
off chest
475xf
Handoff was terrible. They basically threw it on me after getting it out of the pins, and it was not even. I held it for a while trying to get balance and took it down well, but when it came up, I shot it towards my head, so I missed it at the top. That shouldnt happen.
465x1
Handoff was less bad than the previous one after some coaching, but still not good. This went down fine and up slower than it should, but its fine for an opener. It wasnt too hard to touch.
If I would have had better spotters, I probably would have put my loose SDP on and done about 550, but considering the situation, I was happy to get done what I got done without anyone getting hurt.
I did some light pulldowns, rows and face pulls after that.
4/23
DL
225x5
315x3
405x2
suit
495x1
585x1
635x1
Everything moved and felt good.
briefs - I got a very good deal on a "used" pair of Inzer Predators that were unused. They are 3 ply and have grid stitching. They're the same size as the overly broken in Preds I've been using that are 2 ply without grid stitching. Apparently the grid stitching helps so they dont wear out as quickly. The extra ply of material makes it harder to hit depth, but it gives more support. I decided to see if I could hit depth in these with a weight near what I was trying to open with, and since I was doing that, I might as well put them on for the warmups leading up to that as well.
335x3
425x2
515x1
All those felt very good.
I put on my suit, but kept the laces all the way loose. I also used knee wraps.
625x1 - fugly. My feet were too far back when I picked it up, so I was leaning forward. I did not balance the weight front to back before starting my descent, so my knees shot forward and I kept drifting forward and backward on the way down, and it took a very long time to hit depth. Somehow, I did hit depth and the weight came up fast. I wanted to clean this up before moving on, so I took another attempt.
625x1 - pretty solid. I picked it up well, descended well, and the weight came up nice and fast. I will use these briefs at the meet next week. They dont need to be broken in any more.
I decided that it would be a good idea to pull my opener as well.
DL
two ply Preds only
405x2
suit
495x1
585x1
Everything moved fast, as it should. My squats and DLs are as ready for this meet as they're going to be.
I should mention that the left rib situation is getting better, but I developed a right rib issue now that is less bad than the left side was, but its another issue.
Right now, I think I will open squats with 628. Assuming my ribs hold up ok, I'll take something 672 or less for my 2nd attempt. If the ribs hold up after that, I'll take something ~716 or less for a 3rd attempt. I am leaving the possibility of not taking a 2nd or 3rd attempt open. The American record is only 551, so my opener will squash that.
DLs, I will open with 584. 2nd attempt will probably be around 633. 3rd, who knows? I will see how the 2nd attempt moves and then decide.
off chest
465x1 - smoked it. Getting a good handoff is a huge deal.
loose SDP
550x1 - it was a little challenging to touch. It went up ok, but at the top, there was a little up & down, so a good judge would red light it. Afterwards, my right rib was out. The left ribs all stayed in. I think the rib popping out probably affected what happened at the top of this. At least I know I still have the strength to do this. Assuming I'm ok after my opener, I will attempt 551 2nd at the meet. If that goes well, I will probably put my tight short on and attempt 584.
I was wearing my new 3 ply Inzer predators that had only been used once before, so I had the laces on my suit all the way loose for the 1st and 2nd attempts. I just took the slack out of the laces for the 3rd attempt.
628 - side judges both said too high. bleh.
639 - good, American record, yay. Too ****ing deep. Both side judges said I was about 2" deeper than necessary. The guy calling depth made sure I didnt miss this due to red lights. It was ****ing miserable - it took about 15 seconds.
Side note - I dont get light headed anymore at the bottom of squats. This used to be a huge issue at the bottom of squats and that is why I bombed out of APF nationals last year. I think I figured this out. I read something about a common ingredient (L arginine I think) in preworkouts lowering blood pressure, especially when combined with certain prescriptions. I had thought for a long time my prescriptions causing the light headedness, so I would go without them for a couple days before meets and squat days. I weaned myself off all caffeine several months ago, so I havent had a preworkout drink in many months. I started noticing that it wasnt mattering when I took my prescriptions anymore - I can take them right before lifting and I dont get light headed anymore. This is fantastic, and it allowed me to grind through this awful squat in this meet.
672 - side judges both said too high. I say BS. The head judge said it was a great squat. Video doesnt show from the best angle, but I say I broke parallel, and my guy who called depth thought so too. I've never missed a squat due to depth with him calling before. To poor salt on the wound, they were giving lots of white lights to other squats that were very clearly high before this. Whatever. I think I have a lot more in me with this combination of suit and briefs once I start getting my strength back. I want 750+ in December for sure. Maybe 800+.
bench
463 - smoke show. American record, yay. I used my old single ply shirt. This was a weight that's about 10 more lbs than I can touch fairly good in. As I've mentioned before, this was very conservative because of the rib issues I've been having. The ribs felt fine after, so I put on the loose SDP and took my 2nd attempt.
551 - no lift. I touched this well and it blasted up off my chest fast, but I lost control. If you look at my left elbow in the video, you can see it didnt quite turn out fast enough to stay under the bar. ****.
551 - no lift. I overthought this. I focused too hard on controlling the bar and not shooting it over my head, so the weight went straight up slowly and stalled. ****.
DL
584 - lol ez. American record, yay.
639 - very good lift. American record, yay. It felt good, but not super easy. I decided to err on the conservative side for my 3rd attempt.
661 - good lift. American record, yay. It was very slightly forward, but there was no doubt it was getting locked out. I for sure had the strength for 672 in me, and possibly 683 if I lifted it perfectly. I'll take 661. It is 5.5 lbs more than my USPA 242 American record, which I was hoping I could do in this meet. My DL is feeling very good again. I just need to get stronger again now.
I had no personal records, but all my good lifts were USPA American records in my age and weight class. I could have done a lot better on squats and bench (I left at least 132 lbs on the platform), but at least I got a total, broke some records and deadlifted fairly well.
My ribs held up fine for both squats and bench, but I haven’t been handling heavy weights on either in a while. That especially hurt my second and 3rd bench attempts and it kept me from attempting heavier squats.
Now I can work on getting the ribs 100%, getting my strength back, and hitting some bigger goals. My goals are to total 2,000+ and to win some money at a cash meet in December, the APF Twin City Barbell Holiday Throwdown, which pays the top three lifters. I finished in 4th place, just out of the money, in this meet the last two times I lifted in it, which was 2016 and 2018. My other goal is to be the 1st Minnesotan over 50 years old to bench 600+. If I can stay healthy, I can do all that.
Squat 639, this was the worst grinder ever, lol:
Squat 672, I thought this was good:
Bench 463, this was easy:
Bench 551 miss, look at the left elbow position, turning out a little too late:
DL 639. James Vang, a national champion USAPL lifter, is in the background cheering for me. He is one of the best deadlifters I know and a great coach. He said form was basically perfect on this and I agree:
DL 661, I could have gotten my knees back a little sooner on this, but its still pretty good:
I don’t know if I have mentioned anything about MAT (Muscle Activation Technique) or not, but I was referred to an excellent physical therapist who does this and she is like a magician. I have seen her twice. In those two visits, she has identified and quickly fixed weaknesses in my many upper back muscles on the left side, serratus anterior, internal and external obliques, portions of my rectus abdominus, right vastus lateralus, right psoas, lats, several other small muscles in my middle and lower back and right hip, right QL, etc. I feel like my whole body is turned on and functioning much better now than it has in a long time. If you have physical issues and money (it isnt cheap), I highly encourage you to check out this type of therapy if you haven’t yet. My doctor says this PT that he referred me to is the best PT he has ever met, and I concur. https://muscleactivation.com/about-us/what-is-mat/
672 squat looked good to me. not the best angle to judge depth but seemed pretty deep and ive seen much higher squats get white lighted. I like how after the 639 squat you are either too exhausted or too pissed they made you go so low to celebrate or do anything. That was kinda ridiculous
672 squat looked good to me. not the best angle to judge depth but seemed pretty deep and ive seen much higher squats get white lighted. I like how after the 639 squat you are either too exhausted or too pissed they made you go so low to celebrate or do anything. That was kinda ridiculous
yup, I agree. 672 should have been good if the judging was consistent.
lol, I was exhausted after 639. Not only did I hold the bar for about 15 seconds and take it super low, the bar came forward on the way up. Getting the bar forward was why it was so hard to stand up with that and 672 looked a lot easier because I kept the bar in good position.
suit
495x1
585x2 - This felt good and moved good.
585x1 - I stopped after 1 rep because it didnt feel good. Looking at the video, it moved a lot better than it felt, but I was set up very slightly forward.
loose SDP
495x2 - 1st rep off 2 board, 2nd rep off 1 board. Both were good and fast.
tight SDP
3 board press
585x1 - way easier than I was expecting
605x1 - this went up pretty fast too.
Handling these weights off high boards was no problem at all. My ribs didnt bother me at all either.
push ups
10
This bothered my ribs on the left side. The rib issue seems to be happening only when my pecs get stretched out. The ribs didnt pop out, but I definitely felt something going on, so I stopped.
TRX rows
15x3
face pulls
2 or 3 sets of 15
light DB pullovers
20 or 25 lbs x 20
This is to get the seratus anteriors working.
Before squatting, I saw the PT again and she fixed all kinds of stuff in my legs and hips.
squat
65x10
155x5
245x5
335x3
blue Predator briefs (old & stretched out)
425x2
515x1 - everything felt fantastic to this point. Squatting probably has never felt better.
suit
605x1 - ugly. I wasnt sure why at the time.
605x1 - ok, not great.
675x1 - ugly again, but I got it. Everything was getting forward.
briefs only
425x2 - at this point, I realized my belt was too loose and that was the problem with the heavy stuff. I had loosened it up a notch a few weeks ago. On this day, I only drank protein drinks with blended fruit before lifting because I was too busy to get any solid food in me. That made my belly less full than it would normally be and it was hard to keep my core tight witrh 600+ on my back, so I was pitching forward. I tightened up the belt and everything felt fantastic again.
475x1
515x1
565x1 - I havent squatted this much in briefs only in a long time, and this was probably the best I have ever moved that much despite these briefs being fairly loose.
Since I was coming off a meet, I figured that was enough squatting for the day.
speed bench
45x15
95x10
135x10
185x5
225x3
275x3 - I felt tightness in my chest, so I figured doing something that put less stress on it would be a good idea.
185 + 88 lbs of chains x 3
185 + 132 lbs of chains x 3 x 2
These felt a lot better.
The PT told me light flyes, holding a light contraction at the top would be good. I thought cables might be a better idea because they keep more tension on at full extension. She agreed.
light cable crossovers - 3 sets of 15
1 arm cable rows
140x15
170x12
200x10x2
face pulls
140x15
150x15
chaos pushups
I figured out a good way to reduce my ROM by about 4-5" so these were easy on the chest.
3 x 10
DL against bands
315 + ?? x 3
I think I did 3 or sets of triples, working up to:
315 + big red bands (~350 lbs at the top) x 3
315 + big red bands + black bands (550 lbs of bands at the top or 865) x 1 - this was harder than what I was expecting because I didnt realize how much tension was in the bands until I looked them up on Rogure's site. This last set took a lot out of me.
I need to work my left obliques and back muscles more.
Suitcase DLs - all 5 second holds with each hand until the last one
135
185
225
275
245 in left hand only for 10 seconds
The right side was very easy on all these. The left side wanted to turn the bar towards my right side for most of them, and they were all challenging. I still have some significant imbalances.
warm ups
rolling
straight arm cable pulldown - 25
cable flyes - 25
band pull aparts - hands turned three ways, 10 reps each
McGill pullups - 2
Doing this before benching was really really good. The imbalances I mentioned from Friday were not a factor today.
bench press
95x12
135x10
185x5
225x3
275x2
315x1
loose SDP
2 board press
495x1
tight SDP
3 board press
585x1 - smoked
625x1 - smoked
I came in thinking I might press 625 or 635 and be done with the shirted work, but this was moving so well, I figured I'd try something heavier.
655x1 - smoked!! This is a 20 lb PR and I crushed it. I had my chiro friend check to make sure my ribs hadnt popped out. He said they were still in place, so I figured why not try 7 plates? 675x1 - WOOOOO!! - 40 lb 3 board PR. I totally didnt expect this. I came in knowing that doing the high board work felt good for my chest, but I wasnt expecting something like this to happen. Very happy with this. It didnt take long to get used to handling big weights again.
Side note - I ordered a basically new, used 3 ply Inzer Super Duper Phenom from a guy on a FB powerlifting gear forum. I bought my 3 ply briefs from him a couple months ago. This guy is one of the three who wrote this excellent break-in protocol for SDP shirts: https://www.powerrackstrength.com/br...e-designs-sdp/
I used this to break in my new SDP and it worked just the way they said in the article. I didnt realize until yesterday that this was one of the authors of that article. This shirt that I ordered yesterday only has about 5 training reps in it and nothing went below a 3 board, so its just starting to get broken in. He says he if you know how to use these shirts, touching isnt any harder than with a two ply, but it gives you a lot more lockout power. I'm really looking forward to using this new shirt. 650 might be possible in December.
briefs (new Inzer 3 ply - I love these)
425x2
515x1
605x1 - This could be a brief only PR, not sure. Either way, I think this is going to be by last warmup before putting the suit on from now on.
suit & overkill knee wraps
695xf. My descent wasnt very good, but I got to depth and did a little more of a dip before I started to try to come up. I think I was going to get it, but my team grabbed it after I did the dip. They were gun-shy because one of our teammates tore a rotator cuff muscle benching a couple days ago. Better safe than sorry I guess.
I changed to my two ply knee wraps and took it again.
695x1 - smoked it. I am pretty sure my lower body has never felt better squatting than it has the last two sessions. This is mostly because of my new PT who is doing MAT on me.
briefs only
515x2
565x1
I have a rib out in my back on the left side. It came out when I was stretching after getting out of bed yesterday. lol old age. This was causing me to helicopter a bit during squats, so I decided to shut it down. The good news is that the front ribs have stayed in for a while, and this back rib issue doesnt feel like its too big of a deal.
one leg band hamstring curls
1 blue band x 15
2 blue bands x 15
3 blue bands x 15
I found another muscle that isnt firing. My left hamstrings arent doing much of anything. The right ones feel extremely strong. Of course my PT fixed the right ones and hasnt worked on the left ones yet. I see her again in mid June. I need to remember to have her address this.
The problem in my left middle back wasnt a rib out. It was a tight muscle on the right (opposite) side that cause a vertebrae to turn sideways. I felt good after getting it fixed.
speed bench
45x15
95x10
135x10
185x5
225x3
185 + 2 chains x 3
185 + 4 chains x 3
Chest and right shoulder did not feel great, so I figured it would make sense to do lighter stuff.
Not much else. I did them on short rest because we went out of town for a few days. I also missed normal benching on Sunday, but found some other powerlifters to lift with yesterday.
bench
45x15
95x10
135x10
185x5
225x3
275x2
315x1
loose SDP
2 boards
495x1
tight SDP
3 boards
585x1
635x1
675x1 - I smoked everything up until this point. 675 went way better than last week because my setup was tighter.
705x1 - 30 lb 3 board PR! This was a grind, but I felt like I was going to get it the whole time. Holding big weights over my chest is getting more comfortable all the time. I'm really liking shirted 3 board presses. I have been doing them to protect my ribs and that part is working. We will see if that holds up once I start getting the weight closer to my chest. In the mean time, my chest feels good and I handled 705, woooo!
After this, I did a bunch of chaos pushups and pulling stuff.
I didnt expect this to be happening yet because I figured my ribs would hold me back, but three boards (along with my new PT) appear to be the cure for that. I guess the top end of my bench was already pretty strong. I do expect to improve a lot more if I can heal the ribs to 100% and keep from getting hurt any other ways at the same time. I'm trying to be extra careful while my new PT fixes things that werent working before. I see her again in mid June. I have a lot of muscles firing now that were dormant before. Its going to be fun to see how high I can go with all my lifts once my body is working the way it should.
My new (used) three ply SDP arrived today. I'm pretty excited to start breaking it in and seeing how much I can press in that thing. I think it will be a lot more aggressive than the shirt I used for the 675 & 705.
knee wraps
705x1 - I think this is probably the most I've squatted since December. It wasnt super good form, but there was no doubt in my mind I was getting it. I sort of helicoptered the bar and the weight shifted slightly to my right hip/leg on the way up. There's more stuff for my PT to fix.
745xf - I had a teammate tighten my suit. I think she tightened it too much. I was able to take this down ok at first, but after I got about 3" from depth, I felt like I had no power to stand back up. I just couldnt move. Gear that's too tight doesnt work for me. It was good to feel that weight on my back again though.
After that, I decided to do rehab type stuff: banded legs curls and banded glute medius PT stuff.
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