Wow. Epic. Not sure what to say, super gritty performance.

I would have voted for a 45 lbs pull and then call it a day but I really have no idea how much you were risking by pushing to 385. So, unsurprisingly, I was glad to see you didn't try to really push things with a 3rd attempt at a serious (for you) weight.

Impressive work, cha; hopefully you heal up quickly!

Great work, Cha! Heal quickly. Our nanny quit on Saturday morning so we had to scramble, sorry to have missed stopping by to yell "lift it... the weight! K! Yeah Cha! Gogogogogogogo! Ship it!" etc.

Thanks!! I would guess its grade 1. It feels very similar to that one I had last year.

Thanks!

45 lbs (no plates on the bar) would have been much more difficult than what I did pull because of the increased ROM. I dont even know if that was an option or not. 135 & 225 felt fine warming up. 385 was not difficult, and I planned to drop the bar if anything felt like it was going to make it worse. I know what I'm doing after having gone through something very similar a year ago.

Thanks!

Thanks! I will try to give you more advanced notice if/when I do another meet in your area. Nationals next year is supposed to be at the same gym. I will probably be doing that. This gym (2XL Powerlifting) is probably the best meet venue I have ever lifted at. If you are close to that gym and haven't checked it out yet, I recommend taking a look at the place. Its massive, well run and they have great equipment.

:chathumbs: all round, fantastic effort

Thanks!!

So I got the flu after worlds. Terrible. I lost 15 lbs and still have little appetite. I have a bench only meet coming up in less than two weeks. My numbers will be way down for this one.

11/8
bench press
Still not fully recovered from flu, in addition to being down 15 lbs. I felt better than I had for the past couple weeks, but I still lacked energy and strength. I needed to find a weight I can touch and press with my new weak body weight.

135x10
185x5
225x3
275x2
315x1

black SDP
2 boards
545x1 - not as easy as it should be

off chest
585xf - I felt like I got almost nothing out of the shirt because of being so small. And I am also weak.

565x1 - not bad touching. Not good pressing. If I maintain this body weight (~252) til meet day, I think I will open in this shirt with 556.

blue SDP
off chest
605xf - Touching was ok. I actually almost pressed this. I got it a couple inches from lockout and got stuck. A teammate said if I had pushed it more towards my shoulders, I would have had it easily. I can probably touch a bit less than this in this shirt, so maybe a good 2nd attempt might be ~595, then assuming I get that, I would tweak the shirt a bit and try something a little over 600.


A friend brought in a Bench Daddy thingy that is like a Slingshot with two plies, but its one size fits all. Its very hard to get my hands on the bar in the right place with this on. You need help setting the second hand. I make the mistake of doing my 1st set with no wrist wraps and it cranked badly on my wrists despite the weight not being heavy.
405x1 - this thing feels weird, but pressing this weight was almost effortless.

I put wrist wraps on and did 495x1. This is a much better weight for me in this contraption. It felt pretty easy to press.

545xf off chest. Weird. 495 felt so easy, but I couldnt move 545. This thing is not like wearing a shirt. I probably could have repped 495 for ~5 or so. I might mess around with this more when I am feeling better.


machine rows
195x12
250x10
295x10 - felt way harder than usual

face pulls

I felt like I had hit the wall, so I stopped.

11/15

bw 258

bench press
raw up to 315 x 3

black shirt
2 boards
495x1

off chest
575x1 - felt pretty good. I got some of my weight back from regaining my appetite and some of my strength came back.


11/17
squats to a 17" box
I worked up to 245 raw, then put on briefs and did 335, 385 & a bunch of triples with 425. Hamstring felt a bit tight with 385 on a 16" box. When I put a plate on it, everything felt good.

I did a bunch of sets of 15 rep seated band hamstring curls afterwards.

My legs felt much better after this workout than they have for a while; although my right hip is a little gimpy.


PT worked on my neck/shoulder/back & right hip 11/19. She does great work. It wasnt all 100% fixed, but most of the way.


The bench meet, which would have been sanctioned by Metal Militia, got cancelled due to the tyrant MN governor. Starting midnight the day before the meet was scheduled, all gyms had to close. Liquor stores and fast food places remain open, but gyms closed. Way to show such care about our health (dipshit)!

The guy running the meet decided to have a mock meet for anyone who wanted to lift in it last night before the Nazi ordered gym closures began. I decided why not? It doesnt count in any record book, but it was kind of fun.

11/20 - mock bench meet
bw in the morning was 261. I weighed in at 268 with clothes on at ~5pm after stuffing myself with food. I figured my strength and girth was still well below where I was at for worlds, but I figured I was a little puffier than I was last Sunday, so I opened with 585.

585 - 3 thumbs up

Because there were only about 7 people in my flight, the meet was moving very fast. For that reason, I decided not to put on my blue 3 ply shirt.

605 - I missed about 3" from lockout. The bar drifted a little towards my belly and my right wrist turned over a little. Dammit.

605 - 3 thumbs up

My team was doing normal DL training, so none of them were there to hand off for me. There were not very good handoff people for this meet. It kind of sucked. As soon as the bar came off the pins, I was supporting 90% of it as they moved it out. This probably led to what my shoulder feels like today - awful. Since there was no particular thing that made it hurt, I dont think there's anything serious going on. Its more of the same that I have been feeling for a couple months, but much worse. Bleh. I hope this heals soon.

Terrible about the gyms closing there. I hope Walz reconsiders at some point, or that he loses a court case as happened to Ohio's governor during the last lockdown.

The data doesn't back up closing them. Governors from Michigan to Kentucky entered into an agreement earlier this year to somewhat coordinate policies, so residents don't simply cross state lines to obtain services shut down in a neighboring state. Interestingly, Michigan's lockdowner Gov. Whitmer recently re-closed a bunch of stuff, but not gyms. If she couldn't find data supporting closing them, it must not exist.

In a break for my area, the other states didn't shut down gyms either, but Kentucky's gyms are reduced to 25% occupancy and masks are required while working out. Hopefully they will stay open until vaccines are available for the most vulnerable, and states where they are closed will come to their senses.

Bad timing for sure. However, he waited too long as it is. I think there may need to be another complete lockdown to get things back under control. Also, if things were more strict then gyms probably could stay open. I have very little sympathy for bars and indoor restaurant - I really DGAF if those just are shut down completely. Gyms should be a different story, especially given the temps during the winter here outside. That being said, even without a home gym I certainly wouldn't have set foot in a gym throughout this whole thing. I also don't compete in powerlifting, though .

Thankfully it does seem like vaccines should start making a big difference in a few months and hopefully that allows gyms to stay open for good.

We arent going to agree on almost anything you just said. I dont want to fight. I dont have time or energy for that and I dont want it to degenerate into something ugly (although I doubt it would get to that because I think we are both reasonable people, just with different opinions). We can agree to disagree.

I agree.

Thanks!

I agree that gyms are different than bars and restaurants (though I don't think they should be shut down either, but that's a different topic for another day). People should be working out, and closing gyms sends a bad message...especially when being locked at home during the winter is a prescription for unhealthy weight gain and reduced overall fitness. Shutting down gyms is not great for mental health either -- especially in the colder months.

I've been training in a commercial gym this whole time. I've never felt unsafe and didn't come down with COVID, FWIW.

IMO, the bottom line is as I mentioned earlier. If these Midwestern governors -- all of whom locked down gyms a few months ago -- are not shutting them down now, the data must be good on keeping them open.

I edited that slightly and posted it on Facebook too. People need to at least give some thought to this, rather than assuming gyms are unsafe based on feelings. The same types of politicians locking gyms down also assumed children could easily play on state-licensed poker websites. One thing these thoughts have in common is a lack of corroborating data.

Rich - I'm not sure how great data is for any of this. I certainly am not doing any research on it or spending time since I don't have any control over any of it, just what I do myself. Our kids are in daycare. Although we did keep them out for 5 months (that was our limit, apparently). And we will take them out for 3 weeks over Christmas so we can make sure we're all COVID free to spend up-close time with their local grandparents. That might be my limit on how much more I'm willing to do personally (so grandparents can see them "no restrictions" and to remove them as vectors). But I'm certainly not happy about it or any of this really lol.

Good you're doing what you have to do for your family's safety. Yes, hopefully this will be well behind us in by around springtime.

It would be nice to see libertarianism get a popularity boost from all this. That's the only silver lining I can think of. COVID really hits at the core of what liberty is worth to people. Half the country is willing to risk their lives in order to maintain their routines.

There's a lot of great data, but I am not going to go look for stuff right now. I have friends who are doctors who give me plenty of very credible, common sense info on basically a daily basis to be pretty confident about my stance. I cant recite it and I dont have time to piece anything together because I'm way too busy.

yup. One of my doc friends (one of my best friends) who is most outspoken about all of this is a big libertarian.

Shoulder is a problem. I dont think anything is torn, but every time I find a way to make it feel somewhat better, I quickly find a way to mess it up again. Its like all of my rotator cuff muscles start working against each other, rather than with each other.


11/22
TBDLs off 6" blocks
I did this to take stress off the hamstrings and to try to get some back muscle activation. I think I went up to about 460 + 180 lbs of chains for some triples. I dont know how much this helped.

I did some light pulling stuff and then decided to do some blast strap rows. I did a set of 20 and a set of 15 without much rest in between. I felt very good afterwards, for ~3 hours....


11/24
TBDLs off 6" blocks
up to 640 straight weight + 180 lbs chains. Not hard from the bottom, but it was heavy at the top.

I did some light pulling and other stuff. I tried blast strap rows and they felt bad this time.


11/25
light PT stuff mostly. Nothing felt very good.


I talked to my doc friend who does regenerative injections. I scheduled a digital motion xray for next week. I am prepared to get more PRP and possibly stem cell work done if necessary. The shoulder, neck, upper back, right hip and right lower leg are all candidates. Possibly the left glute medius as well. This could take as many as three treatments over the course of several months. It sounds like an excellent long-term fix if I go that route.

11/27

I tried pulling with a straight bar off 9" blocks. Everything up to 585 felt great on the shoulder and the bad hammy. I attempted 635, focusing on good shoulder position. The hammy tightened up and I pulled too hard with it, reinjuring it a little. It was not as bad as the initial tear, but it was stupid and it hurt. If I had been focusing on the hammy during the pull, I probably would have dropped the bar sooner.

Since then, I have had some ART, some MAT, a digital motion x-ray, an ultrasound, a vacation, and done some rehabbing.

The hammy is going to be fine. The doc could see the tear from October, but he said its healing and too late for PRP to do much good on it. It feels good, but I am not going to do any more stupid **** until I know its closer to 100%.

The shoulder is not fine. This is the shoulder that had surgery in the late 90s to remove a piece of bone (terrible idea). Its also the shoulder I separated when I was 12 years old. The DM X-ray showed a severe grade 3 - 4 separation. I have a picture of the DMX that shows how far apart the bones are - about 3 fingers wide. Doc said it should not be more than 1 finger wide there.

The ultrasound showed lots of small tears in a few rotator cuff tendons, some tendonosis, some calcification, some excess fluid in the joint, and evidence of work cartilage. Doc friend can do a lot of good for this stuff with PRP, maybe stem cells and some fancy needle work on the tendonosis and calcification.

The DMX doc also looked at my neck. It looked much better than the last time I saw him, in Aug 2017 before my first PRP/stem cell procedure. Half the joints are almost normal. C5 is loose. C1/C2 is still a mess - that is the root cause of the muscle issues in the shoulder and upper back. Doc friend can do a lot of good on the neck as well.

Regenerative injection procedure is scheduled for Jan 5. I might have to sleep in a recliner for a week or two. It will take about 6 months to get the full effects of the injections.

No heavy benching for me for a while. After about 6 weeks, I will start pressing 1 or 2 lb DBs. DLs will come back to normal quicker. I should be able to compete DL only at APF nationals next June as long as I DL with excellent shoulder position 100% of the time. That's around the time when I ought to be able to start benching heavier, but I wont be in shape to bench at nationals.

Doc says its incredible that I pressed 633 with this shoulder, because of the lack of supporting bone structure (stupid surgery in the late 90s) and the big mess that happened afterwards, and there aren't a whole lot of people who could have benched that much with this shoulder, so at least I have that going for me, which is nice.

I have picture of the DMXray, but I dont know how to get it to display here anymore since tinypic was discontinued. Can anyone walk me through the best way to do that?

I am very sorry to hear that Cha. I wish you a speedy and complete recovery. I know it will be tough not being ready to bench at nationals.

I use imgur.com for images I post here.

Also, one thing I like about the sling shot is that is pulls the shoulder joint in tighter. My shoulders have a lot of miles on them, so to speak, and the sling shot has been good for that.

Thanks Rich!

I have a Titan Ram and people I lift with have slingshots & other similar stuff I can use later, but for the next couple months, it will be nothing, then ~1-2 lb DBs. When I get back to benching, its going to be all about reducing range of motion for a while, so high board work till I am 100%.

https://i.imgur.com/7RfbfS0.png