Deadlift: from one plate to hit pins below knee, then isometric - built to 3 x 150kg, 3 x 160kg, 2 x 3 x 170kg
Then: from one plate to hit pins above knee, then isometric - 3 or 4 sets of 2 with 170kg
Then: 3 x 170kg without pins / isometric
[EDIT: all beltless]
Bench from Pins (on chest): 3 x 70kg, 3 x 120kg, 3 x 130kg, 2 x 140kg, 1 x 150kg, 3 x 140kg
I’m doing everything in my power to hit decent numbers on Sunday, and I’ll fight till I’ve hit 1300lbs+ or fallen. Basically, it’s down to the knee - it is slightly better, but with the time left I’m not going to be anywhere close to 100%… I just hope my total is close enough to 100% to count as a victory. GAME ON, NOT OVER.
[quote]lift206 wrote:
Sucks to hear about the knee. Good luck on Sunday![/quote]
Thank you for the support! I’ve done some bodyweight squats onto a box + foam today pain free, but it’s still affecting me when I walk at a normal pace. Cissus etc. and rest are where my hopes lie; if I can hit 200-210kg SQ and deadlift within 5kg or so of my best I’ll be happy, but we’ll have to see.
22nd
Pullup: one set of 8, paused, while waiting for the bench.
Bench: w/u with 8x60kg, 4x100kg; 5 x 2 x 140kg (comp. pause on each rep)
Lat. Pulldown: cluster dropset, from 9 x 102kg down to 75kg wide-grip for 11
Seated Machine Row: 11, 8, 8, x 85kg
Stat. Bike: 6 mins on very high resistance, slow and controlled throughout
Bench felt strong and comfortable, unracked myself. Light back work as an extra, and then cycling which felt great considering my knee - no pain at all with this, so I think there’s some hope left! And so it continues…
Bench: w/u with 8x60kg, 4x100kg; 2 x 140kg, 2 x 2 x 145kg (all with pause + commands), 5 x 130kg
Seated Machine Row: 10 x 75kg, 5 x 105kg, 5 x 125kg, 4 x 135kg, 8 x 95kg
Pull-through: 11, 7, 9, x full stack (close stance, almost stiff-legged with rounded back to work hamstrings + lower back without knee pain)
More work. Knee not much better, but I’m hoping I’ll “pull through” as I did today lol! #LaughOrCry
Any tips on competing with a mild MCL strain, fire away… At least I can squat pain-free with my bodyweight, but I have to push my knees out hard so they don’t come in at all (that would stress it too much, as you can probably imagine).
I know you can squat around some ligament stuff by adjusting your foot placement. I have a partial LCL tear in my left knee, and for that, moving to a wider squat stance allowed me to squat without any pain at all. I’d suggest playing around with your stance with moderate weight. Of course, coming up to a competition, you don’t have time for experimentation, so pushing your knees out and just focusing on that is probably your best bet.
This comment isn’t going to be very helpful but I just wanted to remind you to making a rational decision vs an emotional one. It seems like you are doing what you can to make the best of Sunday but you should make a judgement call on Sunday whether to really go all out for the PR or not. It would be disappointing to have an injury set you back. I’m definitely not discouraging you from continuing to push to see if it’ll work out though. Like you it would be highly likely for me to go for it as well but from the outside looking in, if it’s not an actual competition with records on the line then taking the risk may not be worth it. I hope you end up feeling great though. Best of luck and hopefully recovery speeds up.
OTHSteve: Thanks, yes I think just being careful with my stance is my best bet, I’ll try it out with a plate a side tomorrow if my knee feels decent and see what’s most comfortable.
lift206: I’m certainly not going for squat PRs, that’s for sure; we’ll see about the deadlift, I should hit a meet PR but likely not all-time, and I should hit at least a meet PR on bench. My concern is qualifying for National and Commonwealth championships in Nov. and Dec., not setting records (for now), so I’ll have to keep my priorities in mind when it comes to choosing attempts, but obviously I have to exceed qualifying totals etc. so there’s some pressure added.
I’m currently resting. I might hit a few paused bench singles later and more BW squats, but nothing major. Knee feeling better but not close to fully healed - basically, it’s a 3 week injury being given 10-11 days. Considering: SQ 190-200 / BE 155-160 / DL 220-230 if I can deadlift reasonably well.
Occluded Legs: mixture of bodyweight and dumbbell exercises focusing on quads and hamstrings with high TuT and pump - all single leg, injured leg with lower intensity of course
Squats to box + foam cushion: around 30-50 reps at BW then a set of 10 goblet squats with a 20kg DB
Some light work to keep my legs going. I focused on pushing my knees out on the descent and there was no pain. Still not very good knee-wise, but I expect I’ll be able to compete.
Squat: 5 x Bar, 3 x 60kg, 2 x 100kg, 2 x 120kg, 1 x 140kg
Stat. Bike: 7 mins
Light squats to assess my situation for tomorrow. The knee felt worse the harder I pushed, but wasn’t painful, it just threw me off and felt like it was pulling slightly. I’m not sure what will happen tomorrow, but I’m determined to total and qualify. The injury is feeling better in general today, and no worse after squats.
Welsh Powerlifting Association (IPF) Regional Championships:
Squat:
190kg
200kg
N/A
Bench:
140kg
150kg
160kg (Paused PR, 353lbs)
Deadlift:
220kg
230kg
235kg (=PR, 518lbs)
Total: 595kg (1312lbs)
Well, my knee held and I got two squats on the board, so I think I have to be satisfied with that given the circumstances. Bench attempts all flew up, great improvement here, and deadlift was pretty smooth too. Overall a very strong performance given that I couldn’t walk much just a few days ago. Plenty to build on for the British Classic in October.
Just resting today. My knee is slightly worse after yesterday but not much, still better than it was a week ago. I’ll train upper body normally this week and ease into some light leg training. I’m very pleased with my performance yesterday, and happy to say that I achieved the goals I set after the injury (1300lbs+ total, bench PR, qualification, etc.) - still progressing overall, so I have to say training has been going well.
Just resting today. My knee is slightly worse after yesterday but not much, still better than it was a week ago. I’ll train upper body normally this week and ease into some light leg training. I’m very pleased with my performance yesterday, and happy to say that I achieved the goals I set after the injury (1300lbs+ total, bench PR, qualification, etc.) - still progressing overall, so I have to say training has been going well. [/quote]
Bench: w/u with 10x60kg, 5x100kg; 5 x 130kg, 4 x 132.5kg, 3 x 135kg, 3 x 140kg, 2 x 145kg
Lat. Pulldown: 9 x 80kg, 8 x 90kg, 6 x 100kg, 20 x 60kg
Plate-Loaded Row: 6 x 60kg, 6 x 100kg, 6 x 130kg, 6 x 130kg
Deadlift from a Deficit: ramped to 3 x 3 x 160kg, 7 x 3 x 140kg
Lateral Raise Variations: sets of 6-10 with 12.5-15kg DBs
Good work today. I used the deficit deadlifts to work my legs a bit more, as my knee isn’t back to full health yet and I don’t want to risk squatting until it’s more comfortable. Feeling strong.
Just resting today. My knee is slightly worse after yesterday but not much, still better than it was a week ago. I’ll train upper body normally this week and ease into some light leg training. I’m very pleased with my performance yesterday, and happy to say that I achieved the goals I set after the injury (1300lbs+ total, bench PR, qualification, etc.) - still progressing overall, so I have to say training has been going well. [/quote]
Nice work. Glad things went well.[/quote]
Thanks. It was a massive relief to get 2 squats in.
Leg Extension (single-leg): 20 each leg x 35kg, 20 e/l x 45kg, 15 e/l x 55kg, 10 e/l x 65kg, failure e/l x 45kg
Happy to be able to hit the leg extensions without knee pain, and deadlifts were tough but certainly productive. Good session. I’ll let the knee heal without squats until it feels relatively normal, as there’s no need to rush or force it after competing.
Spidey22: Thanks - I expect the knee will be fully recovered in a couple of weeks, not too bad really. Exciting deadlift progress too at the moment, so plenty of positives!
1st August
Deadlift: ramped up with doubles and triples to 1 x 200kg (beltless) and 1 x 210kg (belted), then 3 x 2 x 160kg + chains, then 3 x 2 x 180kg (beltless)
Seated Machine Row: 6 x 105kg, 5 x 105kg, 5 x 105kg, 5 x 105kg, 8 x 95kg
SS with
Leg Extension: 20 x 105kg, 15 x 105kg, 15 x 105kg, 15 x 105kg, 10 x 115kg
Pretty solid session, good work rate and intensity. Nice to be able to train my legs properly, even if I can’t squat yet.
Incline Bench: 8 x 60kg, 6 x 90kg, 2, 5, 4, 4, x 100kg, 6 x 90kg
Snatch-Grip Deadlift (beltless): 3 x 80kg, 3 x 120kg, 3 x 140kg, 2 x 2 x 150kg, 2 x 2 x 155kg, 3 x 2 x 120kg
Leg Curls: 4 x 10 with left leg, right leg following on last sets but not taking much load
Leg Extensions: 20 x 125kg, 15 x 135kg, 15 x 115kg, 15 x 105kg
Annoyingly, traffic due to a road closure on the way to the gym lost me nearly an hour of time, leaving me with about 45 mins to train. I had planned to train bench, but the standard bench was taken so I thought I’d try incline (I’d never done it before). I got some easy sets in and moved on to the SGDLs, building to top sets with the most I could manage without taking more than 1-2 mins rest or using a belt / straps (not that I have straps; I’ve never found a use for them before). These felt decent enough, and I finished with rehab-mode leg curls and full-on leg extensions.
Deadlift: w/u with 3x70kg, 3x110kg, 3x140kg; 2 x 180kg, 2 x 200kg (add belt), 2 x 2 x 210kg (paused and reset between reps), 2 x 200kg
Superset w/
OHP: 4 x 3 x 70kg (easy sets for practice)
Bench: w/u with 8x60kg, 5x100kg; 5 x 130kg, 4 x 135kg, 3 x 140kg, 2(+1assisted) x 145kg, 6 x 115kg
Seated Machine Row: (overhand high grip) 2 x 8 x 85kg, (neutral grip) 2 x 8 x 105kg
Stat. Bike: 3 x 45 sec. sprint @ highest level of resistance, 30 sec. rest between sets
Very nice session. My knee is feeling better today; I can walk normally and it’s far more comfortable otherwise as well. I had help on the third bench rep of 145kg, not sure if I needed it but the bar was bent so that threw me off a bit. Feeling strong in general with this daily deadlifting.
Deadlift: 2x110kg, 2x140kg; 2 x 180kg, 1 x 200kg, 1 x 210kg (belt added), 1 x 220kg,
Then SS with no rest:- DL 5 x 1 x 180kg / strict OHP 5, 4, 4, 4, 4, x 60kg
Then SS with no rest:- SGDL 1 x 140kg, 2 x 2 x 110kg / strict OHP 4 x 2 x 80kg
Leg Press: w/u to 4 plates per side; 15 x 4 pps, 12 x 5 pps, 2 x 12 x 6 pps, 18 x 4 pps
Leg Extension: 15 x 105kg, 3 x 15 x 115kg
Great session again. Deadlifts felt good despite (or perhaps due to) daily training this week, and I found I was able to leg press without any knee pain. Very fast pace on the continuous work supersets, and strict presses felt strong.