I hope you beat this guy’s ass lol I’m pumped for this
I finally grew a set of nuts. I am so sick of lifting baby weight that I stepped up to the frozen plate tonight and deadlifted 370! It is a 40 lb PR. I have no idea how I did it.
So now I am at
160 Military
370 deadlift
testing bench wednesday
testing squat saturday
I called the local powerlifting gym and talked to the owner about my competition. The owner wants to see this meet so bad he told me we could have the meet at his gym and he would ref it for free. I am not even a member of the gym. I have another ref friend that is going to come over Saturday to check my squat depth. He is also in for the meet. I need to get one more ref and this meet will be legit. It started as me being sick of being weak and now it is bodybuilding vs. powerlifting epic battle. I am going to take all of your advice to heart and work my butt off so I dont let anyone down.
I told nemesis about the WILKS score. I told him this is what we are doing. I think he will go along. According to our weight differences if he squats 500 I have to squat 453 to beat him. I think it is a more fair system. I told him if he doesn’t use the WILKS score than he needs to cut to 198 where I will be.
If we use the WILKS score will it still be advantageous to go on the GOMAD diet and gain 20 pounds? I started it today.
Below is my 350 and 370 deadlift. I really like the 350 deadlift because my shoulders stay more behind the bar. That is the first time they have not drifted real far in front. I want to recreate that more
370 deadlift 40 lb PR!
And a picture of the “Tower of Power”
[quote]Max8950 wrote:
If we use the WILKS score will it still be advantageous to go on the GOMAD diet and gain 20 pounds? I started it today.
[/quote]
NO x 1000. Unless you’re planning to cut some fat before the meet. If you choose to cut fat before the meet, be careful and take it slow, so you can still make some strength gains. I probably wouldn’t do GOMAD now in the interest of not getting too messy. Wilks is relative to BW, so holding extra fat is going to have much more of an effect on your BW than your lifts and lower your Wilks.
EDIT: Also, looks like a solid rack!
That rack is awesome. I dont know why but any equipment made from lumber looks amazing to me. Friends of mine started making Strongman Stuff out of wood and it looks insanely awesome… That is all carry on.
I am going to retest my bench today and retest squat on saturday. I am reading 5/3/1 for powerlifting.
My concerns and areas I need help/advice:
-
My back is holding me back. Two days after setting a deadlift PR my hammies are fine but my spinal erectors are on fire. Do you think my back is weak or my hammies are weak and that is why the back is taking over?
-
My squat is not where I want it to be. I have rounding at the bottom of the squat. I have been stretching the hip flexors and sitting in a low squat position for 30 seconds or more (no weight). When I sit in a good deep squat position the front of my hip is on fire (in between my waist and quad). Will this get better if I keep dynamic stretching the area?
Doing my mobility work is harder than lifting weights . … I thought it would be the other way around. Lifting weights is fun . . . mobility is not. 157 days left
I feel like my hip flexors are either really tight or weak. When I sit in a low squat poistion .
[quote]Max8950 wrote:
I am going to retest my bench today and retest squat on saturday. I am reading 5/3/1 for powerlifting.
My concerns and areas I need help/advice:
-
My back is holding me back. Two days after setting a deadlift PR my hammies are fine but my spinal erectors are on fire. Do you think my back is weak or my hammies are weak and that is why the back is taking over?
-
My squat is not where I want it to be. I have rounding at the bottom of the squat. I have been stretching the hip flexors and sitting in a low squat position for 30 seconds or more (no weight). When I sit in a good deep squat position the front of my hip is on fire (in between my waist and quad). Will this get better if I keep dynamic stretching the area?
Doing my mobility work is harder than lifting weights . … I thought it would be the other way around. Lifting weights is fun . . . mobility is not. 157 days left
I feel like my hip flexors are either really tight or weak. When I sit in a low squat poistion .[/quote]
I have these same exact problems with squats and deadlifts, I would be interested to hear advice on it
I retested the bench today. I got 235 a new PR. It seems that most people use a wide grip at meets. Do they train mostly wide grip or just do it in the meet?
Any comments on the deadlift or bench videos is always appreciated. I am retesting squat Saturday.
I am sick of having a weak back. Built a Back extension / Reverse Hyper workout bench. What are your thoughts?
[quote]Max8950 wrote:
I am going to retest my bench today and retest squat on saturday. I am reading 5/3/1 for powerlifting.
My concerns and areas I need help/advice:
-
My back is holding me back. Two days after setting a deadlift PR my hammies are fine but my spinal erectors are on fire. Do you think my back is weak or my hammies are weak and that is why the back is taking over?
-
My squat is not where I want it to be. I have rounding at the bottom of the squat. I have been stretching the hip flexors and sitting in a low squat position for 30 seconds or more (no weight). When I sit in a good deep squat position the front of my hip is on fire (in between my waist and quad). Will this get better if I keep dynamic stretching the area?
Doing my mobility work is harder than lifting weights . … I thought it would be the other way around. Lifting weights is fun . . . mobility is not. 157 days left
I feel like my hip flexors are either really tight or weak. When I sit in a low squat poistion .[/quote]
work your traps, glutes, and hamstrings. hammer them hard and with lots of volume. look up the agile 8. that should solve your mobility and form issues.
I retested my squat today. I will upload the video tomorrow. I hit 350 with good depth. My totals are
Military 160
Squat 350
Bench 235
Deadlift 370
I am going to run 3/5/1 with some heavy singles on week one with bench only.
Goal by May 1st meet
Military 185
Squat 410
Bench 275
Deadlift 450
I think if I cut to the low 180’s (drop 10 pounds of fat) in the month leading up to the meet I can beat my nemesis with the wilks scoring. I might be able to beat his total overall if he picks bad attempts or doesn’t hit depth on squat. I am feeling really good about my chances and no matter what happens I am going to get stronger in the process. My wrist is killing me, ice, sleep, tomorrow cook and eat. Monday start lifting again.
Also looking to get some weightlifting shoes.
I think if I can go 9/9 and hit my absolute max weight on my last attempts I will win.
Find a something that works and stick with it until then. Don’t program hop to much, I think it creates stalls . Also losing that much weight will also make you lose strength too… I would say just shoot for 200… its less of a weight drop and you will still be big enough to pull good lifts. If you stick with what you’re doing now and you’re getting strong… keep doing that.
I thought some one would have commented on your deadlift, the reason why your erectors are sore and your hams don’t seem to be doing any of the work is because your starting with your ass way to high. You want to be in between of to low and to high, Bring your feet in really close, inside shoulder width, keep your chest up when you get into position you start your pulls with a rounded back which on maxes happens to everyone but you don’t want to practice bad habits. Also tense the hell out of your legs before you pull and the almighty jaw clench is a good tool to use, just dont grind your teeth. I just started hitting my hams with more curls also you have a sick rack you can always do banded ham curls, but yeah I think alot of people are weak in the hammies cuz the quads do alot of work in the squat and running ect. and people neglect them,
Thanks for all the great advice. Here is my squat at 350. It was a 30 pound PR! I fell back at the end but I was still super pumped. I popped a lot of blood vessels in my face with this lift. It looks like I have razor burn. Good times. Let me know what you think about my technique and depth.
Is this guy the gold standard in deadlifting? My brother is coming over this week to teach me sumo deadlift. This guy is incredible. My brother’s deadlift has increase 50 pounds in 3 months since switching from conventional to sumo.
Stepping backwards/forwards before the rack command on a squat is a DQ, doesn’t matter how big of a PR it is. Send this to the ref/refs for the meet and ask them to comment on depth because theirs is the only opinion that counts on this point.
[quote]Max8950 wrote:
Is this guy the gold standard in deadlifting? My brother is coming over this week to teach me sumo deadlift. This guy is incredible. My brother’s deadlift has increase 50 pounds in 3 months since switching from conventional to sumo. [/quote]
I’ve noticed the best sumo deadlifters have excellent hip mobility. So if your hip mobility is bad sumo might not improve your deads. Watch some of dan green’s Deadlift videos. The external rotation of his hips is something I’ll never be able to do.
My hip mobility sucks and I try to work on it at least a little every day. I squat narrow-medium and Deadlift with a close conventional stance. Luckily I have long arms and short legs for as tall as I am. Terrible levers for squat and bench but good for Deadlift.
If you’re hell bent on sumo then work on the hip mobility. You must become the supple leopard.
I watched the dan green deadlift video when he lifts with mark bell. You can tell a big difference in external hip rotation. It looks like the more you can rotate the hips the closer you can get to the bar and the more upright you stay during the lift. Plus the range of motion is much shorter. I will give it a go this week and let you know my progress.
I haven’t read all the posts, just want to chime in on a couple things, especially, your weak back.
I’m not a competitive powerlifter, but I’m fairly strong, so some of the experience PL guys might have another opinion to offer, but here is something working for me. If you’re going to be training heavy dead lifts all the time, you’re going to have a lower back in recovery mode all the time. I have switched to front squatting almost 100% of the time and I’ve been back pain free for 6 months. As long as you did this prior to the dead lift workout, you should build your legs and your back with get trained via the dead lifts.
In regard to the competition, your attitude and drive is awesome, and I hope you make a ton of great progress, but part of winning is knowing your competition. As some guys said, deadlift will be a 400min for 240lb guy. A true bodybuilder should have know problem hitting depth at 350. Depth won’t be the issue. Does he have a big ass (no homo) that will tell you right out if he does a lot of hip and glute activating work.
Side note… I like your carpentry. I may consider the same.
This guy sounds like a dick, I really hope you kick his ass man!