Thanks guys.
Early weigh in to see where I’m at…198.5. Gotta ditch .1 lbs in 5 hours…cake!
Can’t wait to eat!
197.6
Let the feasting begin!
[quote]inkaddict wrote:
197.6
Let the feasting begin![/quote]
I fully expect pictures of this feast!
your fans are waiting! 
I expect nothing short of this. 
Can’t wait to hear how it went…!
Ink’s power is well over 9000 at this point.
[quote]Ct. Rockula wrote:
Ink’s power is well over 9000 at this point.[/quote]
At least.
Remember what I said… “smash the weights with enough force to destroy the other half of Japan!”
“Want some? Get Some! You’re bad enough to take some!”
I don’t want to steal his thunder so I hope he doesn’t mind…
Got an email from him saying he went 7 for 9. All whites on all squats, opener bench, and all deads. Total 901.5.
I’m sure he’ll recap all his waiting fans tomorrow.
[quote]Court wrote:
I don’t want to steal his thunder so I hope he doesn’t mind…
Got an email from him saying he went 7 for 9. All whites on all squats, opener bench, and all deads. Total 901.5.
I’m sure he’ll recap all his waiting fans tomorrow.[/quote]
hell yeah!
sweeeet!
Can’t wait to hear about it!
thanks Court
Holy crap 901 as your starting point is just freakin awesome! most jealous I am.
now come here and tell us how it went.
Alright kids, I’m back. Yes I told Court the rough details (with a minor miscalculation), but allow me to give the breakdown.
(PS, N your picture rendition of how my feast was…was fairly accurate. Sorry I didn’t take any pictures, I was too hungry! I ate a huge burger, sweet potato fries, a gigantic plate of nachos, 3/4 of my wife’s flatbread, and finished off my daughter’s quesadilla. My weight increased by 7lbs after that feast, woke up only 2lbs heavier the next morning, so my body needed it!)
First off, I want to say how awesome this was. I couldn’t have imagined a better first meet to attend. It was so low key, and laid back that it really put me and the other first meet lifters (which there were several), at ease. I got there early, kinda hung out for a while until they told us where the weight room and tech meeting were to be held. Things ran a little long, but my warmups went well, and I was off and waiting to lift. I was the first lifter, in the first flight. Great, meet virgin here, first squatter…no pressure, right?! There was a long delay in getting things set up to squat since they did the “Strict Curl” first (Lame, but whatever, these guys loved it) so I almost ran back to re-hit my last warmup, but didn’t.
Bar was loaded with 235 lbs (everything was in kilos, so I’ll just use the nearest “normal” weight), so I locked down my lever belt, grabbed the bar, unracked and backed up, gave the head ref a little nod when I thought I was ready, and he gave me the “squat” command. To say I was really nervous was a HUGE understatement. I took my breath in while I was dropping down (rather than deep breath, abs out, THEN down) but I dropped fast, and shot up alright, felt a little unstable but still felt decent. “RACK” done. 3 whites. Fuck you, nerves, fuck you in your face.
When I checked the video afterwards, I noticed the crowd was cheering and clapping. Guess what? I heard none of it on the platform! Totally zoned in.
Calmed down a lot for my second attempt, 260, but this time I was rushed on my “squat” command, so I took a few breaths before going, which wasn’t normal for me. Regardless, nailed it. 3 whites again. Thinking “Hey, I’m doing alright!”
Third attempt, figured I didn’t want to set a PR here, just push it and still get my white lights. 281 loaded, belt tight, back chalked, bring it. Unrack was good, setup was good, depth felt good, but felt heavy on the lift. Slowed down a lot, but didn’t stop or go down, LWI like a champ, rack, 3 whites.
3/3 on squats, felt awesome. Don’t know that I could have got the next weight up on that last attempt, but hey it felt good not to get redlighted. Had my wife try to get vids from the floor, but there was a lot going on, so she made it up to the stands for the 3rd attempt. So without further ado…
Bench warmups were good, everything felt light and easy. Opener was 220, although I debated going lower just to make sure I hit it, but fuck it. Again, I was the first lifter of the first flight, yay.
Bar loaded, sat down, got set, unracked it and lowered the bar (there’s no start command in 100% Raw, currently) waited for the press command, locked it out, easy breezy. Wife missed the unrack but got the press. Oops. 3 whites. Awesome.
Second attempt, I tried for 250. Why I didn’t take a smaller jump, I don’t know I guess it just felt like it’d be easy. Well, not so much. Got set up, arched hard and felt great until I took the hand off and it got all wobbly, and wouldn’t settle. I don’t like just unracking and dropping it, so I tried to get it under control. Then it lowered, and when I started to press (after the command) it got crazy, I totally broke my form to shit, ass started to rise, couldn’t lift it. 3 reds. Fuck. BUT…when I walked off the platform, the side ref (in the white shirt) told me that I’ve got to change my style. He told me straight to my face, right after that attempt, that the style I was using “fucking sucks, the weight was carried down to your scapulas and the second you try and press with the weight that far down, your ass comes up and you’re fucked. You gotta change that shit now. I’ve been benching for years, and that’s gotta change right now.”
“Shit, alright thanks” I said, and walked off to think “wtf do I do now?!” Well, the only thing I could think of was “lose the arch”, so on my third attempt at the same weight, I did just that. I stayed pretty flat, other than a slight arching in my low back caused by my keeping tight. Unracked it, and the weight instantly felt solid. Lowered it fine, after “press” I got it moving, about 1/2 way up and just pushed as hard as I could but wasn’t going to happen. That’s alright, I learned something, and will use it. Afterwards, the ref told me that was infinitely better. “Now you’ve got the technique, just work on the strength” That felt awesome to hear. So I was stuck with my opener on bench, but hey…I got my opener.
Bring on some mother fucking deadlifts. (Beast mode, engaged. My wife was like “why is your t-shirt over your singlet now?” I said “Gotta go Beast Mode babe” and she rolled her eyes. Haha) Again, warmups were easy, and this time I wasn’t lifting 1st in my flight. Finally, a chance to beat somebody, haha. I was third. The guy before my opened at 150kg’s, so I was alright with taking an “easy” 152.5 (336lbs) I just wanted some white lights, after missing 2 bench attempts. Jeff, the second lifter (also his first meet, doing the push/pull), went and hit his opener, so they through on 5 more lbs and I was up. Walked up to the bar, chalky hands…tight belt…deep breath…grabbed the bar and holy shit…this bar was awesome. The knurling was deep as hell, it wasn’t fat amd smooth, it was small and rough. When I pulled on it, it bent a little, which helped the weight pop off the floor. Cool. Locked it out like it was nothin, “DOWN”, done. 2 whites and a red for apparently my socks…but the head judge told me it’s 3 whites and I’m fine. Sweet.
Second attempt, I was at the head table with Jeff, and I looked for what he put down, so I could go a little more than him again. I honestly don’t recall what I picked, I think it was like 370 to his 365 or something, whatever, I just felt like I was in competition mode. Grabbed it, ripped it, LWI, down. 3 whites. Easy, but now I wasn’t sure if I should make a huge jump for a PR, or just be safe and get 3 whites again. I thought about my shitty bench, and my squat totals, that thought I was right around 500, so if I broke 400 that’d put me OVER 900, which I wanted at this point. Fine, 402.2 I think I could hit, and it’d be enough. Also, about 20lbs over Jeff’s third, which felt good just to try for, haha. Bar loaded, belt tight, deep breath, bar in hand, exhale and inhale again, and PULL. LWI in NO TIME. That was easy as shit, and felt better than my first and second attempts. Down. 3 whites again. Awesome, but damnit…I should have gone for more. I think I could have pulled 420. Was pissed about that actually, but my wife told me that I can do that next time. “Next time.” Damn right next time, I’m fucking HOOKED!
So in the end, my total is 903.4, and that’s cool with me. I had a great experience, learned how to fix my bench from a pro, know that I can kill it with a proper deadlift bar, and even made friends with a guy that trains at a gym about 30 minutes from me (was also his first meet, and a 242 guy who did awesome and set a state record DL), and I told him I’ll hit him up next time I break out the Prowler. Haha. Oh, and guess who won the 25-29 198# class? Me. How many other 25-29’s were there? 0. Haha, fuck yeah, I got a trophy!
Sore today, nothing unreasonable though. Just chillin at work, relaxing and recovering. Looking forward to training my bench properly, and working on my squat a lot also. I think if I can bring my squat up, my DL will come up naturally as well. Next meet though, no kids. My wife was dealing with those munchkins the whole time, and they were crazy. Bad sleep the night before, just really rough times made it hell on her when she was trying to help me out. So she said no more kids at meets for at least 5 years. Haha. OH! And she said that should thinks she could maybe get into PL, but she’s not sure about lifting in front of a crowd. I can work with that!
Thanks for your support and well wishes, competing feels great and I encourage everything to try it out. I’ll work on editing all the lifts into 1 vid, just for lulz.
LWI
Congratulations brother
Kickass writeup and video work!
You destroyed those deads. What was the deal with the socks?
congratulations playboy! Those DL’s looked light as hell, you smashed em. Beast mode fa show!
You looked like a boss in that singlet. Thats a good look for you.
First meet, First win. Winner Winner Chicken Dinner.
Inky for Pres 2012!!!
Congrats.wtg… happy dance \m/\m/
yep, singlet was hawt.
So no brightly colored speedos next year? remember our little secret??
Thats ok…I was going to go for my first PL meet anyway 
Here’s all the lifts in 1 vid, just 'cuz.
Thanks Dixie, it was awesome.
Racer, thanks bro, they thought the socks weren’t high enough, but they were. Whatever. Hey, if you’re still finding yourself stronger without an arch than with, when benching…drop the arch and keep the weight over your upper back. Trust me!
Thanks Greg, looking at the vid and stuff, i wish my 3rd DL was my second, and I could have tried a 425 for 3rd and set a 15lb PR. That’s alright…it’ll just look more badass at my next meet when I pull over 9000.
Sporting my meet T-shirt today, my employees are impressed