skwatz
worked up to a 475 single. felt really good. tough but not a real grinder. Dropped the weight after that and did reps at 405, 365, and 315.
deadlift on Saturday.
I got less aggressive with my approach, filled my air earlier, and improved my technique. Got 545 for 2 singles. Feel like I made some real progress here. This wasn’t a PR, but it matches where I was before.
This is a tedx talk a friend of mine gave at SMU recently. He was a fraternity brother, and we’ve kept up with each other over the years since then. He’s been someone who has encouraged me to share my own story, which I have done in part in several threads throughout this site, including my training log. I feel like this video is very relevant to the interests of the members of this site, and I hope you guys can get something out of this. It’s about the problems with how masculinity is defined and often perceived in our society/culture, and how a paradigm shift is necessary for our own benefit.
[quote]flipcollar wrote:
This is a tedx talk a friend of mine gave at SMU recently. He was a fraternity brother, and we’ve kept up with each other over the years since then. He’s been someone who has encouraged me to share my own story, which I have done in part in several threads throughout this site, including my training log. I feel like this video is very relevant to the interests of the members of this site, and I hope you guys can get something out of this. It’s about the problems with how masculinity is defined and often perceived in our society/culture, and how a paradigm shift is necessary for our own benefit.[/quote]
Nice video and great job by your friend. Introspection and honest evaluation are very important for growth. Thanks for sharing.
bench press last night. PR
worked up to 315x4, 2 rep PR. I had intended to try for 3, but after I started the set, I knew I had 4 in me. Feeling really good about these. Followed it up with sets of 3 at 295.
pullups and dips followed.
Everything is feeling good right now.
Progress? I think so.
Posted on 4/24/2015
[quote]flipcollar wrote:
skwatz
worked up to a 475 single. felt really good. tough but not a real grinder.
[/quote]
Posted three years prior…
[quote]flipcollar wrote:
squat: 335
[/quote]
Nice job brother, you’ve been killing it!
[quote]Alpha wrote:
Nice job brother, you’ve been killing it![/quote]
Dude, thanks for stopping in! And I really appreciate that. I can’t imagine being at your level of conditioning and strength. Every single workout you post absolutely blows me away.
Squat PR last night. Hit my first 5 plate squat!! (495).
I missed this weight a couple weeks ago, so I was very glad I hit it. I didn’t go to the depth I normally do because I got a bit nervous I think, and my back spotter said I came up just short of parallel, but a guy to my side said I did break parallel. My guess is, it was right on the edge. Good enough for a training rep, but that tells me I need to be conscious of this in competition.
After I hit that rep, I did a set of 20 at 225. Then moved on to pull ups, then lateral raises. That was all I had time for.
Bodyweight this morning was 189. So still well within range of a 181 weigh in.
[quote]flipcollar wrote:
Squat PR last night. Hit my first 5 plate squat!! (495).[/quote]
Congratulations
[quote]LoRez wrote:
[quote]flipcollar wrote:
Squat PR last night. Hit my first 5 plate squat!! (495).[/quote]
Congratulations[/quote]
Thank ya. It’s looking like a 1400+ total for my first meet is all but a certainty at this point. I’ll be very ok with 1400 if I end up in the 181 class, but I’ll expect something more along the lines of 1450 if I move up to 198. Meet is in 5 weeks.
[quote]flipcollar wrote:
[quote]LoRez wrote:
[quote]flipcollar wrote:
Squat PR last night. Hit my first 5 plate squat!! (495).[/quote]
Congratulations[/quote]
Thank ya. It’s looking like a 1400+ total for my first meet is all but a certainty at this point. I’ll be very ok with 1400 if I end up in the 181 class, but I’ll expect something more along the lines of 1450 if I move up to 198. Meet is in 5 weeks.[/quote]
JMO, but I think you should go big. I don’t really see the point of cutting for a meet unless it’s specifically to qualify for a larger meet or competing to win a title of some prestige. But if you’re just a guy showing up to post a good total, why not stay up in the higher class and see how much you can do?
(Flip side: there is probably some benefit to executing a water cut to make weight if you plan to grow a bit more and one day be a walk-around-at-210-and-cut-to-198 guy, which I suspect you will have to do to compete at the level you are capable of)
Well, fwiw a 1400 total, last time I checked, would put me in the top 50 lifters on powerliftingwatch at the 181 weight class, and it wouldn’t in the 198’s. So there’s at least something to be gained by making that weight. That’s kinda why I would feel better about going 198 if my lifts get up to a 1450 total.
Also, I’m not currently doing anything to keep my weight down. I’ve added a candy bar, 2 regular sodas, and a bag of chips to my daily calories just to try to put on a little bit of weight, but I’m still hovering around 190. My strength is consistently going up, so I have no complaints at this point. Obviously if I want to push top 20 or top 10 numbers in a weight class, I couldn’t do it at 181, unless I started doing massive water cuts. I just don’t really have a shot at that for this meet.
^Congrats on the PR. It looks like you’ll be hitting a 3x BW squat soon! That would be awesome to get into the top 50 too.
[quote]lift206 wrote:
^Congrats on the PR. It looks like you’ll be hitting a 3x BW squat soon! That would be awesome to get into the top 50 too.[/quote]
I did recently hit the 3x bw deadlift. That was pretty wild. But I think I’ll reach the 2x bench press before 3x squat. Bench press is realllly close.
Normally, I advocate against weight cutting on the first meet, but you’re walking around right at where I did when I used to make easy cuts to 181, and it’s pretty cool when you get your name on the top 50. I think it would be a good choice.
[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
Normally, I advocate against weight cutting on the first meet, but you’re walking around right at where I did when I used to make easy cuts to 181, and it’s pretty cool when you get your name on the top 50. I think it would be a good choice.[/quote]
I appreciate the advice. I did make a weight cut last year at this time from a similar weight down to 175 for a strongman comp, so I’ve at least done it once before, and I have an idea of how my body handles it. I told myself that my cut off was a morning weight of 193. If I reach that, I won’t do a weight cut. Anything below that is easy enough.
I don’t mean anything by it besides curiosity, but why are you only just entering your first powerlifting meet now?
It’s always seemed you’ve trained predominately in the powerlifting direction, rather than strongman, so it surprises me a bit you went with the strongman competition first.
[quote]LoRez wrote:
I don’t mean anything by it besides curiosity, but why are you only just entering your first powerlifting meet now?
It’s always seemed you’ve trained predominately in the powerlifting direction, rather than strongman, so it surprises me a bit you went with the strongman competition first.[/quote]
Well, last year I had initially intended to do a PL meet instead, on the same date. It just so happened that the Strongman meet was happening, and I put it to a vote amongst my friends. They said Strongman would be much more fun to watch. So I did that. And you’re right, I was not remotely trained for the strongman comp, it was just a lot of fun. I would have liked to have done a PL meet following the strongman, but my wife was 7 months pregnant at that time. And then baby happened. This is my first opportunity in the last year to compete. So no offense taken, your observation is 100% correct. I should fare much better in this meet than I did a year ago doing strongman.
I learned something yesterday. I am not yet capable of a 365 bench press.
Worked up to a really good 345 with a pause, kept my ass on the bench and whatnot. Tried 365, and failed. Sadtimes. I was close enough that it should go down by the time I get to my meet. Finished with some lighter sets of 5, then pull ups.
I did hit a bodyweight milestone. I got home from the gym and weighed 198.7. Decided I wanted to see 200 on the scale for the first time. So I drank 3 glasses of milk and weighed 200.4! I had listed that as a goal at one point, so I figured it was worth mentioning here. It’s not great timing right now since I’d prefer to make the 181 weight class, but I woke up this morning at 193. So still within range, with 4 1/2 weeks to go. I don’t think I have time to put on enough strength to justify moving up to the 198 class, so I think I’ll just try to maintain this weight for the next month.