Posted quick and dirty of meet yesterday, but bottom line is i smoked my opener of 530 then had two misses at 600. Second attempt had shirt really jacked-pulled down as slow as a closed back shirt can be and sleeves turned inward around forearms-but jacking the shirt narrows the margin of error. Literally you can imagine a “bubble” with the touch spot at the top. if the bubble is flat you can touch in a wider band, and if the bubble is steep the touch point is narrower and the fall off is high if you miss the touch point. i missed it low and when i got the press command i popped it off my chest but my hands were below my elbows and it dumped onto my stomach.
The good part was it did not feel heavy in my hands and it also recaged my head. All week i was worried about a tweak in my right shoulder and tricep, specifically that i would tear the tricep. This was a real concern for me more than my normal meet week reintroduction to all of my previous injuries. A few weeks ago i felt a weird twitch in my right tricep while locking out a heavy bench and mixed with a lot of rotator related radiated pain from throwing too much batting practice early this spring-my son is hitting the cover off the ball so it was worth it btw-i was considering pulling out even as i warmed up. With an upcoming move, new job, and an great opportunity to train in a new aircraft coming up an injury was very risky and couldn’t be at a worse time.
i decided to go because i was 80% convinced it was just radiated pain from scap, rotator, and teres issues and willed myself to focus, but had the injury spectre far in the back of my mind on my first two attempts. Third attempt i knew i was not going to get tear anything, so i just didn’t pull the shirt down as much, focused on keeping my chest up, and keeping my elbows under my hands as i touched. i popped the bar off the chest at the press command and used leg drive to drive through the sticking point, but then it stopped a few inches from lockout.
i rolled my elbows up a bit and leg drove as hard as i could , but it was not there. Somebody once wrote or said that it is rare for a powerlifter to ever say they missed a lift because they weren’t strong enough, it is always equipment, judging, or technique. Well in my case i wasn’t strong enough yesterday to lock out 600. i did everything right on my third attempt but it wasn’t there…yesterday. Lockout is my weakness, and a chaotic training cycle where i changed my target meet plan three times due to meets and my schedule changing quickly, lack of any workouts where i went over 90% of my target weight again because of schedule and lack of quality liftoff folks, and a focus more on prehab/rehab of my tricep than heavy lockouts left me 2 inches from my goal.
i made the decision to up the volume of 80-90% work in the shirt for three consecutive weeks to get to an overtrained state vice my normal every other week shirted approach, and was hoping the supercompensation of a good two week taper would let me sneak 600 through to lockout. Again, just two inches from pulling it off.
Not sure of next meet but this summer will focus on taking care of my family as we move, my new job, and will focus on GPP and lots of raw close grips and raw baord work. The only thing i will do really heavy is deadlift, but my training is not going to be as scheduled as that will be impossible.
i will bench press 600.
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