My ADD Training Log - 2012

I guess some last-minute comp advice is probably in order:

KillIt2.jpg
 
Did you make that flowchart Jaunty? That would look good on a t-shirt.
 
Hi calvus. I hope you had fun at your meet. It feels good to finally get it off our shoulders :D can't wait for your write-up and vids.
 
Did you make that flowchart Jaunty? That would look good on a t-shirt.

Yeah, I did. I am going to have it turned into a t-shirt next time I come through Dubai (I found a place that will print them if you give them a design pretty close to where I normally stay). I did one in reverse colours, too so I can a white t-shirt, too.
 
Good luck tomorrow buddy. WC and I are rootin' for you!

GL man! always fun reading about peoples meet experience

Best of luck, calvus. You're a smart lifter, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if you go nine-for-nine today. I'll be eagerly awaiting hearing your results tonight; I have a feeling you're going to be seeing a lot of white lights today.

good luck man kill it!!!

Hi calvus. I hope you had fun at your meet. It feels good to finally get it off our shoulders :D can't wait for your write-up and vids.

Thanks everyone for the positive thoughts & requests to kill it. I had a great time!

In terms of t-shirts, I think I might get one for myself that just says "kill it." on the front. Understated and to the point. I think the period at the end is important.
 
So you are going to hold us in suspense and not tell us how you did? Lol
 
Meet write-up - Southern California Championships - My first powerlifting meet.

Was really excited today for my 1st powerlifting meet. Results first: I went 7-9 on the day, which I'm pretty happy with, and I set 2 PR's (Bench & Squat). I totaled 1158 and finished 4th out of 8 in the open class and 1st in the 40-44, 220lb class. However I was the only lifter in the 40-44 age bracket :icon_lol:

I found out the day before that my flight wouldn't start until about 3 in the afternoon, so I was able to get some work done around the house in the morning, then I left at about 1:00, hoping to get to the gym nice & early. People always say something will go wrong...so on my way to the gym, there's an unusually high volume of traffic on the freeway, and it turns out that the freeway entrance from the 405 to the 605 is closed for construction today. Of course that is the way for me to get to the gym, so now I had to take the long way around. Good thing I left plenty early. I got to the gym in time to see "The Beanie Lift" by Hatchoo. Dude deadlifted with his hat on, still got 3 whites :-) Nice job, Hatchoo!!

The next challenge was the temperature. It was 102F outside when I got to the gym, the gym is basically a warehouse, with no A/C. They did have some fans going, which certainly helped. But it was HOT.

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The view from inside Metroflex Gym.
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Squats:
Started warming up around 2:35 or so. Warmups went well, I took it slow because the flight in front of me seemed to be running a bit slow and they were still going to do medal presentations for the morning lifters after that flight. I felt pretty good going into the squats & I was really happy that I set my opener nice, easy & low (368 lbs). The judges seemed to be red-lighting a lot of guys for depth, so I tried to take my 1st squat pretty deep & got 3 whites. Felt great! I was on the board! 2nd squat attempt was 408, which was a 3lb PR. Got it as well, but it felt heavy & I struggled a bit. Because that attempt was tough, I decided to go to 190kg (419lb) on the 3rd attempt and it flew up, but I was red-lighted for depth. It was really close, but should have been deeper.

Bench Press:
I really wanted to set a big PR in squat, but didn't get too discouraged because this is my 1st meet & its a learning experience. On to Bench. Bench Press warmups went great - I started when the other flight started their 2nd attempts on squats. My opener was nice & low (258) & I nailed it. The 2nd one (275) was even easier. I went up 5kg for the 3rd (287) and got it, but it was a real grinder. Since I've never done Paused bench before, and I couldn't get 285 paused in the gym a week ago, I'm counting 287 as a Paused Bench PR. My bench needs work, but at least I didn't screw up any of the commands.

My back got tweaked on the left side a bit on my last Bench Press attempt. This has happened to me before on attempts close to a max & I think I've figured out why - its my ankles. I have a really big difference in the ankle mobility between my right & left ankle due multiple basketball injuries years ago. So when I'm on my toes & pressing my heels to the floor for leg drive on a big bench attempt, one heel goes to the floor & the other is a couple of inches above, which leads to my lower body getting a little twisted and there you go - tweaked back. I'm going to start benching with my feet flat - hopefully this will help.

Deadlift:
I was a little concerned about depth on my squat & following commands on the Bench, but deadlift I felt pretty good about. I was sure I was going to PR in deadlift. Who knew that I was not locking my deadlifts out fully in the gym?? This is why doing a meet is a good idea. If I hadn't done a meet, I would have continued to deadlift without a big squeeze at the top, never knowing that it wasn't 100% legal.

ALSO - Funny story here: I was warming up for deadlifts and the bar was sticking to my thighs on the way up because it was like 100 degrees in the gym. So I see people everywhere (and in videos online) with white stuff all over there thighs for deadlifts. I assume this is chalk - seems reasonable to me, since chalk is also white. So I go sit down between warmups sets & start rubbing chalk on my thighs. There's a guy & a girl sitting there, who are both HUGE & the guy says, "Is that pool chalk" - I'm like "Just regular chalk". Then he says "What are you doing??" Then I explain myself & he let's me know that the white stuff that people have on their legs is baby powder, because it's slippery - not chalk, which would have the opposite affect. So I rub the chalk off with my towel (glad I brought it, thank you Douglas Adams). And then the girl (who is evidently a World Record holder, but I don't remember her name :( ) takes me outside & rubs the baby powder on my legs for me. They were both SUPER nice & SUPER helpful & did a great job of not laughing at me too hard.

So my Deadlift opener was 418 and I pulled it really easily. I got 3 whites, but the side judge pulled me over & said I need to make sure I lock my knees. I thought it was an odd comment, so I was just like, "ok". Then on my 2nd attempt, I pulled 462, which also felt nice & easy, but I got red-lighted by both side judges! The guy said I didn't lock my knees. I was really surprised. So I decided to do the same weight again, not go for a PR & really squeeze everything at the top. I pulled 462 again for my 3rd lift, got a big squeeze at the top & got 3 white lights. So I didn't PR in deadlift (Gym PR is 475), but I did learn something.

All in all I feel really good about the entire experience. I started warming up around 2:30, and my flight finished around 7:30. as far as food, I brought a banana, 3 power bars and 2 Peanut Butter & jelly sandwiches. I only ate 1 of the sandwiches, 2 of the power bards & the banana. I drank 6 bottles of water & I pre-mixed a couple of bottles of pre-workout energy crap that I also drank. I got a little tired during the deadlift, but overall my energy was good all day.

So I had fun, learned some stuff, have some specific things to work on and will absolutely do this again.

What I learned:
- I need to keep working on my squat depth.
- My current squat max is well above 407
- I should bench with my feet flat so I can get even drive from both legs.
- I need to work hard on Bench. Its weak.
- Squeeze your ass together at the top of a deadlift.
- Baby powerder on your legs, not chalk
- My deadlift is weak sauce - there's no excuse for me not pulling 500.

VIDEO:
 
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congrats man, sounds like an awesome experience! glad you enjoyed it :)
 
Great job man. I know you've been struggling abit on making depth, so atleast now you know how deep a 3 white lighted squat has to be.
lol, I also taught they rubbed chalk on their thighs.
 
Awesome. Glad you had fun at the meet, it was indeed a great experience.

I also thought those are chalk they put on their thighs. I just found out it was baby powder when i saw one of the lifters apply them :D
 
Awesome write-up Calvus! Had you and Hatchoo ever met before?

Also, that's hilarious about the baby powder. Live and learn!

Congrats on your first powerlifting meet :)
 
Fuck yeah man! Nice lifting! Great write up and insight... Loved the Douglas Adams reference!
 
congrats man, sounds like an awesome experience! glad you enjoyed it :)

I did enjoy it - thanks!

Great job man. I know you've been struggling abit on making depth, so atleast now you know how deep a 3 white lighted squat has to be.
lol, I also taught they rubbed chalk on their thighs.

Lots of guys got red-lighted on depth. The judges were pretty strict, I think. But they were consistent.

Awesome. Glad you had fun at the meet, it was indeed a great experience.

I also thought those are chalk they put on their thighs. I just found out it was baby powder when i saw one of the lifters apply them :D

Glad to know I'm not the only one with the baby powder thing!

Awesome write-up Calvus! Had you and Hatchoo ever met before?

Also, that's hilarious about the baby powder. Live and learn!

Congrats on your first powerlifting meet :)

Thanks & no, we met at weigh-ins, that was it.

Fuck yeah man! Nice lifting! Great write up and insight... Loved the Douglas Adams reference!

Yep! Thanks!:cool:

I just edited the write-up with some additional comments & added the video.
 
From that angle, your squat depth looked good to me. Also, on the 3rd bench attempt, way to stay with it and grind that shit up. About the DL knee lockout thing, I can't really comment as the knees were not visible from that angle, but both 2nd and 3rd attempt looked pretty easy.

Good stuff, man. Congrats!






EDIT: also, wtf was that guy doing behind you and hatchoo in the DL attempts?
 
Good assessment on the bench.
Since moving my feet in and flat against the floor I find far more power from the legs. Although my bench is in trouble at the moment, I have been able to push past weight that I could never reach... nice vid and great job; inspiration to us all!
 
Great job calvus! Lol at the chalk on quads!

Good assessment on the bench.
Since moving my feet in and flat against the floor I find far more power from the legs. Although my bench is in trouble at the moment, I have been able to push past weight that I could never reach... nice vid and great job; inspiration to us all!

Thanks guys!
 
From that angle, your squat depth looked good to me. Also, on the 3rd bench attempt, way to stay with it and grind that shit up. About the DL knee lockout thing, I can't really comment as the knees were not visible from that angle, but both 2nd and 3rd attempt looked pretty easy.

Good stuff, man. Congrats!






EDIT: also, wtf was that guy doing behind you and hatchoo in the DL attempts?

I think the guy behind is there in case we start falling backward...

And yeah, the squat was REALLY close. Here's another angle:

squat-high2.jpg
 
Nice Calvus, especially for a first meet, I would say that 3rd squat looked good, photo seals it
 
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