Whiskey, War, Suicide, and Guns
- Thread starter Donut62
- Start date
Donut62
Black Belt
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2006
- Messages
- 5,253
- Reaction score
- 0
3/29/08 - The Battle of the Great Lakes Ohio Region USAPL Meet
So I wake up on a perfectly good Saturday morning at 5am, and drive 1.5 hours to Cleveland, Ohio, to lose my powerlifting virginity. I check in, have my gear checked and approved, and then weigh in at a svelete 213.5 pounds. Note to self, the scale at home sucks and is off by about 6 pounds.
The place was pretty packed with lifters, about 80 or 90 in all, and unfortunately they couldn't get the main gymnasium area so there was only room to run one platform. Obviously it was going to be a long day. I was placed into the third of four flights.
Squat warm ups went well, except that I peaked way too early. I wasn't exactly sure how to time them out and wound up going into my opening lift pretty cold. Regardless, I smoked 405. I took 435 for my second attempt, and once again powered the shit out of the hole but stalled a bit half way up. Wanting to take the safe route and start out 3/3, I went 445 and got it easier than the 435. So a ten pound PR to begin things.
At this point, I should note that the general running of the meet was a clusterfuck. They had a freshman high school wrestling team doing the loading, and the judges had to constantly correct what they put on, and things were slow as shit. Also, one judge in particular probably red lighted 2/3 of the squats. I fucking buried mine, but I saw many, many good squats getting one red which was causing some bitching. Also, some bitching in the warm up area about the hotly debated legality of the Inzer XT knee sleeves. No one lifting raw had decided to use them, and everyone agreed that they should be banned because guys had them said they felt almost the same as a good wrap job. Also a hot topic was how many guys were switching to Sheiko style rountines and making incredible gains. I decided that running 29-32 will probably be the next thing I do training wise.
At this point, I now sat around for 2 hours before my bench flight came up. My bench warm up went well, and I timed them correctly, and I got my opener of 290 easily. So I called out 315 for my second which would be a 5 pound PR. I got under it, lowered it, and immediately forgot everything I ever learned about bench pressing in the one second it took for the "PRESS" command. I didn't fucking budge. Enragedx1. I of course took it again, had Wade (the big motherfucker who gave me the hand off) tell me to quit being a vagina, and damn near got it. I couldn't quite get it past that sticking point half way up, and the spotters took it. There went my goal of 1300.
I would have been pissed, but Wade Lykens and Mike Bartos both taught me more about bench pressing in 15 minutes than I knew my whole self taught lifting career. They both gave me great advice about exactly I was doing that was fucked up and about 300 light bulbs went off in my head. So I learned something.
Now I had a 2.5 hour break as they did the bench only meet after all four flights of full meet lifters. At this point I realized why people say to never look at good deadlifting form from power meets. After 3 max squat attempts, 3 max bench attempts arching as hard as possible, and two periods of warming up and becoming mentally aroused, I felt like shit. My back was tight, my hips hurt, and I just wanted to get the shit done. I slapped on the tiger balm, warmed up, and felt pretty decent.
I opened at 485, and crushed the measily weight. Next I took 530, a five pound PR, and drilled it until the very top. My back was fried and neutral spine be damned my upper back rounded pretty good and I struggled a bit pushing my glutes through to lock it out. I then went to 545, a would be 15 pound PR, and pulled it easy once again until the lockout. I struggled to get my glutes through, and was about a half inch from locking it out, but I hyperextended my back a bit too much and lost my balance at lock out and started to fall back. So I dropped it. I again got a good lesson in why I suck, and basically the consensus was that I have weak glutes that are holding my squat and deadlift back and bringing them up will be priority number one in the coming weeks.
Anywho, I went 445-290-530 for a 1265 total and second place. This puts my all time total at 1285, which, as Chase will soon point out, gives him the continued lead in the Race to 1500 by one pound. *shakes fist towards the Pacific Northwest* I should have had the 545 deadlift, and bench press was ugly, so a few small things go my way I had a 1305 total.
Videos are coming as we speak. I feel like a train ran over me, and was kind of caught of gaurd but just how much a meet takes it out of you. It's basically doing 3 full ME workouts in one day, so I guess it's not that surprising, but I never thought I would feel this beat up.
In conclusion I had a great time, spent the dy bullshitting with people who love this stuff and probably learned more about lifting hanging out for 12 hours with experienced powerlifters than my previous years of lifting combined. Mike and Wade gave me a bunch of great tips about training that I plan on implementing.
So I wake up on a perfectly good Saturday morning at 5am, and drive 1.5 hours to Cleveland, Ohio, to lose my powerlifting virginity. I check in, have my gear checked and approved, and then weigh in at a svelete 213.5 pounds. Note to self, the scale at home sucks and is off by about 6 pounds.
The place was pretty packed with lifters, about 80 or 90 in all, and unfortunately they couldn't get the main gymnasium area so there was only room to run one platform. Obviously it was going to be a long day. I was placed into the third of four flights.
Squat warm ups went well, except that I peaked way too early. I wasn't exactly sure how to time them out and wound up going into my opening lift pretty cold. Regardless, I smoked 405. I took 435 for my second attempt, and once again powered the shit out of the hole but stalled a bit half way up. Wanting to take the safe route and start out 3/3, I went 445 and got it easier than the 435. So a ten pound PR to begin things.
At this point, I should note that the general running of the meet was a clusterfuck. They had a freshman high school wrestling team doing the loading, and the judges had to constantly correct what they put on, and things were slow as shit. Also, one judge in particular probably red lighted 2/3 of the squats. I fucking buried mine, but I saw many, many good squats getting one red which was causing some bitching. Also, some bitching in the warm up area about the hotly debated legality of the Inzer XT knee sleeves. No one lifting raw had decided to use them, and everyone agreed that they should be banned because guys had them said they felt almost the same as a good wrap job. Also a hot topic was how many guys were switching to Sheiko style rountines and making incredible gains. I decided that running 29-32 will probably be the next thing I do training wise.
At this point, I now sat around for 2 hours before my bench flight came up. My bench warm up went well, and I timed them correctly, and I got my opener of 290 easily. So I called out 315 for my second which would be a 5 pound PR. I got under it, lowered it, and immediately forgot everything I ever learned about bench pressing in the one second it took for the "PRESS" command. I didn't fucking budge. Enragedx1. I of course took it again, had Wade (the big motherfucker who gave me the hand off) tell me to quit being a vagina, and damn near got it. I couldn't quite get it past that sticking point half way up, and the spotters took it. There went my goal of 1300.
I would have been pissed, but Wade Lykens and Mike Bartos both taught me more about bench pressing in 15 minutes than I knew my whole self taught lifting career. They both gave me great advice about exactly I was doing that was fucked up and about 300 light bulbs went off in my head. So I learned something.
Now I had a 2.5 hour break as they did the bench only meet after all four flights of full meet lifters. At this point I realized why people say to never look at good deadlifting form from power meets. After 3 max squat attempts, 3 max bench attempts arching as hard as possible, and two periods of warming up and becoming mentally aroused, I felt like shit. My back was tight, my hips hurt, and I just wanted to get the shit done. I slapped on the tiger balm, warmed up, and felt pretty decent.
I opened at 485, and crushed the measily weight. Next I took 530, a five pound PR, and drilled it until the very top. My back was fried and neutral spine be damned my upper back rounded pretty good and I struggled a bit pushing my glutes through to lock it out. I then went to 545, a would be 15 pound PR, and pulled it easy once again until the lockout. I struggled to get my glutes through, and was about a half inch from locking it out, but I hyperextended my back a bit too much and lost my balance at lock out and started to fall back. So I dropped it. I again got a good lesson in why I suck, and basically the consensus was that I have weak glutes that are holding my squat and deadlift back and bringing them up will be priority number one in the coming weeks.
Anywho, I went 445-290-530 for a 1265 total and second place. This puts my all time total at 1285, which, as Chase will soon point out, gives him the continued lead in the Race to 1500 by one pound. *shakes fist towards the Pacific Northwest* I should have had the 545 deadlift, and bench press was ugly, so a few small things go my way I had a 1305 total.
Videos are coming as we speak. I feel like a train ran over me, and was kind of caught of gaurd but just how much a meet takes it out of you. It's basically doing 3 full ME workouts in one day, so I guess it's not that surprising, but I never thought I would feel this beat up.
In conclusion I had a great time, spent the dy bullshitting with people who love this stuff and probably learned more about lifting hanging out for 12 hours with experienced powerlifters than my previous years of lifting combined. Mike and Wade gave me a bunch of great tips about training that I plan on implementing.
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2006
- Messages
- 3,308
- Reaction score
- 0
Too long - post the video.
Congratulations dude.
Congratulations dude.
the_harbinger
Orange Belt
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2008
- Messages
- 359
- Reaction score
- 0
Awesome job, Donut.
How old are you? Was your second place in your weight class or in a seperate age bracket.
How old are you? Was your second place in your weight class or in a seperate age bracket.
Donut62
Black Belt
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2006
- Messages
- 5,253
- Reaction score
- 0
24 so one year over the junior cut off. Placing really doesn't matter because everyone worth a damn was in gear. Winning a division in a regional powermeet doesn't mean a whole lot.
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2006
- Messages
- 3,308
- Reaction score
- 0
What did you learn about your bench?
What beer are you drinking now?
What beer are you drinking now?
Donut62
Black Belt
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2006
- Messages
- 5,253
- Reaction score
- 0
a) I am flaring my elbows entirely too early on the press up. Mike and Wade both think I have weak external rotators, and practice benching too heavy too often to learn the proper elbow tuck form. I need to work higher volume submaximally to program the correct elbow tuck, and really work on my external rotators. I will probably address the first by running the Sheiko 29-32, and the second by doing upper back and rotator work every day. Also they showed that I was touching entirely too high on my chest and had a good 3-4" of legal space towards my stomach to touch on that I am not using. Wade benches mid 600's, so I'm certainly going to do what he says.
b) Great Lakes Brewing Comapny Conways Irish Ale
- Joined
- Nov 23, 2003
- Messages
- 1,429
- Reaction score
- 0
Great writeup Donut. Care to share some of the things you learned?
Post it in my log so I can laugh at it.
- Joined
- Feb 10, 2008
- Messages
- 1,256
- Reaction score
- 0
Congratulations on the meet, Donut.
My decision to set a new PR on Wednesay = teh awesomness. Technically, my squat and bench PRs are 481 and 256, but I don't usually count the extra pound. I counted it on the 551 because that was a kilogram milestone.
My decision to set a new PR on Wednesay = teh awesomness. Technically, my squat and bench PRs are 481 and 256, but I don't usually count the extra pound. I counted it on the 551 because that was a kilogram milestone.
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2006
- Messages
- 3,308
- Reaction score
- 0
Interesting
Good job at the meet - nice squat and DL PRs.
It sounds like you could have got 455 on the squat.
Good job at the meet - nice squat and DL PRs.
It sounds like you could have got 455 on the squat.
Donut62
Black Belt
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2006
- Messages
- 5,253
- Reaction score
- 0
Probably could have. I prepare to be face the wratch of keyboard squat depth warriors everywhere, but I'm actually going too low on my squats. I could probably pick up a few more pounds if I just went to legal depth and not a few inches below. Something else to work on. I don't want to be razor edge on getting red lights, but bringing them up a bit will probably pick me up a few pounds more.
Donut62
Black Belt
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2006
- Messages
- 5,253
- Reaction score
- 0
Squats
405: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT0f3BVZ3Mo
435: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWr85pMblZk
445: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8fReUAA7w8
Bench
290: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7WjL_VfVlg
315: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_W1lypKxfI
315: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZXxqWnW5xU
Deadlift:
485: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUW0mNllTVg
530: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UK8KenN_ZKE
545: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vnrg14q27_0
405: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT0f3BVZ3Mo
435: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWr85pMblZk
445: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8fReUAA7w8
Bench
290: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7WjL_VfVlg
315: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_W1lypKxfI
315: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZXxqWnW5xU
Deadlift:
485: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUW0mNllTVg
530: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UK8KenN_ZKE
545: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vnrg14q27_0
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2006
- Messages
- 3,308
- Reaction score
- 0
You won't get shit from me. Your training for PL - you just need to meet IPF depth.
You can do deeper squats as an assistance (to increase your strength base or whatever).
Donut62
Black Belt
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2006
- Messages
- 5,253
- Reaction score
- 0
Close by, the Brook Park Recreation Center. It was 12 hours of lifting with about 5 minutes being me, so I don't think it would have been that great of a roadtrip, hahah.
- Joined
- Feb 10, 2008
- Messages
- 1,256
- Reaction score
- 0
The video you have requested is not available. The video you have requested is not available. The video you have requested is not available. The video you have requested is not available. The video you have requested is not available. The video you have requested is not available. The video you have requested is not available. The video you have requested is not available. The video you have requested is not available.
