Zen and the lifting of heavy things.

So, 8 weeks on, another comp. I’m a little disappointed, but hey, all improvement is good. I had 2 goals going into this – to bench 100 kg, and to total 380, which is the minimum total to qualify as a D grade raw powerlifter.

I benched 90 pretty easily, but totally failed 95, twice, even though I made 92.5 easily last comp. I have a couple of theories about this – one is that the rock climbing I’d been doing before the first comp was actually good for me – I cut it out 3 weeks before the comp this time in case it compromised my training, but next time, fuck it. So more climbing and more trapeze.

The squat was my biggest improvement – 135 kg, up from 110. To be honest, I should have made 120 last time, but I didn’t, so I get to claim 25 kg improvement this time.

Deadlift: 165. Failed on 175, but came damn close! I was worried about the dead, it didn’t seem to have improved much, but I think I would have made 170.

There’s clearly some strategy in choosing attempt weights that I’m not across yet – I tend to start with the heaviest I think I can lift, and then increase optimistically. If I’d settled for 130 in the squat, would I have made 175 in the dead? Who knows. If I’d settled for 170 in the dead, my total would have been 5 kg higher, but I would have wondered about 175.

Anyway. That’s a total of 390 kg, 10 kg over my goal and 32.5 over my last total. It was all from the squat, but I’ll take that, thanks

I do have to say, I am unconvinced my my coaches approach to programming. So I have my copy of NROL and SS out, and I’ll work something out for myself next cycle, I think. And go back on the protein powder and creatine – I got pretty slack with the protein this time around. My squat results suggest that wasn’t actually the problem, but we’ll see

Today, I competed in a powerlifting comp for the first time. Pretty small one, maybe 20 lifters, but an official sanctioned event, with drug testers and everything.In fact, one of the ladies lifting set a couple of Australian records in her class. I set no Australian records today. But since it was my first comp, everything I lifted was a personal best!
Squat: 110 kg. Failed on 120, quite spectacularly, but hey, if you make the last lift easily, you probably weren’t trying hard enough….

Bench Press: 92.5 kg. Which is 1 kg more than my weight at weigh-in.

Deadlift: 160 kg.

Rawr.

I have been lifting, honest! Last week:
Bench: 4×6 @ 67.5
DL: 4×6 @ 115
Squat: 4×6 @ 70

And today I ran – 2 laps of Princes park (~6.2 km) in 37 minutes. It’s a start.

Skipped a week last week. Hmm.
Bench: 4×8 @ 52.5
Dead: 4×8 @ 87
Squat 4×8 @ 55

Bench – 5×10 @ 45

Dead – 5×10 @ 70

Squat – 5×10 @ 45

Curls – 5×10 @ 10

Flying triceps – 5×10 @ 10

Dumbbell press – 5×10 @ 12.5

So I went today, finally, to the powerlifting club at Melbourne Uni. Had my form adjusted in everything, and discovered I haven’t lost as much strength as I’d feared. Weights now brought to you in kilograms and including the bar as 20 kg:

Benchpress: 60 (was 75)

Deadlift: 90 (was 106)

Squat: 60 (was 102)

Squat seems low, but I was kinda bushed after the deadlifts. And squatting 100 did nearly kill me. Back on Friday, after climbing on Wednesday. This should be interesting….

Better map. One lap of Princes Park is in fact 3.17k, which is more believable, given that time. Though tonight it was 17.09.

I have a new course, around Princes park, and I finally timed it the other day. It’s a little shy of 5K.

17’19″

I think I was running a lot further in Macau….

16/17/14/14/19 = 80 pushups

One short in the last set. But I think I’ll call it good.

14/16/12/12/17 = 71. Didn’t wanna. Did anyway.