Did a light workout last night.
Strict press
145 x 3 x 8
Super-set with chin-ups
10, 12, 15
100 total push-ups across 3 sets
Super-set with chin-ups: 12, 12, 15
Band pull-aparts
20, 40
Dumbbell curls: 35s x 3 x 12, 10, 10
Post-workout picture:
Feeling incredibly nauseous this morning at work, which is par for the course for me when eating this much. Glad it’s only for a week.
Back has been hurting more than usual the past few days, which is funny timing. Not sweating it, I’ll do the best I can and have fun. Feels like my back gets better as the day progresses so I may have been sleeping in disagreeable positions.
Been feeling majorly nauseous these mornings from all the food. I’ll go a little easy on the calories once this evening sets in. Since nausea usually means I’ve been eating a lot, it’s usually when I’m strongest under the bar. I need a shirt that says “Nauseous but strong” with a jacked, sick-appearing lifter sitting miserably at a packed dinner table with his gut hanging out.
The wonders of AI image generation!
Hahaha that is AMAZING. I don’t know why I’m so surprised in this day and age.
I choose to believe it was a conscious choice to construct a hamburger made out of hamburgers.
Will have video up on YouTube later but my second squat, 480, felt shockingly heavy and was a total grind to stand up with. Kept my cool and told myself it happens, just have fun. Chose a very conservative 500 for my final squat instead of the 530 I had in mind and it felt MUCH lighter. Had no trouble with it at all. The body is funny sometimes.
The judges are pretty easygoing about depth and I noticed in video I’m going below what their minimum is, so that’s neat.
Quick rundown: took 1st place with a 500 squat, 353 bench, and 600 deadlift. Will do a full write-up later.
Congrats on the meet, keep up the great work
Well done on the 1st place mate. Great effort.
Thank you both!
Write-up: I signed-up for this meet one week out from the event date although it had been on my radar for awhile. A couple of sessions were needed to get reacquainted with the straight bar for squats vs my curved Yukon bar, which I had switched to earlier this year due to elbow pain. I did my first and last actual squat session with the straight bar the previous Sunday and it felt a little awkward and uncomfortable on my shoulders getting it into position, but tolerable. Took a little time during the week to practice positioning the empty bar on my back again and it felt better at that point.
I’d also been gradually going down in weight, although I wasn’t super far into the process (roughly 13 lbs lost over a few months). A few weeks ago, I’d started taking creatine which made my weight shoot up again from the water retention. My natural bodyweight ended up being perfect for the 220 weight class at 218.3. After the water cut I did last year, I felt way less pressure this time around.
Ended up being one of the first lifters to arrive at 7:10 AM because I was doing a late Saturday morning weigh-in. Energy-wise, I was dragging despite getting 6 hours of sleep, which is more than usual for me before a meet. I had several canned black coffee drinks but knew to space those out and make use of them wisely. People seemed to arrive pretty late and the rules briefing came over an hour after it was supposed to. Almost everyone was already warming-up by then, which I thought was bonkers as I chilled out sleepily in my seat, eating and feeling like I wanted a nap. There was even a coach competing with his client next to me going through a strenuous yoga session. The instructor showed him one position that was like a lunge and told him something about expecting it to hurt. Just insanity, but I bet a lot of people thought the same about me with my buffet line that I was chowing down on. The organizer came to call everyone out to the rules briefing area and noted, “Guys, the women are up first. You might not want to be warming-up so soon.”
I watched some of the women go but ended up missing a lot of the show because I got too hot inside the space and spent my time outside instead, watching what I could. It soon dawned on me that the gym had no running water for competitors, but luckily there was a Safeway across the street. That’s something I’d never run into before and a lesson to not assume there will be an accessible bathroom beyond just porta potties. By the time my flight was around the corner I did a basic warm-up for my knee health via some mountain climbers and light banded leg extensions before working up to squatting 315.
Opened with 450 in the squat and it flew up. Getting into position was a little uncomfortable on my shoulders because I’d only had a week to get used to the straight bar again but it wasn’t terrible. I followed that with 480, which was surprisingly a slow grind. Felt my hips hurt a little as I sunk in super deep. That was unexpected. Changed my plans of going for a PR in the squat and chose an extremely safe 500 based on how much my hips had hurt, figuring that I always have that on a bad day. 500 ended up feeling far lighter than 480 and I had none of the mechanical awkwardness or hip pain of the last lift.
There was a break at this point which I used to walk across the street for a water refill and to use the Starbucks bathroom. I wanted to walk to make my back feel good for deadlifting. I injured it last year during a meet which affected my deadlift performance and was trying to do everything I could to keep it feeling good here. I was surprised I didn’t see anyone else hit either of these spots up considering there wasn’t any running water at the event gym and ended up sharing my purchased gallon with someone in need.
Next, 315 on the bench felt like air and 330 felt fine except my back hurt a little from bridging too much, although my butt didn’t actually leave contact with the bench. I’ve underestimated the pause element in meets before and have never completed a full set of bench attempts so I went with a calculated 353 for my final and focused on pushing my body into the bench to prevent back pain cropping up again, which thankfully had dissipated by now. That weight was hard with the pause, but like I said, I was expecting that this time. I got it up with a fight.
My back was feeling healthy by the time deadlifts came around. I’m surprised at how nobody rolls the bar along the floor to get a little momentum going before breaking it off the ground. A ton of people (I would say most who I watched) yanked the bar up without getting rid of the bar slack, too, and the jerkiness looks like it threw their form out of position a bit. They’d explode up, clang the bar, and then just lose a ton of momentum.
Sumo deadlifts were allowed and were what most people went with. I was considering opting for that if my back was hurting, but since it wasn’t I made a decision to lift conventional. I opened with 515 and seconded with 530. Really safe attempts. No pain so far. Things had gone so well all day that now was the time to gamble and take a leap so I penciled in 600, which I hadn’t hit in 2 years. It also went up without much of a problem. My right arm got a little messed up though, starting from the wrist up through the forearm and bicep, which was definitely from not letting my arm hang straight enough. Nothing serious but I’m not sure I would have been able to continue if there were any other lifts after this; it hurt badly enough for me to think about preventing a bicep tear. Well, there WAS a strict curl for singles competition after deadlifts, which I didn’t sign-up for out of disinterest and which I definitely could not have done at that point even though I rep some of the higher weights that were getting curled (around 150) for 20 reps on my keg. The bicep felt better the next day and now only hurts a little bit if I twist my forearm.
Deadlifting in a gym on a flat surface feels SO much easier than doing it with my outdoor set-up, which is just awesome for training. Also worth mentioning is that I had no grip issue holding onto the bar despite mostly training with straps. I wasn’t even conscious of my grip on the bar during the lift. The bicep strain is a lesson to get more practice in with a mixed grip before meets, though.
The event concluded with me taking 1st in the 220 class and getting a second award for “Best Lifter” with a 1453 total. I more or less matched my first powerlifting meet in 2016 and did much better than last year. Soon found out that 2nd place wasn’t even close to me and that lifter, who was being handled by the aforementioned coach doing the stretching routine, came up to me after the awards and flatly stated, “You’re the one who beat me.” I laughed and told him he put up a great effort. It was awkward because he came up to say that and then just stared, but I picked up that he was trying to be friendly and that’s just how he communicates. He said he and his coach will be at a local strongman show in April and that I’d kill in it, so that’s something to look into (it’s actually the same event that I tore my bicep at in 2017, Beasts of the Bay).
My experience went a long way: reintroducing the mouth piece, bringing chairs and the right food, treating myself to a new duffel bag, knowing when to warm-up and how much, rolling the deadlift bar, and not forgetting to go to the table and pick the next attempt. I also need to share that hummus is magic food for meet nutrition or if you just don’t like to eat breakfast. It’s super easy to get down but filling at the same time. Getting a hotel through the weekend was also a good move so I could relax afterwards. I ended up going out to an incredible sushi dinner with my plus one who came with me to the meet and another friend we met-up with, then going back to his house for more sake drinks. We marathoned Running Man and Total Recall, which I count as training.
Since this was more of a “return to form” deal, I’m looking forward to going for PRs again at future meets.
Outstanding write up and performance dude! Meet experience continues to prove invaluable, and you were a fantastic ambassador for strength and sport there as well. Really awesome to see you back at it.
@T3hPwnisher That means a lot man, thanks so much. Couldn’t help but think of you and your notorious lack of warm-ups as I chilled waiting for my turn.
Taking Thanksgiving as an opportunity to lift hard and eat big.
Dumbbell press
115s x 10, 9, 8, 9
50s x 25
Super-set with chin-ups: 12, 12, 12, 15, 12
Giant sets
Dumbbell skullcrushers: 35s x 9, 9
Lateral raises: 15s x 12, 15
Band pull-aparts: 20, 20
Poundstone curls: 100 reps
First resistance workout since the meet and the recovering bicep that I strained from the 600 deadlift started to feel under stress from the chins but it’s definitely on the mend.
Made a huge breakfast and a big post-workout steak lunch for myself to start things off before dinner.
Squats
430 x 9
350 x 17
240 x 15
Leg extensions
5 plates x 20
Lying leg curls
5 plates x 30, 25
Hanging leg raises
15, 12
This kicked my ass. Felt like I was delirious after that set of 350 and it never went away.
50 push-ups in the morning before heading to work.
Late evening:
Incline bench press
180 x 10, 10, 10, 9, 7
Super-set with seated reverse hyper rows
3 plates x 12
4 plates x 12, 12, 12, 15
10 dips
Band pull-aparts: 3 x 20
Dumbbell curls: 35s x 3 x 10
Sidenote: I recently saw T-Nation promoting the Iceshaker shaker bottle and @T3hPwnisher vouching for it with his experience. Went ahead and ordered one even though I’m reasonably happy with my current stainless steel shaker bottle and I’m glad I did. The Iceshaker is taller, has a rubberized bottom which makes a bigger difference to me than I thought it would, has a more pleasant opening to drink out of, a carrying handle, keeps drinks colder for longer, and no annoying wire ball. Now if only my favorite design wasn’t a limited edition for $120 (Westside Barbell has a cool branded one for the normal price, though).
Ice shaker is so legit! My favorite feature is I can mix a shake in it before bed and it will still be frosty when I get to it in the middle of the night to drink. Was a real game changer for middle of the night feedings, which, in turn, has been a gamechanger in and of itself.
Do you drink a shake before bed and in the middle of the night? I usually get 50g of protein from a shake about 5 mins before going to sleep and just hope not to wake in the middle of the night, even if I wake the thought of slamming a shake doesn’t sound appealing, interesting you found it game changing.
I “eat” a shake before bed. I mix up some Metabolic Drive with some hot liquid to create a pudding like substance and eat it with a spoon, and then I’ll have a shake in the middle of the night.
Waking up in the middle of the night is a given for me, so I make the most of it with a shake. Curious why drinking a shake doesn’t sound appealing. Metabolic Drive is delicious. It’s kind of a highlight of waking up in the middle of the night: I get to have dessert.
Damn, I legit had this in my Amazon cart for their Black Friday deal, and went “nah, I’ve never complained about my current one.” Now I’m wishing I pulled the trigger lol
If I wake up for the toilet then, I want to get back to bed/sleep asap, if it’s a call out and I’m properly awake I’ll quite often just eat a meal. Probably doesn’t help that I don’t love my protein powder, or any protein powders I’ve tried, not tried MD - but importing it to the UK isn’t viable cost wise.
Me too, which is why I go for a beverage vs a meal. Perhaps you are a slower drinker than I am, but for me this is a quick process and then I go right back to sleep. Since the shake is pre-mixed, I just keep it by the bathroom sink and have it once I’m done with the bathroom.
In the absence of protein powder, I’ve also employed egg whites/whole eggs in the same shaker.
I’ve been doing the same thing. I’m waking up anyways - might as well get some insurance protein in me. Sometimes I’ll take ZMA instead since that absorbs better on an empty stomach but usually I find myself reaching for the protein bottle.
