Hi, I’m new to the forum. Been lifting 3.5 years and powerlifting for the past year. I compete in the USAPL at 181lbs, 22 years old. Just to give you an idea of what I’ve been up to lately -I have been following Squat Training:A Different Perspective by Jim Wendler from Elitefts. Last night I finally got to the circa max part of the program. Used 2 Green bands +235lbs bar weight for 6 sets of 2. I felt really tired when I got to the gym, but was pleasantly surprised at how easy this session was. I recently pulled 525 with reverse band deadlifts (pr) and made a (pr) 3 board press with 325 and a close miss at 345. I am currently training for a meet in november in which I plan to go over 600 squat, 340 bench, and hopefully break 500 on the deadlift (my achilles heel).
Peyton- where you from, I compte in the USAPL but am about to switch…Welcome aboard…>Big Martin
I’m from St. Louis, MO. I’m in Columbia, MO attending Mizzou at the moment.What fed are you switching to and why? If you don’t mind me asking.
Peyton,
Where do you lift? I work at Mizzou and attend classes p/t. I go to Gold’s, not the best environment for powerlifting but I do what I can.
man, I got really excited for a moment aobut another St. Louis person. dammit.
Peyton- Well I started USAPL because of th big following in my state, but I got to tell you I havent met one person who has said a good thing about it, the meets I went to it seemd like the judges all had personal agendas and were way to strict there getting a nickname for being the powerlifting Nazis, and the eniviorment is also boring there is very little excitement compared to a APF or IPA meet, I am going to go APF and IPA, I may actually still do a USAPL Meet this year, I actually like using the single ply gear and think it is good idea, I like the UAPL but fell they need to get some more excitement in there organization and they wont get that lighting every squat attempt…Good Luck Big Martin
redkell- I lift at Gold’s downtown, which one do you lift at? I was hoping that the university would allow me to use the Yeckel Athlete’s training center a couple times for my max squatting days this month before my meet. Went down there today and they said they’d have to find out if it would be ok, so I’m guessing no. I was told that it was a gym for “the athletes” which I found amusing considering that I have one of the highest collegiate squats in the USAPL for my weight class. What about you, do you compete? When do you train?
J wright- I’ll be back in town this weekend to attend and possibly help out with USAPL Deadlift Nationals. You should check it out if you have time. www.usaplnationals.com is the Missouri USAPL site, they have the meet listed there.
bigmartin- It’s too bad you feel that way. The people running and involved in the Missouri division of the USAPL really put on a lot of great meets and lots of great lifters with great attitudes. I really look forward to attending every meet here. Good luck with the APF and IPA. I knew some lifters from Ultimate Gym in Hazelwood that competed AAPF and they seemed very enthusiastic about it. Hopefully you will have a better experience there.
Peyton _ I got a ??? I have my own Basically college team I coach, and there is a good chance we will do a USAPL qualifyer in December because A few of my guy want to go to the collegiate nationals and I want to know is there any hing you do iffirent training wise to hep with the strict depth rules and stuff do you modify it at all thanks for you help, and just to clarify I respect the USAPL very much espicially the guys in my state there very good people I just dont know if it the place for me but it is a excelent orginization, by the way it will be nice to have you here…big martin
Peyton,
Nice numbers, and nice to have you around. Keep it up.
bigmartin- I really don’t do anything different from the standard Westside protocol. I always do box squats to just below parallel except when I work up to the higher tensions or weights in a cycle I will sometimes move the box height up to parallel. It depends on how my hips feel. The main thing is to set the box below parallel for dynamic squats because from my experience the box height that you train on is the height you will hit when squatting. If I squat on a certain box height for more than three or four weeks and I lower the box I will still reverse the squat at the previous box height for a good portion of the reps until I train myself to squat lower, it just becomes automatic.
Peyton, I usually work out after work so I go to Gold’s south because it’s closer and less traffic. I just switched to powerlifting about three months ago after training like a bodybuilder for about 15 years. I wanted to try something different and realized I’m weak for my size, I’ve got almost 50 lbs. bodyweight on you and might be able to touch your bench but not your squat or dl. If it’s cool with you I’d like to work out with you sometime, I need someone to critique my form because it probably sucks and I don’t know anyone else with any pl’ing experience. I want to compete eventually but not sure when.
BTW, it’s great to have another competitive pler on the forum. I’ve learned alot from Steve, Golberg, Landon, Big Martin and others but I know there’s alot more to learn.
Redkell- I am going to be deadlifting tonight around 7 or 8 if you want to come up. Otherwise IM me sometime and we’ll figure out a time to get together and check out your form. I do Dynamic suats on Mondays, Max Bench on Tuesday, Max Squat/Deadlift on Thursday and Dynamic bench on Saturday. You’re welcome to join me on any of those days or I can try to make it on another day to critique your form.
Thanks man. Obviously I didn’t make it last night. My schedule is a little hectic with work and school. I’ll PM you sometime to arrange something. I appreciate the help.