My goals for this meet was too exceed my previous deadlift record of 240kg and take a shot at the total record. I managed to increase the deadlift record but the total record was gone after I failed my third squat attempt.
Warm ups for my squats did not feel good and the weights felt heavy so I dropped my opener. My lower back on the right side was tight which pissed me off because it had been gtg in all my training leading up to this point. With this on my mind all my squat attempts were just parallel nothing deeper. I got called on depth for my third attempt which after looking at the video was a bullshit call but hey judges rule. With this lift I think I could have done better.
Next up was the bench press and honestly I had no idea how this was going to go. I opened at about 330 lbs and finished at around 365 lbs on my third attempt or 165kg. I was very happy to hit this number but on this day that would have been my max, maybe 2.5kg more but that's it.
Last lift is the deadlift and this one is always my best lift these days. It's very basic pick heavy shit off the floor and place it down. Warm ups went awesome and all my warm up reps flew off the floor. I knew at this point I was going to crack my record. My second attempt was actually funny, they had a mix up in the lifting order. So the guy goes out and the head judge says are you Steven Reade nope, go back Steven is up so I literally walked out with no mental prep and lifted the weight at 245 kg. The weight did feel heavy so I was conservative on my third attempt and went with 250 kg. Because I had time to mentally prepare for my final lift it actually felt way easier then my second attempt...again I could have gone heavier and believe I could have made 575 lbs on this day.
Overall I officially increased my overall total by 10 kg, compared to my total at Provincials in June which I'm very happy with.
The road ahead and what goals will I set for myself. At this point my next competition is in March 2019 at the Canadian Nationals. This gives me a few months to prepare which is awesome.
Goals
Squat at least 450 lbs
My worst enemy break the 400 lbs barrier for the bench press...
Take a stab at the current national deadlift record which is 605 lbs
Those are my goals and the training kicks off starting this Saturday towards them. Like normal prior to this competition I was already reading a ton and thinking about how I was going to structure my training after this competition. I was actually writing out my workout plans on the plane ride there and coming back.
Again I learned a few things this training block that I will address this time around. First thing is squat slightly deeper. It's a fine line because going past parallel can decrease the amount of weight you can lift, but if you have judges at a meet that are squat nazi's you can suffer. So like the bench press train for a long pause and the squat go deeper in training. Because most of the time I do not have a training partner, I will address the squat depth issue by doing pin squats. Basically find a squat rack and set the safety bar at a height that forces me just past parallel. This will force me to squat lower and get a feel for it. Muscle memory so it will become natural how it feels to achieve this position.
Believe in what the 1RM estimator is telling me. My 1 repetition max is calculated by a formula based off what I enter into the RTS software and is very similar to what 5/3/1 tells me. I'm not big on hitting super heavy weights in my pre meet training or training to a 1 rep max failure. For example the software was telling me my 1RM for the squat was 440 lbs, bench 365 lbs and deadlift 575 lbs prior to this contest. I could have hit that squat and deadlift number at the meet...I just need to force myself to grow a set of nuts and just do it, leave it all on the platform no regrets.
Isometric holds and heavy static holds in my bench press training work. I did keep telling myself before and during the lift light weight, light weight. But the weight did feel better and move better compared to my last meet. This could also be a result of way less manual labour leading up to this contest compared to last time. This type of training can only be applied at certain times and for brief periods.
The way I trained leading up to this competition for a peak was very similar to how I did it last time and it's working for me. I want to feel fresh going into a competition NOT beat to hell.
Wave loading my deadlift workouts work for me. Looking back in the software I can see my heaviest deadlift workout for volume and PR was Aug 4 over a month away from the actual contest. My last heavy pull was Aug 25 with over a 2000 lbs volume cut. This tells me I can peak for my deadlift a month out from the contest.
The plan for the next 6 weeks is to focus on hypertrophy mainly and give my lower back a break from heavy weights. The squat will be changed to a high bar squat which will shift the emphasis on the quads more and less stress on the lower back. My second squat day will be the normal low bar squat but a pin squat which is less weight. The reps will go upwards along with volume.
The bench press will be feet up and slightly wider grip on my primary day, again to take strain off my lower back and force my upper body to press the weight. My secondary day will be close grip with feet up again. The reps and volume will also go up for this one.
Deadlift at this time I'm going to stick with the classic 5/3/1 formula but will switch to a hex bar. Again less stress on the lower back and may pull these from a 1 inch deficit.
I'll save all the details for future blogs as I go thru the workouts next week. I'm expecting a boat load of DOMS from the high volume high rep training can hardly wait.
No comments:
Post a Comment