My general thoughts:

Check out the montage of Duane’s lifts from the weekend.  He did great and won his weight class by 2 kilos.  Duane can feel free to elaborate on his experience in the comments.  The following is a brief overview of my impressions of the meet and what I learned.  When they are available, I’ll post vids of my attempts and get into them in detail.

Brute Strength Gym is a very large and well equipped space.  They’ve got plenty of bars and plates for any kind of lifting you want to do, and all of it high quality.  It had decent amenities all while keeping that garage gym feel.  Very cool.  The meet itself was tightly run, and we were done way earlier than expected.  We showed up at 7:30, and were out of there by 3, even after a long and drawn out calculation process.  For most of you, a powerlifting meet consists of:

1. Weigh-in and equipment check
2. Rules briefing
3. Opening attempt listing and warm-up for squat
4. Squat, in flights (explained below)
5. Very short break
6. Bench Press, in flights
7. Very short break
8. Deadlift, in flights
9. Cal…cu…la…te…to…tals
10. Awards!

Being a weight class sport, obviously they have to determine which weight class you’ll be in.  This is also where you declare your opening attempts for the three lifts.  You also have to show the judge what sort of belt, shirt, singlet, knee sleeves etc, you’ll be wearing, so that they can make sure it’s all within the rules.  From there, they go over the rules, and tell you how the flights are divided.  For our meet, the flights were 220 and below, and 242 and above, which was nice, since Duane and I were placed in different flights.  A flight is simply the group you lift with, and the first flight will do all three of their attempts before the second flight starts.  There is an important difference between powerlifting and weightlifting in how the attempts work as well.  In weightlifting, the bar simply moves up in weight, so if your attempts are 90, 93, and 96 kilos, and the next lowest person jumped from 90 to 100 kilos, you’ll be taking all three attempts in a row (this is very rare).  However, in powerlifting, everyone (in the flight) takes their first attempt, and then the bar resets for everyone’s second attempt, which you declare within a minute of your first one.  Unlike weightlifting, you are somewhat limited in changing your attempts.

During a flight, things move fast.  The bar is loaded, and once they declare the bar set up, the person lifting has 60 seconds to get a start command.  It seems like you would feel rushed, but if you’re ready, it’s plenty of time.  At this meet, there was no board for you to see how many out you were, you just had to listen to the announcer who gave the next 5 people.  It wasn’t too hard, but you couldn’t totally lose yourself in rocking out to your headphones.  In retrospect, it might have been nice to have a coach for the sole purpose of tapping me on the shoulder when I was 2 people out, so that I could tighten the belt and not think about it.  However, Cheese did a good job of coaching from afar by helping us pick out some weights for our attempts, so we didn’t have to think of them at the time.  Somehow thinking and lifting don’t mix.

The attitude at the meets is very supportive, and most people want to do the best they can, and for you to do the best you can.  Often there aren’t but one or two people per weight class anyway, so everyone’s going to walk away with something.  You’ve prepared, and should be relaxed.  You just have to pay attention, and not let things get out of hand.  Some lessons from the meet:

1. Come Prepared!  Bring everything you think you’ll need and some things you don’t think you’ll ever need.  A foam roller and a trigger point ball were indispensable (this time).  I didn’t end up needing my eggs and turkey, but if the meet had dragged out I would have sorely missed them if they weren’t there.
2. Start conservatively!  If you miss all 3 attempts of any one lift you don’t get a total and you finish last in your weight class.  Get on the books and then challenge yourself.
3. Don’t “make weight.”  This is the dumbest thing that you can possibly do as a beginner.  When I went to weigh in, some weenie was running around the parking lot in hopes of getting down to 181 or some such nonsense.  Look, not winning the 198′s is exactly like not winning the 181′s, especially when you’re going to total like 300 kilos.  Just do your best at whatever weight you show up at.
4. Relax and have fun.  You’re just lifting weights, so don’t get all nuts about it.
5. You probably won’t surprise yourself at the meet.  You’ll more than likely do weights you’ve already done in the gym.  Remember the meet circumstances aren’t ideal.  You don’t have your favorite bar, or squat rack.  You don’t get to go at the right moment in the song.  You don’t get to rest exactly as much as you want.  The judges might red light you on a good lift.  You never know.  Don’t put a lot of (emotional, expectational)weight into your total, just go and do the best that the circumstances allow.
6. You’re a lot better than some, and a lot worse than others.  I saw 600+ lb raw deadlift, and I out-squatted several people.  You won’t be the worst and you won’t be the best.
7. Just go to a meet.  You’ll probably do way better than you think.  Only my and Duane’s weight class had 3 people in them!  That means, you probably would have walked away with a bronze solely for totaling.  Just come to one and see what you can do in a competitive situation!

All in all I had a lot of fun and it was a generally positive experience.

My specific walkthrough:

In this installment, I’d like to get more into the details of the meet.  The first lift is the squat, and as I said before, the lifting is organized into flights.  The opening lifts for my flight were posted on a squat rack in the warm-up area, and the announcer called out how many minutes it was until the start.  I was going fairly late in my flight, and was about 10th.  Since each competitor has a minute once the bar is loaded, it allows you to time your last warm-up with which lifter is going.  It’s best to take your last warm-up about 5 to 8 min out from your first attempt, so I took my last warm-up when there were 6 people left to go before me.  It’s worth mentioning here that the warm-up area often only has a few squat racks, so you have to work in with people.  However, everyone is good-natured and it’s pretty easy to tell who will be squatting around what you’ll be (kind of like in the gym).

After my last warm-up, I went to sit in the waiting area with my headphones in.  Aside from the lift itself, the few minutes before the lift are the most critical.  You need to start focusing in on what you’re about to do, and you want to get psyched up and start feeling the adrenaline.  However, you don’t want to get too excited while waiting.  Your body can only be in fight or flight mode for so much time, so it’s a delicate balance between focused and psyched, and frazzled and nervous.  Also you have commands to listen to, so you can’t be too in your head.

The first squat is the most important lift of the whole meet, so you want to nail it.  If you’re smart (or have a smart coach) you’ve chosen a weight you can do for 3.  Really that light?  YES.  NEVER NEVER NEVER miss your first attempt of any one lift.  The first weight is light for several reasons:

1. If you fail all three attempts at any one lift, you get no total.
2. Things move at the pace of the meet, not at your pace.
3. The equipment is different.
4. Everyone is watching you.
5. There are commands to remember.

So, I started light at 167.5 (368.5 my best 5 rep is 355), and buried the squat way deeper than needed.  3 white lights and I’m on the board.  My second attempt was technically a 1lb PR, but very close to something I’ve done before at 180 (396).  You want to keep the confidence building and not go crazy with your jump on the second lift.  Looking at the video afterward, I could have and should have gone a bit deeper to be sure.  My third attempt was the PR attempt, or what I wanted to hit when I got there.  The two previous lifts have been building to this, and my attempts were well chosen.  My third attempt is the vid above at 185 (407), and represents an 11lb PR, and one of my goals for this year.  It was hard, but not impossible, and I stood it up only to be greeted with 2 red lights and 1 white light.  No lift.  It was for depth I’m told, but you be the judge (cheat sheet: it’s a fine squat).  I was disappointed but I let it go.  Things like this happen at meets and there’s a lot of lifting yet!

The other two lifts go generally like the squat, so I won’t go through them in much detail.  However there is something to be learned about what happened to me in the bench: you need to be flexible enough to adapt if circumstances at the meet throw you off!  My first bench attempt was a very light 92.5 (203.5 my best 5 rep is 205).  However the bench is the most finicky of the lifts.  You get three commands: start, press, and rack, so it’s the least like what you’d actually do in the gym.  My first attempt was a success, but the lady was having us sit the bar on our chest for a full second and sometimes more.  I should have adapted and lowered my second attempt.  I didn’t lower it, and my back tightened up during my second attempt at 102.5 (225.5), and I didn’t make it.  I didn’t want to compromise my deadlift, so I did my third attempt with a flat back and didn’t make that either.  A disappointing bench outing, BUT, I started light and got on the board.

Luckily, I was prepared, and I was able to fish oil and foam roll my back out of trouble for the deadlift.  My three attempts for the deadlift were 182.5 (401.5 an easy triple), 205 (451 just under gym PR), 217.5 (478.5 a big PR).  The deadlift is simple, just pick up the weight and don’t put it down until they tell you to.  The first and second ones went well (second one is posted here), so I was confident going into the third lift.  I pulled with all my might, and it eventually came up.  3 reds for hitching.  I didn’t hitch it, but it did pause above my knee and press into my leg.  I was happier about this call than the squat, but that’s how meets go.  My total was 475.5 (1046), under my goal of 500, but I learned a lot and was happy with my performance.  I look forward to totaling 500 at the next one.

Exclusive Content!!!

Final thought:

I’m back on Texas Method now after a week on break.  Started my volume day on Monday at 315 (press: 140) and I’m pretty damn sore at the moment.  Squats felt very strong, press a bit weaker than normal, but, happy to be training (and gorging) again.  Weighed in at 205 at the meet, hope to weigh in closer to 220 at the next one.  Also, I officially (via email to coach) withdrew myself from future Australian Rules football competitions this year, since my new training methods and goals ran counter to what I’d need to do to be successful in the team.  This alleviates some mental stress, since I no longer wonder when I’ll have to get back into “match fitness” and don’t need to feel guilty for skipping practice cause I’m working at the gym.

Check out the above two squat vids.  They’re sets 3 and 4 from about 1pm on Monday, and under the circumstances below:

• Two nights in a tent, after two days of crappy food and beers
• The last night got about 6 hrs sleep, and I woke up on the Eastern shore at about 6:45 that morning
• Got eaten alive by biting bugs all weekend
• Developed some sort of skin reaction to either the bites, the bug spray (which didn’t work), the heat, or the sunscreen
• Drove 3 hrs back, and got out of the car at the gym

And yet, I was still able to muster enough sand to do my volume day, which if any of you are aware, is the most taxing day of the week.  Was it the best workout ever?  No.  But the squats were better than expected, and I felt great after the post-meal.  The presses all went up, and that was a PR for sets across (just like the squats).  Also, there was nothing I’d rather have done than take a nap (I had to coach at 6&7), but I squatted anyway.

Moral of the story?  Get in the gym.  Do your squats.  I’m not courageous or heroic, but I understand that consistency is half the damn battle.  It’ll often go better than you think.

Also, I updated my workout log for those of you who care.

Also, a side note, I developed an awesome tan line for no reason that I can think of.  What was it?  The place where I put the bar in the squats didn’t tan as much as the rest of me.  I’ll get a pic up of it later, but understand what I’m saying: I don’t have a tan line because the bar was on my back while in the sun; I have a tan line because the bar was there in the past.  How?  No idea.  Maybe I squished out all of the melanin?  Maybe that part of me is becoming impervious to all insult?  Either way, proud of my low-bar tan.

A lot has happened since the last post!  Sean, Karen, Phil, and I all went to the Starting Strength Seminar in Montclair, NJ.  It was an awesome time and we learned a bunch.  We’ve all sent in our tests and await Rips harsh grading, but I’m confident we all passed.

Prior to the seminar, I stalled on linear progression and switched over to Texas method, but only after a total to see where I was.  My numbers were 385/180/455 (I also tried a 1RM bench, and got a measly 225), which represented +30/+10/+30 over my previous total.  It’s also 1020, so feel free to welcome me to the 1k# club.  Goal accomplished.  I had some room in the squat, but the press and DL were true 1RMs.  After the total, I eased into the new higher volume, and will now be doing serious worksets and will PR for 5 every Friday.

So what happened in between?   Seem like I should be way farther than where I am now?  Probably true, but this isn’t an exact science.  First, I had a bar alignment issue.  For some reason, when the bars on my back, I feel like my right arm is bent much more than it is, which results in my being quite a bit to the left of where I should be.  See this phenomenon here.  Clearly, when the weights get heavy, this was causing me to twist to the heavier side.  Not good.  We fixed the issue with hand placement, but that caused another isse to pop up.  Basically, I was overusing my right leg previously, and all of a sudden the left leg was forced to deal with 315.  This caused some worrisome pain in my medial hamstring tendons when I tried to bounce out of the bottom, and made me ease back for a while with some lighter sets to get that part of me up to speed.  Also, I took a reset in the squat that didn’t get me much further, so I guess there was some wasted time there as well.  Howver, this is just how this stuff goes.  After the lightspeed of linear progression, there are gonna be setbacks, things are not always gonna go as planned.  Yes, I was able to add those first 60 lbs to the squat like clockwork, but that’s because those were the easiest 60 lbs, and even though things did go wrong, I was so far away from my genetic potential that it didn’t really matter.  Now that I’m stronger, those gains are harder to come by.  However, I can now deal with a short layoff better.  As long as progress is being made, stick with the plan and keep rollin’.

So where am I rolling?  Like I said I’ll be doing Texas method, so volume/recovery/PR for those of you not in the know.  As such, I’ll be gaining on a weekly basis instead of daily, but the point is I’m gaining.  My plan for today is 315x5x5, and 340×5 on Friday.  Anything else new?  Well I’ll be competing in the East Coast Gold classic weightlifting meet this weekend (still gonna squat heavy on Fri).  Also, I have my first powerlifting competition July 10th, which should be interesting.  My goal for that meet is a 500kg (1100 lb) total.  As I’m sure you’ve noticed, I’m just gonna stick with my program and not worry about peaking for either of these meets.  It’s too early to worry about peaking/weigh-in or anything like that.  Just gonna go and get some competition experience (I will taper for the powerlifting, though).

In other non-lifting news, the Aussie Rules season has started, and I’ll be headed to a tournament on June 5th in Philly, so I’ll be able to better update you then on how the weight/strength gain applies to that sport.  Favorably, I’d assume.  Sean also just got back from his Affiliate Cup qualification in Ohio.  I’m proud of him for seeing this goal through, even though it’s become apparent to him that he’d rather keep getting strong than do CF competitions.  Phil is struggling with the fact that he knows he needs more basic strength, and that this conflicts directly with the tendency of Oly coaches to program everyone as an advanced athlete.  Maybe they’ll feel inclined to tell you about these things themselves.

That’s all for now, feel free to ask questiosn.  I’m keeping my workout log on paper now but will try to update the log section weekly.  Maybe we’ll get you some new shirtless photos as well…

Sean’s PRs before October were something like….255 squat, 135 press, and 305×2 deadlift.

In training he has done 325×5 squat, 135×5 press, and 325×5 deadlift. Solid improvements from the old PRs into the training lifts. But no amount of training equals the excitement of testing. So we tested tonight.

In the past 4 months, Sean has had some small setbacks. Small pants, collapsing knees, elbow tendinitis, a hacking cough, and hating deadlifts. Not to mention his initial problem of being 160lbs.

However tonight all that changed. In shorts, he weighed in at 199, so thats a milestone in itself. But more impressively was the 9/9 CrossFit Total performance. He opened his squat at 335, went a full inch below parallel, and sped back up. It was easy, a conservative opener when he had done 325×5 previously, but the elbow tendinitis kept him from doing much low bar squatting in the past month. 355 went next, with even more depth, and just as quick on the concentric. Looked so easy Troy called for 375. 375 on the bar, Sean got pumped and…squatted it with just a but more effort than the 355. He then mentioned there might be more in the tank! We didn’t investigate that though, because to total you can’t just blow all your effort on the squat.

Press opener at 145. Also conservative, but the press has been tough, again due to the elbow pain. 155 was slightly slower, but went, as did 160. All Sean’s hard work on the bench press really helped him lock out that 160. His old bodyweight!

On to the deadlift. The nemesis. For a while Sean was really worried, because his DL sets were at a lower working weight than the back squat. But people who’ve totaled know, the deadlift is where you are free to roam. No lift to follow, no energy to conserve, just load the bar and pull it as hard as you can. 355 to open (I think). Locked out with no problems. 375 next…and why not, he just squatted it a half hour earlier! That weight also proved to be easy. There was some brief talk about 385, but knowing it was his last lift, Sean opted for 390. With 8/9 already locked up, and PRs across the board there was nothing to risk, and 5lbs to gain! 390 went up fine, and thats all there was.

It was a fine performance. In the grand scheme of the iron game 925 total is nothing super amazing, but that not the point. The point is that a guy set his mind to what he wanted to do, something which few people can do, and which even more fail to do when they try. Find me 10 guys in a random gym with 900 totals? In the past 4 months Sean drank his milk, slept a lot, skipped going out sometimes, learned to eat like a hog, grew like a hog, and lifted weights that would have crushed him before, and then did it all again every 2 days. I am very proud to have been associated with Sean’s effort, as is Troy, and I look forward to his continued progress in his training.

-2 roasted thigh+leg chicken sections (bone in/skin on, of course)
-4 egg omelet cooked in with ghee (2 tbs), with 1 diced large green pepper
-2 hash brown patties (those frozen tater tot ones, utter crap but delicious)
-1 apple (fuji, due to there being no honeycrisp)
-1/2 85% cocoa chocolate bar

Not sure where it gets its name?  Give it a try and find out.

Also don’t worry, I’ll be trudging into the gym today to get some work sets in.  It’s mostly so I can tell my kids how I was so badass for walking to the gym in a blizzard.

Then:
BW – 170
Time – 5:36
Stats from Catalyst
Work Performed
51766.89 joules
5278.67 kg-m
38183.26 ft-lbs

Power Output
154.07 watts
0.21 horsepower
113.64 ft-lbs/sec

Now:
BW – 202
Time – 7:48 (pure hell, btw)
Stats from Catalyst
Work Performed
57502.55 joules
5863.54 kg-m
42413.88 ft-lbs

Power Output
122.87 watts
0.17 horsepower
90.62 ft-lbs/sec

As you can see, I only lost 30 watts (20%).  It’s significant, but not worrisome.  I’ll put it out there that I can get this back below 6 in one month of concerted effort.  I mean it sucks like hell, but the fear of totally “getting out of shape” is somewhat overblown.  Also keep in mind that this workout is fully half pull-up, which seriously punishes gaining 30 lbs, most of which is located in my legs.

Still the top time in my gym though…

You are not special.

To someone who hasn’t done this before, these sorts of stupid-assed questions might not seem so inane.  You can trust me, they are.  An analogy: before you learned to drive a car with a manual transmission, did you wonder how you’d know when to shift gears?  Did it become abundantly clear within 5 min behind the wheel?  Does it now seem like a stupid thing to wonder?

You will KNOW when you’re an intermediate.  If you’re asking, you are not.  Go eat 2 Chipotle burritos in the corner while you think about what you’ve done.

Yesterday I woke up in a panic.  I thought: “Shit there is no way I’m gonna be able to squat today!”  Then it hit me, I didn’t have to!  I’ve switched away from pure novice programming, and have a light day during the week.  Huzzah.  I then proceeded to do easy triples of front squat at 10# under my starting back squat weight.  I hope that those of us who “get it” can make fielding these sorts of questions worthwhile.  No good deed goes unpunished, it seems.  I’m glad that Justin feels the need to keep putting himself in the line of fire, and I look forward to meeting him come late April.

Reminder: You are not special.  Look at the facts:

1. We have all had similar levels of success with this program
2. We were 3 skinny CrossFitters with rowing, swimming/cycling/triathlon, and half-assed lifting backgrounds respectively
3. We had different “body types”
   
4. We didn’t always follow the program perfectly, but we ALWAYS squatted, pressed, and deadlifted consistently
5. We sometimes ate food to an uncomfortable level, and always ate more than it would seem we needed

Just do the damn program.  Don’t piss off Justin so much that he stops moderating the site, or worse, goes on a skinny-man beating rampage that doesn’t leave him enough time to coach (there are lots of you, after all).

Once again congrats to Sean and Troy for finishing out the 5lb jumps in the squat. They both rode the program to very very respectable numbers, crushing all previous PRs. However, I need to gloat a little, as I reached the milestone we all set out to achieve, 3 sets of 5 reps at 315 lbs. “Three wheels” as this squat is sometimes referred to, is a major hurdle for some people. I now believe its a major hurdle because those people refuse to eat, but thats for another post. In any case, I done did it. And the best part was…it was fast. 315 felt easier than 310, and even easier than 305. Now I paid particularly good attention to recovery from Friday onwards, knowing I was closing in on this milestone. I estimated that between Mondays and Wednesdays workouts I slept 20 of the 48 hours and made an effort to eat a lot of good clean food.

So, hooray for 315. I also deadlifted 345×5, which is a PR for reps. 315 ties my all-time 1RM pr, so Friday I will break a record in that as well. Its been a great run, and with more attention to my recovery I think I can ride the novice phase a little bit longer.

Oh, and a big thank you to Troy for buying a bunch of belts for the gym. Belts and shoes are indispensable.

So let’s review:
-Friday: Squat 320, was very hard, a few reps each set that were high
-Monday: Squat 325, was hard, but reps were strong
-Wednesday: Squat 330, was very hard, first rep of first set was slow, got 3 reps and knew a 4th wasn’t there

What does this tell us?  If we rule out that I’m a bitch on days not beginning with “M” then we should see that I’m no longer recovering from the squat in 48hrs.  So it’s advanced novice time.  I’d like to focus a little more on the clean and jerk, so I’ll be throwing those in now.  Last completed reps in novice progression:

BS: 325    Press: 139 (reps went very slow, so stalled)   Clean: 170 (doubles, was concentrating on speed)    DL: 375 (still goin strong!)

The (revised) proposed new program:

Monday:
-3×5 BS (starting at 300 this Friday I’ll add 5# per BS)
-5×5 Press
-Assistance

Wednesday:
-6×2 C&J (light)
-3×3 FS (need to feel out the starting weight)
-Assistance

Friday:
-3×5 BS (+5)
-3×3 (or 5×1) Press
-5×1 DL (I’ll continue to jump 10# per week)

Thoughts:  Modified it and it looks better.  More emphasis on press than clean and I think that’s apropriate at this point.  205 and only really need to coast up a few pounds.  I think it’s time to retighten down into more paleo ingredients.  I need to buy a SHITLOAD of meat.  Also will be eating almond butter with a spoon.  Huzzah!

It has been 2 weeks and I am finally feeling like I am myself again and I hope my nagging cough will continue to dissipate.  I felt strong under the bar yesterday!

Anyway I have made a slight change in my programming, I am still adhering to what Practical Programming would now call an “advanced novice” program, with just a bit more rest between heavy squat set training periods, and a less frequent use of the deadlift and the clean.

My old schedule looked like this:

Workout A                                        Workout B

Squat                                                   Squat

Bench Press                                      Press

Deadlift                                               Clean

Pretty standard setup, alterating on the Monday Wed, Friday workout schedule.

My program now looks like this:

Week 1

Workout A                                      Workout B                                          Workout C

Squat (Heavy)                                Squat (light)                                       Squat (Heavy)

Bench Press                                     Press                                                     Bench Press

Back Extensions                            Clean                                                   Back Extensions

Chin Ups                                                                                                          Chinups

Week 2

Workout A                                  Workout B                                    Workout C

Squat(Heavy)                        Squat (Light)                                    Squat(Heavy)

Press                                          Bench Press                                     Press

Deadlift                                     Back Extensions (weighted)     Cleans

Chinups (weighted)

So you should get the picture here, more rest between heavy squat days, more recovery in general as my recovery window for linear progression expands past the 48 hour window.

Also because of my stall\overtraining\sickness I took a reset on all my weights of 8%.  My last completed sets across and what I based the reset on were as follows…

Squat: 310   Press: 125  Deadlift: 310  Bench Press: 217  Clean 145

The Cleans were not at a reset point in that I can definately lift more weight, but my technique is sloppy, so I have no problem reseting that and trying to “clean” it up.

The deadlifts are troublesome for me, I have a past illiosoas (hip flexor) injury that is limiting me somewhat, but I am determined to increase that by at least 50lbs for sets across over the next 6 months.  The squats have helped my soas injury greatly though, and that is promising.

Anyway, this shit works, congrats to all of my training mates, they are working hard and hitting PRs every day.  Troy has been beasting it lately and rocked 325 for sets across on the squat as well as a pretty sweet 375 (i think) deadlift set yesterday.  Phil in particular has helped me sort through this annoying past couple of weeks and get back on track.  Jenn is becoming a good set of eyes to help my tweak my squat form, and is trying to set the record for longest workout ever I think.

I am going to let this adjusted program run its course and carry me through into an intermediate program. Grinddddd it out.