USAPL Masters Nationals

For the first time in my powerlifting career I was on the national stage Saturday, and for the first time in my career, I thought a bomb-out was a real possibility.  I've never had a worse training cycle.  With my shoulder problems I haven't benched more than 205 recently, and I quit benching entirely a month or six weeks ago.  My left hamstring has been screaming at me even on air squats when I go not just below, but even close to parallel.  Near the end of my squat cycle I had to abandon my plan and train intuitively; I squatted twice in April, and my best squat below parallel was 355 pounds.  Deadlifting became impossible with the hamstring, and I stopped pulling also over a month ago.

I know that competition brings out my best, often far exceeding what I can do in training, so I decided to relax and go in with a good attitude, but I was in no way sure that would be enough to avoid embarrassment.  I thought it wouldn't be worth any extra stress to cut to 83 kilos, so I lifted at 93 kilos while weighing in at just under 86 kg.

I found embarrassment enough at the equipment check when I learned that there was no raw division.  The meet was entirely equipped, and while I'm not sure if I'll ever lift in full gear, I would have trained in and used knee wraps if I had known they were allowed.  I decided that my problems were really no worse than they had been for the last several weeks anyway, and I resolved to lift as much as I could.

Squats:

My warm up was adequate but not great.  I took a couple singles at 315 and decided that my opener at 355 would just have to go.  A few months ago I though I could get out of bed at 5 am, take the morning piss, and squat 355 with no warm up or coffee, but I wasn't so sure here.

I sank it.  Three white lights.

I decided to jump to 374 which also was not a problem.  Three white lights.

I was gaining momentum, and I thought there was no point in trying less than 400, so I loaded up 402 and ended up just a touch high.  One white, two reds.

Third squat attempt.

Bench Press:

Here my lack of pressing showed.  I went up to 205 in the warm up and it felt like a ton.

I opened at 220 and had no problem.  Three whites.

I went to 235 and again got three whites.

I decided to try 248, and while it went up much easier than I expected, my butt left the bench.  I've gotten away with worse benches in competition, but these national judges were good: one white, two reds.

Deadlift:

This threatened to be an absolute disaster.  I know that strength-wise I can trust my deadlift to be good enough as long as my squat is working, but the sumo deadlift is technical and my technique was nowhere to be found after the multi-week layoff.

135 felt light like it should, but as soon as I put more weight on the bar in the warm up room I started falling over backwards.  I kept falling over until I got to 315 pounds, and then while I didn't topple, 315 felt like a maximal attempt.  I decided to shut down the warm up before I gave myself even more problems.

I opened at 355 pounds, and while it felt much heavier than it should have, I was able to grind it out.  Three whites.

I was not really interested in doing less than I have before, so I asked for 402 pounds for my second attempt.  My set up was bad, and I was barely able to break the bar off the floor and do a static hold before  giving up.  Three reds.

Second deadlift attempt.  What I like here, though, is that you can see me look at the bar before leaving the platform and try to figure out what went wrong.

I knew that my set up allowed the bar to creep in front of me.  It was also clear to me that on my next attempt, also at 402 pounds, I would have to concentrate on accelerating the bar all the way up.

I walked out determined on my third attempt to search for my former technique.  On this one you can see me stop to put my head on straight before approaching the bar.  I was collecting both my thought and aggression next to the loader at the back of the platform.  When he put away his smart phone and told me, "you got this," I knew it was time to go.

I had no problems getting the bar well away from the platform, but had to grind a little to lock out.  Three whites, a cloud of chalk, and a high-five for the loader/coach.

I ended up totaling over a thousand pounds, which is not good but it was more than I thought I could do.

As I think about it now, I'm happy that I decided to compete.  I think that after surgery this week with the month long recovery I'll need, my body will be ready to perform again, and I'll lose the fear of further injury. I took it as a good sign that I can have my worst training cycle ever and still have enough residual strength to do what I did.  I'm sure I have a great base to build off of when my body and mind are ready to go again, I think I'll be able to lift some much more respectable numbers when I compete again.  (I'm publicly secretly hoping for August.)

I'd like to thank the USAPL and Colorado USAPL for running a spectacular meet.  The judging was strict without being sadistic, and the meet ran very orderly and on time.

I'd like to thank VP for the video, and DB for virtually everything.

I'll be in surgery Tuesday, and under the bar as soon as possible.

Hey, did you notice that hook grip with 402 pounds?

Cheers.