Not Just a Man's World

I am serious about wanting to qualify and compete at powerlifting, but at the moment there are a few key problems:

1. I’ve just spent the last two years trying to improve my form and find the weaknesses that were being masked by poor form (like my abs) and working hard at eliminating weaknesses.  I’m not there yet, but I’m definitely moving in the right direction.  However, the flip side of that is that I’ve not done any proper powerlifting moves for a while and my good form weights are below qualifying weights.
2. My hip mobility is dreadful so I can’t squat deep enough and it hinders how much I can deadlift.
3. When I bench, I can’t stabilise the bar once there’s a mildly heavy weight on it and I tend to fail about halfway up.

Thinking about it…

The first of those is really just an excuse.  I wouldn’t reverse the good work I’ve done for anything and I believe that every moment was worthwhile.

I have unpleasant memories of squatting 140% bodyweight when I had insufficient ab strength, losing control of the bar and falling over backwards with it.  My back was sore for a while afterwards, since my first instinct was to try to stop the bar from falling (my second instinct was to not be so ridiculous and let go – fortunately I didn’t crack the concrete floor).

The second is a real problem and the desk job and driving doesn’t help.  But there is no excuse.  I don’t do my hip mobility work as thoroughly as I ought to and as a consequence I am nowhere near parallel.  Until that is fixed I’m not competing anywhere.

The third point I’ve been working on and I’ve been seeing a lot of improvement recently.

This series 

This week saw the start of a new program designed to see me through into the New Year.  Fixing the problems while also driving up the strength numbers are the priorities of the program.  I’m going to write about my progress in this new series: powerlifting progress.  It will serve as a journal and make me a bit more accountable to my goals.

Here are my thoughts about where I am on each of the exercises, what the main challenges are and what I need to work on. 

Squat

Strengths

• Confidence – I have squatted 70kg to depth with atrocious form (and was probably a danger to myself) so I know what it’s like to have that kind of weight on my back.   
• Leg strength – I have been working really hard at my rear-foot-elevated split squats and these are going well.  I have managed 40kg for 10 sets of 3 reps, which suggests my legs are where they need to be.
• Ab strength – what was a weakness is becoming a strength as I work my dragon flags harder.

Weaknesses

• Hip mobility – this is still really bad and I need about another 6″ of depth before I can do a proper squat with good form.
• Lower back strength – this is still a weakness as I’ve found it really hard to train the lower back with bad hip mobility.  You don’t really have a very large range of motion to work through!

Action plan

• Maintain – leg strength and ab strength
• Develop – hip mobility and lower back strength

Modifications needed to workouts

• Reduce volume of leg and ab work in favour of more lower back work
• Increase amount of hip mobility work and monitor for improvement

Bench

Strengths

• Technique- I am fairly comfortable with the arch and the foot position that a powerlifting bench press needs.  I can keep the bar coming down roughly in the same place on each rep and my wrists are straight.   

Weaknesses

• Stability- my lats aren’t strong enough to keep my shoulders in the right place as the weight gets heavier.
• Shoulder strength – my shoulders are weak compared to my arms so I tend to fail about halfway off my chest.

Action plan

• Maintain – technique
• Develop – lat and shoulder strength

 Modifications needed to workouts

• Increase the amount of pull-ups I do
• Do more vertical pressing

Deadlift

Strengths

• Leg strength – I think my leg strength means that my legs aren’t the weak point on deadlifts.
• Upper back strength - my traps are fairly happy with deadlifting, probably from the Olympic work I did for a while.  
• Ab strength – what was a weakness is becoming a strength as I work my dragon flags harder.

Weaknesses

• Lower back strength – if I fail on a deadlift it is because my lower back gives out.
• Hip mobility – I tend to do low rack pulls instead of deadlifts because I struggle to get all the way down without my lower back tucking under.

Action plan

• Maintain – leg strength and ab strength
• Develop – hip mobility and lower back strength

Modifications needed to workouts

• Reduce volume of leg and ab work in favour of more lower back work
• Increase amount of hip mobility work and monitor for improvement

I need to have a think about how I’m going to implement all of these modifications, so I’ll post about these next week.

 Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some hip mobility work to do…

Related posts:

1. Powerlifting progress: week five
2. Powerlifting progress: week three
3. Powerlifting progress: week two
4. Powerlifting progress: week four