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.

This series 

This week has been the end of the fifth week 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 recording my progress in this series: powerlifting progress.  It is serving as a journal and makes me a bit more accountable to my goals.

As this was the last week for training in 2009 (I’m off on holiday next week), I took the opportunity to do some max effort testing.  Here is where it got to.

Squat

Action plan

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

Progress this week

• Well the hip mobility work hasn’t seen any improvement to my squat depth.  I’m still at 15.5 inches.  However, I don’t have the same trouble getting my form right on the first attempt, so something is working.
• I also had a go at some Romanian Deadlifts (RDLs) and the hip drive on those was promising, so I’m hopeful that even if I haven’t progressed as far as I wanted to by the end of 2009, I’m definitely moving in the right direction.

Bench

Action plan

• Maintain – technique
• Develop – lat and shoulder strength

 Progress this week

Wow!  I haven’t tried doing any benching since the summer.  Instead I have solely focussed on exercises that worked my weak areas.  In particular I’ve done a huge amount on my lat and shoulder strength.  It has definitely paid off.  In the summer I maxed out on about 30kg (it may have been 31kg, but I can’t find the records for that patch of time). 

We took it slowly, starting out at 20kg and Chris slowly built the weight up as we went.  He also helped get the bar in position so that I didn’t have to bring the bar back down to my chest at any point (which has historically fatigued me a lot).

And the result?

38kg!  And a solid 38kg at that.  We did reckon that I could have had a fair shot at 40kg which is the qulifying weight for my weight class in BDFPA at the moment, but I would have had to go away for 10 mins of rest first and Chris was getting cold stood about in our garage so we called it a day.

So the proof is in the pudding – working on the weaknesses rather than specifically working on my bench press every week has put an enormous amount of weight onto the bar!

Deadlift

Action plan

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

Progress this week

I’ve got mixed feelings about this.  Chris and I did a joint max effort test on Christmas Eve.  I starting failing reps at 75kg, which is disappointing given that I completed 10 sets of 2 reps (on 1 min 30 secs) at 80kg only a month ago.  However, with a bit of anger (at my weakness) I managed to get the bar to move on the third attempt at 75kg and on the second attempt at 80kg.  So I definitely still have the strength in there.

Determined to prove a point I then loaded the bar up to 82.5kg and completed it on the second attempt.  Despite riskily trying 85kg as well, I called it a day after my first attempt of that got it an inch off the blocks.  I just didn’t have the stamina to give it another go.

So I’ve got a new PB of 82.5kg but I’m still 7.5kg off the qualifying weight, I’m still deadlifting with the weight raised an inch off the ground, and given my previous performance of double reps at 80kg I really should have been able to go a bit further on singles.  But I can’t complain really. 

His and hers max effort deadlift workout!

All in all it’s been an ok year in 2009 and I think I might take the bench press approach to my deadlift in 2010, working on the weaknesses of my lower back and hip mobility without actually working my deadlift for a little while.

Related posts:

1. Powerlifting progress 2011: week thirty
2. Powerlifting progress: week nine
3. Powerlifting progress 2010: week thirty-five
4. Powerlifting progress 2010: week forty-four (fat loss: week six)