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 spent most of 2008 and 2009 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 

Having had some reasonable successes at the end of 2009 this week has been the end of the first week of a New Year.  Fixing the problems while also driving up the strength numbers are the priorities of the program and I’ve taken a different approach to the deadlift compared to last year.  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.

Here is where I’ve got to this week with my progress.

Squat

Action plan

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

Progress this week

I was starting to struggle with poor form on my rear foot elevated split squats, just with my left leg, because it’s too easy to lean forwards to get out of the squat with dumbbells, so I started using a barbell for the first time this week.  It’s been months since I last did back squats or anything else with a weighted bar across my shoulders so this new way of doing split squats is reminding my body what it feels like to have a bar across my shoulders as well as ensuring good form (if you lean forward on your way out of a split squat with a bar across your shoulders, you fall over, as I found out the first time I tried it). 

Good form has cost me 10kg of weight on the bar, but I felt strong on my right leg (where form hadn’t been a problem) and anticipate regaining the lost weight quickly enough.

Depth work has come on significantly and I am back down at 15.5 inches and it feels better than ever before.  15.5 inches puts the bottom of my thigh parallel to my knee so I need to drop about another 2 inches (one block off the pile) to get to parallel.  Here’s a video of how it looks:

It’s slow, because I’m concentrating hard and endlessly readjusting which muscles I’m keeping tight and pushing out at which stage (I still have to mentally cue almost every aspect of the movement) but I have high hopes for continued progression.  Oh yes, and it’s been well below freezing this week in the garage, so apologies for the old shapeless tracksuit…

Bench

Action plan

• Maintain -- technique
• Develop -- lat and shoulder strength

 Progress this week

There’s been a slight change to the program.  The max effort before Christmas reminded us that, even if you usually have good form, you need to keep working at it.  I’ve also always lacked confidence at bench press because I struggled to rack and unrack the bar without assistance.  So for the next month or two I’m doing bench press once a week, 10 sets of 4 reps so that I’m using a slightly lighter weight and can get plenty of practice in at racking, unracking and getting a consistently good bar path.

Week one was fantastic and I am a newly converted bench press lover.

To make space for the bench press day I’ve dropped my push press and pull ups to twice a week (from four times a week).  To compliment the benching I’ve included overhead presses for my second big arm movement each week to help build shoulder strength (in addition to the twice-weekly push presses) and I’m following both this and the bench with bent over rows to build lat strength (also achieved by the twice-weekly pull ups) and prevent injury.

In a week, my posture is looking better than ever which is probably something to do with the rows.

Deadlift

Action plan

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

Progress this week

Chris did some really detailed work with me on my form last Sunday and the conclusion was that I wasn’t far enough forward over the bar, so that I was pulling the bar back towards me as I came off the floor.

I’m working on rectifying that but I’ve had to drop back down to 60kg again.  I just couldn’t get it to move with 65kg on the bar.  I stood there for ages, but I felt like there was nothing to strain with.  I couldn’t even connect with the right muscles to lift it.  All communications were severed by the new position.

Long term, I think this form change will help.  While it knocks me back a bit now, I risk hitting a major plateau, or even injury, if I continue with incorrect form.  Since I got into weight-training for long-term health rather than competitions I’m willing to take the delay on my progress if it’ll make me a happier, healthier lifter in 20 years time.

As for lower back strength, I’ve started doing Romanian Deadlifts twice a week (which will, coincidentally, also help my hip mobility).  They’ve started well, but it’s early days.

Related posts:

1. Powerlifting progress 2010: week four
2. Powerlifting progress 2010: week three
3. Powerlifting progress 2010: week two
4. Powerlifting progress 2010: week thirty-four