I am serious about wanting to qualify and compete at powerlifting. When I started out on this series there were several key problems, such as poor hip mobility. Having had some reasonable successes at the end of 2009, fixing the remaining problems while also driving up the strength numbers are now 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.
This week
A good week this week although I did cut out one of my upper body workouts (because I was too busy sitting in an armchair groaning to myself after our epic trip to the Lake District). However, the strongman workout went better than the previous week and I added more to my deadlift max than I had expected to do.
Strongman events
No extra weight on the max effort dumbbell overhead press, though a much better rep on the 20kg. Unfortunately I think I added too much weight for my next attempt, because 20kg had felt pretty easy (my face suggests it wasn’t as easy as it felt), and it didn’t get very far off my shoulder.
The effort of getting a 20kg press
I added another 2.5kg to my sandbag carries and got significantly less abuse from Chris about my form, so it must have been better. On farmer’s walks I got out a full 5 sets of 2 reps with some fantastic acceleration and deceleration along the straights. If I ever compete on this I’m going to be a wow at the corners, given that a rep for me on farmer’s walk involves turning round 4 times!
Taking the corner carefully
The strain starts to show in my face on the last lap, but my posture is holding well
Chris finally got his sledge built too (I’ve no doubt he’ll write about it eventually) so we had some good fun pulling and pushing the sledge around. I also got to learn about sledge hammering tyres. Unfortunately I made several large holes in the lawn at the same time. Whoops.
Bench
Action plan
- Maintain – technique
- Develop – lat and shoulder strength
Progress this week
I’m a little irritated with my pull ups. Since I dropped the number of reps and added weight instead I’ve found that my form is deteriorating and I don’t try to use my lats. Instead my traps are becoming dominant again. I think it’s because my body sees the low reps as a sort of max effort and does whatever it needs to crank out the reps. I wouldn’t mind except this trap-dominant form is carrying across to my warm up reps and even unweighted pull ups, so next week I’m going to drop the weight a bit and increase the reps. With two reps, your body will crank out reps in whatever way possible. With three or more reps it needs better form, at least for the first rep, otherwise it can’t get through all the reps. I’ll let you know how it goes.
I was pleased with my overhead press though, where I really learned the art of squeezing my back out to get extra range of motion this week. I’d find that at the start of the last few reps my lower back would curve inwards but concentrating on forcing it back out with my abs means the bar can go up further. Even that wasn’t enough for the last half rep of my final set, but since that’s all I missed the weight will still go up next week, which means that I will be attempting a PB of 28kg. Watch this space!
Squat
Action plan
- Maintain – leg strength and ab strength
- Develop – hip mobility and lower back strength
Progress this week
I finally couldn’t avoid it any more and did 5 sets of 2 reps on 60kg for my squat. Interestingly it felt pretty easy (well, not easy, but not really back-breakingly difficult either) so I’m tempted to put it up 3kg instead of 2kg next week. I really felt my centre back working to keep my body upright and avoid any swinging forward to get out of the hole which was really pleasing.
Overall, the good form continues. I am so pleased I spent the start of the year finally getting some hip mobility from the Romanian deadlifts.
Deadlift
Action plan
- Maintain – leg strength and ab strength
- Develop – hip mobility and lower back strength
Progress this week
It was back to conventional deadlift this week (I’m alternating conventional and sumo each week). I was going to go for a modest 1kg increase on my 1 rep max a fortnight ago but Chris talked me into a 2kg increase instead.
I was really pleased I did it. I pulled 82kg, a PB for my conventional deadlift, and the bar moved a whole lot faster than it did on my 80kg max the other week (though still pretty slow). I was pleased with my form, with my knee only just curving in a bit halfway through the lift, so I really couldn’t complain. Next week, who knows? Perhaps I’ll try 84kg. I may even get to 90kg (my BDFPA Nationals qualifying weight) with conventional deadlift before I go on holiday in mid-May.
I’m still doing my deadlift off a small 1 inch platform and I’ve decided that once I get to 90kg I’m going to drop the weight a bit and lose the platform and build up again. Until I can pull 90kg without some height assistance, I won’t classify it as properly qualifying.
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