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
I must confess that I dislike the first week back in the gym after a holiday. I never know what to expect – after some holidays I am completely invigorated and can lift more than when I went away, after others (especially the more active endurance holidays, both cycling and walking) I find I’ve lost some strength and need to drop my numbers.
Not wanting to lose too much progress my starting point is usually to repeat the weights I did on my last workout before I went away, if I’m not using the holiday break as an opportunity to change the workouts. On some occasions this results in a depressing first workout when I find that I’ve lost strength, but it’s a risk worth taking.
So, did I lose strength this time?
Strongman events
We’ve decided to change the strongman workouts slightly. Mostly because it’s getting rather tedious carrying quite so many plates from the garage at the front of the house round to the back garden. We need to work out a solution to that.
In the meantime I’ve kept the sandbag carries but I’m then tagging on the bent over rows and good mornings that I also do after my deadlifts mid-week. This should help with a speedier increase to my lower back strength and will help balance out the twice-a-week bench press workout that I do and hopefully prevent me from getting rounded shoulders.
I was satisfied to find that I was able to manage all my sandbag lifts with the same bag as pre-holiday. Since this was the very first thing I did post-holiday it was a good sign.
Bench
Action plan
- Maintain – technique
- Develop – lat and shoulder strength
Progress this week
I managed to bench the same weight as post holiday and felt that my arch-form was better so that I could use my legs and glutes for additional strength. If anything the weight felt easier than it had felt pre-holiday.
The second workout was a different experience. For the first time I found my bench weight really tough and for the first time I started to worry that I may not get all my reps out.
If Chris had been home I would have tried, but by rep two on my final set I was really struggling to get the bar in the air and a sudden concern crossed my mind. While Chris’s sticking point tends to be halfway up, just above the pins, so he can shift slightly and drop the bar on the pins if he fails a rep, my sticking point is getting it off my chest at the start of the move. If I failed on my third rep I would be left, pinned to the bench. With Chris out I wouldn’t be able to get his assistance to rack the bar.
So I gave up and dropped two reps. I now wait with trepidation for the next workout to see how I handle the next weight up (on a “ten sets of four reps” workout it would be foolish to keep the same weight with only two reps dropped).
I have certainly lost some lat strength. My pull up numbers since my last workout have reduced back to where they were nearly two months ago. This wasn’t surprising. In my early pull up days I kept finding myself back at square one, unable to do any pull ups after each holiday. At least this time I could get out some reps, even if I had dropped 17 reps (I regained ten of these reps on the second workout)!
Squat
Action plan
- Maintain – leg strength and ab strength
- Develop – hip mobility and lower back strength
Progress this week
Squats are excellent. I squeezed out ten sets of three reps with a new weight this week. In fact it’s also the biggest weight I got to a few months ago when I was doing max effort workouts and did a five rep max so, looking at the long-term view, there’s definitely some big improvements going on.
With only a few kilos to go to get to the BDFPA nationals qualifying weight I’m expecting progress to start to slow. For the first time the weight felt really tough and I suspect there was some poor form creeping in on a few of the final reps.
I was surprised to find that my hips hadn’t stiffened up too much from the cycling holiday and even more pleasing was the fact that my good mornings felt stronger than they had been pre-holiday. My lower back is certainly feeling in a good place.
Deadlift
Action plan
- Maintain – leg strength and ab strength
- Develop – hip mobility and lower back strength
Progress this week
I have got to the point where I spend most of the day leading up to my deadlift workout dreading it. I was therefore satisfied to complete the same weight as pre-holiday, although I think my form was starting to suffer on the last few reps.
Deadlift workouts usually happen on Tuesdays and I’m already dreading putting the weight up 2kg next week!
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