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
It was a fantastic week in the gym and as such I intend awarding myself one workout off at the start of next week. While it has only been a few weeks since my holiday, my holiday wasn’t entirely restful for my body, I’ve seen storming progress on everything in the three weeks since I got back and I am still on a fat loss diet. I need to be sure I don’t overdo it and push myself to the point of needing a whole week off.
Strongman events
Sandbag carries seemed even easier this week. I’d swear that 2.5kg is too easy an increase these days except that I did find that I had to get Chris to help me getting the sandbag out of the shed. I do my sandbag lifts off a platform while the shed floor was quite a bit lower. If I ever want to do a strongman event I would need to be able to lift the weight off the floor, so I’ve got quite a way to go on this!
Bench
Action plan
- Maintain – technique
- Develop – lat and shoulder strength
Progress this week
I’m beginning to find knots forming in my back from each bench workout and I keep needing to roll afterwards to keep my rhomboids soft enough. I’m wondering if this is a sign of a need to change my routine and move away from benching for a while.
My form is generally good though I have also now hit a weight where I had to do a couple of workouts at the same weight. By the end of the week I managed 8 sets of 4 reps on 34kg before I had to drop to 3 reps so it is time to put the weight up another kilo.
My pull ups are improving, although I think that is mostly to do with my weight loss rather than strength increases. In comparison I finally hit the wall on my bent over rows. My form died out and I could no longer pull the bar up. Unfortunately 1kg makes a huge difference to my rows so dropping the weight a bit isn’t an option. Instead I’ve swapped over to T-Bar rows to give my body a change and challenge my back and arm muscles in a new way.
Overall I’m finding the whole bench and arm-specific exercises exceptionally tough. Do the knots mean I need to change my workout for a while or should I just keep rolling and benching since bench is, ultimately, a great full body exercise?
Squat
Action plan
- Maintain – leg strength and ab strength
- Develop – hip mobility and lower back strength
Progress this week
Those of you who follow me on Twitter will already know that I hit my qualifying weight on my back squats for BDFPA Nationals this week. Unfortunately it turns out that since I set up my records pages the qualifying weights have changed so I’ve got another 4.5kg to go now. In some ways that’s helpful and I don’t mind. It means I’ve still got something concrete to aim for.
Chris watched my last (tenth) set and told me that my form was holding well. In fact, I felt that my form was better on 68kg than it had been earlier in the week on 66kg. The small of my back certainly didn’t ache at all.
Since I’m going well with these and seem to be gaining strength without the quality breaking down I’m planning on continuing with the current squat routine, including my current choice of supplementary exercises (Good Mornings, Hip Thrusts etc) which seem to be targeting the right areas.
Deadlift
Action plan
- Maintain – leg strength and ab strength
- Develop – hip mobility and lower back strength
Progress this week
Finally I hit a weight which I couldn’t complete all my reps on. They were turning into back lifts rather than using my glutes. I found that my glutes were burning too much for the last rep and simply refused to participate on that last rep. After 2 sets I stopped doing the final rep and instead completed the final 3 sets with one less rep.
Question: do I put the weight up having done 2 sets of 4 reps and 3 sets of 3 reps or do I stick on the current weight until I can do more of the reps?
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