Not Just a Man's World

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 had my one workout off so that I only did one squat and bench workout, keeping my deadlift and sandbag workouts in.  I feel like I am starting to stall on my lifts, which is absurd when I put the weight up on everything and got all my reps out (except bench where I’m now at a weight where I need a few attempts at each weight to complete it).

I think it’s more of a mental issue, rather than a physical one, partly caused by the weight loss diet I’ve been on for the last couple of months.  To deal with it I’ve called a truce on the dieting for now.  I’ve got lots of stress on at work so the cortisol is impeding any fat loss attempts.  I may as well be cheery and maintain my current weight until things calm down a bit, rather than cutting calories and seeing very little return for my effort other than feeling rubbish.  At least I’ll then feel in a better state to do my weight training.

Strongman events

Sandbag carries were tough.  They hurt my arms less, since I’ve finally got to a weight where I could replace the plates in the bag with another bag of sand (bags of sand weigh 20kg and I’m too lazy to turn them into lots of 2.5kg bags of sand).  However it was really tough to not turn them into back lifts and the increased girth of the sandbag changed the way I had to approach it.  By the last rep I was getting into a good groove though.

Bench

Action plan

• Maintain – technique
• Develop – lat and shoulder strength

 Progress this week

I decided to keep going at bench after all.  I’ve been rolling the knots in my back, upper arms and shoulders twice a day for a week now and it seemed to pay off.  I was definitely in less pain for my bench workout this week than I have been for a couple of weeks.  The pain happens in the mornings and evenings when I’m rolling instead!

Having put the weight up a kilo, and since Chris was busy training someone and couldn’t spot me or help me to get the bar off the rack each time, I didn’t get a particularly good number of reps out.  I did manage two sets of four reps, a set of three and then the remaining seven sets as pairs.  Not a bad attempt for a new weight when I was racking the bar myself so I wasn’t disappointed.

Interestingly, the worst of the knots are in my lats and rotator cuff muscles, almost certainly due to the stress those muscles have been under for the last year or two while they’ve undergone some enormous development. 

Having started out with zero upper body development in those areas and unable to bench an empty 10kg bar, even when it was placed for me by Chris, I’m now in a situation where I can get a bar off the rack to bench it with 35kg.  In fact, my arms have developed so much that I tried to put on a cardigan on Thursday that I last wore about a year ago and I could only get it halfway up my arms before the sleeves got stuck – the cardigan used to be quite loose!

Remembering where I’ve come from is what causes me to be satisfied with my progress, even when it is slowing down a bit.

Squat

Action plan

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

Progress this week

I’m now beating a path to my updated BDFPA Nationals qualifying weight of 72.5kg.  There was only one squat workout this week but I got out all the reps (10 sets of three reps) on my new weight of 70kg.  I could hardly believe it.  Especially since this was my hard session.

I’ve been putting the weight up 2kg each session in a consistent way for a couple of months now, which is truly amazing having stalled so dramatically back in March.  I’ve noticed though that every other workout is quite easy.  It’s almost as if I do a really tough workout, my body reacts by putting on new muscle but puts on more than I need to squat something that is 2kg heavier.  The next time it seems pretty easy and the consequence seems to be that I don’t put on as much muscle.  Only just enough to go up another 2kg.  Then I’m back to a really tough workout the next time.

Fingers crossed that this means 72kg on my next workout will be relatively easy!

Deadlift

Action plan

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

Progress this week

Having not managed to get all my reps out last week, I decided that I had got enough out to put the weight up.  Imagine my surprise when I then got all my reps out this week on the new weight! 

My PB on deadlift is 82.5kg.  Since this week saw me doing 5 sets of 4 clustered singles (essentially 4 reps with a count of 10 between each rep) on 2 minutes I should confidently be able to pull more than my PB.  However, I’ll only be truly satisfied when I can do my cluster workout on my PB weight.  Then I’ll be comfortable that I’ve got there.

Since I’m on holiday for week 25 it will be another month before I get to try this feat.

Related posts:

1. Powerlifting progress 2010: week twenty
2. Powerlifting progress 2010: week twenty-one
3. Powerlifting progress 2010: week twenty-two
4. Powerlifting progress 2010: week twenty-nine