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 the last week before my holiday. I did my “strongman” workout (essentially the same as my deadlift workout, but replacing the deadlift with sandbag carries), but found myself under the bar the next day about to start my main squat work set and unable to get enough mental strength together.
I’m mentally exhausted, ready for a holiday, and the thought of doing 15 minutes of heavy squatting followed by 15 minutes of heavy benching defeated me. However, I needed to do something, since I’m having next week off (walking in the Alps).
The answer was to use my remaining 3 workouts to do a max effort test on each of my three powerlifting moves. I last tested my 1 rep max on Christmas Eve so this was long overdue. But has all my hard work over the last few months made a difference?
Bench
At Christmas I was able to bench 38kg for a single. My BDFPA qualifying weight is 42.5kg and I’ve really struggled to get improvements on my bench. It is, by far, the slowest of my exercises to improve.
Imagine my pleasure on finding I could easily do 40kg and even managed 42kg with a slow grind. I did attempt 43kg but could only get it a foot off my chest. So I’m somewhere between 42 and 43kg. Which side of 42.5kg that is, I’m not sure, but it suggests I could hit my qualifying weight easily with a bit more work.
Squat
This didn’t get tested at Christmas because at that time I couldn’t even get to parallel. So much has changed over the first 23 weeks of 2010.
I knew I’d done ten sets of three reps on 70kg and only need 72.5kg for my BDFPA Nationals qualifying weight so I was assured of surpassing that on my single. The hardest part was knowing what weight to start with. In the end, after easily doing 75kg, I went for 80kg and got that with such speed that we thought there was still plenty in the tank.
Following long deliberation I went for 83kg, got all the way down (which was a feat in itself, I’ve never had something that heavy on my back) and started coming out of the hole before hitting a bit of a brick wall. I think I could maybe have pushed through it if I’d not cared about preserving my knees and rocked forward as my body was trying to do, but knee preservation meant I went back down to sit on the chair and wait to be unloaded by Chris.
Given that I moved a little out of the hole I am suspicious that 82kg would have been a successful (if slow) grind, but even at 80kg I can’t be disappointed.
Deadlift
Action plan
- Maintain – leg strength and ab strength
- Develop – hip mobility and lower back strength
Progress this week
My starting point on this was 82.5kg on Christmas Eve. Possibly the worst 82.5kg in the world. At the time I had a major weakness in one leg and glute so that one knee caved inwards and the whole bar swayed sideways as it crawled upwards.
Positive number one was that the bar never wavered off a direct up and down path. There weren’t even vestiges of one glute/leg being significantly stronger than the other and causing the bar to sway over.
My second issue was that I’d been deadlifting close to 82.5kg for some time. I’ve peaked at a weight between 80kg and 82.5kg several times and not managed to get past it. Every time I think I’m nearly there my form suddenly decays and I’m left unable to lift anything heavier than 70kg again.
Positive number two was that I lifted 80kg with no problem and lifted a further 85kg and then 87kg, so I’m definitely through my 82.5kg blockade.
Finally, my national qualifying weight for this is 90kg. Having done 87kg I thought that it was moving pretty slowly and while I might have 88kg in me, I didn’t think I had any more than that. However, in the spirit of adventure (and deciding that there was no point in wasting my efforts on 88kg since I’d done 87kg just about fast enough to be fairly sure of 88kg) I would have a laugh and try 90kg.
Chris hadn’t watched the 87kg but he came to watch the momentous effort of 90kg.
I pulled and I pulled. Apparently I turned a superb deep maroon colour. For a brief few moments it felt like the plates were skimming over the raised plates on which they rest (though only by millimetres) but beyond that there was nothing. I’m definitely not there yet.
I’m not upset. My squat is well over qualifying weight and my bench is about there, so a few more months of dedicated effort should get it reliably over. To only be 3kg off my deadlift weight, given the trouble I’ve had with that for the last few years (you only need to read back through these Powerlifting Progress posts to read the trials and tribulations of my deadlifting) is nothing short of a miracle.
So yes, I’m pleased with my powerlifting progress.
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