Currently I am less than 3 weeks out from my meet in New Jersey at the end of the month. RPS North American Championships is hosting an equipped meet on Sunday January 27^th. I have just finished up all of my lifts from 4 weeks out and I’m not really okay with the way my training has gone so far. If this were a local meet I would have pulled out for sure by now, but the trip has been paid for and I’m sticking with my commitment. After a good offseason program with raw PR’s in squat and deadlift, all 3 of my equipped lifts have decreased from where they have been before. It’s entirely too frustrating for me to try and figure out what’s been going on and why there has been a decline in my lifts, so the only thing I can do is bust my ass for the next 3 weeks and hope for the best on meet day. The last year of meets for me have been nothing but disappointments, so I’m going to do one of two things. I can play it safe and try to hit all of my lifts to get some momentum back, or I can just leave it all out there and hope for the best. Most likely I’ll be somewhere in between, hitting warmups for openers and then going for broke on the next two attempts. I’m not a fan of traveling far for meets just to hit my openers and below average second attempts, so I would rather miss something that would be a big PR than go home with another shitty meet.

Monday Deadlift Day

This was my second to last pull day scheduled, so I wanted to leave some room for next week. I worked up to top singles of 650 and 685, followed by a reverse band pull at 725. 685 moved slower than it has in the past, but I guess it’s still a good pull for right now.

Birddogs, Rolling Plank, McGill Curl Ups

Dynamic Frog warmup

Clam Shells

135×5

225×5

315×2

405×1

495×1

585×1

Top Sets: 650×1, 685×1, 725×1 RB

Thursday

Thursday was supposed to be my heavy squat day, but it turned out to be somewhat of a shit show. As I was warming up, I watched as the gym emptied out and not many people were there that I felt comfortable having spot me. I took the day to hit some light accessories and call it a day hoping for a better turn out on Saturday.

Saturday Squat Day

Probably one of the most up and down days I’ve ever had. There were just enough people there to help spot for 700+ squats, so I felt comfortable. Warmups felt alright but putting the white canvas suit on at about 15lbs heavier than I normally am started to have an effect on me. My feet were both numb under the squat bar, and I ended up missing a 725 squat that should have still been a warmup for me. I’ve hit 835 before and missing that squat killed me. I was done. I took the suit off, headed to my car and just sat there for a good 15 minutes just contemplating what the fuck was actually happening to me and my lifts. It wasn’t fun for me at that point in time. I love powerlifting, but watching myself regress in all three lifts during the past year has taken a toll on me. If I wasn’t waiting for my lifter to come in and hit his max deadlift, I would have already been home and done with it. After some thought I decided that I would try out my Inzer LUP suit again instead of the white canvas, just to see what would happen. Thankfully, I found the problem was that the white canvas was just too tight for me at a heavier weight, and it wouldn’t allow me to sit back and open up my hips like I needed to be doing. Wearing the LUP suit, I was able to warmup all over again 3 hours later and feel comfortable taking my top sets. I hit the smoothest and easiest 700 possible, followed by 750lbs that wasn’t perfect but far from missing the 725 a few hours earlier. I needed those squats, just to be able to breathe again. It felt good, and having all those guys at Boynton Barbell spotting and believing in my abilities as much as I should reminded me of why I do this. I’m tired of not performing to my abilities day in and day out this past year. Quitting is not something I am able to do, especially when it comes to this. I’ll find a way to address my issues that I have going on and eventually one of these days I will have a good meet. On that day I will remember how it feels to have the meet I have been chasing for the past 18 months. Until then I’ll keep plugging away day after day in order to get there.

Empty Bar x 20

145×5

235×5

325×3

415×1

505×1

595×1

685×1

725x MISS

3 Hour Break and Self Assessment

325×5

415×1

505×1

600×1

Top Sets: 700×1, 750×1