Brian Carroll | 10/20/Life precontest | Week 5 Day 2 | Bench press Flop

I've recently switched to a pre-contest approach using the 10/20/Life method. I've only been back to training for about 30 weeks, and shoulder has been cooperative, with very few roadblocks and setbacks. Huge thanks to Andrew Lock for the help in my shoulder progressions and understanding a better way to incorporate more efficient cervical, thoracic, and rotator/shoulder training into my approach. Blue and I will be competing in December to qualify for the WPO Semi-finals/XPC Worlds. I need to achieve a top 30 by a coefficient (Glossbrenner) to qualify. The goal is not to peak for this meet, but to get a total. Blue will be joining me for his first meet in about 10 years. I will be lifting at 308 for the first time besides a bench only meet or two.

I will be gone later this year for 2 weeks for work, and won’t be able to ‘powerlift’ so this is going to throw a wrench in my plans for the meet on Dec 7 but I will still have plenty of training in. But, it’s an opportunity I cannot pass up. I will stay on a good diet, and have plenty of time to get the raw work done that I need to do. More on this soon.

As my last update said, travel has tossed off my training schedule some. This session was complete garbage, btw.

Week 5, Day 2 Wed Bench

Normal 10/20/Life Warm-up

Training:

  • Bench with Iron Wolfe bar: 325, 415 then added SDP 550, 685, 775, 825 – miss and miss
  • Sat and complained x10

 

I didn’t feel very good on this day but I made myself bench. I don’t know that is was the right choice but it’s done now. I was in a sour mood and frankly tired. Nothing went right and I kept losing my air and about passed out a few times. Nothing felt light, it all felt very heavy. My forearms are now smoked too!

The takeaway from this: be grateful that I’m healthy enough to lift, have a great place to lift and finally that I get to do it so often. If I have a bad day on occasion, then so be it, it happen.

I have a few weeks of big lifts coming, so I need to move forward. I really didn’t even want to do this entry but it’s necessary if I’m being honest about my training. Like I said a few posts ago, this cycle is a bit of an experiment and I have no idea how it’s going to go.

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Brian Carroll

Owner and Founder at PowerRackStrength.com
Brian is a retired world-class powerlifter with over two decades of world-class powerlifting. From 1999 to 2020, Brian Carroll was a competitive powerlifter, one of the most accomplished lifters in the sport's history. Brian started off competing in bench press competitions 'raw,' then, shortly into the journey, he gravitated toward equipped lifting as there were no "raw" categories then. You only had to choose from single-ply (USPF) and Multi-ply (APF/WPC). Brian went on to total 2730 at 275 and 2651 at 242 with more than ten times his body weight in three different classes (220, 242, 275), and both bench pressed and deadlifted over 800 pounds in two other weight classes. He's totaled 2600 over 20 times in 2 different weight classes in his career. With 60 squats of 1000lbs or more officially, this is the most in powerlifting history, regardless of weight class or federation, by anyone not named David Hoff. Brian realized many ups and downs during his 20+ years competing. After ten years of high-level powerlifting competition and an all-time World Record squat at 220 with 1030, in 2009, Brian was competing for a Police academy scholarship. On a hot and humid July morning, Brian, hurdling over a barricade at 275lbs, landed on, fell, and hurt his back. After years of back pain and failed therapy, Brian met with world-renowned back specialist Prof McGill in 2013, which changed his trajectory more than he could have imagined. In 2017, Brian Carroll and Prof McGill authored the best-selling book about Brian's triumphant comeback to powerlifting in Gift of Injury. Most recently (10.3.20) -Brian set the highest squat of all time (regardless of weight class) with 1306 lbs – being the first man to break the 1300lb squat barrier at a bodyweight of 303 lbs.
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