11 Nov Dan Dalenberg- 1500 to 2000, Part 2: Getting Closer

As a part of my meet write up for Relentless Detroit I would like to share more information on my background and growth through 10/20/Life. This is 1500-2000 Part 2, Getting Closer.

After the XPC Raw finals in March 2014 I knew I was getting closer. And frankly, that meet left a bad taste in my mouth. I was capable of more than 1900, probably closer to 1950. I also placed out of the money and I was PISSED at about it. I wanted to WIN and I wanted to put up the numbers I was capable of doing.

I knew I wasn’t going to do another full meet until Relentless. This gave me a very long off season, allowed me to do a bench only meet and have some fun. I wanted to experiment a little bit with my squat stance and knew I needed to put in some work to total 2000+. I put my focus in a few different areas:

1. Peaking Correctly– I had a long off season. It was really boring. Like torture. It would have been much more fun to smash weights all summer and become a youtube hero. But turns out being a youtube hero doesn’t count towards your total. So I turned up my training at the appropriate times, focused on recovery and staying injury free.
2. Working weak points– My core stability was holding me back big time. Definitely was keeping my deadlift back. I wasn’t able to hold a good position to pull big weights. This is honestly what I believe allowed me to PR big time on both my squat and pull this year. I lived the McGill 3. Thousands of bird dogs, curl ups and planks. I hammered this and my pull climbed all year.
3. Being less fat– In July I felt like garbage and looked kind of bad. I was fat, out of shape and wanted to be a harder 250. After the Can-Am bench meet Brian and I decided I should drop some weight. I didn’t really diet, just stopped eating so much bullshit and walked a lot more. I very quickly dropped from the high 250s to the high 230s. I felt much better and was still quite strong. When Relentless prep started, I started eating like crazy again. But this time like less of a jerk. No more entire boxes of Little Debbies driving home from the gym and generally less crap. My bodyweight came back fast, but I felt better, looked better and my strength shot through the roof.
4. Allowing for recovery– This was a huge part of bringing up my squat and pull at the same time. I was moving some heavy weight and beating on my body. I had to very carefully ride the line of pushing too hard. Thankfully a combination of training squats and pulls the same day, as well as regular deloads I stayed healthy. In fact, I know some people think I undertrained. Even guys from my gym think that, asking me why I never push to failure. I generally believe your body only has so many big attempts in it, at least over a given training cycle. I want those lifts to be on the platform so my training might seem light, but I’m pushing for bigger totals, not to be a gym hero.

The training cycle went really well! I got stronger, bigger and better overall. I was going into the meet with an ambitious goal and knew I was strong enough to get it. [share title=”Share this Article” facebook=”true” twitter=”true” google_plus=”true” linkedin=”true” pinterest=”true” reddit=”true” email=”true”][author title=”About the Author”]

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Daniel Dalenberg

Dan Dalenberg is a pro level raw and equipped powerlifter with elite totals in the 220, 242 and 275 class. Best official raw meet lifts include an 804 squat, 507 bench press, 715 dead lift and 2006 total. Best equipped lifts include an 950 squat, 715 bench, 735 deadlift and 2400 total at 242. Dan has been training under Brian's guidance using the 10/20/Life methodology since late 2010.

Latest posts by Daniel Dalenberg (see all)

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