13 Jul Dan Dalenberg- 7/11/14 Training and competition class thoughts

Week 2- 8 days out from the Global Bench War. Come check out this meet if you are in the area. Joe runs a great meet and has a pretty good roster. Personally, I’m looking forward to seeing Jimmy Kolb bench. He’s a multi-ply 242, young guy only 24 according to the roster. Huge bencher hit 950 at the Arnold. 950 is insane for any weight class but at 242 is just mindblowing. Can’t wait to see what he does next weekend.

Training

Close Grip Incline- 4 x 15

All 4 sets just with 135. More I was making sure my pec was feeling good. Just wanted to get a good pump bro. Feeling good. With the increased range of motion due to the close grip, I fashioned a  very fancy shoulder saver type attachment.

Three pairs of wrist wraps actually made a pretty effective shoulder saver pad. I was just thinking I carry too much crap in my gym bag, but then this happens.

Chest Supported Row- 4 x 12

70, 90, 110, 110

100 reps of both face pulls and pressdowns with a monster mini band.

Start Competing Open Class

Recently I was talking with the APF Michigan state chairs, Ezra Salmon and Joe Smolinski about hosting meets and all of the work that goes in to it. Ezra mentioned how many awards he always has to end up buying. His fall meet last year had around 60 lifters. He had to purchase around 60 medals….

THIS IS STUPID AS HELL. Powerlifting is a sport, start treating it like one. Competing against yourself and your own PRs is nice and I get it. I love hitting PRs and always push myself to hit bigger numbers every time out. But I also want to beat every single other lifter at the meet. At the end of the day I want to know that I won. I want to win my weight class and best lifter. I want people to look at the open 242 class and see that I beat the other guy(s). But so often there isn’t anyone else even in the class! They are lifting juniors or in the amateur division or masters 1 or police/fire…. and so on.

Start lifting OPEN. Fill up the weight classes. It’s fun. My last two meets I lifted in stacked classes. Most fun I’ve had at meets. In March at the XPC raw meet, I lifted 242 and came in third. The top three guys were within 100 pounds of each other. I missed a couple benches that kept me out of contention for 1st or 2nd. At Relentless last year I went 275 and also came in third there. Same deal, top 3 guys within 100 pounds of each other. It came down to deads that day and if Chad Dresden (2nd place) hadn’t pulled well he could have slipped into 3rd place. I didn’t even win either of these meets but it was so much fun. The competitive, gaming aspect to both days was awesome. It pushed all of us to be our best and made you be smart.

Here’s the reality of it: If you didn’t have to beat anyone to get your 1st place medal, or your federation age group drug tested special category record, it doesn’t mean shit. Start actually competing against other people, even if that means you step out of your comfort zone and into the open class. Maybe you place 5th, but you were smarter and stronger than the guy that came in 6th. That means something. An automatic trophy doesn’t. [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.

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