02 Jun Lab Rat – RPS Redemption Meet Recap

This past Saturday I competed at the RPS Redemption meet in Fort Myers.  Bert and Mindy Underwood did an outstanding job from start to finish running this meet.  It was great to see how much this meet has grown since last year, I’m already looking forward to next year!  Team Power Rack Strength, 10/20/Life and Team Samson had a hell of a presence all weekend, make sure you read some of the other team members meet wrap ups, many PR’s were crushed along with a World Record!

Friday was pretty uneventful – laying in bed being lazy, rehydrating, and eating was the plan for the day.  Many of the team members and close friends got together for dinner at Cantina Laredo then destroyed gallons of ice cream and yogurt.

I lifted in the afternoon session Saturday so I deemed it more important to sleep in vs. meeting everyone for breakfast.  I was in and out of the meet most of the day, assisting at times but mainly staying off my feet and relaxing.  The afternoon sessions was split into three flights which worked extremely well for Adam and Byrd.  Almost gave them a breather between wrapping knees, almost.

Squat

• 2 x 5 w/145
• 235 x 4
• 345 x 2
• 425 x 1
• 500 x 1 (light wrap – this didn’t move as quick as I would have liked, had a quick flashback to the Arnold and shook it off)
• Opener 550 – good lift.  I buried this one, several inches below parallel.  I knew what happened right away and Adam suggested he call me up on my second attempt.
• 2nd Attempt 580 – good lift.  5lb PR.  3, 2, 1, UP count was perfect, Adam got me exactly where I needed to be.
• 3rd Attempt 600 – no lift.  This will be my second attempt next meet, trust me.

Bench

• Bar x 10
• 2 x 5 w/ 135
• 225 x 5
• 275 x 2
• 315 x 1
• 365 x 1 (following comp commands, bench was feeling stronger than ever at this point)
• Opener 405 – good lift.  Quick and easy, hit a tad high on my chest.
• 2nd Attempt 425 – good lift.  Again quick and easy, much better grove.
• 3rd Attempt 440 – good lift.  This was a 10lb PR that moved relatively easily, a few lbs were left on the platform.

Deadlift – At this time we were approaching 9pm and exhaustion was starting to set in.

• 225 x 2
• 315 x 2, 1
• 405 x 1
• 495 x 1 (this moved much slower than expected, I spoke to Brian and we determined it was best to drop my opener and make a larger jump on the second)
• Opener 525 – good lift.  My form was on point and this moved quick.  Confidence booster I needed.
• 2nd Attempt 565 – good lift.  Felt just like my opener.  After this lift Adam asked what I needed for a PR which would be 605.  Thinking that might have been out of reach we crunched the numbers for a PR total and selected 590.
• 3rd Attempt 590 – good lift.  5lb PR TOTAL.

None of this would have been possible with the backing of a strong team and coach.  Thank you again Brian for everything you have done, this list is really damn long so I’ll save the details.  Thank you Adam for providing the best possible training facility, meet day handling, guidance, and knee wraps.  Thank you Byrd for the guidance, meet day handling and knee wraps.  Thank you to the rest of Team Samson for supporting this pre contest training cycle.

Much bigger things to come for this Lab Rat.

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Jason Kowalewski

Jason Kowalewski is an up and coming raw powerlifter residing in Jacksonville, Florida where he trains with Team Samson. In his younger years he was a “gear head” who built his first drag car before obtaining a driver’s license. Within the last 6 years his primary focus has shifted from motorsports to powerlifting. Jason began training under Brian’s tutelage in February 2013. He was actually one of the initial test subjects, hence the name Lab Rat. Since then he has seen significant improvements on all lifts with his commitment to Brian and the 10/20/Life methodology. To date his best total is 1653.4lbs via 633.8lb squat, 435.4lb bench and 584.9lb deadlift at 242lbs.

Latest posts by Jason Kowalewski (see all)

• Lab Rat – Chasing a 600lb Bench - January 30, 2018
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