22 Mar Lisa Guggisberg- Hello powerlifting world.

A few tid bits you should know before we start.

I live in the burbs with one husband, two completely insane little people and one lazy A-hole dog.

I bake cupcakes. I keep the guys at my husband’s fire station fat and probably gave them undiagnosed diabetes.

My mouth is dirtier than a sailor’s.  Earmuff your kids now people.

I am a former high school band super nerd that broke my wrist when I tripped over my own feet at band practice.

I am pretty sure I was dropped on my head as a baby.

I am afraid of rollercoasters, cockroaches and the suburban house wives on my kid’s PTA board.

I like to think I am 5’ tall but probably only 4’11”.

I sometimes pee my pants when I deadlift heavy.

I started out Crossfitting back in 2007, drank the Kool-Aid.  I eventually got tired of being bipolar trying to decide if I wanted to be an Olympic lifter or powerlifter and decided to focus exclusively on strength training and powerlifting. I still use a lot of things I learned Crossfitting in my training today.  I follow the “use the good, sound advice that can help your training and throw away the junk” mentality.

I did my first raw powerlifting meet about three and a half years ago.  I was three months preggo with my little pink spiteful princess (she really is adorable evil in a pink tutu).  I went 9/9 in the 114lb weight class. My only goal for this meet was just to go 9/9 on all my lifts.  I did about six more meets after my first meet, including USAPL RAW Nationals in July 2013. I had steady but painfully slow increases on my total, my best meet total was 610.  Somehow I acquired a qualifying total for Raw Unity 7. I had a horrible, disappointing meet at RUM 7.  I was 5/9 on my lifts.  I was mentally beaten down, disappointed, embarrassed at my performance and felt like a complete ass.  I was pissed off.  Instead of having a pity party, I put on my big girl panties and decided to do something about it.  My plan was to find a coach that knew what they were doing.

I started working with Brian Carroll sometime late February 2014.  I did my first meet after working with Brian in May 2014, my total went up 68lbs.  My next meet I did was a RPS meet in October 2014 and my total increased to 740. My best lifts before working with Brian were a 205 squat, 125 bench and 280 deadlift all at 114 weight class. My numbers were going up which was great, but equally if not more important was that my form and quality of my lifts were improving.  I now cringe looking at my videos before I started working with Brian. I am thankful I had Brian’s help to correct some form issues before they lead to an injury. I look like a completely different lifter now.

I just finished RUM 8 on February 7, 2015.  This became a reprisal meet for me. It was my chance to redeem my piss poor performance at RUM 7. RUM 8 was my best meet to date. I weighed in at 113.6 and hit a 303lb squat (knee sleeves only) a 154.5 bench and triple body weight 341.2 deadlift.  I finally felt like I was emerging into a real powerlifter, not just a dumbass fumbling through the movements.

So where am I at now?  I recently heard some words of wisdom from Adam Driggers about not just setting goals but actually taking pen to paper and writing your goals down. So I’ve decided to take that wise advice and get off my little ass and write some goals down.  So here it is, I am putting it out there, my powerlifting goal. It’s a long term goal and I understand this. There will be progress checks or mini goals along the way, but my ultimate end game is a 1000lb RAW total in the 114lb weight class. This is my goal and will I ever reach it? Maybe? Maybe I won’t, but it’s mine to work towards and by having my goal written down it helps to formulate the plan.

I just finished a mini 5 week off-season cycle. I didn’t use any percentages and went by “RPE”.  This offseason was a little different than my past offseason cycles.  I really focused on weak points and did a lot of core work (McGill sit-ups, bird dogs, rolling planks), front squats, deficit pulls and tweeked form on all three lifts.

I’ll start my official 10 week cycle mid to late March to get ready for May 30, 2015 RPS meet in Fort Meyers.  I’m planning on doing this meet with knee wraps.  I’ve never wrapped before so this should get interesting.

3/19/15 Deadlift work

Warm up

Birddogs

Rolling planks

McGill Sit-up

Work

Deficit pulls off 2” blocks

Bar 2×20

135 x 1o

155 x6

185 x6

215 x6

225 x 6

255 x 6

Conventional deads from floor 5×2 at 50%

Finished off with some RDL work, shrugs and McGill stir the pots.

3/22/15 Fluff and Buff Work

Tricep push downs with band 3 x 50

Ring dips 3 x 15-20

Hammer curls with band 4 x 25

Laying dumbbell skull crushers 4 x 12-15

The following two tabs change content below.

• Bio
• Latest Posts

Lisa Guggisberg

A self-proclaimed former high school band nerd turned meathead nerd, Lisa has been coached and mentored by Brian Carroll using 10/20/Life principals for 3 years. She started CrossFiting in 2006 but gave that up after realizing all she wanted to do was squat, bench and deadlift heavy. She now competes as a raw and multi-ply powerlifter in the 114 and 123 weight classes. Lisa has All-Time top 10 totals in both raw and multi-ply in her respective weight classes with a raw pro total of 936 lbs at 114 and a pro 1118 lb multi-ply pro total at 123 and 1090 lb multi-ply total at 114. She is currently ranked the #1 female multi-ply lifter at 123, #2 at 114 multi-ply female and #3 raw with wraps. Lisa has a B.A. in Political Science and a Masters in Public Administration, but hates politics and political debates. She is a mom of two, a firefighter wife and has worked as a full time litigation paralegal for almost 20 years.

Latest posts by Lisa Guggisberg (see all)

• Lisa Guggisberg: Offseason Bench Day - July 16, 2018
• Lisa Guggisberg: TRYING OUT NEW INZER PREDATOR BRIEFS - July 5, 2018
• LISA GUGGISBERG-OFFSEASON BENCH & SQUATS - June 22, 2018