02 Nov Meet recaps from RPS Revenant Rising (Will)

I’m going to do one of these for each lifter.  This’ll give some folks idea of my thought process both for myself and how I approach my lifters.

Honest assessment of the meet.

Let me preface this by saying that I’m extremely proud of all my guys and girls.  They put in the work and the PRs prove it.  But like any good coach, I’m constantly looking for things to improve.  There’s quite a few things that we all need to work on.  Here’s my break down per lifter:

Myself:

Squat:

• Set up. This had started to get better for me as this meet prep progressed.  Definitely a few more things that need work but if the setup is off, then it’ll all cascade from there.
• Who doesn’t need more hamstrings, right?  But yeah, definitely more of these so that I can sit back into the gear better.  I’m relying way too much on my quads to do the majority of the movement.  Not going to squat big like that.
• Upper back. This goes back to set up.  My upper back has a tendency to get loose in the bottom, then my entire position is lost coming up out of the whole.  Shoulder flexibility will have a big part of this but with the flexibility needs to come with the strength to hold it all in place.

Bench:

• Duh. Right?  Always a weakness in the bench.  I just didn’t realize how far of a discrepancy had been created.
• Foot position in the set up. Coming out of the bench my back was toast.  I was using too much lower back to myself into position and not my legs.  This meant that I wasn’t getting any leg drive and my deadlift was going to suffer because of it.

Deadlift:

• Ha!  Got to really work on being more patient to make sure I’m in position.  While it had gotten better over the training cycle, not where it needed to be in the end.
• Dammit.  Always.  It never crossed my mind in training because it never was an issue then.  My grip still plagues me.  I’ve never missed a deadlift in training because of grip, yet I’ve missed plenty of deadlifts at meets because of it (at weights lighter than what I hit multiple times in training).

Overall:

• Get my weight up. My best training comes around 235.  I never got over 225 this training cycle.  There’s a multitude of factors that contributed to this but then again, there shouldn’t really be an excuse for not eating.
• Tighter gear. Even getting my weight up, I’ve got to get my new gear tailored.  Knowing the Inzer stuff better gives me a better idea of how and where to have it altered.  In the game of multiply lifting, inches can make a massive difference.  Filling out the gear and having a few tweaks made to it can be a huge factor.  This is the easiest one to fix and will have an immediate effect.

Plans going forward:

• Off season and I’m excited about it. I plan on doing a straight 10/20/Life off season cycle.  Check out the book here:

https://www.powerrackstrength.com/1020life/

• Weight goes up. Way up.  Time to push it a little higher than I have before.  With no meets planned anytime soon, I’ll take my time with it so it’s not fat but something usable.  But it is going up.
• Raw base. With a few mini-cycles of no briefs, strap up work and some shirted work (to break in a new shirt), I plan on giving my raw strength a huge push.  I’m fortunate that I don’t have any reoccurring aches or pains at the moment.  I’ll be able to jump straight into a nice training cycle without worrying about having to baby anything.
• Family time. I need some family time.  Training and competing takes away from that and it’s time to give back.

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Low Country Strength

Will Kuenzel is the owner of Lowcountry Strength (www.LowcountryStrength.com) in Charleston, SC. Will started his athletic endeavors as a pole vault; finishing up his collegiate career with a best vault of 16’9” at a whopping 160lbs. He the track and field world to pursue bodybuilding, his first show in 2005, he won 1st place in Men’s Novice as a middle weight. One year later he took 2nd as a Men’s Junior heavy weight. Since 2007 he has been a competitive powerlifter and totaling elite as a 220lber. His best lifts in multiply equipment are a 710lbs squat, a 605lbs bench press, a 615lbs deadlift and a 1930 total. In 2008 Will started Lowcountry Strength out of his garage. Since then it has moved into a 16,000 sq/ft facility and shares space with a mixed martial arts studio. With all disciplines of powerlifting, strongman, MMA, jiu jitsu and other sports in the Charleston area getting trained under one roof, Will heads up the strength and conditioning for a wide variety of athletes and clients.

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