The powerlifting contest is finally done with. It was a great day for both Zack and I had a great day. Zack finished the day with a great 628 pound deadlift and received the “Overall Best Lifter” award. Here were my lifts:
Squat
- 1st: 391 #
- 2nd: 418 #
- 3rd: 435 # - Tied the Nebraska state record
Bench
- 1st: 314 #
- 2nd: 336# - Broke the Nebraska state record
- 3rd: 352# - Failed
Deadlift
- 1st: 407 #
- 2nd: 429 #
- 3rd: 451 #
Total: 1222 - Tied the Nebraska state record
When I first was thinking about doing the powerlifting meet coming up I was excited because my numbers in the gym were shooting through the roof week after week… over the past few months though things slowed down.
We deadlifted last week and I don’t remember what I got, but I know it was where I needed to be. Then, yesterday I was looking at the state records that I had hoped to break and some of them I had never touched in the gym (squat) - I was a little down…. but I went to the gym yesterday and squatted the same as the state record, which was a PR at 435#. Today we went to the gym and I benched 350 which is right where I want to be come meet time. So, I’m feeling a lot better about the competition coming up than I was.
The best part is that I’m lighter than ever…. I weighed in at the gym at 197 with shoes and sweatshirt on… at home after working out I weighed 193. So I will eat good this week and I shouldn’t have any problem coming in at under 198 next Saturday.
Did heavy bench today. I got 335 fine, but failed with 355. I’m hoping to get 350 or 355 at the meet. Then we hit back with a variety of complex and simple machines.
Went over to the North Gold’s Gym today to do some deadlifts (this gym allows deadlifting, the South Golds Gym doesn’t) - however this one doesn’t allow cameras¿ Anyway - all we did was deadlift so here were my sets:
- 135 x 5
- 225 x 5
- 315 x 5
- 365 x 5
- 385 x 3
- 315 x 5 (standing on plates)
- 315 x 5 (standing on paltes)
I was able to use my new belt that Zack bought me to deadlift and it felt great. I’m glad I got that before the powerlifting meet.
Good workout today.
Dumbbell Curls - 10,8,6,4 (worked up to 60’s, but they were too heavy)
EZ Bar Curls - sets of 7
Machine Curl
Seated Side Laterals (I also did some light dumbbell curls in between)
Dumbbell upright row
Cable side laterals
Cable front raises
I haven’t really felt up to par lately for some reason. I felt pretty sluggish while benching today. Here were my sets:
- 135 x 10
- 225 x 8
- 245 x 5
- 275 x 5
- 295 x 5
- 295 x 4?
- 245 x 7
Next, we did incline. I was feeling better by this time. We did a 10-8-6-4-2 set/reps and I worked up to 215 for 2. Next, we did stop-at-the-bottom dumbbell presses. I worked mainly with 85#’s here for sets of 7. We finished with various machines and cables.
Still trying to change things up a few weeks before the powerlifting meet. So today we tried to do 4 x 10 on squat. Here were my sets:
- 315 x 10
- 315 x 10
- 315 x 12
- 315 x 12
I guess this means I should be able to lift more as a max - for some reason I can’t lift heavy as well. This pretty much finished us off, but we did some leg curls too.
Went over to Jobe’s for a pretty much worthless workout. Did deadlifts today - not sure what the problem was but I wasn’t feeling very good and started sweating a lot… 315 was heavy, 365 I could barely do. I took a break while my bro went heavy. Then I started again at 315, then 365, then 405. Still heavy, but those felt much better than the first time. Then I did some rack pulls. That’s it… it sucked.
Today we hit back… We did lat pulldowns to the back, bent over rows, one arm T-Bar rows, wide grip seated cable rows, narrow grip pull downs, Hammer Strength pull downs, and another seated cable pull down cross over.
Neither one of us really felt any of those exercises that good. Back must be tired from bench.
Mixed it up today and the rest of this week. We have 4 weeks left until the powerlifting meet. Benched today… I did 225 for 17 reps, 8 reps, 8 reps, and 7 reps… then 135 for 17 reps… all to failure.
Then we hit dumbbell decline bench for sets of 12, machine flyes for sets of 10, and a variety of cable flyes.
We finished up with some triceps on the cables.
I really liked this workout… I felt really pumped. I can’t wait until powerlifting is over and this becomes a normal workout.