The 1400 or Bust Log

Training tomorrow should be interesting. I start at 10am with my last heavy deadlift session; that includes 500 lbs. for a cluster set (I NEED 8+ reps on this set, and I'll get it) and 405x11x3 for supplemental sets.

In the afternoon, I'll be watching a bit of the team training session, then heading up to the field house to squat 365x5x7 (seven sets of five). That's my last unwrapped smolov day. Saturday's benching, and Sunday's the big wrapped day: 450x3x5 (five sets of three). A bit more squatting and benching on Tuesday and I rest up for the meet.

I can't begin to describe how excited I am to participate in an event like this and to get to compete against some of the best in the world. It's been a dream of mine since I started to compete on a big stage, and I'm thrilled to finally get the chance. It has taken me a few years to get to this point, but the work has been worth it. I feel strong coming into RUM, but even if I don't have a great meet, I still feel like this is the culmination of--and the celebration of--a lot of work to be able to compete at an event like this.

AM: Deadlifts up to 500x3 (felt awful).

RUM Intense Cycle
W3D5

PM: Deadlifts up to 500x5 (ditto)

Squats
(rep x set)
365x10
365x5x3
365x10

Notes: Deadlifts felt much worse than last week; squats felt much better. That's about it. I'm not too worried about the pull because frankly, I just felt really worn out from the training; I felt like I had no push from my legs at all. It was a disappointing session, but I'm opening light at the meet and I'll choose my attempts wisely. With a rest week and some carbs in me, my deadlift will be better. I'm not expecting fantastic numbers out of it, but I'll be OK.

Squatting was awesome, and it was ridiculously easier than 365x3x10 last week. I have no idea what happened, but everything has clicked in week three with my squat. I'm excited for 450x3x5 on Sunday, and I think I will get through it. 365x10 is a 10RM PR for unwrapped, and I did it twice. The weight moved really fast, too, and I didn't really slow down much at all on the first set--I had more in the tank. What's interesting is that I'm able to keep position throughout these sets now, whereas in the past, I'd really start to round over. I just feel like my legs are a lot stronger than they were a few weeks ago.

All in all, a weird day, but I'm satisfied. I wish my last pull session went better, but I have done some good work this cycle, and I know my deadlift will be OK with some rest--I'm probably just worn out from Smolov. My squat's feeling great, and so is my bench, so I guess I have to be happy with the results. This Smolov mesocycle has gone much better than the one I ran last spring, and I feel like both my squat and bench have benefited more from it.

Also, thank you to Janis and Kevin Alvy for helping me in training today. That was very nice, and I'm very appreciative.

Kyle had the bestest day in the gym today. He hasn't logged yet so inb4 bestest day.

babyeater wrote:

Kyle had the bestest day in the gym today. He hasn't logged yet so inb4 bestest day.

I don't know about "bestest," but it's coming together at the right time.

RUM Intense Cycle
W3D7

Squat
420x1 (10-lb. unwrapped PR)
450x6 (5RM and 6RM PR)

Bench Press
255x8x2 (8RM PR)
255x4x3
280x5 (4RM and 5RM PR)

Notes: The intense cycle's all done now; it can't hurt me anymore. Actually, I feel pretty good now, as most of my achy issues from the beginning of the intense cycle have resolved themselves. I can finally bench without much pain (either in my shoulders or my elbow joints), and my legs feel good squatting; they were a little heavy today, but all in all, it was very manageable. The adductor isn't really bothering me anymore, and my SI joint has been fine. So, smolov put me back together again.

As far as the day's lifting goes:

Squats were solid. They didn't feel as great as they did last session, but I did fine. I warmed up to 420x1 (no wraps; 10-lb. PR) and that felt really light on my back. I also squatted my opener (450) for a set of six. The depth on these was mostly fine; the first rep could have been borderline, so I just have to make sure to sink my attempts at the meet. Based on what I've seen over this cycle, I should be fine IF I'm not tentative with my eccentric.

450x6 is a 5RM and 6RM PR, but it's not that big a deal; I've squatted 445x6 before, and I did it right before I squatted 520. I probably had more in me than these six, so that's encouraging; I just didn't want to absorb too much lumbar stress before the meet, and I was starting to break down and round over. I also wrapped over my knee sleeves, which makes the wrap less stiff.

For benching, I felt great. I'm pretty healthy now and my bench has officially peaked. Bar-speed on everything was great; 255x8 was really easy, and I felt like I had a few reps left in the tank on the first set. I intentionally used long pauses for the second set of eight. Overall, I'm really pleased with these--I remember doing 250x8 on the day before starting Smolov, and it was really difficult.

For my last set, I substituted with my opener (280) just because everything was moving so smoothly and I saw it as an opportunity to get some higher-intensity reps in. I had missed 280x4 a few times in the past--I think I missed 280x4 just a couple of weeks before I benched 308 in my July meet--and I wanted to get it here. The first four reps were easy, so I went for a fifth and squeaked it out. That fifth rep probably wasn't the smartest move I could have made, but whatever.

Obviously, my openers should be really easy for RUM; 450 and 280 both moved really well, and I'm opening at ~530 for the deadlift. I'm feeling good now, and beyond one more light session ("W4D1" on Tuesday), I'm done training and Florida-bound. Thanks to everyone who followed my training this cycle.

das it mane

Final Prep Session
W4D1

Paused Bench Press
230x6x6

Squat
330x9
405x4

Face Pulls, Lat Pulldowns, Rear Delt Flys.

Notes: Pretty "meh" day; I just feel mediocre since cutting all my carbs, and the bench felt awkward the whole time. I don't know if it was the bench or something I was doing with my setup, but it never really clicked. Bar-speed was still OK, but not fantastic. The good news was that I felt great--as in no aches or pains anywhere--and got in the requisite amount of work with no issues. Not at all worried about it, as I just had a fantastic bench session two days ago and will be primed for something big at the meet.

After bench, my plan was to squat 335x9x4, but the first set was harder than it probably should have been--I don't think the bar-speed was bad, but I didn't cruise through it like I was last week. Instead of doing the last three sets, I opted to go up and do a high-intensity top set, which turned out to be a good idea. 405x4 felt good (somehow), and I probably had at least one rep in the tank. It felt a lot better than 420 did a couple days prior, which was surprising, considering I felt better on that day.

Tomorrow is my sodium drop day, so my weight's probably going to plummet. I was 158 this morning and figure to be around there tomorrow--last time I dropped a good five pounds from the sodium drop, so we'll see how that goes.

Just to clarify: Nate and I are lifting at RUM on Sunday at 3pm EST time, and the live stream will be up on jtsstrength.com. Thanks.

Inb4 "1400 is going to happen... I feels it"

Here’s a recap of my experience at RUM VII. I’ll try to keep it as short as possible, though I suppose there’s a lot to cover.

We flew to Florida on Friday in preparation for a Saturday morning weigh-in. My weight was still pretty high—I started my cut weighing 158, and I had to cut down to 148.75 for the meet—because the water load and sodium drop hadn’t been as effective as it had previously. By the end of the first night in Florida I was 153.5; by the morning, I was 152.5 and still approximately four pounds overweight.

We traveled to a Gold’s Gym just outside of the arena early that morning to cut the final four pounds. I finished the cut in about an hour and a half, and though I started to feel drained by the end of it, I would say that it went better than expected. We then went to the arena to get weighed in and I was EXACTLY on weight: 148.75. I’ve never cut it so close before.

After that, we decided to take the day to relax and recomp. I couldn’t eat anything to start—even though I had eaten very light on Thursday and nothing on Friday, I wasn’t hungry at all and my stomach needed time to readjust to taking in food. I instead focused on fluid intake, and I drank a LOT of pedialyte throughout this day; one recomp change I made was to drink more high-ph water without a lot of sugar (i.e. Gatorade). I also ramped up my potassium intake from last time, eating more bananas and taking more potassium pills than I’d care to admit. By the end of the night, at my heaviest, I was 165.6; I gained roughly 16 lbs. over the course of 12 hours.

From that point on, I maintained a bodyweight at 163-165 up until competition, and I let my stomach settle. My resting heart-rate dropped to the high 60s by mid-morning, and our half of the competition wasn’t until 3pm. It was strange readying for an afternoon meet; we ate a late breakfast and got to the venue a few hours early.

Once there, I met a bunch of people I had previously met online, including some outstanding lifters, and I saw a few friends, but I mostly just tried to stay inwardly focused. My plan for this competition was to focus as little on the rest of the lifting as possible, which means that I didn’t watch any of the big lifts from the morning, including Malan’s 1014.

The venue was very nice, but by the time our session rolled around, many of the spectators left, and it was mostly empty for our lifting. I think most people were panicked over the schedule of events, because second-session lifters started warming up for the squat much too early. Rather than get lost in the shuffle, I joined in, and I tried just to take small steps in my warm-ups. I made squat depth a focus, and the feedback I got from that was pretty positive. My handlers helped me get set up, and I was fortunate to have Paul Nguyen loading plates and handling the monolift for me. In fact, a bunch of guys were there to give me feedback and offer assistance, and I didn’t ask anyone for the help; I really appreciated that, and it made the meet that much easier for me.

OK, as far as the squat warm-ups go: everything felt good once I started focusing on depth. I made sure to take a LOT more reps than in previous meets, as I feel like I need more warm-up work to really feel comfortable squatting at meets. 415 was my last single and that moved very well; I knew 451 would be a piece of cake, so my focus was just on making sure the depth was there.

On my squat, the opener and second attempt moved very well. I focused more on speed on the second attempt once I knew I could hit the depth they were looking for, and that flew up faster than 490 ever has. I had 524 in my mind for a while now, and so I took it as a third. Jason Manenkoff told me that it was going to be a grind, and he was right, but I stuck it out. I knew I had a huge total coming if I hit it, and so that lift took a lot of pressure off of the rest of the meet. My bench was going to be great, and I’d now be able to feel out my deadlift and take strategic attempts.

After squatting, I took a short breather, walked around the building, and warmed up my bench. The warm-ups felt fine—unspectacular, but fine—and I used that time to adjust to their benches. Because they were so low, I could tell it was going to be easy for me to lift my butt off the bench if I tried to initiate a lot of leg drive, so I resolved myself to keep my butt planted. I really didn’t want to get red-lighted on bench at this meet, especially after the debacle last time.

Like on squat, the opener was absurdly easy. And 303 for a second attempt just about jumped out of my hands at the top; I felt like it was mis-loaded. I called for a 319 third, which was best-case scenario, and handled it with little difficulty. After the hand-off, I remember thinking, “this feels really light”; I think I even told Janis how much my theme song sucked on the un-rack with 281. Everything was cake, and it was just the sort of stars-aligned scenario in which a peaking program and an attempt selection both went perfectly.

After that, I had an awesome sub-total heading into deadlifting, but I knew deadlifts would be a struggle, as I had awful training leading into this meet. My SI joint has healed now, but the damage has been done to my pull max. Warm-ups felt easy enough, but my hands were now cramping pretty bad, and I was getting worried about my grip. I had chosen a 529 opener to keep the pressure off myself, and that turned out to be a good decision. My second pull, 562, ended up being by far the best. At only around 2.5 seconds, it was the fastest I’ve ever pulled a weight in this range, and it guaranteed me a 1405-lb. total.

With one attempt left, I called for 584, thinking it would be a difficult-but-not-too-difficult third. 584 surprised me by, indeed, being too difficult. Looking back on it now, I think I was a bit deflated after hitting my goal total on my second, and I think, additionally, that my technique on all my pulls was pretty rotten. I’ve reverted back to bad old habits; I’m not sitting back, pulling with perpendicular shins, and focusing on lockout leveraging. Instead, I’m crowding the bar too much and getting caught way out in front of the bar. That didn’t hurt me on 562, but I paid for it on 584.

So, I still have never had a nine for nine meet. But hey, 1405 lbs. at the biggest meet of the year is not a bad consolation!

A few random things:

- After finally getting this milestone total, I feel totally numb to it. Not excited, not overjoyed, not anything. I’m happy, I guess, but now I feel like I have no purpose. So, I’m going to have to figure out really soon how I’m going to use the next year of my training life before next year’s RUM. I have some big plans, including changing my squat stance (FINALLY). A lot of hard work—and some hard changes—lie ahead, but I am ready.

- I do feel very happy, however, to have participated in such a historic event. It is SO COOL to have my name alongside all the great lifters that have competed at this event. That’s what I’m proudest of.

- Now that I’m not competing for a while, it’s time to figure out what else I can do to help powerlifting. Now’s the time to focus on putting out more powerlifting-related content; I’m going to take a good, long look at the discourse surrounding the sport and decide what I can do to contribute in a positive manner to it.

- A special thanks for Janis and David for helping me out all weekend—both did a fantastic job. I wanted to do well especially for Janis, who has stuck with me and supported me through a string of bad meets. I don’t want to let anyone down, especially not her. I wanted to show that the only thing you can expect of yourself is to try and do your best.

- Cutting weight at the last minute sort of sucks, but it’s probably the best approach. I spent less time dehydrated for this meet than for previous meets, and as a result, I recomped better than ever.

- Thanks as well to everyone who supported me through this whole process: University of Iowa Powerlifting, 22nd Street Barbell (including Wes and Jerry, who were both there that weekend), all the lifters at RUM who helped out, and all the other people I’ve met out there on the internet. There are way, way too many people to name here.

Anyway, that’s all!

awesome everything

Reps for kicking the shit out of my best recomp

I think cutting the last four pounds right before weigh-ins helped the recomp. It was a riskier bet, but it was also easier to recover from. I was 164.8 this morning, and we ate out last night, so I must have been close to 170 after dinner...

Needless to say, I'm back on my regular diet today.

KevinAlvy wrote:

awesome everything

now kiss




really tho

Also, I'd like to point out that you now need a new thread/thread title.

1406 or bust log incoming

Nathan Poage wrote:

KevinAlvy wrote:

awesome everything

now kiss




really tho

fine

Chris Anderson wrote:

Also, I'd like to point out that you now need a new thread/thread title.

1406 or bust log incoming

Wide-stance Squatting: An Unexpected Journey

A Tale of Two Stances

Pride and Prejudice (Against Sumo)

COME ON!: The Life and Times of Kyle Keough

East of Eden NASA

Narry Squatter and the deathly narrows

Brave New World (no need for a change)

KevinAlvy wrote:

Nathan Poage wrote:

KevinAlvy wrote:

awesome everything

now kiss




really tho

fine

Didn't realize morrow was going full natty this meat