Hello, everyone. As most of you probably know I had my second powerlifting meet in Sacramento this past Sunday. “How did it go?” you may ask. Well, I’ll tell you. It went OK. Not as good as I hoped but still not too bad. Let’s break it down James Brown style:
The Squat 1st attempt 385: This was a little f***ed up. I had Elton wrap my knees too early so by the time I got to the platform my legs were basically numb. Compound that with my mistake of making my rack height too high and having to reset it and by the time I squatted I had no feeling in my legs and I ended very high on the squat and missed it. This really should have been a gimme, so I didn’t sweat it and went up on my second attempt. By the way, I didn’t find out until later that day that if you miss all three of your squats you are out of the meet. I guess it was better I didn’t know that. 2nd attempt 424: My PR is 425, but I still had no fear here. I knew I could get this and I did. 3rd attempt 451: This was my goal going in. I felt good. The 424 was easy and I was pretty sure I could get this. I unracked it, went down, stood up and then heard the annoucer say, “No good.” I asked the judge why and he put his thumb and first finger about half an inch apart indicating that I was above parallel by that much. Here’s the video. Judge for yourself.
It was right around here that I started getting a bit tired.
The Bench 1st attempt 248: This wasn’t too bad. Not a piece of cake, but not too bad. 2nd attempt 264: Here we go again with the bench. Got about half way up and that’s it. I did this weight a few weeks ago at the gym, but not today. My goal was 270 going in. That wasn’t going to happen. 3rd attempt 264: One word: Stapled.
Now I was definitely tired and a bit frustrated. I was two for six and missed the first two goals I had for the day. I was talking to Shane and he suggested a Red Bull. Not a bad idea. He also introduced me to the wonderful world of Ammonia. That woke me up a bit. I knew that the deadlift was my best lift and I actually felt good warming up, so I was cautiously optimistic that I could hit my 500 lb. goal.
The Deadlift 1st attempt 405: Went up easy. 2nd attempt 461: Not too bad, but I really didn’t know if I had another 40 pounds in me. I decided that I was going to give a shot anyway. I did 473 last time so there really was no point in just matching that or going up just 10 pounds. 3rd attempt 501: Not too bad at all. Took a second or two to get off the floor, but then flew up. My sticking point with deads is off the floor, so I knew that once I moved it off the floor a little I was fine. I was a little hesitant until I saw the three white lights and then I gave a little yell. The 500 pound mark is a pretty good mark. I feel that you are starting to get somewhere once you break 400, but breaking 500 means that you are strong. This one felt real good. Check out the video.
So, all in all a decent day. My 1167 total was 32 pounds more than my total at the March 13th meet, so I’ll take that. I really wanted more, though. Weighing 198 pounds, an elite total is 1471. That’s a big number. I just have to get my bench moving. I simply will not hit that total until I do. I figure something like a 565 squat, 300 bench, 615 deadlift will get me there. It just seems like that bench number is pretty darn small comparitively. I need to figure out what is the sticking point there. We’ll get it done.
Anyway, a big thank you to Elton, Shane, Andy and Jesse for helping me out at the meet. It was also a nice unexpected surprise to see to see Eric Kenyon RKC there.
Anyway, let me know what you think or if you have any thoughts or suggestions. Thanks for reading and I’ll talk to you soon.
Mitchell Rothbardt, CPT http://www.mitchrothbardtfitness.com/ MitchRothbardtTraining@yahoo.com 510-754-7113 Discover Your Strength!
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