That's my alarm. It's 4 AM and I’m pissed off. Welcome to the world of the strength and conditioning internship.
5 AM: "I need 24 reds, 12 blues, and 12 yellows outside."
In coach speak, this means the following:
24 reds = 24 45lb plates
12 blues = 12 35lb plates
12 yellows = 12 25lb plates
In total, this is approximately 1800lbs. What you don't know is that by "need" what Coach really wants is for the interns to carry those plates about a quarter mile out to the practice field (in addition to 6 prowlers). Additionally, we have to:
Set up the weight room
Make smoothies and protein shakes for the athletes
Make sure all water tanks are full
Fold and distribute towels to various locations, and
Stock the athlete's locker room with a various variety of snacks and food for the day.
And all this is expected to be done prior to the 6 AM football group.
8 AM: “Josh, I need you to stay here and make sure all of the athletes on the special weight gain list come in here and drink 2 shakes and finish off a bag of trail mix before they leave.” Awesome. Baby sitter status achieved. “Man, why I gotta stay?? You ain’t make no otha players stay. Mann…” Berated by the players on the special weight gain list for upholding the rules? Check.
11 AM: Lunch time! But oh wait… I’ve already worked 6 hours, and have about 90 minutes to train and eat before setting up for the 1:30 group. Did I already mention us interns had moved over 1800lbs of weight outside? I REALLY don’t feel like training.
2 PM: Three athletes in one particular group have thrown up, and conditioning has just barely started. One coach jogs up to me and says "Hey man, you look pretty fast, go join that prowler group and help them out." Needless to say, this is not what I had in mind on the first day of my internship.
Here, they have a singular rule: the athletes (and coaches) are forbidden to put their hands on their hips, heads, or bend over at all during conditioning. So, an hour later, after doing my best not to wheeze and keel over after several series of prowler sprints, I took the group through their weight training for the day.
5 PM: The last group has finished up, and it's time to clean up the weight room. This includes disinfecting the bars and dumbbells, wiping down any benches or machines used during the training sessions, cleaning out the blenders, and making sure the weights are where they're supposed to be on each rack. But wait, there's more! Remember those weights we took outside? Now we get to take them ALL inside and put them in their respective spots!
Doesn’t that schedule just sound fantastic?!
Contrary to what the tone of the article may imply, I'm not trying to steer anyone away from interning for collegiate strength and conditioning programs. However, I'm not going to ignore the harsh realities of the internship . At times, there WILL be days like this, or days where you’re in the gym from 5 AM to 7 PM, sweaty and exhausted, and just want to hit the drive thru at McDonald’s and go to sleep. That's just how it is. Is it worth it? I’ll leave that up to you to decide. One thing is for sure: you WILL work 50+ hours a week some weeks, WITHOUT being paid. Here, you have three options: 1) suck it up, 2) quit, or 3) be lucky enough to receive one of the VERY, VERY few paid internships that exist here in the United States. By the way, you have to know people to even hear about some of these.
So here’s the deal. You’ve got a crazy schedule. You’re going to be working extremely hard. You may or may not have a good internship coordinator. If your coordinators suck, here’s what you can expect to encounter: coaches who may or may not berate you in front of the entire sports team; coaches who get pissed off at you for teaching a lift how one of the OTHER coaches taught you how to teach it; coaches who decide to change a lift mid-session and NOT tell you about it; and coaches who simply want to use you for what you are to them - indentured servants disguised as ‘interns’. You will experience the feeling of ecstasy you get when teaching an athlete a difficult lift and it all ‘clicks’ for him or her, as well as experience feelings of tremendous self-doubt when no matter what you do, your athletes continue to suck it up. When you look all around you and see players get injured left and right, and realize the programming is probably responsible for most of these overuse injuries, the cognitive dissonance you will experience while continuing to coach said program will be astounding.
“How in the world do you deal with those issues?”
I’m glad you asked! In the coming weeks, this series of articles will contain several tips:
Dealing with a terrible intern coordinator staff
Dealing with coaching inconsistencies
Being prepared for the worst (when sessions get turned upside-down)
How to address self-doubt and cognitive dissonance
And other issues besides. My internship experience has proven to be very successful despite dealing with all of the above issues, and I think my experience can add tremendous value to any potential internships you may have. It’s not all bad, and if you play your cards right, coaches will grant you more and more responsibility, and your network may just explode with potential.
Sounds good right?
Now it’s your turn - what weird, ridiculous, or otherwise crazy stories do you have from your internships?
Aris
Happy summer! Got something special to kick off the blog's return to activity--an interview with '19kamau79', Timo Lauttamus.
Unless you follow grip sports very closely you probably haven't heard of him, but you may have seen at least one of his videos on youtube. Timo has a ridiculous level of pound for pound strength and all-around athleticism. He can do strict one arm chin-ups not only with added weight but using some extremely challenging grips; heavy deadlifts with one arm, or on a thick bar, or with only one finger on each hand; and heavy pinch lifting. He isn't limited to pulling and gripping power, though--he can also do full splits and heavy 'van damme lifts', weighted pistols, and strict one-arm one-leg pushups with ease. Very impressive for a guy who's over 6 feet tall and weighs north of 200 pounds.
Curious about his training history and thoughts on strength, I asked to interview him and Timo graciously accepted. (Note: this was done in several segments over the course of a few weeks. I've edited it to more of a Q&A style but it reads a bit funny as it wasn't actually done one question at a time.)
AD: Should I just call you 'Kamau' or would you prefer something else?
TL: My real name is Timo Lauttamus, Kamau is just my tribal name from Kenya, I`m married with Kikuyu tribe lady.
AD: According to the internet, Kamau means 'quiet warrior'--that is super badass, my friend. Is the translation correct?
TL: My wife couldn`t translate name of Kamau, perhaps history of that name is very long.
AD: starting the training questions, how old are you, how tall and how heavy? And when did you start training (how long ago) and how did you get started? When did you start specializing with more grip work and heavy chins?
TL: Okay, Borned Jan 1979, so I`m 35yo and 6´1" tall and mostly 200-220lbs.
I was active child, I had couple of active friends at my childhood as well. We used to climb in trees and always small contest as how fast or how high.
One of my friend had older cousin as natural bodybuilder, he just came to visit parents of my friend and brought some old home made barbells, discs and dumbbells to us. I was only 10yo at the moment and was impressed to see that man with good frame 220lbs body. That was my first touch to weight training, but children have many things to do, I was training only year and stopped, same thing happened when I was 14yo (trained weights one year again and stopped) I tried Tae Kwon Do when I was 16yo, then after year and half decided to include some strength training, after two weeks I stopped TaeKwonDo and I`m still on my way. First I was training as natural bodybuilder up to age of 23 years, after that I wanted to focus to heavy chins, but lost my job and became extreme manual worker for years, I only had chance to keep my strength level, 2007 became rapidly shifted factory worker for years again, during those years (2009) started grip training, and finally 2011 I had chance to get my current job, and start focusing to heavy chins and one arm chin ups.
AD: you stopped tae kwon do after two weeks... did you continue flexibility training after that? How did you train for those full splits?
TL: I meant after one and half years of Tae Kwon Do, I included strength training which made me to stop TaeKwonDo in following two weeks. I will continue my flexibility training till the end, stiff lower body is disturbing also strength training, A LOT. I've been training full splits with static 30-60 seconds holds, not much dynamic work after leaving Tae Kwon Do.
AD: What sort of manual labor work, and would you say it helped develop your strength (especially grip strength?)
TL: Manual labor work as packing heavy logs with my bare hands, biggest ones used to be 450lbs each (nearly 40feet tall), moving them one head of time with great technique, but strength was very much involved. Log packing is all kind of lifts during the day with massive workload. What I realized after starting grip training, it was fact my recovering process is much faster than most of us. So, manual labor work gives great foundation for grip training, but nothing can beat natural talent.
AD: Do you think that all the time spent log packing helped with your natural recovery abilities and work capacity even more?
TL: Definitely yes, log packing has been changing my natural recovering.
AD: As a natural bodybuilder, did you compete, and what sort of numbers were you putting up in the gym at the time?
TL: I didn`t compete in Natural Bodybuilding, we didn`t have that class those days, at present time in Finland is that class, called Classic Bodybuilding. Gym numbers as 1x340lbs bench, 1x495lbs deadlift, ATG squat 3x375lbs, ATG front squat 1x350lbs and weighted chins 7 reps +110lbs @ 220lbs.
AD: Did you follow a 'bodypart' bodybuilding split when doing that gym training, and what sort of workouts (high volume, high intensity)?
TL: My training split used to look like:
Mon: Upper body pressing muscle groups (high intensity)
Tue: Upper body pulling muscle groups (high volume)
Wed: Lower body (high intensity)
Thu: Rest
Fri: Upper body pressing muscle groups (high volume)
Sat:Upper body pulling muscle groups (high intensity)
Sun: Rest
Various reps as 1-18 and rapidly changing variations during all those years, I believed to get stronger = to get bigger.
AD: What are your best lifts now and how did they compare to when you were doing just normal gym training? How do you feel now compared to then (stronger/weaker in or out of the gym, more or less athletic)?
TL:Focusing is the key, I can`t bench 340lbs at the moment, but I couldn`t do my recent lifts at my past.
Here is the best ones of 2013:
Weighted chin up +206lbs
OAC with middle finger @ 204lbs, using standard size 28mm bar
OAC +23lbs using hooked towel grip
One arm straddle style deadlift 440lbs
....Slightly lower bodyweight makes me more athletic.
AD: you've emphasized the genetics/natural talent angle. What are some examples of things you've seen untrained people do?
TL: There is this cool, native, Estonian giant:
I have met him couple of times, he doesn`t train, he`s just coming to show off for trained persons how to do it. He`s 200cm / 6`7" and 110-120kg / 245-265lbs, having quite impressive general strength with long levers and without training, but grip is brutal, video is only example for bigger audience, with specific grip lifts he can do shit MUCH harder than this. He shocked me at our first meeting:
165lbs farmer weight (1 inch attached handle) timehold with one middle finger 50 seconds without chalk
165lbs farmer weight, hopped with one PINKY!! after hearing benefits of chalk (most impressive grip lift I've ever seen)
Two 165lbs farmer weights with one hand = 330lbs double handle farmer, held it for 1min. 17sec.
That`s natural talent.
One young man shocked me at gym:
2 inches vertical bar lift 210lbs at BW of 148lbs and at age of 14!!! That`s natural talent.
I know only two men in our village who will beat that, and one of them is myself. I bet out there is endless amount of stories about natural talent, but this is two which I always remember.
So, this is example about genetic advantages, even lifts on the video are extremely hard to reach without any gifts, even impossible for some of us.
AD: Those are indeed some crazy lifts, yours as well as those others. I don't believe I've heard of someone as heavy as you doing a one-finger OAC on a bar rather than a loop or strap.
You must live among superhumans... if you have read the article series 'finnish deadlift secrets' it talks a lot about genetics and natural 'base' strength, you and your fellows definitely prove that!
TL: Actually you picked my hardest feat as example (OAC on the bar with middle finger), loop, ring or comfortable strap makes it much easier, most of heavy dudes are not going for these, personally i never thought it`s impossible for +200lbs, and i believe out there is guys much more gifted than myself, question is where is the limits of human kind?
Yes, we have lot of gifted deadlifters in Finland, Veli Kumpuniemi was the one of kind, Finnish logger became everlasting IPF 82,5kg class WR holder with massive 357,5kg deadlift (weight classes has changed), LOT of gifts involved.
AD: Yeah I've read about Veli. Very strong lifter. I like Ano Turtiainen too and there is a very cool video of Ismo Lappi on youtube as well.
Turtiainen hacklifting 360kg for a triple
Ismo lappi pulling 340kg @ 75kg (single ply?)
Now getting into the questions about your current training: Do you have a regular routine or do you just go by feel?
TL: At the moment I go by feel at gym, running and hiking are a bit more planned.
AD: how often do you do heavy chinups and do you have a specific routine for those?
TL: Just three times in a week (basic training) at the moment, but used frequency training method at last winter, 4-5 times in a week with rising amount for the three weeks, after that one lighter week and strength test at end of the week, that method is not for the beginners!!
AD: any elbow or shoulder prehab work, to stay healthy and uninjured?
TL: My prehab work is only daily shoulder stretches, that`s all.
[Note: that's insane. It takes a lot of prehab work for me to keep my shoulders and elbows healthy and strong while doing regular, heavy pullup or OAC work, and I am only ~63kg...]
AD: I saw some pistols and medium weight front squat videos, is leg training more of an afterthought now for you and why is that; just personal interest or is there another reason?
TL: Focusing for heavy chin ups and OACs includes only lighter lower body work, if I will take deadlift goal I will drop amount of chin ups and focus more for lower body, focusing for all doesn`t give time enough for recovery.
AD: Your own deadlift goals are all grip-focused now, correct?
TL: My own deadlifts goals are basically finger deadlifts (one finger per each hand) and one arm deadlifts.
AD: what exactly do your hiking goals entail and how are you training for them?
TL: My first hiking goal is Kilimanjaro, after that I`m planning to go for couple of East African peaks (lower but more technical). At the moment I do only hiking itself, fast walking, jogging and interval running on the track, Kilimanjaro is not technical. Next goals requires also climbing skills, been starting already bouldering which is easiest and safest way to learn climbing techniques.
AD: And now for the grip questions... There is very little carryover between different grip events (pinch, finger lift, hook, crush, etc.) but from each category, which one has the most carryover to the others of the same category? So for example, in your experience is the blob or the plate better for general pinching strength, and finger pullups or finger DL better for finger lifting.
TL: I don`t see much carry over between grip events, there is good pinchers without good support grip, and other ways as well, still I would think massive pinch grip (comparing support grip) gives more carry over to the other events. General pinch strength should be trained with various grip widths from narrow to thick blobs, there is not one particular width more general than the others. I would say finger pull ups are purely strength involved, finger deadlifts are slightly more technical but still great training method for stronger fingers.
AD: How would you advise someone just beginning grip training for the first time, to get started?
TL: Beginner without tools could try two hand plate pinch holds, one arm overhand grip deadlift sets, bar hangs starting with both hands, then with four, three, two and one finger per each hand. Axle deadlift with overhand grip is great (if possible), vertical bar lifts or rope climbing is great (if possible). Amount of holds and reps are more important than maximal effort at every week, biggest mistake in grip training is maxing out weekly, strength test is not progression, progressive training is progression. Grip should be trained 3-7 times in a week (individual differences).
AD: When you yourself are specializing on general grip feats, how is your training laid out?
TL: Specializing one event means focusing for that, example when I had pinch lift goals, I was pinching 4-5 times in a week and training support grip and finger lifts only once in a week. At the moment support grip (as hook) and finger deadlifts are on the work list, I train them often as possible (skin issues involved) and pinching only once in a week. Bouldering is very general grip training as well, doing that often as possible at the moment, basically too many things to do for middle aged man with daily slowing recovery!
AD: Anything else you would like to add? Stories, advice, clearing up misconceptions...?
TL: Stories about hardest grip feat I`ve ever heard, it`s coming out from climbing circle, few climbers (at 150lbs) has done one arm pull up with fingertip of the middle finger using less than one inch ledge, THE FEAT is totally insane!!
How long it takes to develop that kind of finger strength??
Answer is way more than lifetime for billions of us, same as to become under 10 seconds runner of 100m, basically never.
Only very gifted athletes are doing hardest feats in the world, that`s simple fact.
When it comes to advice, all of us (gifted or not) are able do good and solid progress for sure. It`s important to set your own goals and keep training for them with knowing it`s more than possible you will never be one of bests, but you can do YOUR best.
....Wise words from Timo Lauttamus. Thanks for taking the time to do the interview, Timo! Readers, be sure to subscribe to his youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/19Kamau79
And stay tuned for some more great blog articles this summer.
Aris DeMarco
Affecting Gravity is pretty much all about goal-oriented programming. That is:
1. Come up with a goal
2. Ensure that you have a base in place
3. Plan intelligently
4. Work hard
5. Profit!!
Very logical, very simple. It being a new year and all, people are throwing around goals left and right. I've noticed that a lot of men from strongfirst would like to do a pullup with 48kg extra weight--the 'beast' kettlebell--while women would like to nail the 16 or 24. (And there are plenty of other people who would like to simply get stronger at their weighted chins and pulls, too.)
I recently commented on one of these posts with a tip that, as it turns out, not everyone knew, so I figured I'd share it here. First things first, though, let's break this down.
Goal: improve weighted pullup (specifically--pullup with 100lb added weight)
Okay, step one completed. Easy peasy, you're well on your way!
Base:
For your base, you'll probably need to be able to do pullups with at least some added weight. And to do that, you need to be decent at doing pullups with just your bodyweight. And to do that, you need healthy, flexible shoulders. Check this out. It's a great article by Eric Cressey regarding some of the problems associated with pullups and how to fix them. See how this works? In my opinion, if you can't hang, relaxed, from a bar without arching your back due to lack of overhead mobility, you shouldn't be trying to do pullups.
Plan intelligently:
For the sake of argument, let's say that you have a fairly healthy shoulder girdle, you're decent at pullups, and are actually somewhat close to your end goal of +100 pounds. You weigh 180 and can do a pullup with 70 pounds. (Let's also assume you're a male individual, unless I have blog readers from Themyscira.) You have some problems activating your lats, though, and notice that chasing 1RMs too often bothers your elbows. Sets of 4-8 are fine, though. Also, when you just did bodyweight pullups you could do them every day, but heavy weighted pullups more often than twice weekly have caused shoulder pain in the past. (These are all great examples of paying attention to what works--and what doesn't--in your own training, too.)
Back to your goals. You've got your base: good shoulder mobility, good bodyweight pullups, and a decent amount of weight--enough to make +100 a good goal achievable in a few months. So you start to get your plan together:
-Add 30 pounds to my weighted pullup
-Improve lat activation
-Keep my shoulders healthy
-Don't use heavy singles or doubles in my programming, stick to moderate reps when possible
-Only do weighted pullups twice each week
As you can see, this significantly cuts down on your options for programming, which is a good thing. It narrows your focus and enables you to hone in on the best options for you.
There are good ideas and bad ideas. Then there are groundbreaking ones.
Here's where that little tip comes in (did you snicker? Jeez, grow up). You want to a pullup with 100 pounds, you weigh 180. That's 280lb total weight. Yes, definitely factor your own weight in your programming for weighted bodyweight work, after all, it's a pretty fair percentage of your total load.
You know that you want to stay away from heavy singles and doubles, so decide to try and get the 100-pound pull by using a top set of 5. Here's how you know when you'll be ready. You know your current 1RM (180+70, or 250 total). Now, find your 5RM. Warm up without tiring yourself out, like so:
Bodyweight x5
Bodyweight +25x5
Bodyweight +40x3 (could do five+ , but want to save energy... you think 50x5 is there)
Bodyweight +50x4 (ehhh... not quite)
You decide to use 50 as your 5RM for your calculations anyway, as it's conservative. So, 180+50 is 230. That's 92% of your 1RM. Thus, to do a pullup with 100 pounds, you should aim for 92% of that, 257.6, for a set of five. Rounding up a bit, that's bodyweight +80 for a set of 5.
Now, there are many, many ways you could work this information into your program. You could do ladders or pyramids of 1,2,3 or 3,2,1 with your 5RM, density work, whatever; but you want to keep the heavy sets to a minimum and so set up a simple linear cycle of a single top set and a few backoffs.
Day 1: Top set of five, two backoff sets, extra work for the scap retractors
Day 2: Top set of five, one backoff set, extra work for the arm flexors
You need to keep your shoulders healthy, so you decide to warm them up first, stretch your lats between sets, and do rotator cuff exercises after your pullups. You also need to work on lat activation, so you do some of that after your joint warmup.
Here's what your actual workout would look like on day one.
-Scap retraction/protraction in pushup position with band resistance
-Hardstyle plank x10 seconds
-Hollow hold on bar x10 seconds
-3 to 5 fast pullups focusing on pushing your elbows down, not pulling yourself up
(Do as a circuit for 2-3 rounds, don't tire yourself out)
Workout:
Pullups +20x5
Pullups +35x3
Pullups +50x5 (sweet! New PR!)
Pullups +40x6 (backoff set one, just drop 10 pounds off)
Pullups +30x8 (backoff set two)
(There are many options for progression here but the simplest would be to add 5-10lb extra weight every time you hit 5 solid reps on the top set. When linear progress slows down, having a heavier and lighter day each week, or doing pullups one day and chinups the other, could help keep things moving. Backing off and cycling back up, or switching from single to double progression, would be great options too. That's a subject for another article, though.)
Bent-over row 1x10 warmup, 3x8 work sets (use the same weight for all sets, add weight when you can do 3x12--simple double progression on the supplementary exercise). A note on form here--when using them to supplement your pulls/chins, letting your elbows flare out so that lats don't take over, and pausing for a second with the bar at your chest, will do wonders.
Cooldown/Prehab:
Straight-arm band pull for rear delts, 1-2x25-50
Rotator cuff exercise of choice, 1-2x25-50
Stretching
There you go. Fairly expansive, yes? With a program this specific, you won't be able to do a whole lot else on your two pullup days unless you have all day to spend in the gym (comparatively, anyway, keep in mind that the general idea of my advice on this blog is for people to be able to train intelligently even if they don't have much time to commit), so the rest of your training week will have to be planned accordingly. Something like:
Monday: pullup day one
Tuesday: Press
Wednesday: Squat
Thursday: pullup
Friday: press day two
Saturday: pullup day two
This assumes, of course, that the rest of your goals are also strength-related. If they aren't, I'm sure you could come up with something else. If you really wanted to focus, doing something like doing presses before your pullups for a few high tension sets of 3-5x3-5, and doing lower body exercises the same way after your pullups, could work well too. This would give you two strength days and free up the rest of your week for conditioning and other stuff. Plenty of options, and this blog is long enough already.....
Remember that this is a purely hypothetical example that shows what I think a good thought process should be for someone designing his or her own training program. Any individual might need a completely different approach even for this same goal; changing the exercises, frequency, volume, intensity, etc. to fit their own needs. Hopefully, though, there was some information here that you can make good use for your own purposes!
Samurai cat says "crush your enemies." The enemy in this case being your pullup 1RM.
Aris DeMarco
I came across this very short video of Charles Rigoulot lifting, he demonstrates some of the lifts I wrote about here and here and here.
At 0.10: one arm snatch
At 0.15: one arm C&J
At 0.23: two hands military press. Note the exceptionally strict, controlled form. Most contests at this time required that the lifters' heels be held together.
At 0.35: two hands (split) snatch.
A professional weightlifter, Rigoulot was known for his speed and athleticism. He was, according to David Willoughby, "essentially a specialist" in the one and two arm snatch, and two arm clean-and-jerk. He did little pressing as he thought it would slow him down.
At a bodyweight of 215-225 (at a hair under 5 feet, 8 inches in height) Rigoulot's best lifts were as follows--
Right hand snatch 253lb/115kg
Left hand snatch 221/100
Right hand swing with dumbbell 219/99
Left hand swing with dumbbell 194/88
Two hands press 253/115
Two hands snatch 315/143
Two hands C&J 402/182
Two hands deadlift 621/282
About to snatch 100kg one-handed
As can be seen, he was relatively speaking an extremely poor 'presser' but very strong on the one arm snatch and swing and, for his time, the deadlift, two arm snatch, and C&J.
Rigoulot's records were sometimes questioned, as for all overhead lifts he used a custom-built shot loading barbell 8 feet in length, with a very springy handle--much more efficient, once one mastered the technique of using it, for getting weights overhead than the 1'' diameter, stiff, 6' length standard weights normally used.
In 1930, Rigoulot became the first man to officially lift the 'Apollon wheels' overhead--a 'show' weight of performing strongman Luis Uni ('Apollon'), this railway car axle and wheels weighed 366 pounds and, with a 2-inch handle, was exceedingly difficult to lift even for very very powerful individuals.
Rigoulot retired from weightlifting in 1933, at age 30, due to a sprained hip, and became a professional wrestler. With the money from both those sports he was able to drive race cars on his spare time; which is pretty darn awesome.
Bugatti type 45--no idea if Rigoulot drove one but one of the best French racing-cars at the time.
Eccentric Curls (Prehab) - 8 second eccentrics/rep - 10x5x3 sets/arm;
1/5:
Competition Squats - 365x1; 260x4; 280x4; 295x4
'Retraction Shrugs' - 30x15x2 sets
After training for my last powerlifting meet, I realized I was woefully out of shape. This 6-week training cycle was created to address that, and a few weaknesses (triceps, midback/posterior delts, pauses at weak positions). Overall, it was a solid training week. It may look like a lot of volume, but the weights are pretty low (for me), so 3 weeks in and I'm still recovering like a champ and rarely get sore.
This week was the first time I've gone remotely heavy since my last powerlifting meet about a month ago; I was pleased with the sumo and the heavyish single with my competition squat stance.
Been gym hopping all this past week, so I skipped some other upper back work due to lack of equipment/time, but I'll be getting back to it this week.
The thrill of competing is not something easily forgotten. Your heart pounds in your chest with a loud THUD, over and over, and a mix of fear and excitement runs through your veins as you prepare to perform. I had forgotten what that felt like, so I decided to train for and compete in the USAPL Southwest Collegiate Regionals in San Antonio, TX, in the Raw division.
Training
I won’t delve too deeply into how I trained, but here’s a general overview. I followed the approach outlined HERE for the first 6-8 weeks before progress faded. Unfortunately, at the time, I wasn’t smart enough to make changes, so I had a 2 week plateau of sorts, before I dropped a day of squats, and added in high bar squats and paused squats to my training, which helped me finally smash through the plateau I had hit. Squats were trained 3x/week; Deadlift once per week, and bench once per week, for the final 3.5 weeks. It looked something like this:
Tues:
Paused High Bar
Squat Assistance
Thurs:
Bench
Posterior Chain/Bench Assistance
Friday:
Weighted Box Jumps
High Bar
Squat Assistance
Sunday:
Competition-Style Squats
Sumo DL’s
Squat/Dead Assistance
Overall, a very simple (not easy) routine. Unfortunately, plans don’t always work out like you want them to; in my case, a nagging left hamstring issue decided to flare up again around 4 weeks out from the competition. It didn’t affect my squat or bench at all, but it hurt so bad when trying to get in the sumo stance that I couldn’t even pull 135 off the ground without severe pain. So I went the last 2.5 weeks without pulling in my competition stance, with some half-hearted block pulls and conventional stance deadlifts thrown into the mix, but certainly nothing remotely resembling worthwhile.
Additionally, due to an overzealous background in the gymnastics arena over the last 2 years, I had been dealing with severe elbow tendinosis over the course of the past year. Because I also coach gymnastics and spot kids on a regular basis, the pain sort of ebbs and flows, never fully going away; as it so happened, the pain didn’t go away until around 3.5 weeks out from the meet, which meant I could FINALLY train my bench press. So, coming into the meet, I had only trained the bench press for 3.5 weeks, and I hadn’t pulled anything significant for more than 2 weeks, nor had I set foot in a sumo stance for that period of time. Suffice it to say that I was very worried about those 2 lifts going into the meet.
Add to the fact that, when I decided to do the meet, I weighed in at 193 while looking to compete in the 182.5lbs weight class, and I had some real problems on my hands. Most people say 1) never lose weight for your first meet; just go out there and have fun, and 2) if you lose weight, you’re likely to lose some strength along with it. I said screw it to the first point - I knew my lifts were very close to being able to qualify for nationals (1151lbs total is what was needed in the 83kg class), and I figured I may initially lose some strength, but I was already at a lean 10.6% BF (via DEXA scan) before starting to lose weight, and with a combination of water manipulation and slowly dropping weight over the course of the 3 months that I was preparing for the meet, I figured I would be fine.
Turns out, I was right. The week before the meet, I weighed in at 184.3lbs - almost 9lbs down from where I started. The rest was simply a matter of water manipulation. Here’s how I did it:
Monday-Thurs: 2 gallons of water per day, <100g carbs per day
Friday: ~96oz of water, <50g carbs
Saturday: no carbs till weigh in.
Simple, and really easy. I actually cut better than I thought and overshot it a little bit; friday morning, I weighed in at 178.8lbs, and saturday morning, I weighed in at 176.1lbs before the meet. Of course, I read the email incorrectly, and went to the wrong weigh in. And, of course, I left to go refeed and had a huge bolus of carbs and salt before coming back on site and being told that I weighed in at the wrong time and would have to do it again. Greatttttttttt.
I was worried sick at this point; I didn’t know if I had eaten enough to gain all that water weight back or not. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as I weighed in for the meet at 181.3. Ha! Holy crap. Got to refeed TWICE. This is probably how I will tackle 2-hour weigh ins in the future; unless you have someone sticking an IV in you, it’s really the only way to get back some of the water you lose and get the glycogen replenishment you need before you lift. Anyway.
Squat:
Bench:
Deads:
Total: 505kgs = 1111lbs. Not too bad for a first meet.
Would I Change Anything?
Looking back, there were a few things I would change. First off, I would’ve been more dedicated about fixing these elbows. I’ve slowly been on the right track with both of them, but I slacked on some of the rehab which probably set me back on the bench quite a bit. For example, my triceps, historically one of if not my strongest bodypart, are now the weakest portion of my bench, due to not being able to do any elbow flexion/extension work for close to 10 months.
When squatting as frequently as I do, I think it’s important to plug in more variation; based on my results, I make progress for around 6 weeks before it peters out. I worked up to 395x3 with a belt, and the following two weeks I could neither match or exceed that number with that current training template. So, plugging in some sort of slight variation every 6-8 weeks has proven to be a very important way to keep making progress throughout the cycle.
That's it! Questions about doing meets? Want to start training for one? If you have any other questions regarding the meet/meet prep, comment below or shoot us an email at affectinggravity@gmail.com and I'll get to it ASAP.
