Routine Review/ Revised Goals

Routine Review/ Revised Goals

I just finished Routine A of Variation C of my Two by Two Training Plan. This routine started with a post-contest letdown, and then during it I had many things to figure out, made several changes, and had some health setbacks to deal with. But despite the problems, I made good progress throughout this routine and “peaked” at the end of it, right on schedule. My final powerlifts workouts featured 50s PRs across the board, with my top sets being full max 50s PR singles, although they were not large PRs.

For my final bench and deadlifts workouts prior to my February contest, I did singles with 170, 380, respectively. Then at the contest my lifts were 165, 375. This past week I did singles of 175, 385. I thus added five pounds to benches and deadlifts as compared to my last pre-contest workouts and ten pounds as compared to the contest. I thank the LORD and am pleased with those increases given all of the experimenting, changes, and difficulties throughout this routine. It should also be noted that these lifts are close to my best raw bench and deadlift in my 40s, so I expected progress to be slow at this point.

Squats, however, are another matter. For them, I made the big decision halfway through this routine to switch from knee wraps to knee sleeves. That of course significantly reduced how much I am now squatting. For my final workout before the February contest I squatted 315 and at the contest 310, both with knee wraps. For my final squat workout this past week I squatted 285 with knee sleeves. Figuring knee wraps add 30 pounds, that 285 squat equaled my best squat before the contest and bettered the contest squat by five pounds. Given I only did three workouts with knee sleeves, I am happy with that, as I expected it to take a while to make the adjustment. However, I am still quite a ways away from my best raw squat with knee sleeves in my 40s, so I have lots of room for improvement.

Adding up my top sets this past week would give me an 845 total, just five pounds less than at the contest. Given no knee wraps, I am very happy with that. But with the change from knee wraps to knee sleeves, I need to revise my previous goals for my next contest, November 21, 2015; IPA Nationals in York, PA (the same location as my previous contest).

My goals will of course be to better my lifts from my previous contest. But that will be quite a challenge on squats, but that will be my goal. The 310 was the All-time raw masters (50-59) world record, so even a five pound increase would increase my record. I hope to get more than just a five pound increase on benches and deadlifts, thus my goals will be 315 – 185 – 400 – 900. If I could get the 400 deadlift, it would be especially satisfying, and not just for the round number. The current All-time raw masters (50-59) world record is 396, held by the same lifter from Israel whose squat record I broke. If the deadlift record doesn’t change by the contest, then 400 would give me that record.

Now that I have everything figured out with my equipment and training routine, I can focus on training hard to reach on these goals. Here’s trusting the LORD that I am able to continue hard training despite ongoing health difficulties and that these goals become a reality.

Starting and Progressing in Powerlifting:
A Comprehensive Guide to the World’s Strongest Sport

350 page book by Gary F. Zeolla

The above forum post was posted on this website June 4, 2015.

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