Tag Archives: Deadlifting

Health and Fitness

Did Heather Connor deserve the “good call” on the third attempt Deadlift at USAPL RAW Nationals???

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I watched this young woman named Heather Connor compete at the RAW Nationals for the women’s division over last weekend. I was impressed by her third attempt at Deadlift which was 183 kilos which will be about 403 in lbs. Ever since then, there has been a bit of a debate about her third attempt. Did she deserve her 2 white lights and 1 red call on her third attempt?

Even though Heather was really shaky during the third attempt, she was able to lock it out at the top but the judges only gave her two white lights and one red. In my opinion, I thought she deserved 3 white lights for this lift.

In the rules of deadlifting at USAPL, there can’t be any downward movement… if you read some of the comments in that youtube video… they were saying there were some downward movements when the bar went past her knees. I watched the attempt more than enough times and I didn’t see any downward movements at all. The way I’m seeing it is that this girl was trying to straighten the bar since it was imbalance at the bottom. Since she was trying to straighten the bar, it looked like she was bringing the bar down but I didn’t see that. I can understand why some think there were downward movements while she was bringing it up but she was trying to balance the bar which she did a great job at.

I think the only reason that people are mad that they gave this girl a “good call” on her third deadlift attempt ’cause it made them mad that she pulled a HUGE deadlift and it’s gonna make others jealous. I think those saying it was a bad call attacked her out of jealousy and nothing more. They just wished they can pull a 400 lb. deadlift and they’re mad at her ’cause she did it.

I didn’t see any up and down movements… she brought it up pretty smooth, in my opinion. Once again, it looks like that ’cause she was trying to straighten the bar when it went past her knees and she didn’t stop. I thought the judges did the right thing giving her a “good” call.

I thought the lift was pretty impressive and it floored me. Someday I’ll be able to lift a 400 lb. deadlift and I will!

Kev

Health and Fitness

Debate: To be one of the greatest powerlifters of all time, do you need to be a fat ass? Um no! Absolutely not!!!

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People in the powerlifting community like to argue that you need to be a fat ass and overweight in powerlifting in order to lift the big numbers. Is that always true? No. Not really.

From what I’ve seen in powerlifting over the last few years is that powerlifters come in all shapes and sizes from skinny to muscular to very overweight people.

In the past, it used to be that powerlifting was for fat asses only but I think bodybuilders have picked up on powerlifting over the years. I’ve noticed that powerlifting has become extremely popular in the bodybuilding world. More and more people with bodybuilder like physiques has been competing for powerlifting.

What will it take to get people to realize that powerlifting isn’t just for fat asses? If Russell Orhii isn’t good enough to prove that then I don’t know what to say. Russell Orhii is a young black dude as you can see in the video above and if you look him up in youtube, you’ll see that he has a great bodybuilding physique. A bodybuilder that is into powerlifting.

Some say bodybuilders can’t lift the huge numbers in powerlifting. Um, please. Of course they can! Don’t you know that hypertrophy like training style like lifting in between the rep rages of 8 – 12 can build you pretty good strength? Yes. Building muscle on every body part can build you pretty good strength. A lot of powerlifters out there refuses to train like a bodybuilder still and I do both. I want to get huge someday but I’m not gonna be “fat” huge, I wanna be “muscular” huge if that makes sense. Even if I’m a powerlifter now, I still train like a bodybuilder. I can’t ignore hypertrophy training. A lot of powerlifters don’t want to admit that hypertrophy training and building muscle can be useful for strength training. You don’t want to do heavy sets and few reps all the time.

I do want to become a great powerlifter someday but I’m not gonna stuff my face with a lot of calories and gain a lot of bodyfat… no freakin’ way. I’m gonna continue to build muscle to get strong. On chest day, I do heavy sets and few reps on bench but I do hypertrophy on everything else. Hypertrophy can’t be ignored. A huge chest will help get you bigger numbers on bench.

Anyhow, watch Russell Orhii’s attempts at the RAW Nationals from over the weekend. Although he was slightly disappointing, I thought he did great. This dude is gaining my respect. I’m a huge fan of Russell. I hope to meet that dude in person someday.

Kev

Health and Fitness

The key to getting rid of lifting injuries faster is that you gotta stop putting weight on it… either stop training it or go super light…

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Admittedly, I’ve had the upper left quad injury for  months and stupid me, I just kept working out the lower body through it. Like I said before, that’s not gonna make injuries go away if you keep training that body part that is hurt. It’s gonna stay there the more you keep training it. So to make injuries go away faster, you gotta stop training that body part completely for a while or just lift super light weight. I mean super duper light.

On leg day yesterday afternoon, I ended up doing barbell squats after all but only did 60 lbs. for 8 reps only on each set. Then I did leg ext. machine and leg press machine training the right leg “only”. That seems to have done the trick. My upper left quad don’t seem to be hurting anymore as of this moment. When I had the injury, it’ll start hurting when I stand for a long time and the pain seems to be gone now when I stand.

I might be good enough to get back to heavy deadlifting again this weekend. I’m taking a day off of gym just to make sure the leg pain is gone for good, if it is, I’ll get back to killing it on deadlift tomorrow by getting back into heavy sets and few rep sets.

When your legs are hurt, you still gotta stop the deadlifting ’cause deadlifting takes a lot of quad work.

I didn’t need to go to a doctor at all ’cause the injury wasn’t that serious… it was minor. I wish I’ve thought of this a long time ago and the injury would have healed a long time ago. My bad, lessons learned next time, though. The hip pain is gone and now the leg pain seems to be gone.

I want to be completely injury-free for deadlifting so I can really bring my numbers up for the next powerlifting meet at Albany Strength in Nov. There was gonna be a powerlifting meet in Albany on Aug. 30th but it ended up getting cancelled. I’m gonna do the meet in Nov. instead, I think.

Hopefully I didn’t lose more deadlifting strength, though. I’m pretty sure I didn’t but we’ll see.

Kev

Health and Fitness

Not doing so good on squats and deadlift lately but killing it on bench… wonder why that is??? Am I plateauing? I could be, not gonna lie…

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I tried maxing out on the big three lifts this week but wasn’t very good again. I’m killing it on bench. My bench numbers are going up as I just smashed a whopping 165 lbs. pr. on bench this week. Not quite at 170 lb. bench yet but I’ll get there in a few weeks. I’m on the road to a 200 lb. bench. Looks like I won’t get to 200 lbs. in time before the Aug. 30th push/pull meet at Albany Strength but I’m still gonna try to get there.

As for squat and deadlift… the squats, I had to go do lighter weights so I can get the correct depth that the USAPL asks for. The right depth for the USAPL is that the upper leg area and crease of the hip needs to be lower than the top of the knee. I hit that depth and it’s very tough. I couldn’t smash a 150 or a 140 lb. squat when I tried so my estimated pr on squats right now is about 135 lbs. I’m gonna take my time and really bring up my squat numbers this summer.

The same goes for deadlift. I still can’t get over 300 lbs. again. I did it once in the past but can’t seem to do it now. I think I’m plateauing on deadlift and I’m going to figure out a way to bust through it. Maybe I keep deadlifting the same weights every week ’cause you don’t want to do that. I gotta keep adding more weight everyweek and mix it up and I will start doing that from now on.

When I train for strength in powerlifting, I do 5 sets of everything on the big three and started training for 1 – 5 reps. I used to start with 8 – 10 reps and go 1 – 5 later in the sets but from now on, I’ve been doing 1 – 5 reps for each set. I feel that I’m getting pretty close to 300 again ’cause a few weeks ago, I smashed a 280 lb. for a double and a 285 lb. for a heavy single. Someday I want to start doing 300 lbs. for more reps and I’m gonna take my time to get there. I can get there this summer if I’m lucky enough. Just gotta find a way to break out of this plateau and I’ll be back on fire before you know it.

Every powerlifter goes through plateaus, even the greatest powerlifters of all time go through ’em. We all have our bad days in the gym and at the powerlifting meets so I’m not mad about it. I’ll find a way to get back on track on deadlift so I can fucking kill it at the push/pull meet in August. At the push/pull meet in August, I’m hoping to smash over 300 lb. so I’m gonna take my time and come up with a plan.

When you “plateau” in the gym, it means you notice a decrease in strength like staying the same or going down. You don’t want that in powerlifting. I want to become a great deadlifter and don’t wanna mess it up.

Kev

Health and Fitness

If you want something in powerlifting, you go do it and don’t listen to negativity…

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When you have goals and dreams you want to achieve in powerlifting, bodybuilding or whatever you want to do… yeah… people are gonna doubt you, call you delusional and be jealous of you but you can’t be listening to them.

Yeah, I do want to become a great powerlifter someday. People may think that goal is crazy and people might say that I’m full of myself and arrogant but don’t listen to them. In powerlifting, if you want something, you go get it. Honestly, that’s the reason everybody gets into powerlifting ’cause they all hope to become the greatest powerlifter someday. That is definitely my goal and I’m gonna do all I can to make it come true. Just gotta ignore all the haters and doubters and keep reaching out for it.

There will always be people who will act like I’m doing no good in powerlifting but you don’t want to listen to them either. This is about you and no one else.

I got into powerlifting hoping to achieve great things ’cause you can only live once, ya know? I wasn’t able to play sports over the years of my life due to my scoliosis and since I do powerlifting, this is my chance to do great things in life.

A lot of people already are liking what I’m doing which is why I’m trying to post more videos of my lifting. Admittedly, my numbers in powerlifting could be better but I’m still pretty new to this and got a lot of work to do still. I’ve already been lifting weights for years but powerlifting is pretty new to me. I wish the powerlifting veterans would treat the newbies with more respect ’cause the “newbies” don’t get treated well. When you’re just starting out, gotta get ready for the know it alls and big shots to get all over you ’cause that will happen.

Just ignore negativity from people and you will make your dreams come true.

Kev

Health and Fitness

People who love deadlifting should watch this video…

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Kind of an old video but I think this video by Steve Shaw is worth sharing.

People who love to deadlift in the gym wonder why their backs are always hurting. Well, I agree with everything this guy said in this video. If deadlifters wonder why their lower backs hurt all the time is: 1) Their form sucks 2) They max out every week. Either one of those two will hurt your lower back.

Deadlifting maybe the best workout in the gym and maybe a blast to do but deadlift carefully and responsibly ’cause many in the gym don’t. Everyday at my local gym, for the hell of it, I like to watch other people deadlift while I rest in between sets during my workouts. Well some people deadlift in good form but most deadlift horribly, it’s crazy, ya know? I see too many lifters deadlifting with rounded backs all the time. Some deadlift with their hips too damn low that it’s almost like a squat. People deadlift by standing too far from the bar and I can go on.

I try to make my deadlift form as perfect as possible. I made one mistake on deadlift that I’ve been maxing out every week which was why I took out my back at one point a long while back. The back pain wasn’t that serious and it went away in a few days. That gave me a pretty good lesson not to max out every week.  Plus, maybe my form was a little off when that happened.

When deadlifting, you can not only hurt your lower back, you can hurt yourself in other places on your body too. Deadlift can be a fun and simple exercise as long as you do it right. If you do perfect form on every rep, you won’t hurt yourself at all and you’ll be fine.

Deadlift is very good for the back and one of the best back exercises in the gym. Deadlift is not just a back exercise, though, it works out muscles throughout your entire body pretty much except for the chest.

There’s a reason that deadlift is the most popular exercise in the gym. It used to be that bench press was the king of all workouts but now it’s looking like that deadlift has taken over the bench press’s spotlight.

Kev

Health and Fitness, sports

Busting another powerlifting myth I see out there… powerlifting isn’t a skinny man’s sport? lmao…

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During that debate on the Tnation forum in the powerlifting section, some dude told me that I looked skinny which I’ll take as a compliment, btw. The dude told me I needed to add some weight on me and put on some muscle. I didn’t bother replying to that guy but in my head, I was saying to myself, “Dude, I’ve been lifting weights in the gym for over 10 years and I don’t look muscular enough to you?”.

I’ve had many people tell me in person that I’m getting bigger in bodybuilding training and lots of people have told me that I’m getting all jacked up. People tell me these things to my face instead of online. I get positive feedback on my physique all the time. Yes, I’m going to get some critics on my physique but that’s okay.

There’s a ridiculous myth going around that “Powerlifting isn’t a skinny man’s sport”. Some people think powerlifting is for “big men” only. That’s just another ridiculous lie going around.

After watching three powerlifting meets and watching a bunch of live powerlifting meets online, I’ve seen plenty of skinny men competing. You’ll see skinny guys lifting the big ones… anywhere from 400 – 600 lbs. It’s insane. You see powerlifting is for everyone in all shapes and sizes.

The days of fat asses and overweight powerlifters are over. Some people think powerlifting is for fat asses only but that’s how powerlifting was in the old days. Ya know, I think the fitness and bodybuilding community have picked up on powerlifting. There’s even a lot of bodybuilders who have picked up on powerlifting too. It’s not just for fat men.

I believe powerlifting have gone mainstream. Nobody cares about bodybuilding anymore. Bodybuilding is a dying industry and it seems that everybody have switched to powerlifting including me. It’s amazing to see really. Everywhere in America you’ll see more powerlifting meets even in your hometown. You can love or hate powerlifting all you want to but the sport is exploding in America. It’s getting bigger and bigger.

I’m glad to be on this powerlifting journey. I wished I discovered powerlifting years ago.

Kev

Health and Fitness

Watch me smash a 300 lb. and 310 lb. deadlift which I did today…

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Well, I knew I could smash a 300 lb. deadlift which was pretty easy. It was such a piece of cake that I felt like that I could lift a little more so I threw an extra 10 pounds on and gave 310 lb. deadlift a shot. The 310 lb. deadlift was a successful lockout.

Yep, this what you gotta do before doing your 1 rep maxes. Gotta properly warm up beforehand so you will be able to lift the big ones.

I’m going to give maxing out on bench another try this coming Monday to see if I’m able to get 160 or a little more hopefully. Just gotta properly warm up so you won’t feel all fatigued and beat-up.

Getting ready for Marc 30th powerlifting meet and working hard for this one as you can see. I know I’m gonna kick ass that day and kill it!

Kev

Health and Fitness, sports

Goals for my next powerlifting meet at the end of March…

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Last week, I sent in my registration and sign up fee so I can participate in the next Powerlifting Meet at Albany Strength at the end of March. I’ve been working pretty hard for this for the past several months. I’ve been getting prepared for it.

My goals for numbers at this meet is that I hope to smash a 300 lb. deadlift. I hit a 300 lb. deadllift at the gym once a long while back and I’m hoping to hit that number again. I’ve learned that you don’t want to test your 1 rep maxes all the time and I haven’t done that in while. I’m planning to test out my 1 rep maxes on the big three lifts at the end of this month which is in a few weeks so I can see what my latest pr’s are for the big three lifts.

For deadlift I’m hoping to hit 300 lbs. or a little more.

For bench, my pr. on that is currently 155 lbs and I’m hoping to hit somewhere around 160 – 170 lbs.

For squats, my pr. on that is currently 125 and I’m to hoping to hit somewhere around 130 – 140 lbs.

I’ve watched a lot of powerlifting meets online so I can research and study. I’m amazed at how many powerlifters miss so many lifts on these things. That’s one thing I don’t want to do on a powerllifting meet is missing lifts. That’s why it’s pretty smart to come up with a plan ahead of time so you won’t miss any lifts on meet day. I’m not gonna miss any lifts on meet day. I want to get 3 white lights on everything so I have to make sure I pick my numbers smart and I’m going to do just that for this one.

When I test my p.r. on deadlift again in a few weeks and if I can’t hit 300 lbs. then I guess I could probably go for 290 lbs. I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to hit 300 lbs. or a little more, we’ll see. For the past weeks, I’ve been training for reps and strength and I know I’m getting stronger on all three lifts.

I want meet day to be my best day and don’t want to screw anything up. I want to go in there and put on a show for the spectators so I’ve been training hard and working for it each week. I haven’t slowed down my workouts at all. Still going to the gym 4 days a week. I want this to be a great day and don’t want to disappoint anyone so I’m working real hard.

After I test out my pr’s for all three lifts squats, deadlift and bench, that’ll be it for a while until meet day. After my pr week, I’m going to start doing a method called “peaking” and “tapering”. Meaning going pretty light each week before meet day so you won’t feel fatigue and ready to go. Before meet day, I’m thinking of taking a week off so I can be fully rested and healed and all that stuff. I want to be careful with my lifting before meet week ’cause I want to make sure I’m not all beat up and want to make sure I’m completely injury free. I want meet day to be my best so I have to be fully rested and be full of energy. That means on meet week I’m going to have to start going to bed a lot earlier.

The question is, will I win that belt that guy is holding in that photo? No, I probably won’t but maybe someday I will. I might win a trophy or two on meet day but that’s about it. Anyways and like I keep saying, I’m not into powerlifting to win trophies or awards. I’m into this to get strong and to do something challenging. Powerlifting gives me something to do and I want to do something fun.

I’m getting stoked for my third powerlifting meet. They are a blast to go to. It’s fun to show off what you can do and it’s a blast to watch the other lifters too. Thank god powerlifting is for everyone ’cause I get to do a sport for once in my life. I couldn’t play sports over the years. Powerlifting is my calling for sure.

Kev

Health and Fitness

Finally hit the big 300 as my new p.r. for deadlift… feels great!

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Last week when I maxed out on the 295 lb. deadlift, I took out my lower back pretty good. I didn’t understand how that happened. I didn’t freak out and didn’t panic but kept positive and kept working out throughout the week. When you hurt your back deadlifting, you don’t sit around and do nothing at home. Just keep moving and keep doing your daily activities in life. I was trying to figure out how I did that. Was it my form? No. I figured out what it was that did it. I was doing too many sets and reps before maxing out on 1 rep to test my pr.

Gee, no wonder I had trouble on my pr’s the last couple of weeks on deadlift ’cause I was doing too many sets and reps. Looking at my program, I noticed I was doing a bit too much so from this point on, I’m only going to do 5 sets only and only doing 3 – 5 reps on the heavier ones. I was doing too many sets on deadlift that it was making me more tired and more weaker. I gotta stop doing that from now on.

Now that my lower back is all better and feeling no pain/soreness at all, I decided to try out the 5 sets and 3 – 5 reps method this week. It seemed to work quite well. Earlier today, I pulled a big 300 lbs. p.r. on deadlift (see video above) and it didn’t hurt me that time. So I got it all figured out. I’m realizing now that doing less is more to get more strength and bring your pr’s up quicker. I’m gonna follow that method through bench press and squats as well. Less is more is the trick.

I’ll try not to take out my back like that ever again but don’t worry, I was fine. It was nothing that serious. It was a minor injury but I was still able to walk around and do things. I didn’t bother telling anybody and didn’t go to the doctor ’cause I knew it was going to heal quickly and it did.

Now I’m killing it on the deadlift.

Kev