Tag Archives: Powerlifting

Health and Fitness

This should be a pretty good wakeup-call for powerlifters of any level… powerlifting legend Larry Wheels tears quad while trying to go for a heavy single…

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Powerlifting may seem like a fun sport and maybe a blast to lift heavy things but if you don’t think accidents will happen and you won’t get injuries, I wanna know what planet you’re living on?

Here is powerlifting veteran Larry Wheels, considered one of the greats going for a heavy squat single but he’s in a monolith with lifting straps and having two spotters in case something happens. Well something did happen and tore his quad.

p, injuries in powerlifting and you can get injuries in regular “bodybuilding” training too… so this should be a pretty good wake-up call for lifters of all types. Powerlifting may be about lifting the most weight as possible but you don’t really need to really. There’s nothing wrong with lifting the numbers that you can get safely so you can add up your scores at a meet and that’s what it should be about, adding scores at a meet. Lifting as much as possible means you’re going to miss a lot of lifts and it’s ego lifting for sure.

This video gone viral in the weightlifting world should be a pretty big wake up call… but I’m sure many will ignore this and continue to lift weights that they can’t handle and end up getting injured anyways ’cause there are lifters that never learn.

And yes, I’ve gotten injuries in the gym myself, I’ll confess it but I don’t get injuries all the time. Once in a while I’ll get a minor injury… mostly tiny injuries that can heal in a few weeks but I didn’t get anything that put me in the hospital yet.

You get accidents and injuries no matter what skill you’re in weight lifting, even the pros although many of them will never admit it.

I respect Larry Wheels even more ’cause he’s not afraid to be real and not afraid to show off his lifting accidents when many are. It’s just their way of helping people so others won’t make that mistake in the gym.

I wish Larry speedy recovery though.

Kev

Health and Fitness

A lot of powerlifters are gonna be arrogant and ego-driven people, just so you’re aware… lifting is about you, though, not about them…

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Yeah, so you want to get yourself into the sport of powerlifting ’cause it simply looked cool and a lot of fun. That’s why I got myself into it ’cause it looks like a blast lifting heavy things. You’re just getting yourself into the powerlifting game and one thing you gotta be aware of, like the title says, you’re gonna see a lot of other powerlifters that are very ego-driven and arrogant people. I hope I’m not the only one that feels this way.

You’ll see a lot of powerlifters lifting with terrible form and technique all over social media and like the other post said about it, for some reason it’s accepted and cheered upon. You criticize other people’s lifting technique even when you’re nice, friendly and gentle about it, people will start criticizing you in return. Knowing from my own experience dealing with other powerlifters online.

I mean, isn’t the whole point of powerlifting is critiquing people’s form and being realistic? Yes. That’s the name of the game in powerlifting. The funny thing is, people think it’s okay to critique my form but when I do it to others, people don’t like it? Sure, I’m kind of a novice powerlifter still and my numbers could be better but that doesn’t mean they have the right to attack me in return. That’s the thing about powerlifting, they treat the newbies and up and comings like crap.

I try not to criticize someone’s form but I only do it when it looks dangerous like deadlifting with rounded backs and benching with butt off bench. I’m just looking out for their well being so they don’t get injured in the future but these people get defensive.

Today I got a bunch of hateful comments on my instagram by trolls, criticizing my lifting form even though it’s good. I haven’t seen one comment by any of them explaining why my form isn’t good and they haven’t corrected my form once. Why? It’s because they know my form is good and they dare not say it. They just say stuff like “Your form is shit” without explaining what I’m doing is wrong. They just wanted something to bash at. I deleted all the nasty comments asap, though.

I think they get defensive on bad form ’cause they can’t take the truth that it could lead to injury. The truth hurts, ya know? If they want to keep deadlifting with rounding backs, go for it. You could take out your back and you could be out of lifting for months. Even worse, your powerlifting career could be over for good. Too many deadlift with rounded backs and too many bench with butt off of bench, it’s scary really.

Let these assholes kill themselves in the gym for all I care. Yeah, there are gonna be egos and arrogant jerks in powerlifting for sure, you just gotta ignore ’em and just keep doing your thing. Not care what others say about you and your lifting.

There will be veterans and longtime powerlifters who will try to make you look bad. I was trying to be helpful and look out for their well-being but some of them are not gonna like it.

I can take criticism of my lifting just fine and can take it like an adult. If you’re doing it just to troll, that I can’t take.

Not everyone in powerlifting are arrogant jerks, some are actually very cool people and humble. Powerlifting is not always a cool community to get into. You just need to focus on you and not worry about what others are doing.

I get why some trash my powerlifting skills ’cause of my numbers but just so you wait… someday I will be able to bench over 300 lbs. and be able to deadlift/squat over 500 and maybe the critics will be silenced then? We’ll see.

Kev

Health and Fitness

Here’s me smashing a 290 lb. deadlift heavy single today… it was easy, felt like I could do more…

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I had a great deadlift session earlier this afternoon. Feeling strong on deadlift again. Easily smashed a 290 lb. heavy single. Felt so easy, I felt I could do more. Like the IG post says, I could probably smash a 300 lb. single and will give it a shot next week.

I could probably get past 300 lbs. for more reps very soon.

Trying to take technique and form very seriously and I just had a veteran powerlifter tell me in FB this lift was perfect.

Covid 19 didn’t take away my strength at all to be honest. In fact, it actually made me slightly stronger, lol….

Enjoy.

Kev

Health and Fitness

Squatting with depth this time… breaking paralell squats for powerlifting…

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Ever since I got into powerlifting full time two years ago, I’ve always struggled on trying to get squat form right and I think I’m finally starting to get the hang of it. In powerlifting competition especially the USAPL federation, to get squat depth right, you gotta break parallel. Meaning no parallel squats /w the legs parallel to the floor… you can’t squat like that in powerlifting… they want you to go deeper. Going deeper means that you gotta squat low until the crease of the hip goes below the top of the knee.

I always google information on squatting on how to get squat depth right and watching powerlifting competitions online on how they do it. The trick to getting squat depth right that the USAPL ask for is to get the hips lower than the knee caps… making the hamstrings touch the top of your calves is the way to do it.

So in order to go below parallel, I had to go for lighter weights, I guess and I was able to break parallel every rep and didn’t miss a single lift today in squats. Felt good. I smashed a 130 lb. single which was the best I could do. Like the video says that lift was a fighter but I was able to lock it out.

I’ll take 130 lbs. heavy single for now and I’ll try my best to go up in numbers before the end of the year. Hopefully get up to 180 lbs. or 190 lbs. before the end of the year and I’m gonna do my best to get there. I really need to bring my squat numbers up and if going lighter is what it will take for now so be it. I’ll still do 1 – 5 heavy reps, just do the weights that I know I can do. I’m gonna train smart. No more messing around. Time to go up in numbers on the big three.

Squats really is an awesome lift. I’m liking it more and more. Enjoy the video above.

Kev

Health and Fitness

Feels real good to be back on the deadlift platform at the gym finally! Yes!

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I’m noticing that I seem to have still got it on the powerlifting. I pulled an easy 275 lb. deadlift single this morning at the gym. I kept my deadlift session real easy and semi-light ’cause when coming back from time off, you don’t want to go too crazy on the heavy lifting just yet. The 275 lb. deadlift was too easy, I felt I could do a lot more.

So maybe I still do have the 300 lb. deadlift after all??? We’ll see. I remember once a long time ago at the gym, I pulled a 315 lb. max lift and I’m hoping I could do that again. I will start doing 300 pounders on deadlift at the gym and that’s my goal for the rest of the year. I’m hoping to start doing 300 lbs. for more reps, though.

First time back in the gym in a long time, gotta take it easy and that’s what I did. Next week, though, I think it’s time to get back into my serious strength training. Go back to heavy sets and few reps. Really improve my numbers on the big three is my goal. I’m not gonna mess around anymore this time… take powerlifting more seriously and not miss any lifts.

It felt great to be deadlifting again finally, though. My legs are even more sore because of it. No more time off from the gym. I wasn’t gonna take time off this year but the stupid pandemic forced me to since I don’t have my own gym. So happy to be back ’cause this is what I’m supposed to do.

Kev

Health and Fitness, Politics/war

Looks like I’m gonna be without a gym for a while longer thanks to douchebag Cuomo…

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Everybody kept thinking that gyms were going re-open in NY ’cause of Phase 4 but Gov. Cuomo was never clear or not on if gyms were a part of phase 4 re-opening in NY state. Then Cuomo responds claiming that gyms are not part of Phase 4 which is bullshit since Phase 4 clearly falls under education, recreation, arts and entertainment. I mean, you would think that “gyms” would fall under “recreation”, right? Then Cuomo claims that’s not he what he meant, huh??? This also includes malls and movie theaters staying closed that would fall under “arts” and “entertainment” in Phase 4.

https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2020/06/30/omitted-from-phase-four-reopening–gym-owners-gear-up-to-sue

I’m not gonna lie that NY being without gyms during this stupid lockdown is getting to me a little bit. I am going a little crazy, honestly ’cause if it weren’t for this stupid lockdown, I would have been going to the gym all summer continuing to get those bodybuilding gains and bringing up pr’s in powerlifting.

As you can see in the article I posted above, 100’s of gym owners are angry about it too and they’re suing the state to fight back… hoping to get the gym’s re-opened.

There’s no reason to keep gyms closed ’cause it’s all about control and power, in my opinion. Keeping gyms closed and forcing people to not get any exercise is not cool. A lot of us can’t have our own home gym ’cause of no space or can’t afford our own home gym.

This really sucks for weightlifters. Not being able to lift weights and lose all your progress and lose all of your years of hard work? Ugggggghhh… I’m not ready for that. It would suck that we had to go without gyms for the rest of the year but we can get gyms back open… we just gotta keep pressuring Cuomo so I’m glad all those NY gym owners filed lawsuit and fighting back.

I hope the gyms get back open this year ’cause as soon as it does, I’m going right back on the first day and I’ll be working harder than ever on the weightlifting. Yeah, I probably lost some muscle and strength but I’ll work really hard to get it all back.

There really is no reason to keep gyms closed as long as masks and social distancing works. Lefties can go out there and protest and destroy things but we can’t get in a good workout??? Yup, you can’t get covid-19 rioting and looting but you can get it going to the gym. Fucking unreal. Liberalism is getting more and more insane.

I miss the gym badly though ’cause it’s like my 2nd home really. My home away from home. It’s what I do to get away from everything. Weightlifting my passion.

Kev

Health and Fitness

So gyms are closed… don’t worry about losing muscle and strength for a few weeks…

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So a lot of gyms all across America are closing left & right and before you know it, all gyms will be closed. If your gym is closed, I’m sure you all are freakin’ out about it… you’re probably like, “Oh no, I’m going to lose all my muscle and strength. Lose all my hard work and gains!”.

Um, no you won’t. A lot of gyms out there are only going to be closed for a few weeks and you won’t lose muscle in a few weeks. If you’re not working out, yes, your muscle will start to atrophy but that’s not gonna happen right away.

Not too long ago when I took a month off to heal a leg injury, I came back from the gym and didn’t really lose any strength at all. I’ve noticed that. I didn’t lose my bench press, deadlift and squat numbers at all. I was still doing 40 lb. dumbbell arm curls too. So I would assume that it takes a few months for muscle to start to atrophy.

Years of hard work, you won’t lose even if you take a little break from it.

It’s funny, ya know. I took a little break from the gym not too long ago to heal a leg injury but looks like I’ve got to take a little break from working out again due to all the gym closures.

Anyhow, if you still feel the need to work out, you can do a bunch of body weight workouts at home like all the workouts Arnold just posted on his instagram for example. You just gotta be creative and think. Do bodyworkouts, do yoga and all kinds of stretching. Lots of possibilities. If you don’t have access to a gym, you can workout anywhere.

I’m not gonna lie that I’m pretty bummed about gym closings too but what are ya gonna do, ya know? It’s only for a few weeks, I hope. When gyms get back open, I’m gonna get back to training real hard all Summer long.

Also, think of as gyms closing down as an opportunity to rest and heal. Your body and cns probably needs a little break and if you have injuries, it’s a good opportunity to heal all injuries too ’cause I know you’re probably hiding a few minor injuries, lol.

You don’t always need a gym to workout in. If you need your cardio, forget all those cardio machines in the gym… you can go for a walk outside and ride your bike. Walking outside and riding bike is not cancelled so go for it.

Kev

Health and Fitness

Example of people benching with their butt coming off the bench during their training sessions…

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Guesses on what the best pound-for-pound bencher will do at the Con-cret Pro Bench at the @arnoldsports festival next Saturday??? Post guesses below and with her luck! . . Reposted from @jenthompson132 I was so pissed I missed my 3rd lift, I took every plate off the bar and weighed them on our certified scale. Guess what?? It was actually 327.5. Made me feel better about missing it. 😂 I perform 3 competition lifts every other week. I plot out what my heaviest lift will be at the very beginning of my training cycle. So this has been a planned lift since late December when I started this cycle. The @usapowerlifting @arnoldsports Classic is next weekend. I wanted to hit 325 the week before and set myself up for a 330 on comp day. I hit 3 competition singles in training. The first lift is 85% of the heaviest lift (325 * .85 = 275). The second lift is 95% (325* .95= 310). Then the third is the max out. I keep my competition numbers fairly close to these percentages. I feel like the first one is a smoke show. It didn't take too much energy and I'm showing the judges I got this. Form is good and feeling fine. The second one is a heavy lift and I use it to gauge what I got left in the tank. I know I won't miss it, but it's heavy enough to be a good indicator. If it pops off my chest with great speed, I'll go for something huge. If it felt slow and a little hard I'll go a little more conservative. I'm lifting on the @roguefitness stage in the Expo at 10:00 am next Saturday. Then I'll be at the @sbd booth for a bit. Hope to see you there ! #usapl #usapowerlifting #champion #deadlift #squat #bench #whyicompete #LIFTCLEAN #rpstrength #sbdapparel #titansupportsystems #a7intl #ryrogue #promerasports

A post shared by USA Powerlifting® (USAPL) (@usapowerlifting) on

Seriously, why has the “butt coming off the bench” during bench training been accepted by the public? It’s pissing me off really. This is an example of what I’m talking about. People who bench try to go for a pr and then they call it a “pr” when the butt comes off the bench. I’m still standing by my opinion that when you bench for a “pr” and your butt comes off, no lift. Period. End of story. It’s not a “personal record” ’cause the butt coming off the bench is clearly cheating. Plus to me, it looks dangerous and you’re asking for a bad bench press accident sooner or later.

Not only has this been accepted by the public now, it has also been accepted by the powerlifting industry and it’s a shame that “usapowerlifting” re-sharing it on their instagram accounts. Are they encouraging it now? The butt coming off bench maybe illegal during competition but I wouldn’t be surprised they’ll make it legal someday in the future in the usapl.

How much do you want to bet that this lady in this video won’t be able bench 275 if her butt hadn’t came off the bench?

This is becoming more and more common and becoming more accepted. Once in a while, someone calls them out for lifting the butt off but other people wouldn’t care or would help try and defend the lifter for doing it. Other people become defensive when called out for it.

Powerlifting may seem fun and addictive yes but one thing to keep in mind, you’re going to be surrounded by a bunch of huge egos. It is said that powerlifters are humble and down to earth but not from what I’m seeing. You’ll see so many powerlifters who are full of themselves who are too desperate to lift more weight and they’ll do anything it takes that it didn’t matter if it kills themselves doing it. They lift the butt off ’cause it helps them lift more weight.

There is nothing wrong with lifting weights you can handle and makes you comfortable. You don’t have to shoot for 1 rep maxes all the freakin’ time.

Kev

Health and Fitness

Still got that left leg injury but going to physical therapy for it next week…

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For the past two weeks, I’ve been trying to get back to doing lower body work but I’ve been trying to get back into it lightly and carefully since I still got that left leg injury. I went to the doctor last Thursday afternoon and the left leg injury is not that serious thankfully. The doctor said the injury would be healed in two to four weeks easily. So thankfully I won’t be needing surgery on this left leg… that’s definitely a big sigh of relief for sure.

The doctor recommended that I go to Physical Therapy and I will do that next week. So back to no lower body lifting at all. I want the injury gone completely and gone forever so I can go back to my powerlifting training for the lower body. It’s holding back my powerlifting training and it’s not good.

I also want the left leg injury gone so I can feel good walking and standing for a long time ’cause I shouldn’t be feeling that.

I took a couple of months off of no longer body lifting hoping it will heal on its own but since it didn’t, I could no longer ignore it and finally decided to see a doctor about it. Glad he recommended Physical Therapy. Physical Therapists are smart and they know their stuff. They can probably fix me up real fast and the injury will be gone quick before you know it hopefully.

I want to get back to big deadlifting ’cause I love deadlifting. Doing deadlifts is my favorite lift and workout of them all. This injury is holding back my deadlift numbers but thankfully, I haven’t lost any deadlift strength. Just last week, I smashed an easy 280 lb. single so I believe I still have the 300 lb. deadlift pr. Haven’t lost it at all and still got it. If you take time off due to an injury you won’t lose strength right away so nothing to worry about.

I’ll get back to big deadlifting very soon, hopefully in March. I need to get back to serious squatting so I can improve my numbers on that too. I want to get back to strength training for powerlifting but gotta get rid of this leg injury.

I’ve gotten back into heavy bench pressing again ’cause my upper body is all good. I’m pretty clear of injuries on the upper body so for now I’ll just do upper body work in the gym only for the time being. I haven’t lost bench strength either as I still got that too.

Soon I’ll get back into deadlifting and squatting again, very soon.

Kev

Health and Fitness

Too many powerlifters benching with butt off of the bench becoming more and more common, sad really…

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Yeah, the sport of powerlifting is exploding and becoming more and more mainstream. That means, people in the gym will be doing more of the big three lifts in the gym for their strength training sessions: the bench, the squat and the deadlift.

I love the bench press but too many people in the gym nowadays do it wrong and it’s getting worse too. I see so many people in social media posting videos of themselves bench pressing at the gym, showing off their newest “p.r.’s” (aka, personal record) but they do it with their butt coming off the bench. Is the butt coming off the bench while benching good? No.

The reason it isn’t good is ’cause it’s cheating and they do it as a way to try to push more weight. Another reason, the butt coming off the bench is not good is that you’re asking for an accident and an injury could occur. Those are the few reasons why powerlifting competitions don’t accept the butt coming off the bench.

When lifters show videos of themselves benching and you see their butt coming off the bench, someone calls them out for it and this lifter can get very defensive. This happens every fucking time. It’s really quite funny.

I am sick of this, though. Benching with the butt coming off the bench is becoming more and more popular. They probably see others do it and delude themselves into thinking, “Hmmmm, that could work for me”. In my opinion, going for a “pr” on bench with butt coming off of it is not a “pr”. When you bench with your butt coming off the bench, you get lesser range of motion and that’s why you are able to lift more weight doing that. When your butt comes off the bench, you’re not really doing a flat bench. It turns into a different workout when you do that… excessive arching or butt coming off the bench, you’re doing a decline bench really. Not a real overall chest workout.

Not only do I see so many lifters on social media benching with butt coming off the bench, I see too many guys at my local gym benching that way too. In my opinion, it looks very dangerous and it’s very silly benching that way. I’m waiting for the day someone kills themselves in the gym ’cause he/she benched with the butt coming off the bench. Not only guys bench that way, women do it too.

Although, this is not an attack and no hating on women but women bench with butt coming off the bench more than the guys do. I’m beginning to see that women are more egotistical in powerlifting than the men are.

Maybe it’s okay to bench with the butt partly on the bench, that’s fine but with the butt completely off is pretty stupid.

I’ve been benching full time for a little over a year now and I’ve never lifted my butt off the bench once during my bench sessions. I don’t do excessive arching either. I can’t arch anyways due to my scoliosis so I have no choice but to bench with a flat back. I like flat back benching anyways ’cause of more range of motion and more power.

Benching with butt off the bench… stupid, dumb, idiotic. Why are benchers doing it more when they shouldn’t?

Kev