Tag Archives: Powerlifting

Health and Fitness

Actually I won’t do my max out week at the end of this month, I’ll do it at the end of May instead…

Leave a comment

I was gonna max out and test my pr’s on the big three: squat, bench and deadlift at the end of this month but then I thought to myself: “Nah, I think it’s better that I do it at the end of next month in May”. That way I can have plenty of time to train for strength for a few hoping to bring my numbers up some more.

I’m noticing I really did lose a little bit of deadlift strength simply because I stopped heavy deadlifting 3 weeks before a powerlifting meet. I’ll never do that again. I want to spend a lot of weeks to try and get it back. I’m hoping to lift over 300 lbs. for more repetitions this Spring/Summer and I’m gonna do all I can to get there. I guess I’m on the road to a 400 lb. deadlift pr. and if I’m lucky enough, I could get there easily the more I keep at it.

At the end of May sounds like a good plan to max out on the three lifts to find out what my pr’s are. After that, I won’t max out for a long while until the push/pull meet in August.

The key to building more strength is “consistency”. There’s no other way around it really. You have to keep at it week after week on a consistent basis. You slack off from the gym, take a lot of time off, you’re gonna lose that hard work. Don’t wanna do that.

For a long while now, I’ve been keeping at it 4 days a week all year round… even through the fall and winter, I have managed to keep my 4 day a week at the gym going. That’s why my numbers on the big three lifts went up quickly and they will continue to go up this year.

At the push/pull meet in August, I’m hoping to win first place in my weight class. If not 2nd place would be cool too. I’m looking to really bring up my numbers big for my 4th powerlifting meet. Again, that’s what you want to do in powerlifting… you want your numbers to keep going up for every meet you do. You don’t want them going down or staying the same ’cause that would suck.

People might make fun of my numbers that I have currently for the big three but maybe they will no longer make fun of me when I do reach my goals. Keep proving the doubters and haters wrong. That’s the beauty of powerlifting, ya know?

Kev

Health and Fitness, Uncategorized

During off-season powerlifting training, why I start off my sets “hypertrophy” style and then heavy sets/few reps later…

Leave a comment

Some may think my training style in powerlifting maybe pretty questionable. In powerlifting training, I usually start off light for the first couple of sets and then the last few sets that’s when I do the heavy sets/few reps. There are a few reasons why I train this way.

  1. It’s important to start off your sets “hypertrophy” style so you can work on your form and practice your technique. That is always crucial. You jump into heavy sets/few reps right away, your form could be a mess.
  2. I like to mix hypertrophy style training so I can build muscle mass and strength mass at the same time ’cause I always believed that building muscle is a part of strength training. Building more muscle will give you strength too and it’s always important to train like a bodybuilder still. Know what I mean?

I’ll probably continue to mix hypertrophy and strength training together but from now on, I think I’m going to do things differently. Come up with a different training program. I think from now on, I’m going to do a couple weeks of straight heavy sets/few reps and then I’ll pick a week of hypertrophy/lighter days like a “deload” week or something on the big three lifts.

For example:

Week 1: Heavy days

Week 2: Heavy days

Week 3: Heavy days

Week 4: Hypertrophy style/deload week

I’ll go with something along like that and that sounds like a good plan to me ’cause I was told that it’s not good to lift heavy week after week. It’s good to pick a light week, ya know?

I wanna build muscle as well. Not just strength.

I never thought I would say this but I think I’m in need of a powerlifting coach. I really need one. I already have a few but they live all the way out in Albany and I only see them on the powerlifting meets. I would need to get a powerlifting coach who is more locally and I’m going to do my best to find someone. Get a powerlifting coach who has a lot of powerlifting experience and knows what he’s doing. My own powerlifting coach would help and hope I get lucky enough to find one. Maybe I’ll put out an ad in craigslist or something maybe that would help, lol. If I want to become a great powerlifter someday then a coach is needed.

Kev

Health and Fitness

Actually the thought of waiting to set pr’s at a powerlifting meet instead of the gym is pretty dumb and here’s why…

2 Comments

After having that little argument and heated debate with those losers in the Tnation forum, some lifters in that thread told me… “you should only be testing pr’s at a powerlifting meet and not in a gym”. I thought it was a pretty good idea at first but after thinking about it a while, I now think it’s a pretty dumb idea.

Think about it. You have to know your personal best or “personal records” for the big three so you are able to get “three white lights” on all lifts or get most of them. If you wait to test out your “pr’s” at a meet then you could miss a lot of lifts if you don’t know what your numbers are. This is why I see so many bomb or get a lot of red lights on a meet ’cause simply they don’t come in prepared beforehand. Always come in prepared beforehand in a meet. That’s my philosophy.

After thinking about it a while, those that say, “you should be setting pr’s at a powerlifting meet, not in a gym”… are the ones who probably bombed out a lot or got red lighted a lot. Bombing is when a lifter fails all three attempts at a meet.

Going to a meet with a plan. Knowing all your numbers to ensure that you are able to smash these numbers on a meet and get three white lights on them all. When I go to a meet, I want to get three white lights on everything and not get too many red lights. So far, I’ve only missed three lifts out of the previous powerlifting meets I’ve done so that’s not too bad. You want to go in and do the numbers that you know you can do.

At the third powerlifting meet on March 30th, I was very sure that I was going smash that 300 lb. deadlift that I wanted to smash but when meet day came… it turned out that I missed that lift. Some guys told me in that Tnation post, “Not to worry about it ’cause we all have bad days in powerlifting”. I agree. You just move on and forget it. Missing the 300 lb. was my fault, though and I took responsibility since then. I’m not one of those that would make excuses and blame other people just because I missed a lift. You gotta move on and keep trying. It was my fault for a few reasons: 1) I stopped the heavy deadlifting 3 weeks out before a meet (lost a bit of strength ’cause of it) 2) My first two attempts were pretty heavy before the third attempt.

Ya know, on March 30th during the deadlift, if I started my first two attempts pretty light… I definitely would have smashed the 300 lb. with no problem. I could only get it halfway up and had to slam it back down when I could no longer do it. Sometime this week, I’ll post video of myself lifting that failed 300 lb. attempt on March 30th.

On my next powerlifting meet in August for the push and pull, this time I won’t stop deadlifting heavy too early and I will make sure my first two attempts would be pretty light before I do the big ones. Just gotta learn from your mistakes and never do them again.

On my next meet in August, I’m planning to attempt a 300 lb. or over deadlift again and next time I won’t mess up. Hopefully before the August meet, I’ll be pulling 350 lb. deadlifts but I’ll work my ass off during off-season training to get even higher numbers.

I love powerlifting. I hope to be in the sport for a very long time and I gotta train smart and carefully so I won’t get injured. If I get badly injured, I could be out for years or even for good so I gotta be careful and I am. Taking it very seriously.

I’m planning to max out and test my pr’s in a couple of weeks. After that, I won’t test my pr’s again for a long while. I’ll probably test my pr’s like every 4 or 6 weeks ’cause you don’t want to max out a lot.

At the gym today was leg day and I had a very good squat session. Was able to lift 145 – 150 lbs. for 3 – 5 reps. so I’m predicting that my estimated pr on squat should be about 160 lbs. right now. I’m on the road to 200 lbs. for squats and bench and I could probably get there this Spring/Summer. I’m halfway there and getting excited!

Kev

 

 

Health and Fitness

Maybe some powerlifters are gonna be arrogant assholes after all especially online…

Leave a comment

You are new to powerlifting. You’re doing all you can to educate yourself with the sport and do research and all that stuff. So you start joining online powerlifting forums on the internet like in facebook groups, powerlifting instagram pages and other forums online like those. You want to join the powerlifting community online hoping to join in on positive discussions with other lifters who have competed in meets and even ask for lifting advice from other experienced powerlifters.

I have joined a few powerlifting forums and groups online but so far, I’ve gotten nothing but negative experiences from them. There was nothing wrong with my posts either. I wasn’t trolling. I wasn’t saying anything negative and wasn’t attacking anyone either. Just being positive and friendly as best I can. Joined in powerlifting discussions to critique people’s lifting form, give advice or I ask others for advice in a positive way but you know what? I’ve got nothing but negative shit from other lifters.

That’s the thing in powerlifting, I guess you are going to meet some arrogant assholes and weird people in the sport ’cause I guess there are a lot of them out there. Not everyone in the sport are arrogant assholes and egomaniacs, though… some are gonna be kind, humble and friendly.

I joined the Tnation forum and posted a thread in their powerlifting forum… asking for advice on how to not miss a 300 lb. pr at a powerlifting meet when I know I got that number at the gym in the past. I’ve got some great responses from some lifters and some gave me some great advice but most responses was just them bashing me and making fun of me. I told them my best lifts in the big three at my latest meet: Squat 150, Bench: 155 and Deadlift: 290. Some of them criticized me that those numbers aren’t good and said I need to make a lot of improvements.

Seriously? I’ve worked my ass off in the gym on a consistent basis and my numbers have been going up. Some of them criticized my off season powerlifting training too. I told them I start the sets off pretty light and put on more weight every set. Start off light/high reps and then toward the end of my workout session, I do mostly heavy sets/low reps. They claimed that is what’s holding me back and said I needed to focus on doing 5 sets of 5 reps or 5 sets of 3’s.

In that thread I made on Tnation, some wrote me some good ideas that I need to start “setting pr’s on meet day and not at the gym”. I actually liked that idea and might take that into consideration.

These sounds like good ideas but don’t these so-called “powerlifting” experts know that lifting light weights and high reps aka “hypertrophy” training will also give you more strength gains? In my powerlifting training routine, I like to mix it up with “hypertrophy” and “strength”. Mix ’em both at the same time. Doing it that way will also give you muscle and strength gains. Some idiots in that forum knocked my training style. They were asking me what training method I was using for powerlifting ’cause there are different ones out there. I don’t do any of them. I just train my way. I just train what works for me ya know? I don’t do all that “periodization” bullcrap that is out there like linear periodization, undulating periodization, etc. blah blah blah…

I’ll admit that I’m pretty new to powerlifting training and got a lot to learn but it would be nice if these “expert” powerlifters or so called “pros” would stop acting more superior than newbie powerlifters who are just getting into the sport. All powerlifters need to be treated with respect even for people who are just getting into it.

I’ve done three powerlifting meets and I did real good at all of them, yet people online in forums want to knock my success in powerlifting? Totally unreal and bullshit.

In powerlifting, I don’t care how much you lift. As long as your technique and form is good and as long as you get three white lights by the judges then you’re doing good. Doesn’t matter how much you lift. That’s how you want to do powerlifting. Just go in the meet and do all the lifts you can handle so you won’t bomb and won’t get red lights, ya know? That’s how I want to do it. Make sure I get white lights on everything. So far, out of the three powerlifting meets I’ve done, I’ve only missed 3 lifts which is pretty damn good.

I don’t care what people say, I’m doing “great” at powerlifting and I’m already off to a good start. Yet, haters online wanna knock me?

Even IF I start doing real good in the future, lifting the big ones like 400 – 500 lbs., winning first places and stuff like that… people will stick knock me and make fun of me no matter how good I do. I don’t know what… maybe it’s out of jealousy is why? I can’t think of no other reason. The more experienced powerlifters will want to feel more superior than you and that’s what it is. Just ego and nothing more.

When you get into powerlifting, you have to ignore all the haters and critics ’cause they’ll be out there and they’ll be coming after you. The more you do well in powerlifting, the more pissed off they get so keep it going and keep up the good work. I’m doing well, I don’t give a shit what people say. I’m proud of all the numbers and “pr’s” I smashed at the meets so far.

I’ll admit that my “pr’s” on the big three: squat, bench and deadlift could go way up more but “strength gains” is a slow process and it’ll take some time. These “know it alls” on Tnation claim that doing 5 X 5’s and 5 X 3’s will give you quick gains but don’t listen to them. I repeat, strength gain is a slow process. If you want your “pr’s” to keep going up, all it really takes is “consistency”… meaning never giving up and never stopping. I have been doing exactly that and I am feeling stronger on the big three.

I guess it’s a bad idea to join powerlifting communities online ’cause it’s nothing but negativity and ego from what I’ve seen. Such a shame. Powerlifting should be positive and helpful. A lot of powerlifters are positive and helpful but unfortunately you’re definitely going to meet some arrogant assholes in the community.

Just gotta ignore the negativity in powerlifting and just focus on you only. Just keep up the good work… keep bringing up your pr’s and keep getting strong for you. Ignore all bullshit. Keep winning awards at the meets and keep pissing people off. That’s what I’m going to do. Focus on me only and nobody else.

Honestly, I do want to lift the bigger weights someday but gonna take my slow time. Someday I would love to lift a 500 lb. squat, lift a 500 lb. bench and a 500 lb. deadlift but it’ll take some time for me to get there. “Strength” gain is a slow process but those jerks in TNation just won’t admit it.

I know this post is kind of long but had to go on a rant. Hope you enjoy.

Kev

Health and Fitness

When will I start doing USAPL meets in powerlifting? Hopefully soon! I’m going to register with them this year…

Leave a comment

So some of you may ask, since I’ve gotten myself into powerlifting when will I start doing the USAPL meets?

USAPL website here: https://www.usapowerlifting.com/

My powerlifting friends that I go to Albany Strength with are USAPL members. I’ve got to sign up with USAPL pretty soon and I will this year. Probably sometime this Spring. It’s $55 for registration so it’s not that bad.

I would like to start doing local USAPL meets around the Capital Region and I would also like to start doing some national meets too. Before I start thinking about doing the big time national meets, I’m going to wait until I get to the bigger numbers like lift the big three lifts around 600 lbs. – 800 lbs. Sometime I would like to do the national meets so I can start breaking records and all that.

For now, I’m going to stick with doing powerlifting meets at Albany Strength and the YMCA for a while. The YMCA Wilton Branch does powerlifting meets every once in a while so I’m gonna do those too.

I’ll start doing USAPL meets pretty soon it’s just that I don’t want to get too ahead of myself and not rush, ya know? Like I said, I’ll stick with Albany Strength for a long while ’cause doing meets there are such a blast.

I really do love powerlifting and I just found a new passion. I hope to stick with the sport for a long time. Some of you may ask me, “But Kev, you’re too old for powerlifting.” I’m not too old at all. Powerlifting is for everyone of all ages. When you go watch a poewrlifting meet, you’ll see lifters who are 50 years old or older. Age is just a number. If you want to do it then do it. It’s never too late for anything!

Kev

Health and Fitness

When will be the next time I’ll test out my 1 rep max on the big three, find out what my next pr’s are?

Leave a comment

Now that I have my third powerlifting meet under my belt, some of you may ask when will I max out on the big three again and test out my latest pr’s? Well, I think I’m gonna do that at the end of this month; at the end of April. I’m gonna spend the next couple of weeks doing some strength training on the big three. Spend a couple of weeks doing mostly heavy sets and low reps. I really want to bring up my numbers BIG on the big three. Now that my numbers on the squats and bench are pretty much caught up with each other, I’m hoping to catch up on the bench and squat numbers along with the deadlift. Since my deadlift pr’s is at about 290 lbs. right about now, I’m hoping to catch up with bench and squats along with that number this year. I really want to bring my bench and squat numbers up to 200 lbs. or more this year. As far as deadlift goes, I’m really gonna bring my numbers up for that as well. Hoping I can get up to 350 lbs. on deadlift pr’s or more than that if lucky enough.

For the push and pull meet at Albany Strength in August, I’m hoping to really bring my total scores up a lot higher so I can earn either 2nd or 1st place in my weight class. I can really bring up the numbers quickly and easily the more I stay consistent with strength training. Just gotta keep at it week after week and I will. For the next push and pull meet, this time I won’t stop the heavy lifting so early before a meet ’cause you’ll lose strength for doing that. Lessons learned. I’ll never make that mistake again. Usually powerlifters stop the heavy lifting one-week out before a meet and sounds like a good idea.

I think on the week of April 29th will be the week I test out my 1 rep maxes on the bench, squat and deadlift. We’ll see how I do then.

Some would think that testing out your 1 rep maxes on the big three would be pretty pointless but when you’re a competitive powerlifter, you gotta do it. It’s important to know what your latest pr’s are every now and then in preparation for a meet.

Kev

 

Health and Fitness

Reasons why I missed the 300 lb. deadlift at Albany Strength, a few theories on why I think what happened…

Leave a comment

So why did I miss the 300 lb. deadlift as my third attempt at Albany Strength last Saturday? I’ve been trying to figure out on what the cause was. Earlier today at the gym was back day which means it was deadlifting day. I did a little deadlifting. Mostly heavier sets and low reps. When I started my deadlift session, I opened my set with a 275 lb. single and it felt kind of heavy so I only did one rep. I’m like, “uh oh, did I lose a little bit of deadlift strength?” Yes, I did I guess. Why did I lose a little bit of deadlift strength? Was it because I stopped deadlifting heavy a bit too early before meet day? Yes, I think that’s definitely it. I stopped heavy deadlifting 3 weeks out of the meet. The week after that I lifted everything super light all week, the next week after that I took a 5 day break from the gym. I guess I lost a little bit of muscle and strength ’cause of that.

Another reason I missed the 300 lb. deadlift is that I may have opened a bit too heavy. My opener on meet day for deadlift was a big 285 lbs. Maybe I should have opened a lot lighter than that, ya know?  If I opened a lot lighter then I definitely would have smashed the 300 lb. deadlift with no problem.

So lessons learned, y’all. Next time I do a powerlifting meet, I won’t stop deadlifting heavy too early. Usually what a lot of powerlifters would do is that they’ll practice their openers one-week out of the meet and that’s it. Sounds like a good idea. Opening attempts should be real easy, something you could do for a triple.

I picked 285 as my opening attempt ’cause it always felt easy to me but when it came to meet day, it felt freakin’ heavy, WOW. That’s when I began to think I may have lost a little bit of deadlift strength ’cause I stopped deadlifting heavy too early. Well, never again. That’s what powerlifting is all about, ya know? It’s a learning experience. You’re going to make a lot of mistakes in powerlifting so you just have to learn from them and never make them again.

I didn’t lose a lot of deadlifting strength, just a little bit but I’ll get it back, though. Sometime in the future, I hope to start doing 300 lbs. for reps but I’ll get there the more I stay consistent with this and I will.

At Albany Strength gym, there’s gonna be another powerlifting meet in August which is just gonna be push & pull. It’s just gonna be bench and deadlift and no squat. I have plenty of time to really bring up my bench and deadlift numbers before the push & pull meet in August. For this meet, I’m hoping to be up to 200 lbs. bench and hope to be past 300 lbs. deadlift before then. I really want to bring my numbers up for the next one. That’s what powerlifting is all about, ya know? You always want to bring your numbers up for every meet you do.

I want to become a great powerlifter someday. Become great where you get recognized for it. I feel I already am doing pretty damn good but it’s only the beginning. Someday I would love to sign up for the USAPL so I can start doing the bigger meets. My dream one day is hopefully compete at the Arnold Festival and maybe compete at the Animal Cage. The Animal Cage  is way cool but I’m going to wait to hit the really huge weights first before I think about that. 

I really love powerlifting. It’s become a huge obsession and a new passion of mine.

Kev

Random/off topic posts

Results of the Powerlifting meet at Albany Strength from over the weekend just posted…

Leave a comment

My actual last name is Brockway. It’s just that Brock is just a staged name for my online web presence. These are my best lifts for that day.

It was a great time.

Now to focus on their push & pull meet in August which is just a bench and deadlift meet. I wasn’t able to smash the 300 lb. deadlift at the last one but the next one, I should. I also have plenty of time to really bring up my numbers on the bench press too which is what I want to focus on. I want to focus on bringing my bench press numbers to 200 lbs. or more. I’m now on the road to 200 lbs. on bench and I think I can be able to get there this Spring/Summer.

I love Albany Strength gym. Wish I could live in Albany so I can be a walking distance near there ’cause it’s a very cool gym. Albany Strength gym is the best gym in the Capital Region.

Kev

Health and Fitness

5 reasons why Powerlifting is such a blast…

Leave a comment

The sport of powerlifting is getting popular but it’s not for everyone. Some are gonna criticize the sport for sure. You’ll hear some people say things like: “Oh, there’s nothing special about showing off how much weight you can lift”, “They’re just a bunch of ego lifters”, “Powerlifting is for fat asses who got nothing better to do,”, etc. blah blah blah, I can go on and on. After competing in three powerlifting meets, powerlifting can be a lot of fun for a lot of reasons and I can name a few of them. I’ll name 5 reasons why powerlifting is such a blast…

  • You can meet new people: This is the best part of powerlifting is all the new people you’ll meet at these things. When you go to a powerlifting meet, you’ll probably be a little worried that powerlifters might be a bunch of arrogant jerks. Honestly, I thought exactly that almost but when I did three powerlifting meets, most of the lifters at these meets are actually very humble, down to earth and friendly people. There are no ego at these things. You’ll see no one trying to act better than everyone. This isn’t WWE or boxing. In powerlifting meets, you’ll see everyone helping each other and supporting each other for their lifting. We all want to see everyone at their best in these meets. When you go to a powerlifting meet, you’ll see lots of camaraderie all over. That’s one thing I like about powerlifting is ’cause people are so cool at these meets. You can meet lots of new friends out of these things.
  • It’s a thrill that you can be able to lift heavy things: Probably the biggest reason why powerlifting is so popular now. People just get a thrill of lifting heavy things. That’s why powerlifting is becoming a huge obsession to me. It is a blast to lift heavy things and it’s exciting to see your 1 rep maxes and pr’s go up. You don’t realize your own strength and you can surprise yourself with these things.
  • It’s fun to perform for a live audience: Another reason powerlifting is addicting. It’s a blast to perform your lifts in front of a live crowd and hearing everyone cheering you on. If you do well at these powerlifting meets,  you could earn the spectators respect and you could grow a fanbase/following in powerlifting. Performing your lifts in front of an audience is great. You get to show everyone what you can do in a gym.
  • You get to experience something new and different in life: If you’re bored in life, powerlifting will give you something to do. Powerlifting will get things off of your system and gets your mind off of everything else. It keeps you busy and helps pushes you to work a lot harder in the gym.
  • You’ll notice that your physique improves better than bodybuilding style training: Ever since I started powerlifting, I’ve noticed that my chest pecs have really started beefing up, big time since I started bench pressing again. Feels real good. I’m starting to get the bodybuilder look that I want ’cause I got into powerlifting. My forearms getting bigger finally too. Your physique will improve massively after all the heavy lifting you’re doing and it’s fun to see.

That’s all. Powerlifting is for everybody. Anybody can get into the sport so don’t be afraid to try it out sometime.

Kev