Tag Archives: Squats

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

Went to the gym for leg day earlier today but didn’t go too crazy on heavy lifting for squats… felt pretty good…

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Yeah, I ended up going back to the gym earlier today after all and trained the quads today after all. I had my squat session but didn’t go super heavy for this session. I only kept the weight numbers between 85 0 120 lbs. on squats.

I’m squatting with the right depth that the USAPL asks for. Ya know, all powerlifting federations have different definition of squat depth but the USAPL wants the “hip crease joint to go lower than the top of the knees” which is pretty freakin’ deep… kind of like ass to the grass squats almost. It feels wicked deep to me ’cause I’m a short guy. I’m 5 foot 5. I’m finally learning to squat with the right depth and it’s feeling good really. USAPL depth feels wicked heavy, though… holy shit… getting the hang of squats more and it’s growing on me.

Feels good to get back in the gym again. Gonna do back day tomorrow and try deadlifting to see how that goes. I miss the deadlifting. Want to get back into that too. Do I still have my 300 lb. deadlift? Not sure and I’ll give it a shot!

Kev

Health and Fitness, sports

Well, I finally joined the USAPL powerlifting federation… I decided to do it after all!!!!

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Well well well, look 👀. I am now an official member of USAPL. Powerlifting is my new life and glad I discovered it. I joined USAPL so I can start doing their local and state powerlifting meets around the New York State. As far as the big National meets go, I’m not gonna rush into that so for now I’m gonna stick with local and state. I’m not gonna go too crazy with doing powerlifting meets for the USAPL ‘cause I’m only gonna do like 1 or two a year through NY State. Now I’m hoping to break some state records in the future. Let’s do this. I’m proud to join the USAPL finally and getting stoked. Let’s do this!!! Toldja I was serious about it. #powerlifting #USAPL #bench #deadlift #squat @knautel @jasmine_nautel

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Well y’all, I actually did it this week. I joined the USAPL. My powerlifting career officially begins. It was $65 for registration fee and if I ever did my first USAPL meet, I would be competing in the Masters Division since I’m an over 40 lifter.

Yeah, doing powerlifting meets is gonna be expensive… the admission fee to compete in USAPL meets could cost around $60 – $100 or more. Powerlifting might be “pricey” yes but hey, like they all say “You can only live once”… which is true. Since you can only live once, I wanna do “great” things in my life and powerlifting is my calling. Powerlifting gives me something to do and makes me feel like an athletic person.

When I start doing USAPL meets like the instagram post says I’m only gonna do like 1 or 2 powerlifting meets a year… maybe 3 if I get lucky. For now, I’m only going to do local and state meets for the USAPL.

Will I ever compete on the bigger national meets like the RAW Nationals like they have every year? Yes, I will absolutely compete on the RAW Nationals someday but I’m not gonna rush on that one and gonna take my time. I’m not gonna compete on the RAW Nationals until I start hitting the bigger weights. When I start hitting over 500 lbs. on the squats, bench and deadlift maybe I’ll start thinking about the RAW Nationals but I don’t want to get too ahead of myself. I also want to compete for the Arnold Festival too someday but I’m not gonna rush on that either.

I’m just gonna start small and build my way up. I’m hoping to be one of the greats in powerlifting someday so I joined the USAPL in hopes of making that dream come true.

So when will be my first USAPL powerlifting meet??? I don’t know. I’m thinking about doing the Northeast Ironbeast in Loudonville, NY in Jan. I’m nursing a left leg injury so I’m hoping it heels all the way before then. I’m sure it will. I’m still trying to recover from the left leg injury completely. I skipped leg day last week and will skip lower body workouts this week too so I can give it more time to heal ’cause I want the injury gone for good. My left leg has gotten better, though. I still feel it a little bit and still feeling a little leg weakness but I’m not gonna go back to lower body workouts until I don’t feel it at all.

Whenever I do heal completely and fully, I’m going to train real hard on deadlift and squats.

Now that I’m a USAPL member, I’m going to have to take some time to read their powerlifting rulebook ’cause it’s important.

Yeah, powerlifting is my new lifestyle and I’m glad to be a part of the community. My numbers for deadlift, squats and bench maybe kind of small right now but give it time, I’ll build them up real soon. Building strength will take some time.

Powerlifting really is a blast. Love it so much, I can see why the sport is getting so popular and exploding nowadays. It’s a blast to show off what you can do and it’s fun to watch other lifters as well. I want to win and kick ass in powerlifting. Win all kinds of trophies and medals, break state and world records. Get ready, y’all. This is only the beginning. So happy that I found a sport that I do.

Kev

Health and Fitness

The reality of plateauing in strength training & powerlifting, I’m not plateauing at all… it’s just that strength takes time…

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Ya know, after thinking about it a long while, I’m not plateauing at all. I did a lot of research on how to “bust plateaus” and most information I see through the weightlifting industry is really all a joke. I mean, a couple of weeks ago I deadlifted a 280 lbs. for a double and did a 285 lbs. as a heavy single. If I’ve been doing that, I’m not getting weaker at all and getting stronger every time. I gotta stop worrying about hitting 300 lbs. deadlift and keep doing what I’m doing. Before you know it, I’ll be deadlifting over 300 lbs. for more reps pretty soon so I gotta keep at it and strength will come in time.

All these guys in the fitness world worrying about losing strength, well, I don’t think they lost any at all. Strength gain is a slow process that’s the thing, ya know? I look at all these info on blogs and powerlifting websites and they give you all these “magical” programs that promises to break through plateaus. It’s all just a bunch of click bait bullshit that does nothing but help trying to promote their sites so don’t believe everything you see on the internet when it comes to weightlifting info.

Yeah, you will see your numbers stay the same and lose some and so many powerlifters and bodybuilders gets pissed when they notice that stuff happening. They shouldn’t get upset and not get so worked up over it ’cause every weightlifter out there goes through it. If you keep doing what you’re doing, strength gain will come on its own. It just comes whenever it wants to. Don’t believe all these magical tricks that you see online, ya know what I’m talking about? Blogs that are titled, “5 ways to never hit a plateau again” and blah blah blah blah. That’s what I’m talking about.

While I find most of that stuff a bunch of bullshit… I do agree with a few things here and there. One thing that I agree with what they say is that I need to sleep more ’cause I admit, I’ve been hitting the gym first thing early in the morning. That’s what I do during the Spring/Summer is hit the gym early in the morning as soon as I wake up. That’s not good and I gotta stop that. You need more sleep if you want to smash the big weights.

I also agree that I need to do less cardio and stop cutting weight. I don’t want to eat too many calories ’cause I don’t want to become a fat powerlifter but I’m definitely gonna eat more though instead of less. I need to educate myself on calorie deficit and all that stuff.

I also agree with them on taking deload weeks more often which I just started doing and that already seems to be helping I’m noticing. Take a week off or a deload week. I’m planning to take a week off from the gym completely pretty soon ’cause I’m going on vacation on the first week of Aug.

There’s no such thing as a “plateau” when it comes to strength training. It’s just a silly myth. I see so many new powerlifters online getting so mad when they notice that their numbers stay the same or dropping. Too many newbie powerlifters want to rush the big numbers and that’s what I don’t want. I don’t want to get too ahead of myself and I’m gonna take my time.

I’ll just continue to do what I do. Just train for strength on the big three for like 1 – 5 reps for 5 sets each. Just gotta be patient, ya know? Of course, a lot of lifters don’t know what the word “patience” means anymore.

Kev

Health and Fitness

Squat depth can be confusing and challenging which is why “squats” is my least favorite lift…

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Some of you may ask, what is my least favorite lift out of the big three??? There are three big lifts in powerlifting training: squats, bench and deadlift. Out of the three, I would have to say the “squat” is my least favorite lift but I continue to do them anyways for powerlifting competition. I dislike barbell squats ’cause it can be a confusing lift and it’s a pretty complicated.

The reason why squats is confusing is ’cause everyone in the powerlifting community has their own definition of what a good “squat depth” is. That’s the thing in powerlifting meets. Every powerlifting federation in America have their own depth rules and they’re all different. I post videos of my squat sessions from the gym on social media and another powerlifter says my squat isn’t deep enough. I’m like, “Huh? Really”? I’ve been told by another experienced powerlifter that the right squat depth is that the hip crease needs to be slightly below the top of the knee and I’ve been doing it that way ever since. Unfortunately, other powerlifters say that isn’t deep enough.

I do research on squat depth and I was right… seems like every powerlifter out there have their own definition of what a good squat depth is. When the other powerlifter kept telling me I’m not squatting deep enough, I was thinking he was talking about the USAPL way of squatting. So I looked up on google for the USAPL squat depth and their squat depth rule is a lot deeper. For the past few weeks now, I’ve decided to take my time with squat depth and do it the USAPL way ’cause if I want to do my first USAPL meet sometime in the future, I need to get their definition of squat depth right. Like I said, the USAPL squat depth is a lot deeper, kind of like “ass to the grass” and I’ve been doing squats that way for the past couple of weeks.

I guess I have been doing squat depth wrong after all this time so I decided to slow down, go back to doing lighter weights on squat and get depth right. This time, I have been getting squat depth right and to be honest, it’s feeling really good. Squats maybe my least favorite workout but I’m trying to like it more, though. I feel more comfortable doing deadlift and bench ’cause they are easy… squats are challenging ’cause it’s more technical.

Even though, I’ve been doing deeper squats for the past few weeks, I’m still on the road to 200 lb. squat, though. Earlier this morning in the gym during my squat session, I smashed a 135 lb. single with USAPL “depth” and it was very tough. I can get that number for reps squatting a little higher but a deep squat with 135 lb., I could only do a heavy single. That heavy single with 135 lbs. squat was tough, it was a grinder but I was able to get it up and lock it out.

I love powerlifting ’cause it’s challenging and I want to do it right and take it all very seriously. I want to become a great powerlifter someday, ya know… become one of the greats so I need to get squat depth right and I did. Deeper squat depth will make me a lot stronger so I’ll continue to do them that way from now on.

Kev

Health and Fitness

See me do a 150 lb. squat for a triple…

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During my squat session at the gym earlier this morning, I ended my session with a 150 lb. triple. It was pretty easy. Could have been a little deeper but definitely next time.

While it isn’t my max out week, it is still okay to do heavy triples, doubles and singles to end your sets with.

Like I said in the Instagram post, I’m thinking my estimated pr on squat for a 1 rpm might be 160 or 165 lbs. Maybe 170. I’m on the road to a 200 pound squat and I think I can get there this Spring/Summer. I’m just about there.

I hated doing barbell squats at first but I’m loving it more and more now.

Kev

Health and Fitness

My powerlifting videos keeps getting positive feedback everywhere… I just gotta stop listening to the negativity and haters, ya know???

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Powerlifting really is my calling. It’s what I was meant to to do and man, wished I discovered powerlifting years ago. Ya know something, when I first started bodybuilding 10 years ago, I actually experimented with both bench press and deadlift for a little bit but I stopped for a long while. Wished I never stopped benching and deadlifting ’cause I would have been great at both by now. I’m back to benching and deadlifting full time and it feels really good. Glad I’ve gotten into squats, benching and deadlifting ’cause I’m feeling stronger at all 3 the more I do it and I’m feeling big too.

Arnold Schwarzenegger was right that bench press is the best workout for the chest as my chest has gotten some major improvement ’cause of benching.

There are gonna be some critics and haters with my powerlifting yes but I gotta stop listening to them and I will. It seems that lots of other people like what I do. Each time I do a powerlifting meet, I get good feedback at my lifting.

Even if I missed the 300 lb. deadlift, people are still saying that it’s an impressive lift ’cause I could only get it up halfway. I would have gotten that 300 lb. deadlift… I think the problem was that I opened my first attempt a bit heavy. If I opened a lot lighter than 285 lbs., I definitely would have smashed that 300 easily. That’s why at powerlifting meets you need to open up real light so you can save some in the tank for your big 3rd attempt, ya know? This is why powerlifters miss a lot of lifts ’cause they open up too heavy and I don’t want to do that.

People may like what I do now but I’m just getting started. I’m going to really work my way up to the big lifts like lift anywhere from 300 lbs. – 500 lbs. on the big three but it’s gonna take some more time for me to get to the big ones. I’ll get there, though. Just gotta stay consistent and I will.

Some people may think that at a bodyweight that I’m at now would be impossible to lift 500 lbs. on the big three but it is possible. How? Really bone strength and muscular development is key to lifting the big ones. That is why a lot of skinny people are able to lift the big ones ’cause they have really strong bones.

I’m not gonna stay skinny for long ’cause I’m gonna do all I can to get bigger in size without getting fat. I’ve boosted my calorie intake ’cause that’ll help. I’m actually thinking about doing the bulking and cutting method which might actually be useful.

I really want to become a great powerlifter someday. I’ll never be the next Ed Coan but I would like to be a powerlifter where everybody would look up to and it’s already happening a little bit. Like I said, I’m just getting started and still have lots of work to do. Admittedly, I do want to win and kick ass on powerlifting meets. Someday, I’m gonna win the best “overall male lifter” award and that’s my goal that I want to achieve. It’s gonna take some more years to get there but I will. Trust me.

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

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…

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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