Thursday, June 23, 2011

DYNAMO HITS CPF RAW NATIONALS 2011

Ottawa lifters
I was not excited about this meet at all.  My injuries have accrued to a point where bodyweight squats are labourous and my confidence in the stability of my lower back is about as hesitant as a five yr old dipping his toes into the cold water of the swimming pool.  I want to be a canadian champion powerlifter for a decade, this being year 3, so to not at least try to win even with submaximal lifts would go against my desires.  
Dynamo Barblell had a couple lifters competing so we had to go to coach them anyways...why not lift.  Willie was getting over some injuries and had not been handling any real weight for the past month and a half and Kade's training had been going very well, so well that we were questioning if he would surpass me in the bench and potentially the deadlift.  Our younger lifters Wei Seah and Alyssa Smith were set to hit some huge PR's.  

We were hoping for Wei to hit a 500 pull.  He crushed his 200kg(440lb) opener but couldn't budge anything higher.  With training he will get much stronger off the floor.  It's neat to watch him because his technique is almost identical to Willie's(who is coaching him) and it will be neat to see how his lifts progress.  

Alyssa had injured her knee 2 weeks prior to the meet.  Her knee bruised GREEN and I sent her to Dmitry who confidently said she would be fine.  She basically took a squat for granted and went forward onto her toes putting a lot of pressure on her knees.  Anyway, prior to the meet she had benched 165lbs, squatted 320 for 10 singles, and deadlifted 415lbs.  So going into the meet I was planning on only letting her squat 2 attempts(because of her knee issue), aiming for a 170lb bench, and deadlifting 400, 420, 430-440 ish.  She ended up crushing her 319 2nd squat so we jumped her to 341( i couldn't say no to her 3rd attempt although we had planned on not doing it).  She crushed it 341lb DEEP squat from a 19 yr old girl in just a belt...puts a lot of guys to shame.   On her bench she hit a 161lb 2nd and could nail the 3rd 170lbs.  Deadlift opener 180kgs(396lbs)....crushed.  Again...puts a lot of grown ass men to shame.  We jumped to 190kg and she lost her grip at the very top on the 2nd attempt....and then on the third attempt lost grip at the knees.  I found this very frustrating as she pulled 415 on a texas power bar...and then was having grip issues on an okie.  Oh well....  next meet she'll squat 350+, bench 170+, and deadlift 440.  She still walked away deservedly with the female best lifter award.
Pretty cool when you get Male Best Lifter and the girl you coach gets Female Best Lifter
Other great lifts were:
GREG DOUCETTE- Benching 529lbs WPC WR at 198lbs bodyweight.  He is in my opinion the best bench presser in Canada.
MIKE SINCLAIR- Deadlifting 755lbs AWPC WR at 242lbs bodyweight.  He has a lot of brute strength and once he cleans up his technique in all three lifts he'll be hitting 700 - 500 - 800 at 242.
SCOTT BERNARD- Benching 391lbs at 170lbs bodyweight.  He wasn't able to make the cut to the 165lbs class but once he cuts weight and hits the same numbers....it'll be a junior world record.  Going to be a lot like his coach Doucette so watch out for him.


My lifts were nothing special.  I went into the meet without squatting or deadlifting; injuries having me question whether I will break or not when I try to lift anything over 70%.
My plan on the squats was to squat 500 once and pass on my 2nd and 3rd attempts.  Warming up I warmed up to 545lbs(which hurt) and then changed my opener to 617lbs.  ^17lbs felt very easy althought the partially torn rec fem muscle was pushing me forward onto my toes.  In my head I said, " FUCK IT! LATVIA ISN'T UNTIL NOVEMBER, LETS INCREASE THE TOTAL."  So I called for 678lbs squat.  Under the bar it felt very light and easy to handle but as my hips went into deep flexion on the decent, the pain naturally sent me onto my toes.  I began to stand up with it on my toes but had to take a step forward and lost it.  BOOOOOOOO.....  So naturally I called for a 705lb 3rd attempt thinking that being a more serious weight I would be jacked up and more aggressive and also that the heavier weight would force my decent straight down instead of forward.  I was right.  The weight felt great on my back, my decent felt perfect(it still hurt like crazy), and when I hit the hole I thought to myself, " Yep, any day of the fucking week!" and then I came out of the hole into my tough spot which is the point just after my hips get a few inches above my hips.....and the bar stopped moving up.  Haha.  I'm not sure if I just didn't come out of the hole strong enough or with enough aggression or if I simply wasn't strong enough.  I feel as though being injured forced you to hold back a little bit...but who knows.
The bench press was my only PR.  A 210kg second attempt made me quite happy.  

The deadlift was another scary one to warm up.  Two weeks prior I was not able to walk from a snap in my lower back while pulling 705lbs.  So the entire warm up contained a lot of hesitation and self-doubt.  I had to really psych myself up just to step up to the bar when it was only 400 pounds..... 
My 705lb opener went up fairly easily although not as easily as I would have liked.  It felt a little heavier than it should have in my hands.  I wanted to pull 750lbs.  I had pulled 744lbs at raw unity and wanted a deadlift pr so I called for 750.  2nd attempt of 750 I barely moved it off of the floor.  To me the deadlift is all in the head...and I felt that it was my lack of confidence in my lower back that was not letting me push myself properly so I called for 750 again......this time I barely moved it at all.  I actually turned to the spotters and loaders and apologized to them.
All in all I am not too disappointed and I am somewhat happy that without squatting for a month and barely being able to walk 2 weeks prior, from my back, that I still felt a possibility of attempting some serious weights and increasing my total.

WHAT MADE THE MEET------>>>>>  KADE WEBER (21)aka THE PALE RIDER
Squats: 270kg, 280kg, 285kg, 291kg Jr WPC WR
Bench:195kg, 205kg, 212.5kg X
Deadlift: 310kg, 320kg, 330kg, 340kg Jr WPC WR
Total: 820kg Jr WPC WR....if you could count 4ths towards our total>>>835kg.  
 I think that by his next meet in Riga, Latvia he will squat around 300-310kg, he will bench around 215-220kg, and he will deadlift 350-355kg totalling into the mid 1900's.  And at some point in his PL career he will hit 2100lbs raw ( just a belt raw...)



After the coefficient I walked away with the best lifter award but Kade was right there and close behind was Willie.  Three training partners...top three.  Not a bad meet......TRUTH THOUGH...BEST LIFTER AT THE MEET------->THE PALE RIDER, HE MADE THE MEET.......PROUD AND HAPPY OF THAT YOUNG STUD!!  I THINK HE'S STARTING TO REALIZE JUST HOW GOOD HE IS GOING TO BECOME...AND ITS FUCKING EXCITING!!