A fun morning with the girls

Today, I worked out with some other female powerlifters (all nationally and/or world ranked). Now, usually other women kind of drive me nuts, but this group was a lot of fun. I wanted to learn about how they were structuring their workouts during the week and in particular about their bench workouts.

I have been doing a pretty simple workout schedule - squat Monday, bench Wednesday, and deadlift Friday. However, other lifters incorporate another day of bench work that goes something like - heavy bench Monday, squat Tuesday or Wednesday, light bench (for speed and power, plus tricep and shoulder work) Thursday, deadlift Friday. So, I wanted to know what they were doing on that light bench day and also get some pointers on bench form, as all of these other women are very strong on bench.

I ended up benching for almost an hour and getting a lot of tips. Bad news: there are a lot of subtle little things to work on. Good news: they're little things, and since I don't have any imminent meets, I have plenty of time to master them.

People tend to think that powerlifting is just a bunch of muscle-bound freaks lifting heavy stuff, but each of the lifts has a lot of technical aspects and fine nuances.

Vanity

I was just checking out the website of a local photographer who was at the Olympia meet, since the person taking photos for me didn't get all my lifts. How is it that I am making some sort of face in EVERY SINGLE PICTURE?!? Well, not in the bench press ones, but you can't really see my face in those because of the spotters. Maybe it IS better to take the photos from a distance...yeesh. Of course, can one really be expected to look pretty while wearing that much spandex and lifting heavy weights? Probably not. But a girl can still hope. *sigh*

State Championship Results!

Hi, I'm back from the Washington State Power Lifting championships in Olympia. Here's how I did:

Squat 275.5 lbs
Bench press 143.5 lbs
Dead lift 325.0 lbs
TOTAL 744 lbs

Not bad for just my third competition, and for lifting raw no less. :-) These numbers break my prior Washington State USAPL records and are American records as well.

I had a tough time resting the week before the meet, as I'm so used to working out intensely all the time, but it was definitely worth it. What's next? Maybe the Raw Nationals in July...

New Coach, New Training Regimen

Ok, so at the beginning of this year (2009) I started working with a powerlifting coach, the legendary Andrew "Bull" Stewart. He had me doing a lot of conditioning workouts in December, then in Jan. we started our pre-event cycle working up to the March 7 Wa State Championship meet - it's an eight week cycle. Here's what those workouts look like:

WEEK ONE:

SQUAT DAY
Squats at 70% 1RM* 2 x 8 reps
Pause squats (slightly lighter weight, pause at bottom for 1 second)
Leg press 3 x 8 (you'll do this at heavier weight than the squats, it's easier)
Calf press 3 x 8 - all directions (toes straight, outward and in)
Hip abductor / adductor / glutes / front hip flexor 3 x 10

BENCH DAY
Bench at 70% 1RM 2 x 8 reps
Flat bench dumbbell press 3 x 8
Incline press 3 x 8
Shoulder press 3 x 8
Bench with close grip for triceps 3 x 8
Tricep push down with t-bar 3 x 8 - 10
Tricep push down with rope 3 x 8 - 10

DEADLIFT DAY
Deadlift at 70% 1RM 2 x 8 reps
Deadlift from knees 2 or 3 x 10
Hex bar 3 x 8
Power cleans 3 x 8
Back rows 3 x 8 - 10

From here, I am increasing the weight 20 pounds per week on squats and DLs, and 10 pounds per week on bench, and dropping one or two reps per week (still doing 2 sets).

week 2 - 2 x 7 reps
week 3 - 2 x 6 reps
week 4 - 2 x 5 reps
week 5 - 2 x 3 reps
week 6 - 2 x 2 reps
week 7 - 2 reps
week 8 - 1 rep
rest one week prior to competition

*calculate 1RM based on prior maximum done in gym or competition.