Around July this year, I participated in a power lifting competition. I’ve blogged about my training in the past. It’s now time to get ready for the upcoming competition.
Other than taking a couple of weeks to recover after last competition, I’ve kept a rigorous training regime. I’ve reduced a bit the weights for a while, and changed my routines a couple of times, to see what worked for me.
Over last few weeks, we (my and my trainer) settled on a two-weeks routine. I’ll do a 1RM training in the beginning of the week – maximum weight in Squats, Bench Press and Deadlift. I’ll then do a more relaxed session sometime in the middle of the week, focusing on supporting exercises – military presses (shoulders), biceps and triceps, and then a few sets of leg presses.,
The following week, I’ll do a multi-sets routine of the power lifting exercises, doing 3 sets of 5 repetitions at around 75% of my strength. And then another session of supportive exercises.
The main difference in this routine is that I’ll do the power lifting exercises only one per week, thus reducing the pressure on my body.
So how am I doing so far?
So far, a week before the competition (as of the time of this post being written), I believe I’m going to reach the peak of my capabilities during the competition – perfect timing.
I’m currently squatting over 200 kg (440 lbs), pressing 120 kg (265 lbs) and lifting 220 kg (485 lbs) – that’s almost exactly my results from July.
So what’s the target, your asking?
Well, I’d like to reach 220 kg in squat, 140 kg in bench press, and 250 kg in deadlift. I’m not sure that’s realistic, but I’m optimistic. In July, I broke all my personal records during the competition – must be the ambiance, the fact that I rested and ate well on that day. Or maybe it was just luck.
Here’s me breaking my personal best record, squatting 202.5 kg for the first time: