One Week to Competition

Meant to post this 8/15:

Hey everyone. I was in the gym yesterday, and I had the idea to do this blog. I have a powerlifting competition a week from today, a strongman competition next month, and a bodybuilding competition later this year, so I figure this would be a good way to chronicle how I'm doing.

The competition next week will consist of bench press, deadlift, and strict curl (bicep curl up against a wall). There are several weight classes, and the one I chose to go down to is the 166-181 class. I started out fluctuating between 192-195 during training, this morning I weighed in at 185 even, which is as good as I could hope for. It's been a good 3-4 weeks of cutting weight, and it has fallen off pretty steadily.

I've been training for these specifically for the last 2-3 months, and it's been rough. I started out not having done heavy bench in...oh....ever, so trying to increase that without a spotter has been hard. And the way you have to do it is different than any way I've ever trained before: you have to bring it down to your chest, let it rest for a full second, and then lift it back up. So I haven't been able to max out a lot just because I don't want to have a big ass weight stuck on my chest in the off chance I can't get it up (that's what she said). I have done 285 over the course of my training, but since I've had to drop weight the most I've been able to do is 275, so that is what I am planning to start with at the competition.

Yesterday was leg day, and I started off with a max effort attempt at deadlift. My previous best was 445, I failed at 455 two weeks prior, so that is what I started with. Got it up cleanly, and fairly easily compared to last week's attempt. I normally only do 1 max set when I do them, but since competition day is looming I decided to do an attempt at 465:


Got it up, but it wouldn't have counted because my legs didn't straighten out all the way. Oh well, still a good sign. Easy week of lifting this week so I'm ready for the competition on Saturday.