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Getting Ready For My First Pl Meet: Would These Lifts Pass?


Mike Rinderle

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Pulled 500 for the first time since the weight loss today. 236 body weight this morning. Felt like I had a few more pounds in the tank. I usually pull at a deficit because my 45s are only 16" diameter. Propped them up to more accurately represent what I'll feel on the platform. This setup puts them at 8 7/8" off the ground. I also pull with a 30mm York Squat bar, which has no flex (whip) in it at all, so hopefully I'll get a bit out of that along with some adrenaline at the meets. First meet Feb 11 is going to be pull only. Meet on May 31st is all three lifts. Hoping to pull 510 in February and 525 in May in the 242 class.

Followed up with some deficit speed work: 225 8 X 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3U1bpM_9WPo

:cool

Short torso and long limbs is something you have in common with Giovanni Brunazzi who pulled 360kg (bw 81.3kg) at the Bavaria Cup deadlift meet in 1995, so take it as a good sign for DLing.

Take a closer look at your glutes while benching, your shorts cover up, if you lift them, IPF-rules are quite strict in this.

Keep up your great progress!

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Nice pull, Mike! Solid lift.

The cool thing about deadlifts is you can always gut-out another ten pounds if you grit your teeth hard enough.

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Thanks for checking it out guys! I'm really starting to get pumped. Singlet came in the mail this week and entry forms have been sent for both meets.

Raymo, I hope you are right buddy. I'm going to give it my all!

Hendrik, That's an amazing pull at any weight! My glutes stay on the bench, but I need to try a couple sessions in my singlet to get used to it. One worry I have is bench height. This bench is pretty tall (21") and I hope a shorter bench won't throw me off.

Eric, that's why I like pulling. Mind over matter. Deadlifting for me is more of a mental battle than a physical battle. If my mind is right, I can pull 50 lbs more than I can if my mind is messed up. Plus, it's less technical than squatting. You just pull like a son of a gun until you are standing tall. :grin:

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Eric, that's why I like pulling. Mind over matter. Deadlifting for me is more of a mental battle than a physical battle. If my mind is right, I can pull 50 lbs more than I can if my mind is messed up. Plus, it's less technical than squatting. You just pull like a son of a gun until you are standing tall. :grin:

Well said! I'm the same way.

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Under the weather with a cold, but it was squat day, so I skwatted:

315 didn't feel too heavy, but I got a little forward on both singles. Was only going to do one, but the first one was a bit high. This was a 15 lb PR for this time around. Finished off with a couple paused ATG 225 reps with knee wraps on (not super tight). Not sure if I like the knee wraps or not. They help a little and definitely take some of the knee blowout fear away, but they are really uncomfortable even when they aren't super tight. These are just a cheap set I got at Sports Authority and I only wore them for the paused squats. Just working them in every once in awhile. Wore my new singlet to try and get used to it. Very weird.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODMuGbFxj0g

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High box squats today to my 21" bench. Was going to try and work up to 400 lbs, but I noticed when I watched the vid on my camera that the bench was flexing pretty good with just 300, so I stopped there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEZSv386y5w

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Thanks for checking it out guys! I'm really starting to get pumped. Singlet came in the mail this week and entry forms have been sent for both meets.

Raymo, I hope you are right buddy. I'm going to give it my all!

Hendrik, That's an amazing pull at any weight! My glutes stay on the bench, but I need to try a couple sessions in my singlet to get used to it. One worry I have is bench height. This bench is pretty tall (21") and I hope a shorter bench won't throw me off.

Eric, that's why I like pulling. Mind over matter. Deadlifting for me is more of a mental battle than a physical battle. If my mind is right, I can pull 50 lbs more than I can if my mind is messed up. Plus, it's less technical than squatting. You just pull like a son of a gun until you are standing tall. :grin:

That 360kg pull of Giovanni was quite a sight! As he did it in his second attempt eveyone was really excited and when the third attempts happend the audience felt still quite numbed.

For the benching you could try to put some blocks under your feet to get the feel of a bench with competition height, like a thick board or BB-plates.

As for the mind over matter part, that's similar with me, although I DL nearly as technical as squat (both very wide sumo stance).

High box squats today to my 21" bench. Was going to try and work up to 400 lbs, but I noticed when I watched the vid on my camera that the bench was flexing pretty good with just 300, so I stopped there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEZSv386y5w

As I do my boxsquatting at the club I usually use a pile of bumper plates for a box, I assume no option for you.

I have seen a DIY box made up of a pile of boards with layer of rubber glued to the upper sides. For a stable base several boards where screwed together, the rubber taken from the kind of mats that are put under washing machines to dampen the vibration thats transfered to the ground. The rubber keeps the boards from slipping from another and offer a no slip surface for the rear of the squatter.With the pile of boards you can easily adjust to different squatting depths. The boards must have been around 40cmx40cmx2cm, maybe a little more. Placing of such a pile: one corner pointing towards the middle of the bar.

Sorry for the long description, maybe it's a little help.

Keep up your good work!

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Thanks Hendrik! I need to make a box for sure. I have tried an ottoman and now my bench. Niether have proven to be a good option.

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Hi Mike,

I haven't bar squatted in a long time, but when I did, I had heavy powerlifter knee wraps. The kind that look like an ace bandage on steroids. They take some getting used to, but add protection and probably 20-50 lbs on your squat depending on how tight they are wrapped and how you wrap them. I don't know what is okay in the federation you are competing in, though.

Best of luck!!!

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Thanks Martin!

Tried knee wraps yesterday actually. Just trying to get used to heavier weight. Worked up to 350 and had a pretty comical mishap. I was not used to tight knee wraps and realized about 2/3 of the way down that my lower legs had gone completely numb. I aborted and then had a lot of trouble walking the weight back to my squat stands. I looked like a staggering drunk. HAHA They're going to take some getting used to.

After that, I ditched the knee wraps and hit 325 with just knee sleeves and a belt. Would have liked to get this an inch or two deeper, but it looked about parallel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7DfVBfA26Q

Edited by Mike Rinderle
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More squats:

Front squats:

bar X 5

135 X 5

185 2 X 3

205 5 X 1

Back squats:

205 3 X 1

255 X 1

295 X 1

370 5 unracks

330 X got buried, got pissed, unloaded the bar, reloaded the bar

330 X 1 knee sleeves and belt

330 X 1 knee sleeves and loose knee wraps and belt - just trying to get used to these things.

Here's the 330 including the comical fail. I keep posting these to make sure I'm still doing things legally. If you guys see something that would not pass, let me know.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffCREtSYlPM

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Looks like you're making a lot of progress, setting your sights on a meet really helps to focus the training.

A few things, feel free to disregard :) , make sure your fed will allow you to squat with the knee sleeves/wraps RAW many don't, also I don't know of any fed that allows elbow sleeves for benching so make sure you get a feel for benching without (maybe once its warmer out). Most feds also require some type of footwear on the dl. Squat should be legal, you're bending over a touch far and its making hitting depth a little harder than it should be. Set your back at the angle you want then focus on going down with the butt, making sure you're not folding over/increasing back bend too much as you get closer to depth. Like someone else said you might need to pause a sec longer on the bench, stay tight, watch that hip thrust. Too much and you could get called. DL looks really strong! I watched the 500 vid a few times just be careful letting your knees go forward as you lock out. I can tell from watching the vid that you aren't hitching but some judges might feel that you are.

Knee wraps are a trip! Since this is your first meet I would say go without them! They add a lot of complication, you really have to time the wrap so your legs don't kill or you're not frantically trying to wrap in time for a lift (that will kill you), they will unwrap as you're trying to wrap or even during the lift. On top of that its a completely different squat form. If you're going to use them you have to commit, I like to drive the knees forward into them almost like an olympic squat, you'll need to stay much more upright any folding over and you're not going to hit depth and you're not going to get anything out of them. And they will hurt like hell, you have to get over that fact right away!

JMHO Hopefully some of this helps!

Oh ps, I don't think any fed will allow wraps and sleeve at the same time, you probably knew that but in case you didn't!

Edited by AP
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Thanks brother, all that helped!

Benched yesterday. Hit 260 but the pause was not long enough. Rest day today.

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Great to see you are still pushing yourself with every workout, glad the little lady was there to watch over you, we got good women :flowers: mine will video a bend in a heart beat! lol :grin:

Edited by GatorGrip
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260 Paused Bench and 295 three board press. Everything still moving in the right direction. The bench is going up by 5 lb a workout instead of 10, but the newb bench gains are wearing off and muscle memory has done about all it can for me at this point I think. :) Will have to scratch and claw for the next 15 I'd like to get at the March 31 meet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikX0lCxeoIs

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Doing good Mike, I love that your soulmate is your spotter... :grin:

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Nice job Mike!!! Are you cycling your weights?

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Nice job Mike!!! Are you cycling your weights?

I have been cycling in lighter speed work, but really am just doing what the body tells me each time out. Like today my lower back and spinal erectors are still fried from all the deads Friday, so I worked on form with lighter weights. Two problems I have on squats are not keeping my chest high and getting the weight too far forward over my toes. So I did box squats to a 14.5" box (just past parallel) with lighter weight and worked on keeping my chest high. Worked up to a double with 255 and my chest caved in on the second rep. So I dropped back down to 205 and did one more set just to quit after good form and called it a day.

14.5" box squats:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDY9-Kkr24g

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Doing good Mike, I love that your soulmate is your spotter... :grin:

Mike's soul mate is stronger than he is :)

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Congrats on tying your PR, Mike! You're making nice progress.

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Thanks Eric! Felt good, but I need to sink this another inch just to make sure.

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The squats are looking good. The meet should go well for you.

One thing I noticed was that we have the same issue technique-wise (chest caving in) so if you're willing to take advice from a complete stranger I might be able to help you out. :)

Two things that have worked for me are keeping your upper back tight while trying to bring your elbows forward for the entire lift. By that I mean trying to rotate your elbows around the pivot point of the bar while keeping your shoulders pulled back. If you do it right you can feel your lats contract and your chest lifts up along with it.

That along with driving my neck into the bar as soon as I start the ascent have worked for me.

Good luck at the meet!

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