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The place for discussion about Powerlifting/Strenght Training .
Talk about your Training, nutrition, telling us your PRs, posting your progress pics or instagram,
Leave a comment, and don't forget to reply to someone else's too, the whole point is discussion. Be sure to check out the thread a couple of times during the week to see what's going on!
 
Novice meet at PTC HQ on Sunday. There are some vids on the FB page, but FB doesn't let us link directly to them now.

Ravi came to us last year as a referral from a doctor with many and various pains of mysterious origin. His doctor's referral was vague, but reading between the lines told me, "I dunno, he's probably just weak." We began Ravi with a mighty 35kg squat, he showed up regularly and ate well, put on 15kg or so of bodyweight and became a more useful person.

With a break over the summer for work, he returned in February saying, "in the 3 months away I spent more on doctors and physios than I ever did on training," and got back into things with a vengeance, and he also went to his first powerlifting meet yesterday.

He opened with a 120 squat, which he had told me was too light but was still shallow. Nerves will do that, so I had him repeat the weight and this time he buried it like a mobster in the Las Vegas desert. His followup with 130 was easy, too - 140 next time. Coming into bench he'd also told me 75 was too light to open with, but after his squat experience reconsidered this, and knocked it out without trouble. 82.5 came up, and 90 for a solid personal best. Deadlifts were 130 and 145, which came up so easily I set 155 as the 3rd. As you can see in the vid, he did the crappiest most roundbacked crossfit-style deadlift setup he has ever done, it was so atrocious that if it were in training I would have stopped the lift. But as I covered my eyes and looked through a crack between my fingers while wincing, he picked the damn thing up anyway.

Ravi thus finished his first meet with 130/90/155 for 375 total at 90kg.

Aidan came to us last year reporting that he'd popped some discs squatting. It was a mighty 60kg so he must have truly made a dog's breakfast of the thing to hurt himself. He started by squatting the empty bar, and 10 weeks later had gone from 58 to 74kg bodyweight, and done a 115 squat and 75 bench for a single. He head off for a break from training over summer while he started a new job he could never have done with a bad back, and then returned. In the 10 weeks since he's worked up to doing his old maxes or a bit more as work weights.

Yesterday he did a novice meet. He opened with an easy 115 squat, then I took him to 125 and 130 which he did with good bar speed and his usual face turning purple with veins popping out. Bench he opened with 75, followed up with 82.5, but couldn't budge 90. Deadlift was an easy 125 opener, then 140 and finally 150, which was just short of double bodyweight.

So he finished the day with 130/82.5/150 for a 362.5 total at 76.2kg bodyweight in his first meet. So much for bad backs.

11 months and 1 day since she started lifting properly, Lilli opened with an easy 80kg squat, looked alarmed when I told her next attempt was 87.5 but smashed it, so didn't blink at 92.5, which came up rough but did come up. Bench she's been held back by shoulder troubles, 35 was an easy opener, 37.5 followed, and 40 was too much. Deadlifts she usually pulls just what she squats and has never done a lot in the gym, but I knew the adrenalin of a competition would get her through, so 80 as an opener for confidence, which came up fine. 90 was next, which she dropped fast like a bad boyfriend and was lucky not to get three red lights for, I told her this and the head judge warned her. 100 for her third came up fast and the head judge thought it was dropped, but the side judges were happy, 2 white lights, 1 red, lift passes, time to celebrate.

All this gave her a 230 total in her first meet, at 57.6kg, the smallest lifter there.

Aron has trained for about 4 years, but every 3-4 months he jaunts off overseas on the conference circuit for a month or so and lifts nothing heavier than a buffet plate, so with all the necessary deloads it's more like 2 years of training. In the video you will see he is wearing a stocking on one leg, this is not only because it's sexy, but to control the lymphoedema post-surgery for cancer 4 years ago. He doesn't like mentioning it because people have a tendency to tilt their heads to one side and go "awww..." A person is not defined by the worst illness, health condition or tragedy of their life. Speaking plainly: fuck that. If it doesn't kill you, keep living. This was Aron's resolve.

After 4 years of heaving barbells around it was time to step up and do it in competition. I thought it was also help push him in the gym for a bit. So along we went to PTC HQ yesterday. He opened with a 150 squat which he had told me was too light, and indeed it must have been since it didn't even push him below parallel: three reds, well deserved. With frowns and complaints to me met only by my laughter and sad shaking of head, his second go at 150 was good. His followup with 160 was no trouble.

Coming to bench his 85 came up easily, as did 92.5, and though the pause before the "press" command was not exactly rapid, 100 came up solidly.

Deadlifts were gripped and ripped, first 150, then 165. At 180 the bar was crawling up his legs while his blood pressure leapt to levels normally only seen by top cardiologists in intensive care wards, for every foot the bar went up it unlocked his hands half an inch, but up it came nonetheless, locked out with grim determination, and held for just long enough to make the head judge happy before the gratefully-received "down!" command, and lowered quickly before he lost his grip.

As an academic used to marking others, being graded pass or fail for the first time since he defended his thesis must have been traumatic. But he finished with 160/100/180 for a 440 total at 110kg. Aron is not defined by cancer, but by his confidence, his good attitude and hard work, his funny accent and his gigantic brass balls.

They were nowhere near the strongest there, some guy pulled 240, some woman 145. Novices? haha. Standards are rising!
 
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