Greetings everyone.

[Pabs]

Hey all.

I've been stalking this site for a while now and gotten some good information from it. I thought it was about time I joined up and introduced myself a bit.

I'm a proud Dad of 3 awesome sons, live in the Waikato with them and my lovely wife. I started training for powerlifting in January this year after an elderly gentlemen at the local gym (where my oldest son works) saw us training together and suggested we could both be good at it. He said we had a good foundation and pretty reasonable technique in the lift he saw us doing (deadlift I believe) and offered to train with us.

He is an ex-body builder, olympic lifter and current Masters 4 powerlifting competitor so we jumped at the chance to learn from someone with a wealth of knowledge.

I told him of my previous and current health issues (Paralysed in a freak accident when younger but fought my way back to being able bodied again. Sadly the accident has left me as a chronic epileptic as well but hey, I can walk!!)

He was still all for training me and my son as long as I did it safely and within my limits.

We've been training with him for over 7 months now and the improvements for both me and my son are awesome. He's now saying we should think about competing. *gulp* I'm still not sure I'm up to par though, especially since I still have a long way to go with Squats due to very small legs. My legs atrophied quite a lot whilst unable to walk and the buggers are certainly taking their time in wanting to grow and get stronger.

My current stats at this time are:

Bodyweight: 100kgs. (Varies a few kilos any time of the week it seems)

Height: 5ft 11

Age: 40 later this year.

Squat: Raw, 160kg. (no idea what it is with wraps as I don't own any.)

Benchpress: raw, 150kg. (I've done 160kg but it was sloppy as hell and I definitely wouldn't have passed in a comp, so 150 it is!)

Deadlift: raw, 210kg.

If I don't compete this year, I'm hoping to get a bit more improvement and try a competition early next year. Hopefully my son will as well.

I think that's about enough of my rambling. Thanks for reading if you got this far.

I'm looking forward to many more hours of reading here and maybe even get to meet some of you guys one day. Who knows?

Cheers.

[Terrymundo]

good day!!!

inspiring story. coming back from being paralyzed and then having to deal with epilepsy then to go on to lift the numbers you do. Respect is definately earned here!

150 bench is awesome. other lifts are respectable too. I know guys in their prime that can't pull those number :pfft: Hope everything heads in the right direction

this site is great place to share information!

[Pabs]

Thanks mate. I've got a long way to go but I'll keep on pushing/pulling and trying!

[Pseudonym]

Paralysed in a freak accident...

very small legs...

legs atrophied quite a lot whilst unable to walk...

Squat: Raw, 160kg.

:shock:

Well, that puts me to shame. And a whole lot of others too, I suspect! Welcome, Pabs!

[Pabs]

Paralysed in a freak accident...

very small legs...

legs atrophied quite a lot whilst unable to walk...

Squat: Raw, 160kg.

:shock:

Well, that puts me to shame. And a whole lot of others too, I suspect! Welcome, Pabs!

Thanks, Pseudonym. Happy to be here.

I guess my squats are ok considering my physical limitations at the moment but there's definitely vast room for improvement. I've read a lot of the journals of guys here and the numbers they can produce are just awe inspiring. Onward and upward!

[drizzt]

Damn, awesome story bro and those are great weights to start out with, not even taking into consideration coming back from what you have :shock:

You should target a novice comp! The WBOP guys will look after you, they're an awesome bunch of lifters. Check out the NZPF, or WBOP powerlifting pages for more info on when they're held, even travelling up to Auckland for a comp up there if it suits could be worthwhile (myself and a training partner did that last year from Wellington). Once you've taken that first step, you won't regret it! :nod:

Masters 4 guy wouldn't be Doug M would it? Just competed at Nationals?

[M.T]

Great story pabs would be very interested to see your development grow further and might I say very decent raw numbers there too, very close to mine and I have had no where near the troubles you have endured so well done.

Also read up on your dead off the floor Q, have to agree with Drizzt treat the reps as you 3rd comp lift and you need 3 white lights for the win. Rip the light weights off the floor as quickly as you possibly can it'll carry over to the heavier weights in no time. Also get used to repping the lighter stuff before moving up, jumps in weight should not take priority over form and any lift.

All the best mate MT

[Pabs]

Thanks for the kind words, guys.

Drizzt, it is indeed Doug M. Hell of a nice guy and damn funny too....especially when the bugger farts on my head when spotting me for bench. Or accidentally loading the deadlift bar unbalanced. ( I did get a new PB out of it though. )

MT, you're right. I need to treat every lift like a comp lift and tear the hell out of it instead of being intimidated by it.

Hee hee, could be fun actually. Last time I brought aggression to the bar, due to curlers in the squat rack, the weights DID seem to go up a bit easier.