#drizzt

[PeterDolan]

Were you dips "chest dips" or "tricep dips"?

[HarryB]

OK next pic I wanna see is you with those chains around your neck trying to get into a club lol....

Have to paint them gold though!

Good work man! impressive power to weight!

[drizzt]

Were you dips "chest dips" or "tricep dips"?

More tri than chest tbh, but there is a bit of lean forward to involve the chest slightly - tris are more the focus for my dips though, and I definitely feel them there most :nod: Do get as low as I can though - will take a vid instead of pics next time :nod:

OK next pic I wanna see is you with those chains around your neck trying to get into a club lol....

Have to paint them gold though!

Good work man! impressive power to weight!

Thanks mate, I'll ask OB if I can paint em gold :shifty:

[PeterDolan]

No drama dude was just curious to see what your doing. Your discription is just fine. How many weeks til your comp?

[drizzt]

Haha nah I understand the unspoken "vid or it didn't happen" law :pfft: I realise they are some fair claims, so I'll be happy to get a vid next time I do them, just may not be for a couple of weeks.

Comp is on the 12th, so less than 2 weeks out. Intention is to hit doubles/near-maximal singles for the big 3 this week, complete deload next week (while practising comp commands some more) then into the comp. That's the plan anyways 8)

Keeping some of the bigger assistance exes in (such as dips, front squats) where I feel they'll assist the lifts, but have dropped a lot of it out for this week (and next week).

[PeterDolan]

Claims are for GymRat mate haha

[drizzt]

01.03.11 - Squats

Bit pissed off before the session started, used it well I felt.

• Squats (sets, reps, weights)
  1 x ? @ 60kg
  1 x 4 @ 100kg
  1 x 3 @ 120kg
  1 x 2 @ 140kg
  1 x 2 @ 150kg (+belt)
  1 x 1 @ 165kg (+belt)
  1 x 2 @ 170kg (+belt)
  1 x 2 @ 140kg
  1 x 6 @ 110kg (touching calves)
  1 x 10 @ 80kg (^^)
  
• Chins (consecutive set)
  1 x 4 @ +25kg PB/3 @ +15kg/4(+1 asst) @ bw
  
• DB Side Bends
  3 x 6/ps @ 90lb
  

Comments

• Squats felt sharp, really pleased to hit a double at 170. First rep felt sweet, felt nice and deep (and TP said it was too), second rep was slightly more shallow but TP says it was deep enough so I'll take it :nod:
  Probably open squats for the comp at 160-165, something I feel I can comfortably get and gauge well enough as to what will fall from there.
  
• Chins were good, nice PB. Was pretty fried after the first set though nothing really left in the tank.
  

Short, sharp session. Felt nice and cheered up afterwards, good way to blast out that anger is just to squat :nod:

[red machine]

just caught up with ur journal there drizzt, lookin sharp mate and thoses chains faaarkn huge!! u guys certainly dnt do things in halves dwn there!!! looking forward to seeing ur comp results in afew weeks, looks like some solid numbers on the cards 4 ur 1st outing, keepin it rolling brother, good luck!!

[drizzt]

Cheers RM things are humming along nicely at the moment. Unfortunately fitness and stuff (incl rugby) have been pushed to the side a little bit while I'm making the comp my #1 focus, but that's all good for now as strength is going up steadily I reckon.

Cheers bro appreciate the support, all the best 8)

[drizzt]

03.03.11 - Quads

96 flat today. Had a "eureka" moment as to why I'm holding water after I finished my session :doh: Think I've found out just in time to cut it out before the comp, and hopefully drop some water because of it.

In saying that though, I'm feeling stronger, feeling "bigger" (not in a bad way) and fitness isn't too bad considering I've not run for a month or two now :shifty: So if it weren't for trying to drop under 93 for the comp, I'd keep things exactly as they are and not stress. I will make a concerted effort to lose this 3.1kilo over the next 8-9 days though as I think it's entirely possible :nod:

• Front Squats (sets, reps, weights)
  4 x 10 @ 60kg
  
• Reverse Sled Drags
  1 x 6lengths @ 90kg sled
  2 x 6lengths @ 100kg sled
  
• (very!) Light Bench
  4 x 10 @ 60kg
  
• Tyre Flips
  2 x 20 @ 230kg
  

Comments

• Nothing much to say really on squat and bench, short, sharp, explosive, and light. All good and as planned.
  
• Reverse sled drags were good. For the last 2 sets @ 100kg, I alternated jogging one length (backwards) with walking it casually. Lots of burn and actually feeling it quite severely around my knees (vastus medialis?) on the walk home :nod: For the first set I was basically on my toes the whole time (again, going backwards) concentrating on feeling it in the quads.
  
• Tyre flips I thought I'd see what getting sets of 20 out would be like, with a view to having a crack at the 100 flips time. First set I was going really casually - set, flip, walk, set, flip, walk... repeat - hit 20 flips in a little over 2mins. Had a yak with OB about possible plan of attack for the 100flips (which was 2-3mins of talking) and then shot out another 20 which again took a little over 2mins. Won't share my plan of attack just yet :shifty: But lets just say I'd hope for a time a wee bit under 20mins Cardio will be the big stumbling block here haha, definitely more of a "jog" than a sprint kinda challenge. In other news these flips really tear up my shoulders, huge red marks on each!
  Will do a few flips next week (deloading before the comp) and then probably have a crack at 100 the week following the comp depending on how the body is feeling.
  

[drizzt]

05.02.11 - Deads

About 95.5 today (pre-mud), happy with that.

• Deads (sets, reps, weights)
  1 x 5 @ 70kg
  1 x 2 @ 150kg
  1 x 5 @ 180kg
  1 x 0(!) @ 200kg :cry:
  1 x 2 @ 150kg
  
• Push Press
  1 x 10 @ 40kg
  3 x 10 @ 60kg
  
• GHR
  1 x 20 PB
  1 x 12
  1 x 10
  
• Situps (resisted)
  3 x 6
  
• Prowler Rope Pull/Low-bar Push
  2 sets
  

Comments

• Sooo... deads. Wasn't feeling good today at all, even 70kg felt way heavier than it should've (y'know those days?). Well 180 was a real struggle, so I said to myself "sweet, knock a couple out at 200 and we'll call it there". Barely got it off the ground and *PING* went the old lower back injury :roll: I'm hoping it's not too bad, and with a bit of stretching, light weights, and rest over the next week it should be right come comp time, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried about it effecting my lifts. Tried to squat afterwards (which was on the menu today) but the back was tugging at the bottom so skipped 'em. All of this was odd too, because I felt great pre-workout. I'm thinking heavy squats for the first time in a while put a bit more strain on the body than I had thought.
  
• Push Press was light, easy. GHR PB was nice, probably coulda squeezed a couple more out but was happy with 20. Will start adding some sort of resistance to this (whether that's gonna be band or plate, dunno yet)
  
• Situps were suggested by my TP, lock the feet in, sit on swiss ball, and basically your TP resists you trying to sit back, and then pulls your shoulders down when you try to sit up. Pretty good because the TP can give just enough resistance that you're almost at failure, but can still get the rep. Variable resistance pretty much.
  
• Bit of token GPP at the end, much easier after a light session that's for sure!
  

So yeah, I'm really, really gutted to get a niggle this close to comp, especially one that affects both squatting and deadlifting. This week will have to involve a lot of stretching + foam rolling to try and get on top of it, maybe see the house doc too see if he can work some sort of magic. Will need to voltaren up on the day I guess.

[rimma]

Bit late to the party but :shock: at the dips photo, what a beast. The house looks like the place to be!

Good luck with sorting that lower back bro, hopefully its just minor and won't jeopardise your plans :pray:

[drizzt]

Bit late to the party but :shock: at the dips photo, what a beast. The house looks like the place to be!

Good luck with sorting that lower back bro, hopefully its just minor and won't jeopardise your plans :pray:

Thanks bro Really gutted about the niggle but these things happen I guess, just gotta try my best to get over it for the comp :nod:

[OnlyHuman]

Bummer about the back

Rest up, pop some anti inflam, and think long term instead of short term.

Hopefully it will heal fast!

[drizzt]

Cheers bro, yeah this injury first popped up at the beginning of last year. Rehabbed it for a few months before I could lift heavy again, or play rugby.

Since then though it has popped up again once or twice, but never really been too bad. So hoping that's the case now and it will be right with a couple of days of relaxation. Just a bit of a c*nt of a time to be happening again!

And yeah for sure, anti-flam cream, voltaren and nurofen on the day. Couple of shots of short black and I'll be ready and firing I hope.

[startinfromscratch]

i remember when you had this niggle way back when. Hope your maxing the nurofen etc, how long till comp bro?

[drizzt]

Yeah it's thankfully not quite as bad as when it first happened, but definitely the exact same spot.

Comp is in a week from today :-|

[Old Bull]

05.02.11 - Deads

maybe see the house doc too see if he can work some sort of magic. Will need to voltaren up on the day I guess.

The Doc is Back Tuesday Drizzt

[drizzt]

Thanks OB I'll have a chat to him then :nod: Woke up this morning and it feels looser already, will stretch again later today.

[drizzt]

07.03.11 - Deload

95.5 today, drank 5.5litres of water before getting to the gym! (due to the "making weight" plan OB sent me), pi$$ing like the proverbial horse.

• Bench (sets, reps weight)
  3 x various @ 60kg
  
• Squats
  3 x 5 @ 60kg
  2 x 3 @ 60kg (paused 2-3count)
  
• Standing GMs
  3 x 5 @ 60kg
  

And a bit of stretching/foam(PVC) rolling the back.

Back feels a little worse today. Not necessarily painful, but a bit of a throbbing ache. Hope to see the Doc tomorrow and see if he can work some kind of magic. Had a little bit of voltaren and ibuprofen today, didn't really do much. Definitely affects my deadlifting (was trying the motion with just the bar), sort of affects benching (arch), and I'm thinking it's gonna affect squatting when I get to higher weights - although I didn't feel it much today on the light stuff.

I think the worst part is being the core part of my body it's such a drain on my strength, everything I touch feels heavy. Pretty crap way to lead up to my first comp!

[drizzt]

Good news; the Doc worked some sort of voodoo...magic...miracle today, and a lot of the pain/throbbing has subsided. Still a bit achey, but nowhere near as bad as it was :grin:

Will have another session Thursday, then voltaren up for the comp, then smash some PBs :nod:

As for the workout, nothing worth logging. Jogged most of the way to the gym which wasn't terribly taxing, but a bit of CBFitis crept in on some parts of it so walked.

Tried the crucifix comp-thing (35lb DB crucifix position for time), failed miserably! (20secs)

Got some DB snatches going to see what the 1-arm DB press would be like at the HBSM, got up to 80lb (slightly more than 35kg) fairly comfortably so good to know the weight can go up :nod:

Also did some token bar deads + squats once the back had been clicked around a bit, felt a lot freer. Oh and practised some breathing as Doc tells me that's why it went (not holding the breath in on my lifts to stabilise core, which I'm terrible at!)

[Chillicat]

Good luck with the competition! Hope it goes well (or maybe it's already over by the time I type this, so in that case, hope it went well!).

[drizzt]

Thanks CC! It went ok.

12.03.11 - CD Novice Comp

First weigh in @ about 9am was 94.6kg :shock: Was really disappointed with that, but kinda accepted I was too far over for a quick cut so just decided to compete... however, when I went to weigh in "officially" I was at 94flat... and had only taken a couple of pisses.

So I decided to get the extra clothes on, go for a quick jog, and OB told me of a trick where you suck on a pebble and keep spitting. So I did all of that for about an hour, came back, stripped down and made 92.9. So stoked! Put me out of range of a couple of big fullas in the next division too Immediately sacked a bunch of food + water, so probably went back up to 95 or so pretty quickly :pfft:

Anyway, the lifts. Didn't note my warmups so I'll just do my attempts.

• Squat
  1 x 160kg (w,w,w)
  1 x 175kg (w,w,r)
  0 x 190kg (r,r,r)
  
• Bench
  1 x 120kg (w,w,w)
  1 x 130kg (w,w,w)
  0 x 135kg (r,r,r)
  
• Dead
  1 x 210kg (w,w,w)
  1 x 235kg (w,w,w)
  1 x 250kg (w,r,w)
  
• Total - 555kg

Comments

• First squat @160 went real good, nice and deep, up very easily.
  Second squat @175 was pretty easy, again got nice and deep, pretty smooth on the way up, ALMOST racked before the call but he called "rack" just as I was about to step forward. One judge picked up on this though and called me for unlocking the left knee which was fair enough.
  Third squat was a bit of a jump, but I was confident I could get 180, and 185 seemed gettable (plus I was happy with the 175), so thought I may as well head for 190. Started ok, got really deep (probably too deep I was told) got out of the hole but stalled about halfway up when I ran out of juice.
  If you had told me before the lifts that I would've landed 175 as a best squat I probably would've been disappointed, but I'm actually not. There are a couple of really pleasing things for me to come out of it, best of which is I no longer seem to be stapling myself in the hole (which was the problem on the Sheiko test day) - core work is paying off! :grin: Another good sign is my descent has sped up nicely, not divebombing, but certainly not as slow as I have done in the past. And the last pleasing thing is the narrow stance feels really comfortable. So much to work with here that I'm really really happy and confident moving forward with the squats. Nowhere near a PB but I'm happy with where they are.
  Also going to start training with wraps soon (not all the time obviously) and hopefully that will push me over that 200 barrier I'm looking to :nod:
  
• First bench attempt @120 was ok, I felt here though that it wasn't going to be a good benching day for me (also noticed that Tris and chest felt really tight on warmups). Probably sunk it a bit far on to the chest - to the point where I pretty much deloaded the weight and relaxed the muscles :shifty: - it then was a bit shakey but still went up ok.
  Second attempt @130 was a wee bit of a grind, felt here that there wasn't a lot more in the tank. Tech was much better on this one where I just paused when it was touching and kept the muscles loaded.
  So the third attempt I only went to 135, where I had hoped for a 140 before starting. Got it about halfway, was trying my best to grind through it but it wasn't budging so gave it in.
  Little disappointed with bench, but I'm beginning to get the feel that some days for me it's on, and some days it isn't. On a good day I'm confident I could press 140, but unfortunately that wasn't today!
  Was a bit of a shock to the arms remembering to stay locked at the beginning (and end), and also having the bar a bit low (it was the same for everyone) with a liftout, where you still had to make a bit of effort to lift the bar out and move it into the pressing position. Not making excuses at all though as I don't think 135 would've gone up anyway.
  
• First dead attempt @210 flew up, I was cautious with the opener here because of the back niggle but the warmups were sweet so nailed this one with ease.
  Second dead @235 was pretty good too, thought the jump of 25kg may have been a bit of a shock but got it up nicely so was pleased with that.
  Third dead @250 was a grind, I feel this was probably the perfect weight for my 3rd lift as I wouldn't have got much more. Pretty big grind here but managed to push through. Held it at the top and the head ref gave me the down "signal" but didn't actually say "down", so I kinda stood there for a couple of seconds not knowing what to do and then put the weight down when the judge relaxed and looked around a bit. He red flagged me which I initially thought was because technically he didn't say "down" (which would've annoyed me!), but it was because of a small hitch. I felt like it did come back a bit heavy against my legs, but I didn't think I had hitched. I can accept that though as it was a very "grindy" rep so it may have looked different than it felt. Still, 2 out of 3 is a pass so I'll take it! :grin: And it was also an =PB so I'm happy to have that in a comp situation, and ended up being the equal best deadlift of the day.
  

So an interesting day! With the making weight bit happening, and the back niggle lingering (which caused me to go a bit lower on the opening squat and dead than I would've othewise) I wasn't too sure how things were gonna go. But ended up with first placing in the 93kg open so I'm pleased with that, and I had hoped for at least a 550 total which I achieved (and surpassed by a bit) in the end.

So much raw talent at the comp, especially a group of lifters from Porirua coming in who all shifted some incredible weight - one guy got a 220/185/250 (I think?) completely raw, no belt or anything :shock: Incredibly humble guy too, I'm CERTAIN I heard him thank the spotter for the liftoff on the 185 bench while he was holding it waiting for the press command (which went up like my 100 warmup did :-s ).

Lot to build on with, and I'm now looking at throwing in Rugby for the year and doing a long buildup towards the Bledisbro later in the year instead. See how it goes, I'll give myself this week to think on it.

Thanks to OB and Ruth for another awesomely run comp, fantastic way to open the Powerlifting account on such a well organised day :clap: :clap:

[teamfatboy]

Well done ! I was beginning to think that back injury was going to derail your plans, but clearly OB and the team got you there - injury-free AND at-weight!

Looking forward to seeing what you decide to do for the rest of the year - the BBro could be fun with eight months of build-up.

:salute: :notworthy:

[steak]

Good on ya Drizzt :clap: Good first total at that BW bro and sounds like you enjoyed the experience too making for a good day on the platform :clap: 8)