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Barbell USAWA Meet This Weekend

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Steve Freides

Steve Freides

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I decided to do a USAWA meet this weekend. It's about 3 hours away by car, and it meant having to miss a little bit of work and therefore income, but I'm really looking forward to it.

Here is my training log from yesterday. It's an "RD" meet, which stands for Record Day, which means you pick lifts in which you can set a record.

-S-

MONDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2017
USAWA/IAWA practice

Decided to do a USAWA meet in Lebanon, PA this Saturday, so

WR for Zercher Squat for M60+, 70 kg, is 100 kg, USR for same does not exist
ZSQ: 145 x 1, 185 x 1, 205 x 1, 225 x 1 - that's 102 kg, so should be good for a new WR

Could do a Trap Bar DL - there is no WR for 60+, 70 kg, nor is there as US record

Could do a Hack Lift - WR is 120 kg (which is 264.555 lbs.), there is no US record. There is a M70+ record of 140 kg, which is 308.6 lbs, so
HDL: 275 x 1, 315 x fail - got dizzy, it's after 5 PM, time to call it a day.

Could do a Jefferson Lift - There is no WR. I have the US record of 315 lbs. for M55+, M60+ is 286 lbs.

Jefferson w/ 2" bar - I have the WR at M55+ of 127 kg (280 lbs.), no WR for M60+

Could do deadlift 12" base but this is not an IAWA-contested

Could do Ciavattone DL - WR is only 115 kg (253.5 lbs.), no US Record exists
 
I had to check USAWA out based on your post. I knew something about them but I had no idea they have such a variety of possible lifts. Interesting. I hope it helps to keep the old time physical culture alive better.

Best of luck to you.
 
The international organization, the IAWA, seems very active in the UK but I'm not aware of it anywhere besides the US and the UK.

It's an amazing amount of lifts - I think there are a few _dozen_ deadlift variations: with individual fingers, one-handed, behind the back, 2" bar, 3" bar, one bar in each hand, with dumbbells, and that's not the half of it, and that's only deadlifts.

-S-
 
Steve Freides said:
The international organization, the IAWA, seems very active in the UK but I'm not aware of it anywhere besides the US and the UK.

It's an amazing amount of lifts - I think there are a few _dozen_ deadlift variations: with individual fingers, one-handed, behind the back, 2" bar, 3" bar, one bar in each hand, with dumbbells, and that's not the half of it, and that's only deadlifts.

-S-
Click to expand...
Ben Edwards wa a huge contributor to USAWA back in the day and ha nothing but great things to say about the organization & events. Good luck, Steve!
 
The people at the meets I've attended to date - maybe three so far - have all been great.

-S-
 
Broke or set other records including a personal best 297 lb straddle 2” bar deadlift but you’re only allowed to set 5 records.

Small meet, lots of fun!

-S-
 

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A bit of commentary on my lifts:

1. Trap Bar DL - I don't own a trap bar and have never trained this, but I train a variety of DL variations and my last attempt was heavy but not a total max effort because I knew I had other things to do. 330 lbs., a personal best since I'd never done this. We bought a trap bar maybe 10 years ago because my oldest was lifting in the high school gym and that's what they did, so I got him one to use at home, but once he was done with it, I was done with having it take up space and I got rid of it. I'm not sure I ever picked it up.

2. Alternate Grip BP - I'd never heard of this one, but another lifter was doing it with light weights, so I worked in with him and stopped when he stopped. It's a weird lift - one hand is reverse grip on the bar. This was a completely new lift and I'm not sure it's something I'll really ever do again. Definitely a weird lift.

3. Hack Lift - this is the behind-the-back DL. I've done these some, but not much, over the last month at home, and they haven't been going particularly well. When I tried 315 lbs. in training earlier in the week, it didn't go, and the 135 kg that I did here, about 308 lbs., took a while, so I decided to stop there. I need to continue to work on this lift. I've done 315 lbs. in the past, and I need to get back to that and surpass it because this lift and my DL start seem to go together.

4. Jefferson Lift - this is a straddle DL with a standard bar. Since I did 297 lbs., a new personal best for me, earlier in the day on a 2" bar, this lift was a no-brainer to try. I don't train this lift, just the 2" bar version. 330 lbs. is a new personal best for me in this lift.

5. Front Squat - I was going to do a Zercher SQ as my 5th and final lift, and set a new record, but there was a young man at the meet trying the FSQ for the first time and he was basically without a clue, so I thought I'd show him what to do. Since my Nov. 12 meet, I've been doing these with very light weights for a single set of 8 - 12 reps, and I'm up to 75 lbs. Today, I took three attempts: 60, 70, and 80 kg (132, 154, and 176 lbs., respectively), and made them all. For the first 2, I sunk them rock bottom and paused them, but since I haven't had any real weight on the bar in forever, I was a little more conservative with the last attempt, still well below parallel, all of them in my DL slippers and not proper Oly shoes, but one other lifter watched me and said "Olympic squats" since I was keeping so upright and going so deep. I took that comment as a compliment and I think it was meant that way.

Only 3 competing lifters and the judge, so a very small turnout, but everyone couldn't have been nicer, and I got a chance to learn, first-hand, about some AWA lifts I didn't even know existed and, rest assured, there are some really strange lifts contested in the AWA.

-S-
 
Steve Freides said:
and I got a chance to learn, first-hand, about some AWA lifts I didn't even know existed and, rest assured, there are some really strange lifts contested in the AWA.
Click to expand...

Yeah, like the Arthur Lift. That is an unusual way to get a weight overhead. I have not been adventurous enough to try that lift. I used to Reverse Grip Bench a fair bit, in my warmup sets, but never thought to try a Mixed Grip.

A USAWA meet sounds like a lot of fun. I need to get out of my basement more often. Bravo, good show @Steve Freides.
 
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