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Barbell Meet Report: USPA Iron Will Classic, 2021-April-17, Norwood, NJ

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Steve Freides

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Meet Report: USPA Iron Will Classic, 2021-April-17, Impact Zone Gym in Norwood, NJ

Age: 66 years
Bodyweight: 67.5 kg (148.8 lbs)
Division: Raw - I choose to wear no supportive equipment whatsoever, including forgoing the permitted belt.

Video:

Squat:



Bench Press:



Deadlift:



Notes:

This was my first-ever local powerlifting meet, held about 10 miles from where I live.

Squat: This was my 2nd full powerlifting meet since returning to 3-lift competition last Fall. Last November, I went 70, 75, and 80 kg in the squat. This time, I went 90, 95, 100 kg and I know I had at least a little more in me. A good SQ day, for sure.

Bench Press: About 4 weeks ago, I noticed my right pec was sore when I lifted. After starting a BP session and realizing that the more weight I put on the bar, the more my right pec hurt, I racked the bar and made an appointment with a local orthopedic practice for the very next day. I had a lump my wife described as being the size of an egg on my right pec muscle. Long story short: I've been working very hard to stretch out my tight right pec and shoulder, and must have overdone it. My guess as to what happened seems to have been correct, and was confirmed by a chest MRI - I had hematoma, a place where blood had pooled inside my body, apparently inside or near the surface of my pec major muscle. Good news, however - a week of no bench press, a week of light bench press, and by the time I got the MRI, the lump was greatly reduced in size, and by the time I had a post-MRI followup visit with the doctor, it was barely detectable, and that was 9 days before the meet. By meet day, you'd never know I'd had a problem. For this reason, and building on an 85 kg PR last November, I decided to go 82.5, 85, 87.5 at this meet, but when I walked over to the scoring table after the 82.5, the meet organizer looked at me and said, "Well, that looked easy!" so I asked her if she thought I should take 85 or 87.5 for my next attempt, and she said if I was used to big jumps, which I am, she thought 87.5 would be OK - and it was. And 87.5 kg is a lifetime best BP for me, my previous best of 85 kg having first been achieved in 2004 when I was 49 years old. So, a very good BP day, and it also felt good to skip the third attempt and save my energy for my best lift, the deadlift.

Deadlift: At meet time, USPA American records were 145 kg for DL-only and 160 kg for DL as part of a 3-lift meet. (Think about that - it's backwards, but not enough people cross register in order to qualify for both records.) I elected to go 150 for my opener and 162.5 for my 2nd in order to break both those records and got both lifts. I am sorting out some interesting - to me, at least - things about my lower back posture and position in the deadlift, and although I don't see it when I watch the videos, I definitely did something different in each of the two attempts, and it was a surprise to me that what I thought was saving my best lower back position for my 2nd attempt turned out to feel weaker than the way I'd performed my 1st attempt. A thing to experiment with, for sure, but another good day. 162.5 kg is 2.5 kg less than my 165 kg PR at 67.5 bodyweight, and equal to my best 66 kg lift. Given that I'm still getting used to 3-lift meets, I'm happy with how I did today.

Other:

Kudos to the meet organizers. This meet was originally capped at 45 lifters, then opened up to 60 when the interest was so great, and finally moved to a larger venue and opened up to 90 lifters on 2 platforms. This was the largest gym I have ever been and seemed like a great place to join because they had everything under the sun. My favorite was a room with 3 machines called Booty Builders - I'll stick to deadlifts and squats, thank you. :)

I won a few awards, don't remember what they all were but I know I got best Masters BP only. They said they'd email me certificates for the others.

I was the 2nd-oldest lifter in the meet. One fellow was 77 years old and 82.5 kg bodyweight. Another man was 100 kg and 62 years old. The next youngest 67.5 kg lifter, across all divisions and age groups, was 22 years old - the 67.5's ranged from 15 to 22 years of age and then there was me.

Because, prior to this meet, there were no New Jersey records for 67.5 kg, raw, male whatsoever, all my lifts set state records. All my lifts at the non-tested USPA meet I attended last November also set NJ state records for the same reason - none existed prior to that meet.

Last but certainly not least, many thanks to my wonderful wife for accompanying me, mystery novel in hand to help pass the time, to today's meet.

Thanks for reading, comments and questions are always welcomed.

-S-
 
Last edited:
Meet Report: USPA Iron Will Classic, 2021-April-17, Impact Zone Gym in Norwood, NJ

Age: 66 years
Bodyweight: 67.5 kg (148.8 lbs)
Division: Raw - I choose to wear no supportive equipment whatsoever, including forgoing the permitted belt.

Video:

Squat:



Bench Press:



Deadlift:



Notes:

This was my first-ever local powerlifting meet, held about 10 miles from where I live.

Squat: This was my 2nd full powerlifting meet since returning to 3-lift competition last Fall. Last November, I went 70, 75, and 80 kg in the squat. This time, I went 90, 95, 100 kg and I know I had at least a little more in me. A good SQ day, for sure.

Bench Press: About 4 weeks ago, I noticed my right pec was sore when I lifted. After starting a BP session and realizing that the more weight I put on the bar, the more my right pec hurt, I racked the bar and made an appointment with a local orthopedic practice for the very next day. I had a lump my wife described as being the size of an egg on my right pec muscle. Long story short: I've been working very hard to stretch out my tight right pec and shoulder, and must have overdone it. My guess as to what happened seems to have been correct, and was confirmed by a chest MRI - I had hematoma, a place where blood had pooled inside my body, apparently inside or near the surface of my pec major muscle. Good news, however - a week of no bench press, a week of light bench press, and by the time I got the MRI, the lump was greatly reduced in size, and by the time I had a post-MRI followup visit with the doctor, it was barely detectable, and that was 9 days before the meet. By meet day, you'd never know I'd had a problem. For this reason, and building on an 85 kg PR last November, I decided to go 82.5, 85, 87.5 at this meet, but when I walked over to the scoring table after the 82.5, the meet organizer looked at me and said, "Well, that looked easy!" so I asked her if she thought I should take 85 or 87.5 for my next attempt, and she said if I was used to big jumps, which I am, she thought 87.5 would be OK - and it was. And 87.5 kg is a lifetime best BP for me, my previous best of 85 kg having first been achieved in 2004 when I was 49 years old. So, a very good BP day, and it also felt good to skip the third attempt and save my energy for my best lift, the deadlift.

Deadlift: At meet time, USPA American records were 145 kg for DL-only and 160 kg for DL as part of a 3-lift meet. (Think about that - it's backwards, but not enough people cross register in order to qualify for both records.) I elected to go 150 for my opener and 162.5 for my 2nd in order to break both those records and got both lifts. I am sorting out some interesting - to me, at least - things about my lower back posture and position in the deadlift, and although I don't see it when I watch the videos, I definitely did something different in each of the two attempts, and it was a surprise to me that what I thought was saving my best lower back position for my 2nd attempt turned out to feel weaker than the way I'd performed my 1st attempt. A thing to experiment with, for sure, but another good day. 162.5 kg is 2.5 kg less than my 165 kg PR at 67.5 bodyweight, and equal to my best 66 kg lift. Given that I'm still getting used to 3-lift meets, I'm happy with how I did today.

Other:

Kudos to the meet organizers. This meet was originally capped at 45 lifters, then opened up to 60 when the interest was so great, and finally moved to a larger venue and opened up to 90 lifters on 2 platforms. This gym was the largest gym I have ever been and seemed like a great place to join because they had everything under the sun. My favorite was a room with 3 machines called Booty Builders - I'll stick to deadlifts and squats, thank you. :)

I won a few awards, don't remember what they all were but I know I got best Masters BP only. They said they'd email me certificates for the others.

I was the 2nd-oldest lifter in the meet. One fellow was 77 years old and 82.5 kg bodyweight. Another man as 100 kg and 62 years old. The next oldest 67.5 kg lifter, across all divisions and age groups, was 22 years old - the 67.5's ranged from 15 to 22 years of age and then there was me.

Because, prior to this meet, there were no New Jersey records for 67.5 kg, raw, male whatsoever, all my lifts set state records. All my lifts at the non-tested USPA meet I attended last November also set NJ state records for the same reason - none existed prior to that meet.

Last but certainly not least, many thanks to my wonderful wife for accompanying me, mystery novel in hand to help pass the time, to today's meet.

Thanks for reading, comments and questions are always welcomed.

-S-

Great work Steve!
 
Fantastic job! Deadlift looked spectacular! I think it's great you don't wear the belt; others may disagree, but I don't wear one either.
Thanks very much for the compliment! I'm the only guy at a meet not wearing a belt, it seems - such is life.

Am I correct you were doing Plan Strong?
I have programmed PlanStrong for myself relatively recently, but I haven't used it in the last year or so.

My SQ and my BP were 5 x 5 as discussed in the piece Pavel did with Tim Ferriss, basically just doing 5 x 5 with a weight, adding 10 lbs, and working up to 5 x 5 again.

My DL training is still a work in progress, but my focus for the last few months was what we call Specialized Variety - I did a lot of behind-the-back DL's and a lot of straddle DL's with a thick bar, and once a week, I pulled conventional for a few singles or doubles. I'm disappointed with my 2nd attempt at the meet - I got it but I wanted it to be easier than it was.

Thanks again.

-S-
 
@westsider19, thank you for the kind words. It was a pretty serious injury - lost all the muscle mass in my inner right thigh, was on Percocet 24/7 for 3 weeks, was in bed for 2 months, was walking with a limp for over a year. Ended up with a slight, permanent loss of feeling in that part of my right thigh.

If someone like me wants to avoid having a recurrence of that kind of injury, I don't see the point of using a belt in strength training unless I intended to wear a belt all the time outside of the gym. I'm not in it to lift the most weight, just to be the strongest me I'm able to be while living the rest of my life, when I'm not lifting.

If you have a link and a time marker for that, I'd appreciate it. I've listened to most of that interview but never came across the part where my name came up. Thanks in advance.

-S-
 
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