Barbelle Blog

Deadlift day.

I was going to do deficit deads but forgot. Then I was going to do sumo deads and forgot. In short, I neglected some deadlifts. Bah. Like I said, work stuff is interfering with my training and I do not like it. I am eagerly looking forward to things slowing down the week after next.

Oh, but prowler pushes felt gooooooood. My boyfriend is having some knee issues from driving, and was advised that very, very heavy prowlering would help stabilize the knee. He hasn’t spent a whole lot of time prowlering, so “heavy” was 205 lb. I got in there and pushed it too, and now I don’t really have an excuse to push my usual 50-90 lb. ever again.

I remember not being able to move 180 lb. on the prowler, so I didn’t think I was strong enough to push 205. This is generally how I progress: do something that I don’t think I can do and then surprise myself by doing it. I need to work on staying OUT of my comfort zone more often.

Should powerlifters do cardio?

This seemed appropriate to link after today’s training. I stopped doing cardio right before my meet and am slowly phasing it back in… Perhaps TOO slowly, but work is kicking my ass and leaving me with less energy to train. It’s extremely frustrating, but should let up after next week and then I’ll be 100% BACK.

Posted 6 days ago

My Deadlift is Ranked #23 in the country for women's raw powerlifting at 132lb.

#58 for squat. #46 for total. Bench is not in the top 100, but whatever. It was my first meet.

Now I HAVE to do that meet in August!

Posted 1 week ago

9 notes

SQUATS.

A guy named Jesse from a local powerlifting team was yelling at me the whole time on the box squats, and the two heavy free squat singles. “ARCH! BACK. BACK! UP!” Quite motivating, actually.

He was giving me all these technical tips like “roll under the bar” to set up and “shift your hips forward after sitting on the box,” but I think I am still stuck on the “KNEES OUT” part. When I get it, I really get it and do well, but it’s still not totally ingrained as a habit.

Back in the saddle.

Ton of heavy singles. I think I am done deadlifting for reps, at least at high percentages of my max. Volume is where it’s at. I think I will keep up the 5/3/1 thing, but instead of doing X many deadlift reps for the “1” set, I will do that many singles. It just doesn’t feel right to deadlift heavy without taking an extra 1 second to reset.

Also, box squats with bands! For SPEED. I’m trying to pick up the pace in general, but also reading up on speed work. I haven’t added anything to my program except the box squats with bands. Suggestions are definitely welcome.