A Different Day, A Different Outcome

After Sunday's struggles, I did my deadlifting in the gym yesterday.

I warmed up with five reps with 60 kilos and five with 80, then did five sets of five with 100. My down sets were five with 80 and eight with 60.

It's crazy how the weight feels so much lighter in the gym - or heavier at home, depending on how you look at it!

I also tried a few light hack squats and incline leg presses, but my wonky knee started protesting immediately, so I walked away while I still could and will not be going near anything that resembles a squat in the future.

I managed some hyperextensions and incline sits up though. Five sets of ten on each of them. They're here to stay, and should strengthen my lower back and my core.

On all my sets today, I found the first rep to be a real grinder, but managed the other four in each set without a problem. I posted this on a couple of powerlifting forums, and the answer soon came back. On reps two to five, I'm helped by the 'stretch reflex' which doesn't happen on the first lift.

I'd never even heard of the 'stretch reflex' before. It shows how much I've got to learn about the lift.

But five fives is definite progress. On Saturday, I'm going to attempt five sets of three with 110 kilos. If that's too difficult, I'll drop it to 105. Whichever weight I end up using, the plan is five threes, five fours the workout after, then five fives the one after that. Then I'll test my 1RM again and see how much closer to the magical 185 I've managed to reach.

I've decided to enter the BDFPA Single Lift Qualifier in May whether or not I've reached the required standard. If nothing else, it will give me some experience of deadlifting on stage, and that will stand me in good stead for the future.

After the depression of Sunday, I'm feeling altogether better after Wednesday's effort. Roll on Saturday...

The First Setback

Everything was going so well. Until I turned up at the gym at 2.30 pm yesterday. To find it closed. So I did my shopping first, then tried to do the workout at home. I felt a bit weak and undernourished. I'd eaten with a view to training at 2.30, and here I was starting at 5.00.

The overhead pressing went fine. I managed three sets of five with 55 kilos - an improvement of 2.5 from last week. Plus, being at home, I had to clean the bar into the pressing position at the start of each set. So now I'm doing power cleans as well!

By the time I got to deadlifts I was feeling quite fatigued, but I warmed up to my first of five supposed sets of five with 100 kilos. After the second rep I almost fainted, so was wise enough to listen to my body and just walk away. There's a difference between pushing through barriers to achieve great things and flogging a dead horse, and sometimes you've just got to listen to your body.

I left the bar and weights out overnight, so I'd have no excuse for not doing deadlifts today. And so I did. Not a lot, but something is better than nothing. Today's workout was fives with 47, 67, 77, and 86; three threes with 100; five with 86 and eight with 67.

So no progress, no improvement, and not even an attempt at five fives with 100, but I did get in a session of sorts which engaged the deadlifting muscles and in the long term that'll do me the world of good. And if we never had bad sessions, how would we appreciate the good ones?

At home, the weight feels much heavier than it does in the gym. I'm not sure if that's down to environment, preparation (they say the journey to the gym gets you in the right frame of mind) or maybe using small hole weights takes the bar slightly closer to the floor, meaning it has to be lifted further and from lower down. I'll train in the gym when I can, and in the front room when I have to!

Again, when I was straining, it was the lower back that was doing the straining, not the legs. I look on that as a good sign. If the bad leg was playing up, this journey might be over before it begins. I'm not going to jeopardise my health and wellbeing on something that is supposedly being done to enhance it. But it's only my back, and that's because the back is weak through years of mollycoddling. And what's weak can be strengthened, and worked on in isolation away from the compound movements.

It's going to be hard. I know that more now than I did two days ago. But if it was easy, everyone would be doing it.

There Goes The Plan...

The planned progression lasted half a workout! I did two sets of four with 92.5 today and they just weren't challenging enough, so I upped the weight to 100 for the last three sets of four and managed them ok.

Then I was persuaded to try a single with 120, which I managed without undue strain. A half-hearted attempt at 130 was always destined to fail. However I now find myself within 65 kilos of the qualifying standard and still improving...

Again, my bad leg feels great. It's my back I'm worried about. Hopefully the gradual progression I have planned will strengthen the back bit by bit. Thinking back only ten days, the first time I did 100 was a real grind on the back. Today, 100 was snappy with no undue pressure on the back.

The next deadlift session will be on Saturday. The plan is five sets of five with 100 kilos - unless that doesn't feel challenging enough! But lifting 100 kilos 25 times is the equivalent of moving more than two tons, so it should be challenging enough.

The Third Session

I've got one problem with this blog. What do I call each new post?

Yesterday (Saturday 19th January) was my third deadlifting session. I had started doing overhead presses the previous Saturday, and Saturdays will henceforth be my "alternative compounds" day. (A compound exercise is one which uses a number of different muscle groups. As opposed to an isolation arm curl, for example, which primarily uses one muscle group.)

I started the session with overheads, and then moved to deadlifting. After finding my maximum lift over the two previous sessions, I had a "proper" powerlifting session today. I eased my way up to 92.5 kilos (204 pounds) and did five sets of three reps, then finished off with a set of five on 80 kilos and a set of ten with 50.

The first two sets were really hard. Back-breakingly so, in fact. But then the technique got better and the fifth set was the best of the lot.

The reason for doing 92.5? Well I wanted to work with 80% - 85% of my 1RM (one rep max - the most I can lift) and 92.5 fits the bill in that respect. But it's also exactly half what I need to be able to lift to qualify for the British Championships and I thought that would be a good starting point on an emotional level as well.

The trick in powerlifting is slow and steady progression with good form. Lifters who keep going for 1RMs rarely progress, and lifters who abandon form in the quest for higher short term numbers invariably end up spending more time on the oesteopath's table than in the gym.

Another key to any success I've had is that I go into the gym knowing exactly what my intended programme for that session is. Those who do what they feel like doing never challenge themselves as much as those who find a way to get through what they have to do.

My deadlifting plan is simple. Next time I do five sets of four with 92.5, the time after that I do five sets of five.

Once I've achieved five fives, the weight will go up to 100 kilos and I'll start with five threes and work my way up to five fives with 100. Then I'll test my 1RM to see how much it has improved.

I'll calculate 85% of that new 1RM, and start doing five threes with that, gradually move it up to five fives, add 7.5 kilos, go back to five threes, work that up to five fives, and then test my 1RM again.

It's not rocket science. It's not even particularly about talent or genetics. It's about what you have between the ears and how committed you are to achieving your goals. For the proof of that, just look at this project! A guy with a bad knee, thigh, hip and back is trying to get a British Over 50s title and record. And if I get it, will it be because of "talent" and genetics? Or will it be because of desire, belief, hard goal-orientated work, and sheer bloody-mindedness? Talent takes you to the party, but doesn't take you to the top table.

I've just mapped out my next eight sessions, or more. Now all I've got to do is take the theory and put it into practice.

And the overhead presses? I might as well record them as well if I'm doing them in the same workout.

Last week, I did three sets of five with 50 kilos (ignoring warm-ups and down sets). The weight feels really heavy at the start position and I'm very inflexible in the wrists and shoulders, which doesn't help. Yesterday I did three sets of five with 52.5. Next Saturday, I'll try for three sets of five with 55. Once I can do three fives with a weight I'll move it up 2.5 kilos next session.

I have no particular target in mind for overheads. I don't intend to do them competitively. But long term, 100 would be nice! Principally, I want to get my shoulders stronger, hit my arms from a different angle, and hope that my bench strength improves.

My bench is going really well at the moment. I pressed 198 kilos off a 2.5 inch board last Monday - my best ever. What's a bench? What's a board? The subject of another post, sometime soon...

The Next Step

Tonight I decided to go into the gym and expose my deadlifting to public gaze, with those who know nothing about my condition no doubt wondering why a world champion bench presser should be straining away with so little weight on the bar.

Things went well. I started by warming up with a set of 5 reps with 40 kilos, and followed that with further sets of 5 with 50, 60 and 70. Then I did a set of 3 with 80 and 2 with 90. My first single was 100, which equalled my personal best. I followed that with 110 (242 pounds) for a new pb and then pleasantly surprised myself by managing 115 kilos and breaking through the 250 barrier.

115's not exactly earth-shattering within the larger scheme of things in the powerlifting world, but for a nearly-52 year old with my ailments to lift over 250 pounds off the floor in only his second ever session is something I am really chuffed with.

After my singles, I progressively reduced the weight of the bar and did a set of 3 with 90 and sets of 5 with 80, 70, 60, 50, 40.

The sets you do after finishing your top weights are called "down sets", and in my down sets tonight I focussed entirely on technique. If you instill good technique from day one, it'll stay with you in the hurly burly of competition, because the body doesn't know any other way to do it!

Any aspiring lifters reading this would be well advised to forget the weight on the bar and focus entirely on technique when they are starting out. Once you get the technique right, the weight will fly up and the chance of injury will be greatly reduced.

When I went into the gym tonight, I was 85 kilos away from the British qualifying standard. When I walked out, I was only 70 away, and I ain't finished improving yet...

Hello!

Hello. As you will see from my profile, I am a world age group champion and record holder in bench press.

Bench press is one of the three lifts that make up the sport of powerlifting. I came to the sport late in life, and do bench press only competitions because of a serious injury. In September 1980 I was involved in a serious car crash. Everyone tells me it should have been fatal, but somehow I survived.

The worst of several injuries was a compound double fracture to my right femur. In plain English, I broke my thigh in two places, and both breaks were exposed through the skin. Actually there wasn't any skin as such. I lost a good deal of muscle tissue from the outer and rear thigh and needed a major skin graft to cover the exposed area. All in all, I spent two months in traction, another four months in plaster, and the next two years after the plaster came off on crutches at first and then a stick. I could see the golf course from the hospital window and I was told the leg would never heal enough to get me round a golf course again. Eleven years later, I won the Western Isles Open.

I was inspired to take up lifting while watching the disabled powerlifting event at the Manchester Commonwealth Games. I started off in disabled lifting but, to cut a long story short, I wasn't disabled enough to meet the disability criteria. However through disabled lifting I discovered that I could do bench press only competitions as an able bodied lifter. The other lifts were out. I can not physically bend my right knee enough to do a legal squat, and the deadlift calls for a lot of thigh power and lower back strength. The accident had robbed me of half my right thigh and left the right leg bowed, which in turn threw my hip out and that had an effect on my lower back.

I now earn a living through motivational speaking and writing. My message, in a nutshell, is that winners are just dreamers who didn't quit. If you have a goal and you work hard enough, you can achieve it. My world titles show that you can adapt to disabilities and achieve great things.

People say that there's no such word as "can't". That's just glib nonsense, of course, however well meaning. If your left arm has been amputated, you can't win the world left-handed arm-wrestling championships. But you might win the right-handed title.

Only yesterday, I was reflecting on the message that I deliver in my talks. And something struck me. I can't squat. But I don't deadlift. There is a difference. Maybe I'll never be a deadlifting champion, maybe I'll never deadlift a lot, but that doesn't mean I can't deadlift. Maybe I'll injure my back. Well, maybe I will, maybe I won't. But I was just being a hypocrite if I didn't at least find out.

So I went into the back room and dug out a bar and some weights. I set it up to 47 kilos, and lifted it. Then 67 kilos. Success again. Then 77, then 82. Then I put 92 kilos on the bar just to see if I could manage a 200 pound+ lift. Up it went, and so did 100!

That was enough for one day. The leg held up just fine. The back was put under a lot of strain, but maybe I mollycoddle my back so much that it's weaker than it could be. Or maybe it'll give out in a couple of weeks and I'll have to abandon this madness. At least I'll find out, and I'll know one way or the other.

Deadlifting, for the uninitiated, consists of lifting a weighted bar off the floor until the knees are locked and the shoulders are retracted. Many consider it the oldest and purest test of strength. In the old days, he who lifted the heaviest weight off the ground was the strongest.

This morning, just out of interest, I checked on what the British qualifying standard and current record were for my age and weight. The British qualifying standard is 185 kilos. There is no current record holder. Chances are that if I can deadlift 185 by May, I'll get the British record and be on my way to the British title. Wonky leg and all.

So that's what this blog is all about. To record my progress in deadlift from ground zero to, hopefully, the British podium. And if I can do that with my wonky knee, thigh, hip and back at the age of 52, then it will surpass any of my other sporting achievements in one fell swoop and give more grist to the speaking mill. And if I fail? What's failure? It's just finding out that you can't do something as well as you want to. It's no big deal. The big deal is not even trying in case you fail. The big deal is the fear of failure. Lose that and a whole new world opens up for you.

Thankfully, I understand all the principles of powerlifting training, and I've been around the sport long enough to know about deadlifting techniques, so the knowledge is already there. I just need to apply the knowledge.

I'll be recording all my lifts in each session in the blog. That might be very boring for some non-powerlifters, but is an essential part of the blog. If the numbers are too boring, just skip through them if my thoughts on progress - or otherwise - are of more interest.

It could be a very short journey, or it could be a very long one. Unless I start the journey, I'll never know. Yesterday was the first small step.