Europa Battle of Champions 2011

First off, Europa was a good venue and Gene Rychlak was a great meet director.
Powerlifting meets are LONG days, squat then wait a few hours, bench press..few more hours and then deadlift. At the end of the day I understood why gym records are just that gym records and meet records are the real deal. Well Pete Skip and I did really well in our first PL meet. We had little Joe as our coach and he did a great job of timing our warm-ups, coaching during the lifts, managing the Tork, etc.


Back Squat:
Pete 425,440,455
Eric 305,315,330

Bench Press:
Pete 330, 350, 385miss
Eric 205, 215, 225miss

Deadlift:
Pete 405, 450, 470
Eric 330, 360, 375

Personal Records:
Pete 455 squat and 470 deadlift
Eric 330 squat and 375 deadlift





Two first places, Pete was 1st place in Am Raw 275lbs and I was 1st place in Am Raw Police 220lbs

Iron Evolution: Phase 5

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/iron_evolution_phase_5

He asked me if I wanted to be a weightlifter or an exerciser

Very very good article



http://startingstrength.com/articles/training_perspective_gillian.pdf

New Rip Article

"Training is physical activity done with a longer-term goal in mind, the constituent workouts of which are specifically designed to produce that goal. If a program of physical activity isn't designed to get you stronger or faster or better conditioned by producing a specific stress to which a specific desirable adaptation can occur, you don't get to call it training. It's just exercise. For most people, exercise is perfectly adequate – it's certainly better than sitting on your ass channel-surfing.

But for athletes, an improvement in strength provides more improvement in performance than any other adaptation, especially if the athlete isn't already very strong. Strength is the basis of athletic ability. If you're a good athlete, you're stronger than a "less-good" athlete at the same level of skill. So if you want to be a better athlete, get stronger.". _Rippetoe


http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/the_biggest_training_fallacy_of_all

Deadlift Day at the Refuge

Did some high band Deadlifts at the Refuge, this was my first time using bands to deadlift. The idea is to give you a little help off the ground and then from mid-shin to lock-out its actual weight.

My current PR is ~ 365 and today I did three singles with 405lbs, 1 x 425lbs and just missed two attempts with 435lbs. Doing the deadlifts with the bands, showed me a couple of things, 1) my grip is strong enough to pull over 420lbs and I can lock-out over 420lbs. Going for a 375lbs PR means I just need to get it off the ground!!!