My Powerlifting progress thread

So I have another thread "my venture into powerlifting" where I was seeking some advice and help which I got from some great bros. That thread wasnt really a log. This thread isnt going to be a balls out log either but more of a progress thread when I feel I have something worth updating.
Dropped bodybuilding about 6-7 weeks ago and havent looked back. Looking to compete for the first time in the spring or early summer. I really want to get my total where I want it before I find a meet instead of forcing the issue of hitting numbers during a time limited training cycle. I'm looking to compete in the raw 242 class(weighing 250-252 right now). I might have to diet down some before hand which is fine. Not even remotely interested in trying to "make weight" before a competition. My Chiropractor is a pro powerlifter and he drops 18-20 lb in a week to make 181. Fuck that.
I'm a year removed from ACL surgery and really just getting up to full speed now from all the tissue atrophy post surgery. SO my squat has been suffering and lagging more than anything else.
I'm looking at hitting a goal of 600/405/600 for a 1605 total. respectable for a novice.

My old PR about a year pre surgery squatting was 455. At that time it was just a lift for fun. Stance too narrow, zero glute development, minimal ham and no hip strength. All quads. So seeing that I have spent the last 6 mos hammering my hips, glutes and hams I am excited to see what will happen when i get my quads up to speed. My squat wasnt moving up at all recently and I thought no way could it be my quads (they are huge) but when I took a week off squatting with a sore back and just did high volume heavy sled work and a nice drop set from 1035 to 135 then next week my squat shot up. So im only at 405 right now but I expect to get to 500 in the next 6 weeks tops. I'm alternating weeks with squatting. One week is heavy and low reps. The next week is rest pause with light weight and heavy high rep sled work. Worked up to 1,125 this past leg day and some stiff legs after rest pause squats and I am fucking SORE!

Deadlift is going very well. I started pulling sumo after two years of no deads. I am genetically not built properly in the hips to pull conventional without constantly hurting my back. Sumo is completely issue free. Pulled a new PR two weeks ago of 505. Very happy with that. Only 95 lb to my goal. Another big plus is zero grip issues. I alternate deads as well. Heavy low rep one week then high rep light weight speed reps (20 rep sets) the following week. Whether on dead or squat day I always throw in extremely wide stance DB sumo squats with my feet on risers. Heavy

bench press is the surprise. Coming along nicely. Using a 5/3/1 without the deload weeks. I listen to my body and If I feel a deload is needed I will take one. None has been needed thus far. Shooting for 405. Wont be going for a true max for another 4 weeks if I hit all my numbers on the way there.

I switched to powerlifting because BB'ing is so subjective, so political ect. In the words of Brandon Lilly, there is no subjective, no opinions, you lift the weight or you dont. Its finite, yes or no. You lift more, you win.

Good luck bro

I love PL'ing for all the reasons you mentioned. Besides I can actually see progress as the months go by and that alone is a great feeling. The bar doesn't lie. Either you lift it or you don't.

Beyond that I think PL'ing has actually helped me structurally as well. I had some nagging issues when I was BB'ing that have gone away because of PL'ing. With BB we work out to build individual muscles and in doing so "can" ignore the bigger picture... the body as a system. That can lead to imbalances and subsequently injuries. PL'ing you have to build up the weak points so the whole system can lift the weight. There has to be a balance of strength all around to be stronger and safer during the max lifts.

Good luck with it bro.

Look forward to reading this log!

I'll be watching brother man

I will be following this as I have the same total as a goal and run 5/3/1 also. Are you making better progress with fewer deload weeks? I have thought about doing this, I currently deload after 2 cycles (6 weeks) but often don't feel like I need to.

You know I'll be watching this one!

selfmademonster said:

I will be following this as I have the same total as a goal and run 5/3/1 also. Are you making better progress with fewer deload weeks? I have thought about doing this, I currently deload after 2 cycles (6 weeks) but often don't feel like I need to.

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I have not done any deload weeks thus far. I used my judgement and picked up the 5/3/1 at week 3 in phase one. I'm about to finish the final week in phase two this week but I am actually contemplating a deload this week as I am super sore from head to toe this week. We will see as chest day isnt supposed to be until tomorrow. If I hit this weeks numbers then my theoretical max for calculating purposes moves from 365 to 380 and I'll be going for a 95% x 1 in a few weeks if I continue to hit all my numbers. After that I will decide to extent my cycle (AAS, not training) another run through a full 5/3/1 or start cruising. I'm sure things will get heavy when I go from cycle to cruise but I plan on working things back at the very least to where my numbers finish on AAS by the time my 8 week cruise is over.

Sounds good, I'll be checking back in on you. Stay strong

Good luck BTC. I'm jelly as I wish I could dabble in the badass sport of competitive powerlifting but due to a couple herniated discs in my lower back it's not worth the risk of re-injury. Heavy deadlifts are my achilles heel. I look forward to watching your progress.

Thanks bro. Deadlifts were my problem forever. No matter how good they felt I ended up walking around lime a little old man for two weeks after.

Good luck bro. Ill be keeping up with your progress.
I'm pullin for ya BTC

I might push everything back a day or two for the end of this week. Supposed to be back tonight and chest tomorrow. I already decided no deads on back day...just not possible. I was going to pull heavy after squats this week. But mondays rest pause squats and especially the 1,100 + lb sled work has my body fucking fried. My legs ache from top to bottom, low back is sore (not bad sore), im still a little sore in the brachialis and brachioradialis from giving in to the deca strength on bi/tri day. I feel like a mess today. Took a balcofen and 800mg motrin for breakfast and that did zero for me lol.
My training days have already shifted 4 days from their original day due to needing an extra rest day here and there. Looks like they might shift another day or two this week.
Thats the only frustrating thing about powerlifting.....overlapping soreness and sometimes your body needs extra rest when your brain wants to train. What I wouldnt give for some tb500 right now.

In other news I think im going to have to buy a squat bar and leave it at my gym. Not like any of the pussies that go there will use a 60 lb 8 ft long super heavy knurled bar. I need to get my arms out wide while squatting. Keep tweaking this little spot on the left brachioradialis when I squat heavy with my arms in on a 7 ft bar.

Actually did hit back light tonight. Did deadlift with my sore ass hams too. Didnt bother my legs though. Work sets.was.just three triples with 405 basically so I can tell myself I deadlifted. I wont be pulling after squats. Going to call this week what it is and go for a bigger more productive dead day next week. Did 3 sets of pull downs and 3 fairly heavy sets of kroc rows and 3 sets of db shrugs with hold to failure 3 reps then speed shrug to failure. Not much really but got some nice back stimulation. Sometimes when you're really sore you just gotta take what you can get. But theres always a big week following a week like this.
Im feeling like I can hit chest tomorrow. Once I get through my standard warmup

135x20
135x12
185x8
225x8

Then ill see how I feel and decide if it will be a volume day or a heavy day going for my percentages. IIRC this week is 325 x 3.

So I was an asshole tonight and stepped outside my 5/3/1 numbers. Couldnt help it.

330x1
340x1
350x1

All PR's . As I said I have never benched heavy in my life and im only just converted to PL'ing so im real happy.

Squatted 455 tonight. Finally back to my old PR. But tonights squat was way lower than the last time I hit it. I plan on hitting 500 in the next 3-4 weeks.

Missed a 520 pull thursday night. Wasnt planning on a max effort pull so I'm not quite as pissed. But back day basically consisted of an hour of deads and nothing else. My 13 yr old pulled his PR of 225 again so that cheered me up.
I have been taking an antibiotic for 5 days or so for an infected, not abcessed tooth and antibiotics have never bothered me but this shit (just regular penicillin) is making me not be able to eat and not want to. When I tried the 520 lift I literally had eaten 6 times in the 48 hrs prior. Supposed to get the fucker fixed thursday so hopefully i can get back to some calories.

About to go bench press now. Supposed to be on my last 3 weeks of my 5/3/1, this being my 5 week calculating off a 380 max. Think I'm going to grab an anadrol and dissolve it under my tongue tonight for some extra omphf tonight.


On a side note I am looking to maybe compete in an IPA meet in march. We will see how cruising goes. I expect to lose a little strength but I expect to get it back as the cruise goes. What's interesting is that the IPA classifies a 242 raw pro total as 1607. My personal goal I wanted to hit before I competed was 1605. I have to compete in the pro division anyways to avoid drug testing which is done to every amateur lifter. But I might as well go for a pro total my first time out....no pressure lol. Maybe, maybe not....I have just under 4 mos to add 145# to my squat, 95# to my dead and 55# to my bench. Going for 370-375 in two weeks so hopefully only 30 lb to my bench.

Never went over 225 for chest day last night. Antibiotics have my joints feeling like shit. Only 4 more capsules to go. Everything felt like 1,000 lb last night. So I just did a bunch of rest/pause. Also did some painfully slow negatives along with additional rest/pause 1 inch off my chest. Then did some standing barbell OHP which surprisingly felt pretty good.

Getting some supplies and building 4" blocks so I can begin to do block pulls this week and get my deadlift moving upwards.

Chest day was shitty today. Was on my way to 325 for 3 and stopped at 300 x 1. Left brachialis is aggravated from squatting. I am so fucking tired of squatting with a fucking 7' bar. So right after xmas I will be looking for a used texas squat bar or mastodon so I can get my goddamn arms outside the rack pins.
I got my 4" blocks built and will be using them tomorrow for deads. Will be pulling off them for 3 weeks then off 2" blocks for 2-3 weeks then finding a new 1RM then repeating the process.
I have decided my first meet will be April 25th. So I will be cruising for 8-9 weeks then running a 12 week AAS and training cycle. AAS cycle will end right at the meet. Test/Deca with NPP and halo added in at the end. Or at least that's the plan right now.
After heavy deads tomorrow and going into my cruise I will de load a bit for apx two weeks because everything is getting pretty tight muscle wise. Time for some deep tissue.

Some antibiotics work by interfering with anabolism and protein synthesis. Idk if it's the case with yours or if that has a huge difference on recovery and just being sick can fuck with you, but if I'm taking antibiotics I just do bare minimums if I feel good enough to keep myself from being so sore when I come back. Cipro for instance didn't affect me even though I was on it a month. Doxycycline made lifting my normal routine impossible. That shit is the devil

Damgar said:

Some antibiotics work by interfering with anabolism and protein synthesis. Idk if it's the case with yours or if that has a huge difference on recovery and just being sick can fuck with you, but if I'm taking antibiotics I just do bare minimums if I feel good enough to keep myself from being so sore when I come back. Cipro for instance didn't affect me even though I was on it a month. Doxycycline made lifting my normal routine impossible. That shit is the devil

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It was just regular amoxicillin for an infected (not abcess) tooth. Nothing super strong. When my wife's training took a nose dive while on a different antibiotic I did some research and found out that many antibiotics metabolites (or something I dunno wtf im talking about) can collect and settle in the tendons and make training really suck due to connective tissue pain. Funny thing is It didnt happen til the last day of antibiotics. Its fine now though.

Amoxicillin fucked me up months ago. It had a second ingredient added to it (can't remember the name) but that shit wound up killing off so much good bacteria I wound up on three more courses of antibiotics over 4 months for months. I've taken amoxicillin dozens of times with no side effects, but that last time it tore me up for months.

BTC said:

Chest day was shitty today. Was on my way to 325 for 3 and stopped at 300 x 1. Left brachialis is aggravated from squatting. I am so fucking tired of squatting with a fucking 7' bar. So right after xmas I will be looking for a used texas squat bar or mastodon so I can get my goddamn arms outside the rack pins.
I got my 4" blocks built and will be using them tomorrow for deads. Will be pulling off them for 3 weeks then off 2" blocks for 2-3 weeks then finding a new 1RM then repeating the process.
I have decided my first meet will be April 25th. So I will be cruising for 8-9 weeks then running a 12 week AAS and training cycle. AAS cycle will end right at the meet. Test/Deca with NPP and halo added in at the end. Or at least that's the plan right now.
After heavy deads tomorrow and going into my cruise I will de load a bit for apx two weeks because everything is getting pretty tight muscle wise. Time for some deep tissue.

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To further elaborate if my squat isnt at least 550 (meaning the dead would need to be 650 to off set) then I will likely enter Ironman instead of full power. My squat is coming along but I tweaked my upper outer calf connective tissue a few weeks ago. That combined with lagging quad strength still a year post acl surgery makes me skeptical of putting 145 lb on my squat even in 5 mos. Not that my quads are weak, they have actually grown an inch in the last two months from lifting heavy... but they are certainly lagging strength wise compared to the posterior chain. Posterior chain is getting tight from doing more work and pulling on my lower back.

Damgar said:

Amoxicillin fucked me up months ago. It had a second ingredient added to it (can't remember the name) but that shit wound up killing off so much good bacteria I wound up on three more courses of antibiotics over 4 months for months. I've taken amoxicillin dozens of times with no side effects, but that last time it tore me up for months.

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You know I have taken it many times in my life and this time felt different too.

Make sure you eat some good quality greek yogurt or take probiotics when you get done. It helps with restoring the good bacteria. Also try not to stir the yogurt somehow it effects the effectiveness of the culture of bacteria in yogurt.

I'm gonna go hit the probiotics in the fridge. Yogurt would make me puke.

BTC said:

I'm gonna go hit the probiotics in the fridge. Yogurt would make me puke.

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Try Kefir, it's not as thick but it's amazing.

bushmaster said:

Try Kefir, it's not as thick but it's amazing.

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Never heard of it. Yogurt isn't a texture thing for me it's that sour tang it has. Instant gag reflex.

Ya then you deffinately wouldnt like greek yogurt kinda has a sour cream taste.