The 2010 USAPL Florida State Championship
by Gary Gibson
The meet directors confirmed that I was not large enough to be considered an adult male. The first flight was composed of all the ladies and men in the 82.5 kg class and below, which meant that I got to lift with the women and the teenagers…the women and children. Ah well, if we were on a sinking ship, I would have made it out first!
It had been a very long drive from Geneva, Florida, to Fort Lauderdale. My sister and her boyfriend went along for the ride. Baby sis operated the camera at the meet.
Michael and Gail at 2010 USAPL FL State Meet
That’s her voice you hear the loudest because it’s closest to the camera’s mic.
I only had her record the squat and deadlift attempts because my bench is never really worth recording and I was planning on playing it very conservatively on the bench for this meet. I’d not made any clear progress on it since my last meet and just planned to match my top weight from last time. Turns out I should have gone a little heavier. The 105 kg/ 231 was really, really easy.
I played it conservatively with my squats and went 5 kilos under my gym best, mainly because I wanted my last squat to be pretty and not get me all bent over. Squatted 418 on my last attempt and made it look pretty good. I matched my gym best on my second deadlift attempt and then bested that by 2.5 kilos on the last. I’d wanted to get in at least one pull over 500 lbs, but I might have done even better if I’d made the second attempt lighter and then went a bit higher on the last. Oh well, I’m not complaining about the 506.
I didn’t quite hit my targets of a 200 kilo SQ and 240 kilo deadlift, but as usual I still enjoyed myself thoroughly. I love powerlifting meets. I love lifting in competition. I love training and competing more than anything else outside of black pornograhy on the internet.
A real highlight of this meet was getting to meet 70sBig member and ridiculously strong deadlifter AJ. AJ’s about my height and currently just a few pounds heavier, but he is much, much stronger and a lot more pleasant to be around than I usually am.
I also got to see a few records set. April Shumaker came down from Minnesota and set an American bench press record on her second attempt…then broke that on her third! “Little Supergrrrl” powerlifter Maura Shuttleworth came down with April and her family and lifted strong and looked ridiculously cute doing it.
There were quite a few men and women competitors in their seventies. My heart swelled. Barbell training is as essential to a complete life as a good dog and it’s good to see people taking it up even in their later years. One of women in the Masters 70-79 division was the mother of another competitor at the meet in the men’s Masters 50-59. Her 50s-something son deadlifted well over 600 lbs and benched something over 500. The meet results aren’t up yet, but I believe those were also records of some sort.
Aftermath
Oh, my aching quads. Immediately after the meet, my hamstrings were singing and now two days later, my quads are burning. Upper body is feeling no pain because I just didn’t push the bench hard at all since I’d fail to make any measurable bench progress in the last cycle. I just matched my best bench from the last meet and left plenty on the platform. I’ve already dived right into linear progression with a fairly heavy bench day precisely because I didn’t tax my bench at the meet. But I did tax my squat and deadlift so even a light SQ x5x3 with 335 was fairly hard today. I’m hoping lots of meat and milk will sort me out soon. I’m going to take a few days off of squats, too, then hit 355 and go from there next week.
Next time we catch up with each other, I hope to have broken the 200-lb barrier.
Till then.
Nice Job Gary! You are fucking strong at 179lbs…
Nice lifts Gary! Your skinny ass makes me goto the gym even when I”m sick as a dog.
Get that bench up!
Great lifts dude!
Keep up the good work and hit that adult male benchmark!
Great work Gary.
Awesome stuff Gary
Awesome. Out of curiousity, why the sumo-style deadlift?
good lifts there gary
Congrats Gary, that was amazing!
Nice job at the meet, Gary. Did you end up going 9 for 9? Not to put a damper on your performance, but why leave anything in the tank on your squat, bench, and DL. It”s a meet – GO for it! If your training was right and you peaked for the meet you should be able to do more than any of your gym lifts. Just gotta have confidence that the training did it”s job. That said, when you hit that 200lbs you are going to be scary strong. Can”t wait to see what you hit at your next meet!
(BTW, I have a meet in 3 weeks and hoping to hit good numbers, as well. I want raw meet PR”s on all my lifts!)
Congrats! Are you still planning on going to nationals? Which weight class are you considering? I”ve been considering sumo DL”s for awhile, might have to play with them soon and see how they feel.
I don”t think I even got one red light. I didn”t know I”d be so strong on bench because 225 paused was still feeling hard at the end of two cycles. DL was everything I had that day.
I use sumo because it”s consistently 25 lbs stronger than my conventional. Sumo has a shallower back angle and steeper knee angle and that means less stress on the back and more on the squatting muscles. This means less chance of back rounding at limit weights. Conventional is great for half my training precisely because it exposes the erectors to more stress, but for meets and limit weights I use sumo. I switch over to sumo in the second half of my cycles that lead up to meets so I get the groove down.
Good work Gary. Very impressive.
I see, Gary. BTW, how long were the puases on bench? Just curious as this meet I”m doing soon is the first USAPL meet I have done (I”ve done about 13 others in other feds, WABDL and APF mostly). I”ve heard their pauses are longer.
First off, great lifts Gary. I”m a light bastard too, and plan to compete in June.
Was wondering, I noticed the barbell tilting (our left, your right), in exactly the same way I do. Is there any imbalance to speak of that”s causing this?
Rygor, as long as the bar is motionless you”ll get a prompt press call, just make sure you have it stopped on your chest and it won”t be an issue. I had my first USAPL meet this weekend and the press calls weren”t any longer than any other federation I”ve competed in.
Damn fine job Gary. Hope to hear that you”ll be competing at 198 soon.
I think I might give sumo dl some attention too, since my squat is so close to my conventional dl.
So i think god hates me. I broke my left ankle on sat and am on crutches. Doc just said im out for 6 weeks (we will see about that!) WTF am i supposed to do in the gym now? Any suggestions on how i can avoid shrinkin into skeletor durin this time?
@JoeSmash,
i had a similar injury in November, although mine required surgery and a bunch of other shit.
Make sure you stay off of it for the whole 6 weeks, the ankle is a complicated joint, and if the bone doesn”t heal back completely flush you can lose a good deal of the range of motion you have in your opposite foot.
Your only option is upper body work, unfortunately, due to the use of the ankle in every compound lift we do.
Good luck brother.
Gary is one strong MOFO. Those lifts looked easy!
Gary,
Awesome work! How did you go about learning to sumo squat?
Cheers!
this is inspiring, keep on man.. im also trying to break 200 but im nowhere near where you”re at man. word is you”re at orlando barbell in oviedo? ive been trying to find a good gym in the area that wasn”t a commercial LA fitness where i can learn these lifts
Mike, I sprained my medial collateral ligament a couple years ago. Ended up with a huge, persistent effusion and lots of scar tissue. Inhibition and muscle wasting followed for two years after visits to largely useless specialist. Finally started draining the knee myself daily and pushing my squat. Effusion took nearly a year of draining to clear up permanently. My right leg had wasted away. It”s coming back, but it”s still a bit smaller and weaker than the left and this shows up when I get over 80% in the squat.