USAPL Texas State 2011

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Still adding links below to the recaps
Some of the 70’s Big crew competed in the USAPL Texas State Meet again this year. Mike competed at USAPL Military Nationals a couple of weeks before, so he handled Brent, Alex (his brother), and Chris at the meet. He wanted to do a write up for each portion, and they are linked below.

The Ride Down
The ride from Wichita Falls to San Antonio was arguably eventful, but more so because of the lack of organization. Mike tells an amusing story of the ride.

Brent
Brent ended squatting with a meet PR (and matching a gym PR) of 210kg (463 lbs) weighing around 162. He missed his third bench, and hit all three deadlifts finishing at 200kg (441 lbs) on the last one (he was unimpressed). I want to point out that the dickhead did clean and jerks two days before the meet at 265 pounds…with iron plates. He clearly didn’t make any attempt to peak for this meet.


Alex
This was Alex’s first meet, and came out 8/9 with a 242.5kg (533 lbs) squat, an easy 165kg (363 lbs) bench, and an easy 227.5kg (500 lbs) deadlift (Mike probably held him back, wanting him to pull 500 for the first time).


Chris
Chris had an awesome meet. We’ve talked a lot on tweaking his program and peaking his training for this meet, and we also talked extensively on what attempts to make on each lift. The only hiccup was missing the third attempt bench by 2.5kg because he barely missed it, but that is more so attributed to the not-great meet conditions (they had 90 lifters and one platform, so Alex and Chris didn’t start lifting until late afternoon and finished close to 9 at night). Overall, I think we did a very good job of implementing an advanced Texas Method style program, tapered it well, and chose the attempts well.

He went 8/9, squatted an overall PR of 292.5kg (644 lbs), missed his last bench but meet PR’d with 165kg (363 lbs) on the second attempt, and deadlifted an overall PR of 300kg (661 lbs). All raw and drug-free of course. He then destroyed several villages.


Good job to Mike for handling the three lifters — it’s never an easy thing. Mike was apparently more tired after doing that then when he actually lifts. I’ll make sure and be there for all of them at nationals later this year. Oh, and thanks to Mike for the write ups and I think he and Alex made the vids.

27 thoughts on “USAPL Texas State 2011”

  1. amazing job, everybody.

    PS – did Chris have a little more left in that final DL? It went up smoothhhh

    Definitely had more, but he missed that devastating 650 last year and we didn’t want a repeat.

    –Justin

  2. Great work by all. Really good lifting. Congrats especially to Brent for setting the state record. It must feel great to know you’re the strongest squatter in your class in the history of Texas competitive squatting.

  4. Good job all around.

    I have a question or two for Justin or anyone else who cares to comment. I know practical programming isn’t intended for oly lifters, but how useful of a tool is it for learning to program for ones self in general?

    I know it is possible to compete in both olylifting and powerlifting as Brent Kim has demonstrated, but how does this effect someones programming? I have my first oly meet May 7th in New Jersey but would also like to compete in a powerlifting meet in July. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

    You can’t train for both optimally, so keep getting strong, do the lifts, get ready for the first meet. Then transition into the second. See Brent’s comment below. Personally, I think it’s interesting to see people wanting to do both. A jack of all trades kind of thing. Bill Starr used to do both.

    –Justin

  11. great work everyone. Looks like the 70s big crew all know how to squat, most impressive lift by all of you in my opinion.

    Congrats to Chris on the big pull too, looks like he’s back on track for 700 in short time (1 year or less??)

    I hope to see everyone at Raw Nats again this year.

  12. AJ,

    i can’t tell you how fucking embarrassing it is to bench fucking 270 and pull 440 at a powerlifting meet

    i def wanted to kill myself that day

    the other dude at 165 raw pulled 501 on his first attempt like it was a warm up

    fffffffffffffffml

    gonna hit deads, RDLs, low-back and hamstring work like a motherfucker until August

    it’s just too bad USAPL drug tests, otherwise i’d have a constant IV of test going all day everyday

  14. Good Lord, that looked like there was a 5-second pause for the “press” command on those bench attempts.

    There’s no way I could move anywhere near the weight those guys did with (who am I kidding? even without) that kind of delay. Great job, fellas.

  15. Ah Brent Kim, the great Brent Kim asking for bench advice.

    I’m by no means a good bencher, but I once was told that for somebody with long limbs I’m okay at it.

    Bench assistance for raw benching:
    #1) Bench, alot, keep benching, I read Sheiko’s manual and he said if you want to get better at benching you have to bench. He has his lifters doing 4-6 bench sessions/week (sometimes two in one day)
    #2) Overhead press, odds are you miss the lift somewhere closer to the chest, shoulders play are important here, so do some overhead pressing, but I’d imagine since you train with Justin you already do plenty of that.
    Theres really no need to do a ton of tricep work, unless you are somehow a raw bencher missing at lockout, which is extremely rare.

    Mostly, you just have to bench a lot to get good at benching, also work on making your setup as tight as it can possibly be, really drive your (enormous) traps into the bench and set up with as big of an arch as you can get.

    I’ll meet you all at Nationals 1700+@220

    Good shit, NP.

    –Justin

  16. Oh, theres more questions I can answer here actually:

    WCM025, the olympic meet on May 7th is the ECG Classic in Moorestown, NJ, its right off Exit 4 on the Turnpike.

    The powerlifting meet hes referring to is probably usapl nj states, July 22-23 in Atlantic City.

  17. Justin, thanks for your advice. I don’t train optimally anyway.

    @Brent Kim, already don’t give a shit. Just need ways to display my super human strength and impress ladies.

    @WCM025, the meet is in moorestown:
    http://www.eastcoastgold.org/
    They have a novice meet on sunday which I am planning on entering. You should do it bro. This will be my first meet, if its yours, we can get our cherries popped together.

  21. Kpoff, I am not justin, but I can comment on how useful PP would be…very. Nolanpower sometimes dabbled in O lifting (120/150 @105), and he used a Texas Method type program to make it happen. TM is best explained in practical programming, as PP gives the context for the whole thing.

    For more info on it, check out Pendlay’s forum as he has some comments and an article on competing in both.

    Everyone who wants to write program should buy/borrow PP:ST. shoot me an email if you have more questions or want a sample template phil@southbaltimorecf.com

    In my opinion PP is a very good source, but it doesn’t do a swell job of how to get the most out of TM. I’ll keep you updated on my e-book on the topic. TM will only apply to something like the squat as an assistance to an Oly program since a “TM squat” program will not leave a lot left for quality Oly (I tried).

    –Justin

  23. I’m curious, why are most of the guys squatting more than they deadlift? I always thought one’s deadlift is usually more than one’s squat, but then again I’m a 90’s small child.

    Brent didn’t taper for the meet. Alex was held back because it was his first meet. Alex squatted throughout his collegiate football career but didn’t do a whole lot of deads, or at least do them very heavy. I’m confident he’ll be a pulling machine within six months, and especially a year.

    Mike Pulled 606 with a 551 squat. Chris pulled 661 with a 644 squat. They are all raw.

    Geared lifters in similar rankings will squat more than they pull cause they are wearing a suit for squat. The suit doesn’t aid the deadlift much, even though some people will sumo to try and use the suit more.

    –Justin

  26. NolanPower, THANKS!!!

    Im actually within driving distance of both AC and Moorestown. More Mooresetown, actually. About 20-30 minutes from there.

    It would be awesome to go and meet up with fellow 70sbig’gers and support you guys.

    let me know!!

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