Chris Riley Recap

Edit: I messed up the kilo/pound stuff on bench, thanks to Tsypkin for correction

Squat
277.5/611.78
290/639.33
300/661.38

Bench
157.5/347.2
165/363.8
170/374.8

Deadlift
270/595.24
295/650.36
320/705.47

790kg/1741.6 lbs Total

I met Chris when I moved to Texas in January of 2009. A few weeks earlier he had severely injured his shoulder in a weightlifting meet when attempting a jerk. He probably should have had surgery, and it was never properly diagnosed. Over the months we became friends, I rehabbed him back from his shoulder injury (starting with a 15 pound bar), and we became training partners. Chris weighed about 245 to 250, was squatting in the low 400s, deadlifting in the mid 400s, and literally was pressing and benching zero pounds due to the shoulder injury. There was even a three month period in 2009 where he couldn’t squat due to a hip injury.

I say all of this because he’s come a long way. People may look at him and just say, “Dude is a beast, a freak!” He had a nice base of strength, but he was pretty far off from a 600 squat or a 700 deadlift. He told me his goal was to deadlift 600×5, a hefty goal at the time for a guy pulling 445×5. Chris has trained hard every week of his life since I met him and has made consistent progress. To me, Chris embodies the 70’s Big attitude. It’s not that my other friends don’t have this attitude (they do) or that they haven’t made progress (they have), it’s just that Chris has been my closest friend during his journey in strength training and I’m proud as shit to be friends with him (the same goes for Mike, Alex, and Brent). One time his dad asked him, “What drives you to in powerlifting?” Chris said, “I just love it.” Remember that line.

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All right, enough sappy shit, let’s talk about the lifting.

Chris has been going through some major personal stuff that would normally knock someone completely out of a meet, but he held strong and powered on. Throughout the personal stuff, he got very sick for a two week period. It started with a lower immune system and probably turned it into something like the flu. There were several days where he wasn’t able to eat, and then the whole thing was capped off with laryngitis (his throat and voice were still hoarse, so if you talked to him, that’s why he sounded funny). As soon as possible he was hydrating and getting tons of protein and food in. Chris essentially had almost four weeks of crap training due to this illness, and we had to adjust everything within three weeks to account for it. It adjusted elongated our taper (which is typically short, given our programming method) and prevented any heavier work in those last few weeks.

On top of all of that, Chris’ shoulder had been bothering him when he benched heavy. He decided that he would convert over to a close grip and use it during the meet. It was his idea, and a good one because it just wasn’t worth it to risk a serious injury at this meet.

Chris warmed up well on the squat. His major cue is to get his “knees out”; it’s something Mike yells when he’s squatting heavy. It’s been something they’ve been working on since nationals, and it’s improved. I noticed that he was kind of slow out of the bottom on some of the lighter warm-ups, so I cued him to be “sharp” out of the bottom. It seemed to help quite a bit, but I was still worried that all of the illness was going to limit him. I still have his warm-ups written down, and he took 405, 475, 540, and 575, and opened with 277.5/611.78. This was really cool because it’s OVER what his heaviest squat was in his first meet (right at 600) in 2010. He hit the opener no big deal, so we went with our plan of hitting 290/639.33 on the second. Based on how the second looked, I was either going to pick 300/661.38 or 302.5/666. I ended up picking the former because it’s still a HUGE PR on the squat (he missed his third attempt in two meets in 2011). He hit the third attempt solidly and I chalk it up to the new programming change we made on his heavy squat days; multiple heavy sets on the squat intensity day (it’ll be in the new e-book).

That 300kg squat tied the heaviest in the super heavy weight class, and Chris did so weighing over 20kg less than Paul Thompkins, who also squatted 300kg. On a side note, Chris jammed his finger on my chest when we collide-hugged after the 300kg squat.

Unfortunately, since Chris was using a closer grip on bench, his bench numbers weren’t competitive to have a shot at winning the super heavy class; Paul opened at 192.5/423! Paul is two years older than Chris, so we’ll see where Chris is at after two more years of benching. The point is that Paul took 40kg lead after both lifters hit their third attempts. I was also following Levi Perillo’s lifting since his openers were competitive with Chris’ to win second place. Chris smoothed through his bench attempts, finishing with 170/374.8. Not terrible for a close grip bench.

After the bench, Chris had a 15kg lead on Levi for second place. Levi opened at 260/572 on deadlift, missed his second at 270, and waived his third. Chris was absolutely smoking his warm-ups and opened at a warm-up weight of 270/595.24, so he ensured his lead over Levi for second place. After Chris’ opener, Cathy Marksteiner said, “Justin…” and left her jaw hanging open before closing it with her hand. She was impressed with his speed. Meanwhile, Paul pulled 300kg on his second attempt to solidify an 810kg total over Chris’ 765kg that he would have after his second deadlift at 295/650.36. So first place was out of reach, and second place was secured. Some guys might be content with that.

Last year Chris said, “I want to pull 700 at the Arnold.” The choices close to a 700 are either 320/705.47, or 317.5/699.98. Well, the latter ain’t 700. When Chris walked off the platform after his easy second attempt at 295/650.36, he said, “I want 705.” 650 wasn’t as fast as I wanted it to be, so I put in the attempt at 315/694 knowing that I could change it. As Mike and I talked about what he should pull to get third place, I said, “You think I should give Chris 705?” He didn’t hesitate and said, “Yeah, he’s go it.” We both knew it would be hard, but were confident. Still, I was still nervous over him being sick. I walked up to Chris as he was sitting with his headphones on. I mouthed the words, “Do you want 700?” He shook his head yes with a crazy look in his eye. I said, “Okay. Right. Fucking. Now.” I don’t know why, but that became my phrase for Chris on this day.

Chris' family is always there to support him.

I went and changed his attempt. It was almost out of my hands. Meanwhile Alex hit his third attempt, and Mike barely missed his last. I was heartbroken for Mike, because it was such a close lift, but I knew I had to be “game on” for Chris. Usually I don’t pull the guys up out of the chair until they are 2 or 3 attempts out, but Chris was standing up with 6 attempts out. He was shaking. And pacing. We tightened his belt, and approached the curtain. They loaded his bar. Chris had tears in his eyes, his adrenaline was so high. My adrenaline spiked with each lifter. I had previously thought I could get more amped than when Alex was solemnly singing Johnny Cash in a deep voice before his last deadlift; it was like he was giving a death-filled sermon. But as I type this, I have a release of adrenaline thinking about Chris lifting. It’s always been that way in the three years I’ve known him.

A month out from the Arnold, I had a 45 minute phone conversation in which I told him how I wanted him to use imagery, a visualization technique to mentally prepare for the meet. Basically you relax the body and mind with deep breathing, and then visualize every sensory detail of the upcoming performance. I had him visualize the warm-up process all the way through each lift. He visualized squatting at least 660 and deadlifting 700 several times a week. He had been there before; now it was time to make it happen.

His bar was almost loaded, and I pulled one ear phone out and just repeated the phrase, “Right. Fucking. Now.” I always aim to amp the lifter up, then right as they are about to walk away, I give them their cues. Chris’ cues were “speed” and “smooth”.

To me, the bar speed was slow off the floor, but in retrospect I think my own adrenaline slowed the moment down. I yelled “smooth” over and over as the bar passed his knees. There was shaking in his posterior chain as it struggled to maintain the tension to extend the hip. But Chris didn’t let the bar stop and locked out seven hundred and five fucking pounds. Jubilation. I remember the day that Chris first deadlifted 600. Since that days he’s been “Chris 600” in my phone, and I’ve been waiting for the day he deadlifted 700 to change it to “Chris 700”. You bet your ass I changed it.

It was awesome to see Chris overcome the personal stuff, the sickness, and step up and want to go for that 705. As the announcer said, he did it just for the love of it. And that’s why he’s gonna keep getting better.