Mike Recap

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Mike’s goals for this meet were to go 9/9 and total at least 1550 (if all the lifts were good, he would have had 1552). But the theme of the day was “trouble” for Mike.



During the squat warm-ups, I noticed that Mike’s knees were sorta forward at the bottom of the squat. Lately he’s been using high bar and front squats on his volume day, and it seemed that he developed a bit of “forwardness” in his squat. I brought this up to him, but we decided not to try and cue it all that much. Instead, I was more concerned with cuing “speed” on the descent. At 2011 USAPL Raw Nationals, I thought Mike’s lack of speed on the descent limited him in his bounce, and it also facilitated the judges in red-lighting his third attempt in that meet. My emphasis on a fast descent would ensure he gets the full stretch-reflex out of his hamstrings and probably help him achieve some depth. He looked better during the final few warm-ups. Note that it’s possible he sits back better with heavier weight (anything over, say, 475); some lifters will look different with light stuff than heavy stuff.

Mike's third attempt squat -- it was red lighted on depth



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I can’t remember his opening squat well (since we don’t have video on it), but I remember that it wasn’t as fast as I would have liked — both on the descent and ascent. Our original plan was to go from 240/529 to 255/562, but he was slow, so I called for 252.5/555. He was red lighted on that attempt. Mike wanted 581, but I called for 260/573 and cued speed on the descent and to get deeper. He was deeper — deep as he could possibly go on that day — was red lighted again. Here is the official IPF/USAPL ruling:

Upon receiving the Chief Referee’s signal the lifter must bend the knees and lower the body until the top surface of the legs at the hip joint is lower than the top of the knees.

This essentially means that the “crease of the hip” is lower than “the top-most visible portion of the knee”. Very fair. Standing at a 45 degree angle from behind, I could see how it would be difficult to clear Mike on the second attempt. However, I thought he was good on the third attempt, though I remember thinking it was still close. In retrospect, I should have focused more on depth after the red-lighted second attempt. I should have cued “knees out” and “depth” instead of still focusing on speed with depth. I felt that if he went down fast that he’d actually hit depth and catch a bounce for a pretty easy squat, but he has learned to be a bit slow on the descent. But, Mike and I both agree that he physically could not have gotten any deeper on that rep.

Mike was pretty pissed off over missing two squats, and comically threatened to quit powerlifting and become a janitor. He was legitimately irritated, but we got focused back in to hit our bench numbers. One thing at a time in powerlifting.

Mike opened with a simple 140/308 opener, which is nice considering that his first meet in 2010 he only benched 281. We took 147.5/325, and then called for a solid 155/341 on the third attempt. It was a good call, because I think he would only have been able to hit 2.5kg above that (and it would have been a limit rep). Mike has made a good, consistent progress on bench and has even developed a good method of using ladder benches for the volume day (to be discussed in the new e-book).


At the start of deadlift, Mike’s goal was to stay ahead of Randy Cairns, a 47 year old lifter in the 120+ weight class. We didn’t realize it at first, but this became a battle for third place in the super heavy class. We took the standard easy opener on the platform at 250/550. Then we took 272.5/600 as the intermediary jump, but the lockout was, to me, uncomfortably slow. It wasn’t necessarily hard, but I would have loved to see Mike rip the shit out of that attempt. Meanwhile Cairns had hit that weight on his second attempt right before Mike. We called for 287.5/633, which made Cairns opt for 277.5/611 to stay ahead of Mike (assuming Mike hit the 287.5kg), but he missed it on his third attempt (hard to make multiple near maximal deadlifts). So we made a weight change to 290/639, a lift that would tie Mike and Randy with Mike winning with a lighter body weight.

I knew the lockout would be rough, so I cued a smooth lockout. The bar left the ground fast, passed the knees fast, and then slowed down so much as it neared lockout. Mike was literally only several inches from lockout when his knees shifted forward slightly, relieving tension and stalling the rep. Check the video. I’m upset that I didn’t cue a “fast lockout” since that could have helped, but from now on I will cue Mike to get his “hips through”. Had he pushed them through, possibly thinking about flexing the glutes, then he may have been able to struggle through that lockout. Randy ended up winning third place in the 120+, a position that Mike would have solidified with white lighted squats or a good third attempt deadlift. Congrats to Randy. It’s also interesting that Mike thought he would only place as high as fifth in either the 120 or 120+ class, and he ended up with a shot at a bronze medal in the 120+. You never know what can happen.

Mike finished with:
Squat – 240/529
Bench – 155/341
Deadlift – 272.5/600
Total 667.5/1470 (goal was 1550, will hit it at Nationals)

Mike has a few things to work on. The first item relates to the squat depth issue. I think we can move his stance in a little bit. If the stance is too wide, then it’s harder to get externally rotated at the hip (via shoving the knees out). External hip rotation prevents any impingement with the upper femur and the ASIS (hip bone), including the mass between those bones. More external rotation would allow for more hip flexion while maintaining good posture in the lower back. However, this is dependent on the mobility to actually shove the hips out. I think we can improve Mike’s mobility with specific lacrosse ball work on the external rotators (while in hip flexion) as well as opening up the anterior hip. Lastly, he can improve his ankle flexibility to allow a) a more acute dorsiflexion that will facilitate a deeper squat and b) the shin to have a better lateral angle coming off of the ankle joint whilst his hips aim to externally rotate. I’d also like him to start working on the speed of his heavier squats, but that might open up as a result of improved mobility.

As for his bench, we’ll keep working on it and improving it gradually. Mike bought a slingshot at the expo, so I think it will be a tool that will help his bench training. We’ll be learning about ways to program it within the context of our template and programming strategy. As for his deadlift, I think he should have an emphasis on rack pulls between now and nationals. He’s never really had an issue with getting the bar off the floor, but his long femurs create a disgustingly horrendous lever arm during lockouts. Rack pulls will allow him to handle heavy lockouts which will prevent what happened on his last deadlift. He’ll be back with a vengeance at nationals, I assure you. And probably in the 120 class.

19 thoughts on “Mike Recap”

  1. This post really seems to focus on the negative aspects of Mike’s meet, and I don’t like it. Mike did a fucking great job. Yeah, he got red lights on his squats. Yeah, he didn’t podium. But he was fucking straight serial killer mode out there. I was yelling at my laptop on that third deadlift. Literally yelling. Spot? NAH. Let’s give the man some credit. He showed a lot of fucking heart, and he’s going to absolutely demolish some shit at Nats. I’m glad he will be lifting on a different day than me, so I can scream my fucking head off at him. Some rack pulls and 650+ is around the corner. You did a great job on the 3rd DL call for him (and Riley). It was close.

    As far as the slingshot goes, I think he’s going to like it a lot. It’s a great overload device. Everyone in my gym has been borrowing mine and PRing left and right. I have most guys do 2-3 sets of max reps with it after their normal bench (with a slightly narrower grip). If it’s on volume day, I add 40-50 pounds and aim for ~8-10 reps/set. If it’s after intensity day, I keep the weight the same and shoot for rep PRs (in the same 8-10 range usually, depending on what their intensity day looks like). Every once in awhile we get greedy and go for 1-3RM, but it doesn’t seem to carryover much on anything except ego.

    Also, nationals isn’t going by international standards, they’re sticking to the same old stuff (so…110/125/125+).

    I don’t mean to put Mike’s experience in a negative light, but he and I both agree that it was disappointing that his squats were red lighted. Had one of them not been, he would have been awarded a bronze medal. I’ve told Mike this recently, but he does a fantastic job managing his training and making good decisions in his programming. The limitations in this meet are subtle, and he will have an 80 pound improvement just by improving these things. This meet looks worse than it is because Mike is simply a good lifter who makes good decisions. Six weeks out from a meet he knows exactly what he should hit on each attempt, and he’s right at least 97% of the time. He also has a good feel for other people’s programming and attempts; his advice helped solidify Chris and Alex’s attempts, so the credit really goes to him. I just am the one that finally pulled the trigger with submitting their attempts.

    I would expect Mike to train like Ricky Bruch and I’d be surprised if he didn’t squat 600 at nationals. Actually, I’d be surprised if he didn’t go 600/350/650. We will see.

    –Justin

  6. Oh, another thing that I didn’t mention. Did you hear the music at the beginning of the second squat attempt? It was the beginning to Van Halen’s “Jump”, but it was mega soft. You can see me throw my hands up in the air — I was looking at the table judges and said “the hell is this?”

  7. I heard the judge say Mikes from Jersey; where exactly? and where does he train? I live in the southern half of jersey and theres no black irons at all

  9. Hey Justin and Mike, I’d like to offer a slightly counter-intuitive thought on the DL lockout… Try and focus on the lumbar extension at the BOTTOM of the pull, maybe do some DL standing on blocks to work on his hamstring flexibility and lumbar extension off the floor. I personally feel/see lifters that have a slow lockout on a deadlift have this due to the lumbar being rounded, at the start and the glutes being fully contracted at the top of the pull, leaving the low back to contract to finish pulling the hips through. as much as rack pulls are fun, i don’t think they’ll help in his case.

    I think Mike Tuchscherer has a similar point of view.

    Also please take this with a grain of salt because i can’t see mikes back in profile on his DL attempts

  11. Pretty awesome to see how analytical Justin is as a coach and to take full responsibility for all the negatives as well as the positives. Kudos. Too many coaches steer clear of self analysis.

  13. This was a great write-up, fun to read and follow along with. I don’t really know much at all about powerlifting, but I think it’s accounts like this that can enlighten someone way more than any Wiki page ever could. It’s an interesting perspective from a coach and I hope there are more to come.

  15. good write up. thanks for the explanation on the the things you’re going to improve with Mike’s squat. I had a wide stance until AC noticed it in a video and helped me bring it in, my squats haven’t felt this great in a long time. Now i understand the technical side of it.

  16. I’d love to hear more about Mike’s bench press programming and just bench pressing in general on the site. When I compete in the 181 class my squat and DL are usually competitive but my bench just kills me. I find it ironic because I was like most guys when they first start lifting – benching all the time etc. and never squatting or deadlifting. Now, those are my decent lifts and my bench sucks.

  17. I have a friend who got re-lights on his squat at a recent USAPL meet. I watched the video (which was a lot easier to see than Mike’s) and my friend was *clearly* deep enough.

    That said, I watched this same friend squat in person recently and it actually is difficult to see his depth for reasons I don’t quite understand. Maybe because thighs are big and torso is short? Maybe, but it was hard to pinpoint his depth in real time. With the benefit of video I thought the calls at the meet were ridiculous, but having tried to judge his squat myself in person, I can see why a judge may have trouble.

    On the flip side, I’ve recently seen lots of complaints about USAPL judging being over the top on depth. Below parallel does not mean ass to the grass nor should it.

  18. PS Good write-up and meangene has a great point– very informative about PowerLifting on many levels.

    Glad to see the rapid fire posts about the Arnolds. Looking forward to hearing about the rest of the guys.

  19. Also curious as to where Mike trains if he is from New Jersey.

    @matthewjd I live in Lawrenceville and train at a Retrofitness (awful but cheap)

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