Gobbler Opener Results

Rant and Tip for November 14, 2011

Quote: “Put some weight on that bar” Liftoff spotter at Nationals

Good Morning, Well I did pretty well at the Gobbler Open. I bumped up my NYS Record for the 44-49 Masters Division and although I missed 325 on a technical the weight still went up. So in response to the lifter off guy at the USAPL Nationals, “I put some weight on the bar my friend.”

It was a well run meet and I want to say thanks to Hunter and Wayne Claypatch for doing a fine job. The venue was at the Best Western and was a small venue but that added to the excitement. Laura Delay and Tierney Wallace were on hand as judges and did a fine job. Even if they were watching my butt and foot to closely. LOL On my attempt at 325 lbs. at about ¾ through the lift you can see my right foot slide forward. I think that is when my butt came up. I did not notice it at the meet and trust the judges in their decision. The movement of my foot is very obvious. One of my goals this year was to bench twice my weight in a meet. I have achieved that in strength and now need to hit it with out the technical failures. I will get it next time. What a feeling though to complete the lift.

Lessons learned from this event and I have some positive and some negative. The first it my diet for the day of the meet. I have recently done a lot of reading on meet day diets. The first thing I did differently was to drink a ton of fluids. I down a lot of Gatorade the morning of the meet and only had 2 cups of coffee. Those of you that know me also know I like my coffee. Then for breakfast I did something way out of the norm for me. I had a waffle with syrup, some toast, a couple of scrambled eggs and only 2 sausage links all this about 3 hours before lifting. Now normally I would have had about 6 eggs, a lot of bacon and sausage and kept my carbs low. I would then have 2 protein bars with about 20 complex carbs in each bar. The reason for the change in diet is this. Proteins and Fat take longer to digest in the body. This is why a low carb high fat diet works so well. You are not hungry as often and you still have the fuel that your body needs. The only challenge with this on meet day is that the stomach like any other muscle needs blood to help digest all this food. Since the protein and fats take a longer time to digest the blood will not be available for you other muscles that will be need for the lifts. It seems to work very well for me and I had all the fuel I needed and the blood was able to fill the muscles sufficiently. Now for the negative, while I feel my lifts went well, I need to drive with my legs pressing down and through my hips all the way up my body. When I drive with my legs I need to also drive my butt down and transfer that energy into the lift. Now the other point I want to make here is something learned from a fellow lifter. He is a strong kid and as he continues he will be a force to reckon with. Your opening weight is very important and if you open to heavy it can destroy your confidence. My friend opened with a weight he has done before. However it was very heavy, when he missed it on his first attempt he totally lost hit psyche and it just destroyed him for the rest of the lifts. He has learned a valuable lesson and will open lighter next time.



Back to working out this week and I hope to be hitting some really big numbers. I will be working in a bench shirt for the next several weeks with raw days in the mix to try to maintain my raw strength. I think I will bench today but go light since I went heavy Saturday.

Keep tuned in tomorrow I will recap the rest of the event and give you a hint of things to come. I am still looking for sponsors for the World Meet in Plsen of the Czech Republic. If you know of anyone please let me know.

Have a great workout!

Tip: When planning your lifts try 20-pound jumps. If your goal were 340 for the day your first lift would be 300. Your second lift would be 320 and your third would be 340.