I would like to preface this with, I certainly know in the grand scheme of things I did not put up some monster total. I will leave that to you younger lifters. It's a lot of fun for me to watch these freaky strong men and women crushing insane numbers. Now I find myself like the vast majority of the lifting population. I set meaningful goals for myself and lift for personal satisfaction. That said, a pro total in the RPS is 1550 pounds and that was my goal.

For those who don't know my story, here's a quick recap. I was a full meet lifter before suffering two ruptured discs in my back 22 years ago. With that, I became a bench press only lifter and carved out a pretty successful run for myself. After a good decade or so I was able to start squatting using a safety squat bar and deadlift using a hex bar. I tried a number of times to squat and deadlift with regular bars, but my back would not allow it.

With the dream of making a full meet comeback one day, I just constantly kept rehabbing and building up the strength in my lower back for as long as I can remember. Then about four months ago I hooked up with Swede Burns and his 5th Set programming and took another full meet run. The rehab and sound programming held up and I was able to fulfill my bucket list wish of lifting in a full meet last weekend, but not without a lot of help along the way.

When I started the 5th Set with Swede I sent him some video of my lifts. We based my squat numbers off of a 500 lb squat, a 430 lb bench, and a 500 lb deadlift. The training numbers were relatively conservative which was a good thing. So if you are ever worried about using lower numbers, don’t be. AMRAP is the great equalizer, it can make anything feel heavy.

After the programming was set, I started training. A big difference between now and when I had competed in full meets 20 years ago, is that I do most of my training alone in my basement gym. My wife and I do train at the same time but are not training the same lifts. I also have my bench training partners of Drew and Karsten on Friday nights, but that doesn’t help with the lifts I haven’t been doing, the squat and the deadlift.

There was only so much muscle memory I could rely on, so I knew I had to make some accommodations if I wanted this comeback to be a success. I figured who better to go train with than some great friends and awesome coaches, Rhodes and Wendler. I think more than anything I needed reassurance from them that I wasn’t going to kill myself. The most important thing they told me was to stop being tentative and trust my form. That was key in the squat. I was moving way too slowly which is not optimum when squatting raw with wraps.

Not too long after that, I had the good fortune of heading out to EliteFTS to coach at Learn to Train X. I mean seriously, where better to get some watchful eyes on you. What I got most out of this was a bracing technique from Dave Tate. I wrote about it in another blog, but I’ll share it quickly. Basically, when you take your air in for a lift, take the biggest breath you can from your nose down into your belly. Then when you are about to lift, suck one more breath in through your mouth. I swear, in 35 years of lifting. I never felt that tight in my core.

Training back at home was going well enough until one day when I had an accident while squatting. I think I had just done 17 reps with around 390 when I went to rack the weight and missed one side. The weight came crashing down and pinned my hand between the bar and the safety rack. One of the fingers got cut up and smashed really good. I can't tell you whether I broke it or not, but I can tell you it still hurts while typing right now and that happened about six weeks ago.

Regardless of the extent of the injury, I was only a week or so out from starting my peaking cycle and I realized this lone wolf thing was not going to work out. The first thing I did was reach out to Mike Skiba, one of the owners of Hellbent Barbell. It’s an awesome gym located right in my town of Stratford, CT. Hellbent has everything a powerlifter would need. Seriously, the place has two monolifts, what more do you need to say. Anyway, Mike told me when they squatted and to come on down.

So I showed up unannounced on a squat day just looking to get on a mono by myself and ask for some spots if I needed them. Before I knew it I was squatting with the queen of Hellbent, Jenna Rowe. I mean this was the first time I was down there and they were running the mono for me, spotting, loading, and coaching me up. Mike quickly offered to wrap my knees and gave me some great tips for getting tighter in my upper back. Chris Della Fave, a badass multiply lifter was there and noticed I was getting forward in my squats. With Chris cueing me to sit back, Mike got me tight in my back, and the rest of the gym behind me, before I knew it I was squatting 600 lbs.

When it finally got to meet time, the people who have really helped me most are my wife Jessica and my friend and training partner Karsten. They have been enabling, I mean supporting me for a long time. They are my rocks come meet day. It also helps that Gene and Ame Rychlak of RPS Powerlifting put on amazing meets. It's much easier to hit your goals when you are at a well run meet with good equipment.

I opened with a 540 squat that was really easy. 580 was my second and I made it look harder than I should have. I took it for granted and was not tight in my back. My longtime friend and EliteFTS Teammate Dave Kirschen was there and saw that I wasn't driving my elbows under the bar. With that cue I powered up 600 lbs for my third squat. Had I kept my head in the game, I probably would have gone around 620.

My bench opener was 415 which was a joke. Unfortunately, after the lift, one spotter pulled the weight into the rack and the other didn't. That twist really torqued up my back. I went 450 for my second and 460 for a third. Both were good, but I was definitely hobbling off the platform.

Swede quickly ran and got his massage gun. He got me stretched out and started massaging away. I'll tell you, those massage guns are dope. I will definitely be getting one. I also fired down 800 mgs of ibuprofen. I never take NSAIDs, so when I do, they work. In short order, I was out to warm up the deadlift without too much pain.

vd swede

With running Swede's 5th Set, I chose the 7 day protocol where I was only working deadlift technique so there were no AMRAPs. In retrospect, I would have run the 9 day program to get more deadlift work in. Anyway, my deadlift was lackluster in my opinion, but I only needed a 490 to hit my pro total.

As my back was not 100% I took a 475 opener. The weight was light and went up easy, but I let the bar get in front of me. A bunch of the team were giving me cues, but none of them were really taking. 515 was next and that went up fine also, but it still didn't feel right. I like to lift with speed, so I have a tendency to just yank on the bar as hard as I can. Kirschen noticed that and gave me a cue that will change my deadlift for the rest of my life. He told me to "Bend, then break the bar." We called for 540 to give me a nice round 1600 total if I got it. With Dave's cue, it was the easiest deadlift of the day. I had always knew I was supposed to take the slack out of the bar, but until this advice, I never really felt it. Now, I'll never forget it.

There it is, I went nine for nine in my first full meet in over two decades. That was the plan. I didn't care if I left weight on the platform. Goal number one was to be able to walk away from the meet. I was able to do that with only a tweak to my back. Goal two was to have some fun and I had a blast. Goal three was the pro total, which I bested by 50 lbs. That's a damn good day!

So what did I learn? Even I who's been competing in powerlifting for 33 years needs some help. I'm really fortunate to have so many great people in my life. Luckily we participate in the greatest sport in the world where so many are willing to give of themselves.