Missed lifts, what do you do ? Dwell on it ? Learn from it? Analyze it?
Sometimes we set too many goals for one meet and loose focus on why we are really there.
I mean in all honesty, is going 9 for 9 that important each and every meet ? To some it may be and my last 2 meets I went 9 for 9 but this time 6 for 9 and I'm happy I did, here is why!
Missed lifts can be heartbreaking or they can be a gift. Even though my missed lifts caused me to be 5 lbs short of one of my goals I’m still going to treat them as a “Gift” !
Could have, should have, would have, ya ya, we all say it and think it, but it is what it is, and at the end of the day it won’t change anything. The outcome is still the same, 3 red lights.
Squats!
My 3rd squat attempt of 370 Lbs, I have never had more than 355 Lbs on my back prior to this attempt so I had no idea what to expect or how it would feel. That is what a P.R. is supposed to be like right?
The unrack went surprisingly well, although I do look a bit shaky but I've seen worse. I was ready, I was focused and the weight did not feel too heavy. So where did I go wrong, well let’s take a look.
Watching my video over and over again I can see I may have gone a bit deeper than I needed too. I had trouble getting out of the hole so this tells me a few things.
- I need to work on explosiveness out of the hole, pause squats, box squats, chains.
- I need to get stronger.
- I need to push harder at keeping my knees out.
- I can definitely hit a 370 Lb squat
Considering 2 years ago my Doctor told me my knee is wore out never to squat again I will take 355 Lbs as a gift !
Deadlifts
My favourite of the three and definitely the most improved for me. Momma gave me big legs for a reason I guess, but it just took me 52 years to figure out why I always hated my legs. Not anymore, strong is the new skinny and I love watching my legs grow stronger by the day.
I'm gonna throw this in now and I can tell you the GHR is the best most valuable piece of equipment in our gym right now. My hamstrings and glutes have grown so much stronger using this machine.
My 3rd attempt Deadlift, 450 Lbs, are you some kinda crazy I keep telling myself, with rods and bolts in my back, but nope, my opener was 400 Lbs, second attempt 440 Lbs (20 Lb P.R.) and all I needed was 5 little Lbs to get my 1,000 lb total.
Ok, 5 little Lbs but I had to pull 450 Lbs to get it, looking back I made poor decisions on my deadlift attempts but again, could have, should have, would have, same result 3 red lights.
995 Lb total in 6 lifts so where did I go wrong? Let's take a look at my 450 Lb deadlift attempt.
- If I can get it off the floor to just below my knees it could have been a simple I'm too tired, it was hot, I pulled and pushed a lot more weight in the day than ever before.
- I can see my back was not in a really solid position and the bar came out too far from my body.
- My legs were not as close together as I should have had them on this heavy an attempt, again I was tired and wanted it so bad.
- I'm definitely strong enough to pull 450 Lbs, I need to work on heavy rack pulls to get that weakness above the knee.
I will have to say that this meet was by far the best improvement in technique and strength and I still have lots of room to grow and improve. I will get that 1,000 Lb total, maybe not this year but I will get it. Who knows perhaps one of my long terms goals will be a 500 Lb deadlift ! It was just over 7 months ago I joined the 400 Lb Club !
I welcome any comments on my missed lifts, I want to improve, I want to be better and succeed and use these as a gift to learn from, to grow from and to Live, Learn, Pass On.
If you didn't see my RPS Meet Wrap up, here is the link ! Thank you!
#elitefts #strongher #driven #livelearnpasson