I recently lifted in the 2019 USPA National Championships where I totaled 1769 in wraps at 198 via a 655 squat, 451 bench and 661 deadlift. I'll be lifting at an APF meet in Chicago this December to wrap up the year.
1. Squat - SS Yoke to 385 x 3 x 3
2. Deadlift - 495 x 2, 525 x 2
3. Good Morning - 245 x 4 x 5
4. Goblet Squat - TKE style, 25lb and light bands, 3 x 15
5. Ab wheel roll out - 5 x 10
Not an awesome session to be honest. Thursday and Friday were long days and my back was pretty beat up from sleeping in a less than awesome bed. Not terrible, but 525 was more effort than I wanted it to be.
Train Your Ass Off
Since I was in town and Dave was having a group out for this mini-seminar/training session, I asked if he needed an extra hand. Selfishly I did this so I could attend and be around while he worked with his group! I saw it as a chance to help out a little and probably learn a lot.
The group was awesome. 4 very good lifters who were ready to work hard and ready to listen and learn. I was impressed with their teach-ability and willingness to put in the work! Dave worked them all hard, making adjustments based on level of conditioning, but taking each person very close to their limit.
I had a couple big takeaways that I need to remember in my own training.
1. RPE 10 is super hard. It is easy to say what RPE 10 is on a max effort single, its an absolute max. Getting a 9 or 10 right when taking a single is pretty easy. Getting RPE right on accessory work is way harder. Have you ever taken your accessory work up to failure and really experienced all out effort? I haven't. Not for a long time at least. There is value in knowing what this feels like, so you can set your RPE scale and be able to know what a "10" really is.
Do I actually need to train harder? Maybe, maybe not. But I do know that what I call an "8" probably isn't an 8.
2. I probably don't vary my accessory work enough and could benefit from making changes a little more often. But those changes don't have to be entirely different movements! Changing the loading pattern or the approach to volume is probably enough variability. Using some concepts that most would think of as "bodybuilding" like rest-pauses, drop sets, strip sets (both up and down) would let me use the same movement for a long time but add enough variation to keep getting value out of it.
3. One hard set might be better than a few half assed ones. I'm guilty of this all the time. 5x10 ends up lazy. 1 hard strip set might be a better option. Better training effect, more engaged and getting it done faster too.
