This event took place weekend of July 18th 2014 in Las Vegas. I was super stoked to have qualified to compete at this level. The whole experience was not perfect or close to it for me. My coach was not able to travel at the last minute so it was just my training partner and I. We did, however, hook up with an excellent coach and fellow powerlifter named Matthew Barba from Brownsville TX. I couldn’t have pulled through some of the lifts without his coaching. Overall, I was not happy with my performance. My goal was qualify for Worlds but I was about 30# short. I’ll try again in September at the Capitol of Tx Open in Austin. I did place 2nd and brought home a nice big silver medal, not bad for my 3rd meet 🙂 These were the only pics I took from the event. Unfortunately, I did not get any video or pics of my lifts 😦
I had a great time at this competition! I felt more nervous but more confident going into my 2nd meet. I’d like to acknowledge my family & friends, my training gym & lifting team, Metroflex Austin & Raw Talent Athletics, and sponsors, The Silva Method & All CenTex, for their support in my journey to the 2014 USPA National Competition in Las Vegas on July 19th 2014!
Goal for this meet:
Squat 210#, 220# & 230# – I got the weight up on all 3 but I double dipped on my third lift so the lift was bad.
Bench Press 125#, 135# 150# – 2nd and 3rd lift failed. I don’t know what was with me on the bench because I’ve pressed 135#, 145# & 155# many times in the gym. Bad day to be “off”.
Deadlift 225#, 245# 260# – all 3 lifts were good!
Even though I didn’t perform as well as I had hoped, it’s pretty cool to see my name as the record holder for my weight class! Glad to get my first meet out of the way! Now I’ve got to make it look pretty and hang on to that spot!
Setting the new record in June at the Jill Mills Alamo Classic!!!
Ahhh….sigh…..what a day! I woke up refreshed after my second night in a row sleeping 8-9hrs. I had an excellent 2hour training session in my garage gym.
This is what I did:
Pin Presses – I warmed up up to my workset which were singles of 130 3 times, just 5lbs shy of my body weight. I hadn’t pressed that much weight before so that’s why I laughed after my first set. To me, the bar went up very, very, very slowly….LOL!
I moved onto bench presses working with 3 different hand placements. I worked with 75lbs and did 3 reps at 3 different hand grips for 3 sets. This was really cool, I’ll probably add a little more weight next time.
Next were Bent-Over Rows. I did 5 sets of 3 at 120#. Could probably do a little more weight next time or add more reps.
My fourth exercise was the Upright Rows. I had to play with my hand placement because I kept feeling a nerve get pinched during the movement. I need an adjustment, I miss my chiropractor! I did 5 sets of 3 at 75#, could add more reps next time, maybe do a 5×5.
Next I did Lat Pull Downs with a close grip, one of my favorite back exercises! Today I did 5 sets of 3 at 100#.
Lastly, I did a little core. I wanted to go heavy and do just a few reps but I was a little fired up so I kept going. I used a 25# plate on my first set of 25, actually the video showed me I did 24, then I dropped the weight to a 10# plate for the last 2 sets of 25. It was tough on my shoulders, it burned so good.
On another note, I had my time to speak during “citizen communication” time at the Owners Association meeting tonight about proposing they implement an affordable rate for Fitness Instructors to host boot camps in our neighborhood parks. I only got just a few minutes but I did well getting my points across. They at least did not say no, instead they want to have a follow up meeting after discussing this topic amongst themselves…..fingers are crossed!
