Frank: Meet Thoughts

Here are some thoughts from the last meet. I will fill this in with more details as they occur to me.

General

• Food/Water: I think the biggest culprit for my underperformance was having to cut weight. I never perform well if I'm hungry the day or two before lifting, and I didn't eat or drink anything for the 12 hours before weigh-in. I think Nathan's suggestion to not bother cutting for at least the next few meets is a good one. I need to focus on just getting stronger for the long run, though I do think I have a shot at some national records for my deadlift, depending on the federation. That can wait, of course.
• Sleep: I got to bed at 9 because I had to wake up at 5:30 in order to meet up with Andrey but didn't actually manage to fall asleep until well after 1. Lack of sleep makes me tight and makes it harder to focus. Part of this was because I just psyched myself out. I really wanted that 1400 at 181.
• Conditioning: I was having trouble recovering between each attempt at the meet. I felt noticeably short of breath on my second and third attempts, which probably reduced the amount of force I could really put into the lifts. Part of this might have been the weight cutting, but a little more conditioning can't hurt. Steve Brown, another lifter at the meet, suggested one or two "play days" a week where I just push a Prowler, pull ropes, and generally run around. These should take place after heavy squat or deadlift days, and as long as I don't exhaust myself, I think they can help with both conditioning and recovery. This is also something that I think Shanker had mentioned before. Steve, by the way, goes something like 420/280/500 at 165 and 60+ years old. Yes, he is triple your age and still stronger (and lighter) than most of you...

Meet-Specific

• Mobility: I had about 15 minutes between the start of squat warmups and my opener. That wasn't enough time to do my mobility drills and all my warmup sets, so I skipped mobility. I was visibly tight on all my attempts, and this plus lack of sleep were mostly to blame. Since this was a local meet, I was told that I could ask to slow down the first lift, which I will do next time. For a national-level meet, I will just have to be smarter about warmups.
  

Lift-Specific

• Squat: I rushed the setup on the second lift (and the first, but it was still light enough to get). I need to make sure my chest stays up for the entire lift. Andrey says this is a back problem. I think it could be an entire posterior chain problem (back, glutes, hamstrings).I'll consult with him more on this.
  
• Bench: Failure at lockout means more tricep and lockout work. I need to find a way to do this without beating up my elbow.
  
• Deadlift: Looking at the video, my hips actually shoot up and my body rocks forward as I initiate the pull. This bad positioning at the start made it impossible for me to finish.

Training

• TBD