Total Fitness Personal Trainer

I am currently in the final stretch of preparation of my first powerlifting competition on 28th Feb 2009.

I will be aiming to compete in the 82.5kg category, and at 3 weeks out im there or there abouts being 82.8kg this morning.

The competition is a RAW competition, which means lifting in a weight belt only, so no bench shirts, squat suits or knee wraps.

The format for the competition is 3 attempts at the Squat, Bench Press and Deadlift, aiming to lift as much as possible, for a single rep, while ensuring the lift is considered to be legal.

That means squatting below parallel, benching with a pause on the chest until the ref signals to lift, and deadlifting in a smooth single movement with no hitching.

Last week I performed my last heavy dead lift session, and worked up to 190kg for 2 sets of 2 reps, followed by rack pulls from knee height, culminating in a new PB of 210kg for 2 reps.

On Saturday 7th February I performed my penultimate heavy bench session before the comp and went as follows:-

10 minute Warm Up
Arm Swings
Shoulder Rotations,
Push Ups
Behind Neck Press with Olympic Bar

Flat Bench
Bar*20
40kg*10
60*10
70*5
80*3
90*2
100*1
110*1
115*1
115*1
115*1

5 Inch Block Press
115*3
120*3
125*3
130*2 (New Pb)

Chest Paused Bench with 4 second pause.
100*1
100*1
100*1
100*1
100*1

Kettlebell Military Press
16kg*15
24kg*5
24kg*5

Bent Over Rear Delt Flys
5kg*10
5kg*10
5kg*10
5kg*10

That was my session.
Lots of heavy work, with average rest between sets being 3 minutes for the heaviest sets.

I felt strong throughout, and the power off the chest felt good.

From here on in my max on the bench will be around the 110kg mark so as not to over tax the central nervous system and allow a complete recovery in preparation for the big day!

Thanks for reading.

Yours Matt Shore