Two weeks ago I competed at the NZ Record Breakers Powerlifting competition which was held at the Fitness Expo in Auckland. The decision to compete at Record Breakers was never on the cards this year as the focus was on Commonwealth Champs in South Africa.
A couple of weeks before leaving for South Africa I randomly thought that competing as a 57kg at Record Breakers could be fun as I knew that I could definitely smash the current deadlift record and have a go at the squat and total record as well.
Record Breakers was 6 weeks after Commonwealths and I truly thought that it would be plenty of time to prep for a competition where I didn’t need to weight cut. What I didn’t count on was how big of an affect the international competition, travel and then getting sick would have on me.
My training cycle between commonwealths and record breakers was horrible. There was nothing at all wrong with the programming, just my body was not coping. We had been building towards Commonwealths for 8-9 months and those training cycles were the best I’ve ever felt in training and leading into a competition.
I was loading weights incorrectly (uneven bar, wrong weight – you name it!), reading my programme wrong and failing weights that I would usually do on even my worst day – for reps. The whole 6 weeks I had two okay training sessions (and by okay they were probably what I would’ve called a crap training session in the lead up for Commonwealths) and one pretty good session (my last heavy session the Saturday before the competition).
Squats
My goal for squats was to break the record (130.5kg) and to beat what I did at Commonwealths. I had leg shaking issues at Commonwealths which knocked my confidence on the platform – I had put it down to having caffeine pills, a mistake I will not make again.
On the day I opened on 127.5kg (3 white lights), we actually tried to drop my opener as my last warm-up squat was a little slower than I would have liked, unfortunately due to being told different things with what time we would be starting we missed the cut-off.
My second attempt we went conservative with 131kg to just break the record (3 white lights). Unfortunately the curse of the shaking leg was back – nowhere near as bad as commonwealths but still enough to shake me a little bit.
Third attempt I was really uncertain what to go for due to the shaking leg and wanting to make sure I definitely got it so I didn’t just chip the record, plus I wanted to beat Commonwealths (130kg). We ended up going for 135.5kg (3 white lights) which was slow (normal for me) but not a grind, I know I had at least 2-3 more kg in me, maybe even 4-5kg.
I have another theory about the shaking leg curse that I will look at between this competition and the next one as I’ve only ever had it these last two competitions and there is only one thing that changed between Central Districts and Commonwealths that I also did at Record Breakers.
Bench Press
I am pretty angry with myself for Bench. I really should’ve listened to my body more and dropped my second attempt but such is life.
I only got my opener, my second and third attempts didn’t really move much off my chest. There isn’t much to talk about here, I don’t even know what happened I just wasn’t strong enough on the day.
Opener 62.5kg, second and third attempts were 67.5kg. I contemplated passing on my third attempt but decided that it wouldn’t impact on my deadlift that much if I couldn’t get it, and I ain’t no quitter so got out there and gave it a go.
Deadlift
This is what I came for! The deadlift record was 150.5kg (half a kilo above the record I set at Oceanias in 2016).
I was pumped to get deadlifts started – I almost always am! I opened on an agressive 158kg (3 white lights) and it moved pretty well so we went to 166kg (3 white lights) and then settled for 170kg for the third attempt (3 white lights) and a couple of kg to spare, I didn’t shake anywhere near as much as I usually do on a third!
We went for 170kg for the third attempt as it was a goal of mine to get 170kg this year and it was a little more than what I did at Commonwealths (167.5kg).
I didn’t have any doubts about being able to lift any of the weights once I was out there on the platform which is great considering I failed a 140kg in training only a few weeks before – that knocked my confidence!
I really need to thank a few people who helped me get through what was the toughest (and worst) 6 weeks of my training life:
My Coach & Programmer – Carli Dillen (Thanks for the awesome programming and support telling me I was going to get those records even though training felt like shit).
My Partner, Handler & ‘Second Coach’ – Kyle Murray (I always joke Kyle is my second coach but he really is, he is here for most of my sessions helping push me along).
My Number 1 Support Crew – Brydie & Jason Anderson (#TeamAnderson the best support crew & SA travelling buddies – where’s the next International comp guys?!)
BRING ON 2018 & more post deadlift jumping!
