PL - Quick & Dirty

[Sassy69]

OK .... as I feel myself succumb to the dark side (the other dark side...) PL. A few days ago I was invited to come participate in a PL thing where my gym is holding a competition to build a "team" from our gym to compete against the local sheriff's office team for charity. My gym does not have what you would call a bunch of "muscle heads" by any stretch of the imagination. As a matter of fact, my little "home town" probably has more white trash, transient trash, old people and imported trash (not to be completely politically incorrect... ) than most towns in my area. Well maybe not, but the cross section of people who go to my gym is not what I would call "hard core"... so.... there are a handful of us "regulars" who would even be considered worth inviting to this little soiree. The event is scheduled for Dec. 7 or so. That leaves about 7 weeks to prep for this thing.

Now let's take a look at what Sassy has accomplished over the last 6 months. Trained psychotically for a competition Jan - April. Was laid off and left to rot in a personal relationship hell in April and became best friends w/ Ben & Jerry on and off between June and August. I did however find an awesome job in Sept and I love it! At the moment I have seen the inside of my gym once in 4 weeks and have to start up w/ the MSM again because my tendonitis showed itself on that one day. Additionally, my eating habits are pretty clean these past few weeks, however I seem to have lost most of my appetite and actually get pissed off when I get hungry because I don't want to eat. This has nothing to do w/ body dysmorphia or anorexia or anything else -- I think its just me getting back on track after 5 months of terrible uncertainty about finding a job, etc.

So now down to business.... I've started reading some of the awesome information that this board & the PL board have on PL. There's a trainer at my gym who specializes in PL however he doesn't know shit-crap about diet & bb. He can help me w/ setting up a program for PL. But also note that my gym is a very complete gym for your standard BB stuff. It doesnt' have anything special for PL.

My question to the gurus, what is the best approach for a returning bb to pursue training for a reasonable showing at a PL meet in 2 months? I've got spatts' sample PL schedule. Can someone give me an overview of how to start -- diet, training, cardio, etc. to get going on this? I live in a townhouse so there's very little I can do about rigging up equipment at home to replace stuff that isn't at my gym.

All suggestions welcome. I'm not looking to be Jill Mills in 6 weeks - I'm looking to have a basic clue about PL and form. I've never deadlifted heavy, my best squat was 195 early in January following Hannibal's "bulking schedule" (he'll know what I'm talking about) and my chest presses are pretty weak at the moment. I suspect my form on deadlifts suck because my back gets sore and I had a year of nasty tendonitis or something that kept most of my upper body moves pretty lame -- that was last year so I'm generally recovered from that.

Where can I start guys? I will do the research for the details, but if anyone can give me a general layout of approach that is doable in a 7 week time frame I would be very grateful

 

[Hannibal]

My question to the gurus, what is the best approach for a returning bb to pursue training for a reasonable showing at a PL meet in 2 months?

You are lucky in the fact that you have one of the most knowledgeable powerlifters in your area. Just contact Bob Youngs...I'm sure he woud be glad to check your form and help you set up your program.

PM me for his email addy if you want it. I think he is about 15 minutes away from you. Of course I will help you any way I can...but I think you would do yourself a disservice if you didn't take advantage of a resource such as Bob.

 

[JJFigure]

First, use your powerlifting resource to get the form down. My powerlifting resource just revamped my form on my bench, military, rdl, and dead, and it's making a world of difference. Especially the bench; I have tendenitis in one of my shoulders, and last winter nailed it while snowboarding (again). Flat bench just killed it, so I quit doing flat and switched to inclines. I explained this to my PL friend, and he immediately said I wasn't benching right if it bothered my shoulder. He was right; he had me drop my elbows in and bring the bar to the top of my abs, and no more shoulder issues. But I think you need to have someone demonstrate and help you get proper PL form.

Very cool though! You should have fun, kicking everyone's ass.

 

[Hannibal]

Update?

Yep...lets hear it

 

[The Shadow]

OK .... as I feel myself succumb to the dark side (the other dark side...) PL. A few days ago I was invited to come participate in a PL thing where my gym is holding a competition to build a "team" from our gym to compete against the local sheriff's office team for charity. My gym does not have what you would call a bunch of "muscle heads" by any stretch of the imagination. As a matter of fact, my little "home town" probably has more white trash, transient trash, old people and imported trash (not to be completely politically incorrect... ) than most towns in my area. Well maybe not, but the cross section of people who go to my gym is not what I would call "hard core"... so.... there are a handful of us "regulars" who would even be considered worth inviting to this little soiree. The event is scheduled for Dec. 7 or so. That leaves about 7 weeks to prep for this thing.

Now let's take a look at what Sassy has accomplished over the last 6 months. Trained psychotically for a competition Jan - April. Was laid off and left to rot in a personal relationship hell in April and became best friends w/ Ben & Jerry on and off between June and August. I did however find an awesome job in Sept and I love it! At the moment I have seen the inside of my gym once in 4 weeks and have to start up w/ the MSM again because my tendonitis showed itself on that one day. Additionally, my eating habits are pretty clean these past few weeks, however I seem to have lost most of my appetite and actually get pissed off when I get hungry because I don't want to eat. This has nothing to do w/ body dysmorphia or anorexia or anything else -- I think its just me getting back on track after 5 months of terrible uncertainty about finding a job, etc.

So now down to business.... I've started reading some of the awesome information that this board & the PL board have on PL. There's a trainer at my gym who specializes in PL however he doesn't know shit-crap about diet & bb. He can help me w/ setting up a program for PL. But also note that my gym is a very complete gym for your standard BB stuff. It doesnt' have anything special for PL.

My question to the gurus, what is the best approach for a returning bb to pursue training for a reasonable showing at a PL meet in 2 months? I've got spatts' sample PL schedule. Can someone give me an overview of how to start -- diet, training, cardio, etc. to get going on this? I live in a townhouse so there's very little I can do about rigging up equipment at home to replace stuff that isn't at my gym.

All suggestions welcome. I'm not looking to be Jill Mills in 6 weeks - I'm looking to have a basic clue about PL and form. I've never deadlifted heavy, my best squat was 195 early in January following Hannibal's "bulking schedule" (he'll know what I'm talking about) and my chest presses are pretty weak at the moment. I suspect my form on deadlifts suck because my back gets sore and I had a year of nasty tendonitis or something that kept most of my upper body moves pretty lame -- that was last year so I'm generally recovered from that.

Where can I start guys? I will do the research for the details, but if anyone can give me a general layout of approach that is doable in a 7 week time frame I would be very grateful

You had me at quick and dirty

 

[Sassy69]

Corn, corn, corn.

As embarrassed as I am to admit it, I basically haven't been in the gym for about 7 weeks. This is primarily due to 2 things - 1) my job and 2) continued lack of motivation which was beat out of me after close to 6 months of unemployment.

I was considering posting a thread about this --- its weird -- normally I try to keep myself relatively "even keeled". The only really extreme tendency I've had in my life has been regular time in the gym. My last job really started to suck about 2 years ago when it was apparent the upper mgmt had no freekin clue how to do business, thus leaving us middle mgmt left with lots of busy work with no actual results. Very frustrating. So I focused on getting into BB competition because I needed something to focus on and had the time to do it. Then in Jan when I decided to get really serious about training for the biggest show in my area, I was notified in Feb. that I was getting laid off in April. Well, that did wonders for my work motivation.

I tried to focus on the competition training, but didnt' like my new trainer's view of how to train (shitloads of cardio). Between that and the lack of results from job hunting, I at least kept going to the gym, but my diet went haywire and I alternated between 1/2 gal of ice cream per night for a week to a week of clean dieting all summer. Then, in Sept I finally got a job I thought would rock. However, as soon as I started working, I realized how whacked the company is (retarded upper mgmt again, but great opportunity if the owner doesn't go senile) and they regularly call random meetings at 5:30 at night. Thus fucking up my schedule and leaving me w/ no desire to train after 8 pm. Additionally I haven't had any appetite for the last 2 months and regularly forget to eat. This is all very weird and literally 180 degree reversal from earlier this year in eating & training. Its all f'd up now.

Why does this shit happen??? How do you fix it? I think a lot has to do w/ the lack of stability and focus in my professional life but geez. ... Usually I rely on gym time to keep me grounded. Now both gym time & eating / hunger just annoy me.

Any suggestions or offers to deliver a good swift kick to sassy's ass??

So in response to the original question... "Update?" Um, no update, but I'm getting good at pushing paper & updating my resume. Ugh. I'm hoping things will settle down soon and I'll find my way back to normalcy.

 

[JJFigure]

My job as a consultant has me all over the place time and location-wise. To keep a consistent schedule I had to make the dreaded change to early morning workouts. Sure, getting up at 5:00 am sucks, but it's a great feeling to have that workout over with for the day and to know there's not gonna be any guilty feelings that night. Plus, no one talks in the mornings - it's great!

Good luck with the job/job search! I hope everything works out for you!