Introduction and Training for Battle of Montreal
Introduction
For those who do not know me, my name is Ryan Selk, I am 23 and have been powerlifting for a little over 3 years. I live in Lethbridge Alberta and work at the University of Lethbridge as a Technical Specialist (ie computer nerd). I own a small garage gym (monolift, racks + everything a powerlifter needs) and coach a growing team of lifters.
Training for Battle of Montreal
Last meet at Nationals / Canadian Pro-am I went 903/501/705 for 2109 @ 242. All these lifts were contest PRs.
Since the meet I dropped some weight, getting to 205lbs at my lightest. I was 250lbs 12 hours from weight in at the pro-am so I lost some substantial fat. Even at this bodyweight I was using the same weights for all the lifts, I actually set some decent deadlift and good morning PRs in training.
Right now I am somewhere around 210-212lbs and getting ready to gain some size for this meet. I am to lean right now for powerlifting I think. I plan on competing in the 220s and on meet day I will weigh around 230lbs. My goal is to put the biggest total up that I possibly can, right now I am not sure what the exact numbers will be but the way things are going I expect a fair sized PR on every lift.
Here is my plan of attack:
Training
Squat – Heavy every other weekend, training with a group that will push me to reach my best possible numbers. Last meet we started with 3-4 work sets of doubles and slowly progressed into working with singles, I imagine that will be the plan again.
Bench – This is where I need to make some big improvements. I had the strength for well over 501 last meet but technical problems left me with going 1/3 in the bench. I have resolved much of these problems in the offseason by changing my foot position and set-up. Training wise I will stick with 2 bench days, following a template similar to what some lifters at Big Iron gym use (one day more focused on upper end, one on lower end, lots of time in the shirt)
Deadlift – I have been doing tons of pulls with the weights sitting on 3-6 inch blocks. I’ve kept it raw and the reps at 3 to try and keep the time under tension similar to a full rom pull. I’m going to continue working with the blocks until my pull stalls out then I will do some basic work off the ground. I have found that if I am pulling heavy every week (not necessarily to a 1rm, but over 90%1rm) my deadlight goes up.
Diet
I’m currently eating 3000cal/day with at least 1.5 x bw in protein. This will be upped to 3500-3700 and I’ll shoot for 1lb a week gain up until the meet. Ill adjust intake depending on how my weight is coming along. Nothing very complicated here, but I do keep track of how much I am eating. I graduated high school at 165lbs and it’s taken me a ways to get here.
Taking a full week off before the meet to let my body recover for the training that is about to come. I am feeling good and ready to start this training cycle. I’m going to keep this log updated with training videos, I am always looking for feedback about my training!
