Montreal Barbell The PR GYM

What an experience!! Al Mehan fly down in the middle of his training program for the 2011 Canadian Nationals and Pro/Am to be held June 4, 5, 2011 at Montreal Barbell. Al arrived Wed afternoon and was pumped to start deadlifting on our schedule Wed night at 6 pm.

Wed Mar 30 Deadlift

I did my usual work up sumo full gear and went up to 6 plates, 585 lbs and missed it at the top. Then, went 600 lbs and missed it above the knee again. Each time I got pulled forward and did not get the straight line up. It felt strong and this would be my last deadlift session before my meet on April 15 in California. Jamie and Nathan came up from Cornwall to train with us and they both are very strong and have huge potential.

Firday Apr 1 Bench

My real training with Al was eating. He considers it a full time job and his goal was to get me to eat and gain 5 lbs while he was here. It was working. On Friday already my bench shirt felt tighter. I worked up my usual 1 plate, 2 plates 3 plates raw, then went 425 for one warm-up and went straight to my my planned opener of 475 lbs. It flew up faster than ever. Then, I went to my planned second attempt which would be a world record in my category, 530 lbs. that went up all the way to the top but my left arm felt unlocked. Then I went to 535 lbs and got it all the way up and locked it out. It felt great, like never before and I never pushed so hard on the bench. I took the weight down faster and got more out of the shirt, plus I had my feet set in the right place to push all the way to lock out. A huge new PR for me. I wanted to go more, so I went to 550 lbs, it went well, but I ran out of steam and missed it at my usual transition point, but I felt that now I can do  this weight.

Mike Guay did huge PR of 825 lbs, Al Mehan pushed up 740 easily, Scott McDarmiad shocked himself when he was able to touch and do a full bench press with 405 lbs then later went up to 500 lbs. Shawna struggled with her bench form and missed 280 lbs. It was a great night and Al later told me he was so energized by the bench session that he laid wide eyed in bed until 2 am.

Saturday Apr 2 Squat

The goal for me was to hit my planned opener which I have now lowered from 700 lbs to 300 kgs or 660 lbs. When I worked up to it, I felt so shaky and it felt so heavy, that I decided again to lower my opener now to 620 lbs. Something was going wrong in my standups which caused me to loose balance and the weights to feel very heavy. I then did 620 three times before I got it right, Al called my depth. It was a lot of work and it bit frustrating to struggle with weights that were very light a few weeks ago. But, it may be that this was the first time I was trying to really get down low with the weight and like someone told me when I first started powerlifting, that the last inch or two is worth a hundred pounds.

Al did a very impressive and easy 940 lbs for 5 reps, Shawna went up to her opener and was starting to feel better in her squat form. She just quietly goes about her business and gets her planned lifts. It was a great squat session, everyone worked very hard. We went back to the bakery and coninued our full time job of eating.