went to a powerlifting club

[JP]

finally i had the courage to go to the local powerlifting club. The coach was not happy that i was there, but then after a while said "lets see what you can do". A mad session of squatting, benching and deadlifting followed. After 1.5 hours of heavy lifting he put me to try 180kg deadlift - which to my suprise flew up quite nicely - new PB! Well, only 2.5 kg improvement, but still i was suprised to see it go up after such a hard session.

Will go back next tuesday. Thing is, the club lifts old school style, very high volume. Also the coach wants me to squat with a narrower stance, so i'll give it a shot.

The volume will require some getting used to....

Anyways, wanted to share this little experience with you folks!

[J]

Why wasn't he happy to see you?

[Frostfire]

Yes, why wasn't the coach happy to see you? You need to elaborate .

Sounds like it was intense! Might do you some good to step out of your "comfort zone" with lifting for a little bit?

[Renecarol25]

how does a powerlifting club work? like a special gym specific to lifts? fee for coaching? etc? curious.

[JP]

Why wasn't he happy to see you?

He said outright he only trains juniors and competetive seniors. Also, one can only come if they call first (though when i did call the gym they just told me to come and see him).

me thinks he was just giving me hard time to see if i was just a time waster, or seriously interested.

Anyways, in the end i asked him if i should come back and he said yes, so i guess there's hope

Crystal & renee - i totally recommend! They do everything like in a PL competition, so training is long and tiring, squat, bench, deadlift. Technique tips are invaluable and coaches tend to have an eye for weaknesses and spot them miles away. Also the environment is inspiring and encouraging when people lift way more than you do!

Renee, i guess you just dig up a local PL club, give them a ring and see what happens! I'm sure they differ from club to club so much that it's difficult to say how they work. This one is at a local council run gym and they shut it down for the time PL club is training.

This one didn't cost any extra, just the entrance fee of 2.45£, probably about 4$

[JO]

How did I miss this thread??? Good for you, JP!

Is this a once a week thing? Sounds like it will be very good for you.

[Pete]

When you say very high volume how much are you talking about (approx), just curious

[wannalift]

thats awesome joni. it takes some stones to walk into one of those clubs. make sure you pass along all of the tips they give you. best of luck cranking out 400
~david

[JP]

Thanks JO! It's twice a week, tuesdays and thursdays. I started a log about it now...

Pete, actually, don't know why, but i felt like i was doing set after another for 1.5 hrs, but when i wrote it down, it looks like a normal fairly low volume??!?!??!?! I'm sure i missed a few sets there...

Cheers DD, i will pass on any tips in one way or another! 400 would have been buried already, that 396 felt lightish, i was really hyped up

[Mary]

Go in for a powerlifting comp, along side Pete's new plan to take over the world... (you know you want to!)

[JP]

Go in for a powerlifting comp

i would but i'd need to put 40kg on my squat, 40kg on my deadlift and about 20-25kg on my bench first, i'm still a weak little boy

Now that kind of progress takes a while, but i'm working on it!

[sensless]

Don't be afraid to enter in a PL competition right away. The learning experience would be good for you! I entered a competition here with Ryan and had a great time. I finished in last place and Ryan took 3rd, in our weight divisions, but it was great! Got to meet some fellow meatheads and learn about an olympic lifting club.

As far as powerlifting teams go, I took some summer courses at a University not far from home and trained with the team for about 5 weeks. WOW! What a difference it makes. They enjoyed making me puke, which ended up being fairly common. The intensity they train with leads to some impressive progress, I went from failing at 470 on my deadlift to almost pulling 525 in about 6 weeks!

Have fun with it!

John Jr.