Rob – USAPL Missouri State Championship – 5/5/18

Meet Recap: Rob competed at the USAPL Missouri State Championships going 8/9 and finishing with a 1,299lb. total. This was a challenging prep leading into the USAPL Missouri State Championships for Rob, specifically with not being able to really squat for the final month leading into the meet. He had a strained hip flexor, and it was apparent that it was just getting worse each time he squatted full range of motion in any capacity. So we did a big 180 and did only high pin squats for the final 3 weeks. And by high, I mean it was a half squat. Not optimal by any means, but Rob figured out what range of motion he could work through pain free, and we used that variation to maintain some neurological efficiency while allowing his hip to recover. After just a week that made a pretty significant difference, so we were able to add a top single in on competition squat just to be able to test and practice one time a week. And then by the final week and a half he was able to do walking lunges pain free, so we used that to get our volume.

With all that being said, Rob was still able to match his previous meet PR with a 435lb. squat, increase his bench press PR by 13lbs. with a 303lb. bench press, and then finished with a 561lb. deadlift. Only missed lift of the day was a 314lb. bench press attempt that he got about 3/4ths of the way up, but just couldn’t lock out. I am fairly confident thought that 308lbs. would have been there.

A variable we had to take into account at this meet is that by the middle of the afternoon session, it was extremely hot in the facility. It was very apparent this was affecting people, as come bench press time a lot of people were missing 3rd attempts, which led me to believe heat was getting to the competitors. Tony was my assistant coach for the day and handling Rob during his attempts while I was handling Dan on the other platform, so going into deadlift I told him to keep it conservative. Deadlift training hadn’t been great leading into the meet, and adding in the heat we had to make adjustments assuming strength would be down due to that. Tony made some great calls and even though a 561lb. wasn’t the goal, it was the perfect call to make sure we built the best total possible and finished the day getting every pound out of Rob’s total that we could!

Division: Junior

Weight Class: 120kg

Squat: 435lbs.

Bench: 303lbs.

Deadlift: 561lbs.

Total: 1299lbs.

Coach: Steve