Monday's Moderate Shirt Bench and more

Monday's training looked like this:

Raw bench:
135 x 10 x 2 sets
225 x 10
225 x 1; 275 x 1 x 2 sets; 315 x 1

Shirt Bench
365 x 2 to a 3 board
405 x 1 to a 2 board
455 x 1 to a 1 board
495 x fail
495 x 1 to a 1 board
495 x 1 to a half board
495 x 1

All in all it wasn't my best day, but I didn't gas it all out either.  That work took me over 2 hours when you take in to account the large crew we had benching yesterday down at Apollon Gym in Edison.  I have been putting the shirt on early on my shirt days to allow it to warm up, and get set right.  I do not need a shirt for 365 or 405.  520 was my single ply PR at the SSA Imperium Meet 4/30/2011 at Iron Asylum Gym.  The first 495 fail was largely due to a wardrobe malfunction in the form of the shirt just not being set right.  Went back and took the same weight 3 times with decreasing boards without incident. 

Above is the video of my 520 from that meet.  Apologies for the shaky camera in the beginning and the bad music.  Before the attempt Dave Kirschen smacked me in the back and my son screamed and grabbed the camera.  I made the lift, and that was what mattered. 


Took to the park today and hit my 3 mile walk around 1 pm.  It was nice and warm but not too terrible today and I finished my 3 miles in 38 minutes, which is a sub 13 minute mile average.


This morning I wandered in to a business meeting, where the guy in the fancy shirt was telling the employees the expectations.  I listened for a little bit to his we are at 10% and we need to be at 14%, or the there is no reason we cant get to 20% on these.  All of a sudden the light that went on reading the early parts of Dave Tate's Under The Bar kicked in.  I realized this guy was telling his unmotivated employees (these guys didn't look like go-getters to me) where they are, and where they need to be.  What was missing was the action plan, how do we go from 10% to 14%, how do we achieve that 20%.  I used to love that when I worked in business and we'd have meetings, and have numbers and expectations thrown at us without guidance and a course of action.  No wonder so many people fail in business they lack the vision that will get them to their goals.

And Dave Tate is living the dream at Elite FTS.  Why?  Simple, he used the lessons he learned under the bar.  I now realize I can too.  Powerlifting is applied mathematics to strength training.  How do we measure progress in powerlifting?  Through numbers, and personal records, as well as meet totals.  If I can say I'm going for 1850 at my next meet, but I want to be at 2035, but I fail to prepare for either number I can't be surprised when I do not achieve either metric.  If I can game plan for power lifting success, it is reasonable that I can be successful in life by simply applying the same preparation to other aspects of my life and my business goals.