New Cycle into the Nationals

Right this is the start to a new cycle for my build up to the nationals.

The goal of this cycle is to get back into handling more weight on the bar across the board and getting in some good reps.

Squats I want to be getting back down to depth or below and on Fridays (speed day) I will be using only 2 mats on the box. Also need to work on getting my feet out a lot wider as I feel I have been in way to close. This is probably going to hurt in my glutes for a while but it NEEDS to be done.

Benchpress: I need to be putting in more reps doing whatever I am at the time. Speed also needs to be worked on both on Wednesday and Friday.

Deadlifts: I need to go back to doing strong consistent pulls, not this crap I have been doing. Also Fridays I need to work a lot more on speed.

AND I NEED TO ALWAYS FIND A WAY TO DO A STRONGMAN TRAIN COME RAIN, WIND SNOW OR SUN.

The road to redemption starts............

After a less than successful Canterbury Powerlifting Championships ( I bombed on my squats) as I could not get low enough although I thought my second attempt was good and it was only 290kg but whatever. I now have to regroup and restart from way behind the 8 ball. I have 5 full cycles into the National Powerlifting Champs from the 6th of August to the 9th of August. I have had a recovery week in the gym over the last week just doing about 40% of what I should have hit at the Canterbury Champs. In that time I have also had a think about what I may have changed/not done in my training and or build up to competitions and what I should change. I am not to worried about the bomb as it is only my second one in 11yrs of competing. Once every 6 1/2 yrs I can handle that. Hey maybe I am not pushing hard enough and it should be every 3 yrs Haha. Any way I am going to go back to some of the ways I was training last year as that was working. Also I won't be doing a deload cycle again as I feel that while it gives my body time to recover a bit my mind also becomes lazy and especially on the last week when I am down around 55% - 60% of my Max effort week from 3 weeks before hand it is so easy that I psychologically turn off and I am not at the top of my game come lifting time. You gotta try these things to find out whether it works or not. It may work for some people but not me. Another thing I have worked out is that I need a lot more weight on the bar than I have been using so again I will be going back to that concept. Squats will need that part especially as while I have been able to put up some big numbers using 60% - 70% of the weight on the bar and the rest with bands or chains again it has not been good enough for me. As with before it may work for some people but not me. Benches don't need a lot of changing as I haven't played around with them to much and it shows in that my competition benching has held it own or even progressed (re 260kg bench at Canterbury Benchpress Champs). My Deadlifts especially on the Wednesday need a big overhaul however I will stay with the speed program on Fridays (50% - 60%). I am going to go back to increasing the weight each week and going back to the 10 x singles reps training I was doing last year as it was working (re 300kg at last years Canterbury champs). Also squat and bench day need a lot more accessory work put in and this will also be happening.
Mentally I also need to change my mindset as I think I have/have not done 2 things that I needed to do. The first thing I think was that I became to blase' about what needed to be done and therefore thought that I could put up a big number without the hard all out training I was doing before hand. The second part was that I did not reset the goal and lost focus and desire to improve.

In the big scheme of things the bomb may have been the best thing that has happen as now I want to go and prove that I am a lot better than that. I now have 5 cycles to change that.