Kiwi Powerlifter... Training to get Competitive

[HJP]

Thanks Coke & Tom! Would love to get them bigger. The widest point hasn't gained much lately but definitely have noticed the thickness has increased down the thigh as a whole.

Cheers Brian H & Brian C! It's almost time.

Wednesday 6th June 2012

Final session before the meet on Saturday. Worked up to 3*3 on each lift, just at 50% of openers. All nice an easy, can still feel that left elbow isn't right. Not ideal but it's part of the game. Just see how it is on Saturday, won't affect the squat or dead so will focus on those anyway. Almost game day. Looking forward to it!

[GazzyG]

Looking forward to seeing how you do, bud

[tom183]

Good luck, mate.

[thecityalive]

Videos!

[Beast]

Videos!

This!

[HJP]

Cheers Gazz, Tom, Rob & Beast. There is always video with me haha

[Brian C]

Your earning every bit of it, so get on the platform and take whats rightfully yours. Best of luck my friend.

[HJP]

Thanks Brian!! Really appreciate the support man!

Central Districts Classic Meet Report

Just got home but had to write this up before nodding off.

Was another comp run really well at the Powerhouse gym with Warren, Ruth and the team. Always enjoy competitions run here, so much space to warm up and a real lifter friendly atmosphere. Love it!

Also got a couple of new boys into it today which was awesome. Great to see mates getting into the sport an having a enjoyable and successful first up experience, think that actually helped my lifting too, took my mind off worrying about myself too much an got motivation from them doing well.

Weigh In
Weighed in at 90.2kg (~198lbs) so comfortably under 93kg (~204lbs).

Squats
Warm ups felt good. Just went up to 200kg (440lbs) for a couple of singles before hitting the platform
Attempt One - 220kg (484lbs). Good lift. Always nervous about the first squat but was nice and easy.
Attempt Two - 230kg (506lbs). Good lift. Felt a bit heavier but still came up pretty good. Good lift 2.5kg Raw PB, central districts (CD) raw record. Decided to try break my equipped PB of 240kg with the third...
Attempt Three - 242.5kg (533lbs). Good lift. Felt heavy from the outset. Kept cool an went through the process. Nailed it. Tough though, but got through it. 15kg raw PB, 2.5kg all time PB, and beat my CD raw record. Stoked.

Bench Press
Warm ups felt good, no real pain in the elbow. But wanted to play it safer here to start with.
Attempt One - 110kg (242lbs). Good lift. Due to the recent elbow issues and to ensure I didn't bomb (an miss setting the squat record) I lowered the attempt weight. Came up easy.
Attempt Two - 125kg (275lbs). Good lift. Felt strong so thought why not try for a PB as the elbow wasn't playing up.
Attempt Three - 137.5kg (302lbs). Miss. Just didn't have the strength in the tank. No excuses just wasn't strong enough.

Deadlifts
Here's were I really start to enjoy meets, love the deadlift!
Attempt One - 250kg (550lbs). Good lift. CD raw Record. Fast, much faster on the video than I thought it felt but felt comfortable at the time too.
Attempt Two - 272.5kg (600lbs). Good lift. Absolutely stoked. 600lbs goal done and dusted in competition. Happy as. Broke the CD raw record I had just set and got myself a 12.5kg PB.
Attempt Three - 280kg (616lbs). Miss. Gave it a crack but wasn't there. Had achieved my goals so fair to say motivation for this one wasn't too high but the weight did come off the floor!

Total: 640kg (1408lbs) - 17.5kg PB. CD Raw Record.

Very happy. Areas to improve on but stoked with the day. Looking forward to training hard an making some more gains. This next week will be easy bodybuilding stuff then the 6 week training in the lead up to nats begins.

Here is the video:

Video

[Brian Hopper]

Great job Hayden!!!

[Coke]

Epic day for you Hayden, more where that came from, nowhere near your full potential.

[GazzyG]

Great work, Hayden! So much strength and you're still so young, so you're only gonna get stronger!!

[thecityalive]

saw this earlier....amazing work, Hayden!

[LuNa]

Congrats on th 600lbs pull, that is a huge milestone. Thanks for the write up, its great to hear the hard work paid off. Congrats again, you did great!

[NickAus]

Thanks Brian!! Really appreciate the support man!

Central Districts Classic Meet Report

Just got home but had to write this up before nodding off.

Was another comp run really well at the Powerhouse gym with Warren, Ruth and the team. Always enjoy competitions run here, so much space to warm up and a real lifter friendly atmosphere. Love it!

Also got a couple of new boys into it today which was awesome. Great to see mates getting into the sport an having a enjoyable and successful first up experience, think that actually helped my lifting too, took my mind off worrying about myself too much an got motivation from them doing well.

Weigh In
Weighed in at 90.2kg (~198lbs) so comfortably under 93kg (~204lbs).

Squats
Warm ups felt good. Just went up to 200kg (440lbs) for a couple of singles before hitting the platform
Attempt One - 220kg (484lbs). Good lift. Always nervous about the first squat but was nice and easy.
Attempt Two - 230kg (506lbs). Good lift. Felt a bit heavier but still came up pretty good. Good lift 2.5kg Raw PB, central districts (CD) raw record. Decided to try break my equipped PB of 240kg with the third...
Attempt Three - 242.5kg (533lbs). Good lift. Felt heavy from the outset. Kept cool an went through the process. Nailed it. Tough though, but got through it. 15kg raw PB, 2.5kg all time PB, and beat my CD raw record. Stoked.

Bench Press
Warm ups felt good, no real pain in the elbow. But wanted to play it safer here to start with.
Attempt One - 110kg (242lbs). Good lift. Due to the recent elbow issues and to ensure I didn't bomb (an miss setting the squat record) I lowered the attempt weight. Came up easy.
Attempt Two - 125kg (275lbs). Good lift. Felt strong so thought why not try for a PB as the elbow wasn't playing up.
Attempt Three - 137.5kg (302lbs). Miss. Just didn't have the strength in the tank. No excuses just wasn't strong enough.

Deadlifts
Here's were I really start to enjoy meets, love the deadlift!
Attempt One - 250kg (550lbs). Good lift. CD raw Record. Fast, much faster on the video than I thought it felt but felt comfortable at the time too.
Attempt Two - 272.5kg (600lbs). Good lift. Absolutely stoked. 600lbs goal done and dusted in competition. Happy as. Broke the CD raw record I had just set and got myself a 12.5kg PB.
Attempt Three - 280kg (616lbs). Miss. Gave it a crack but wasn't there. Had achieved my goals so fair to say motivation for this one wasn't too high but the weight did come off the floor!

Total: 640kg (1408lbs) - 17.5kg PB. CD Raw Record.

Very happy. Areas to improve on but stoked with the day. Looking forward to training hard an making some more gains. This next week will be easy bodybuilding stuff then the 6 week training in the lead up to nats begins.

Here is the video:

Video

Pretty epic bro!!

Really are killing it Hayden, congrats on being so relentless and on getting results!!

[tom183]

Congratulations, man. Superb effort.

[Brian C]

You did it bro! Went out and took the numbers that you earned. Very happy for you buddy, congrats!

[Beast]

Fucking awesome job, man. Videos were great, too. Motivation for me!

[HJP]

Brian H, Coke, Gaz, Rob, Luna, Nick, Tom, Brian C & Beast - I really appreciate the words! Was a great day on the platform and I am more motivated that ever to keep killing it. I want more...

Goal
At Oceania's in Sydney in December I want to total 700kg (1543lbs). To do that ALL lifts need to come up. I am going to take no prisoners, that is my goal and I will not let anything stop me.

Plan
Nationals is in the first weekend of August and I have to compete there to qualify for the NZ team, the standard for Oceania's is a 600kg total so I have well cleared that which takes the pressure off at nationals. Nevertheless, I have planned a short training cycle to take me through to that. This week has been lighter weights higher reps and did Chest, Traps and Shoulders on Monday and Legs yesterday. Feeling pretty ill today but hopefully the body comes right and I can get some light back and arms in tomorrow. Then it is a pretty high intensity 6 week cycle to nations followed by a 1 week deload, this will be the structure:

Monday: Deadlifts + Light Bench + Assitance: Incline Bench, DB Flyes & Pull Ups
Wednesday: Light Squats + Military press + Assistance: Shrugs, Front Raises, BB Rows & Dips?
Friday: Heavy Squats + Heavy Bench + Assistance: GMs, Leg Ext, Machine Flyes & DB Rows
Saturday: Assistance OR Conditioning

Major lifts are the priority but I will try ensure that more often than not I get the assistance in. Feel increasing the size of the chest should help me out of the bottom of the bench press so will do all bench assistance in a manner to try get some muscle mass built there. Should be a fun 6 weeks.

[Brian Hopper]

Sounds like a good plan, good luck with the training cycle!

[Coke]

Way to be doing it, charted a good course for where you want to go next.

[Bako Lifter]

Love to see raw guys putting up huge numbers, very impressive man.

[HJP]

Thanks Brian, Coke & Bako!

Nats Prep - Week One Day One

Monday 18th June


Primary Movements

Deadlifts
60kg * 5
100kg * 3, * 2
140kg * 2, * 1
180kg * 1
200kg * 1 - B from here
220kg * 1
Work Sets
242.5kg (533lbs) * 2 - 2 sets

Bench Press - Light Day
60kg * 5 - 2 sets
80kg * 3
Work Sets
95kg (209lbs) * 6 - 3 sets - paused last rep each set

Accessory

Incline DB Bench Press
22kg's (48lbs) * 12 - 2 sets
28kg's (61lbs) * 12

Pull Ups
BW * 8, * 7, * 6

Flat DB Flies
12kg's (26lbs) * 12 - 3 sets

Notes/Thought:
- Good day. Deads were tough but first day back with decent weight was always going to be tough. Bench went well, going to try pause a lot during this training cycle

- Will be a intense 6 weeks but it's too short to go light so keeping it heavy! There will be a light day an heavy day for squats and bench each week. Looking forward to it.

Deadlifts Vid below...

Video

[tom183]

Nice session, man. Seeing some lifts there I don't think I've seen before in this journal.

[NickAus]

Going to march on into the numbers you want no question!!

Really impressed mate.

[Brian Hopper]

Great start, your going to kill it bro!!!