Another week gone by!

Wow! Another week has flown by. Last Wednesday I concentrated on my preparations for the Bench Press for reps contest which was held Saturday at Hyde Park Gym. My elbows and shoulders have been sore, so I didn’t want to overdo. I took Thursday and Friday off to rest. On Saturday I was very excited to get to lift in the contest. Man, I love competing! And, as much as I like to tell myself that I’m just striving to be the best I can be, I sure do love to win!!!

Here’s the way it worked….you weighed-in. Whichever weight class you fell into that’s how much weight you did for as many reps as you could perform. The winner was determined by weight lifted times the number of reps. Competition was fierce!!! If it had been straight reps, the winner would have been Rob Mohr who performed 28 reps with 165 lbs. Very impressive. I was the first 181-er up and I knocked out 27 reps with 180 lbs. Natural bodybuilder extraordinaire, Charles “Skeletor” Fuller was on hand and cranked out a strong 24 reps with 198 lbs. John Edmiston was powerful in the 220 lbs class pushing 19 reps. Up last were the super-strong dudes, Keith Minikus and Marc Heard. Both hammered out an amazing 20 reps with 242 lbs. When the numbers were tallied Keith and Marc tied for 2nd place, with Keith taking the trophy because he weighed 3 lbs less than Marc. I won the first place cup by a mere 20 lb-reps! I was very excited to win, but I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t improve more. On Saturday I told Charles that I thought I had only improved by one rep in a month. Looking back through my journal today I see that I did 20 reps with 180 lbs on Oct 14th, 26 reps on Oct 21st and Oct 29th, and 26 again on Nov 5th. I really thought 30 reps was not out of the question, but rigors set in on rep 27 on Saturday.

Saturday after the bench contest I had a very good consultation with outstanding natural bodybuilder, Eric Hayes. After our session I got home as fast as I could to watch the rest of the Longhorns game. I won and the Longhorns won….great day!!!

Saturday afternoon Diana and I headed to San Antonio to attend the NPC Lackland Classic. Steve Reichart has been promoting the Lackland as an NPC drug-tested show for many years now. I won it in 2006 to qualify for the Team Universe. This year we saw drug-free great, Homer Alafa, Jr. add another overall title to his resume. He was outstanding! On a disappointing note, Melissa Merritt was competing in the figure division. In only her first show she looked like an IFBB Pro figure competitor among amateurs. Low and behold, she didn’t win her class!!!! I just don’t get that. If the IFBB Pros are the ideal, why don’t they want you to look like that at a lower level show???

Nevertheless, it was fun hanging out with CBX and the NPC staff after the show! What a fun bunch of people with a passion for bodybuilding!!!

Today I jumped back on track with a super heavy squat workout. My friend, Kevin Morrison in Laredo tells me that they are going to put on a powerlifting meet in February and I want to lift in it. It will provide me with another short term goal and the opportunity to have fun competing. And, of course, I’m going to try to win!

In my half-squats I worked my way up to 545 lbs. I was kinda scared of it and went down, but not back up. I haven’t failed at a squat in many many years! That was a horrible feeling! I knew I could handle it, so I got my head right and did 3 reps with it on the next try!!! I was able to go 405 for 5 just above parallel and 315 for six on super-deep squats. I was exhausted by the time I finished squatting. I didn’t have much left in the tank, so I super-setted leg extensions and leg presses for three intense super-sets to finish.

Wed Nov 5th Chest

Bench Press 95X10, 135X10X10, 165X6, 185X3, 205X3, 225X3, 245X1, 180X26 10 second rest pause then 3 more reps

Incline Press 135X25X15

Pushups 36 reps

Saturday Nov 8th

Bench Press 95X10, 135X8, 165X5, 185X2, 205X2, 225X2

Bench Meet 180X27

Monday Nov 10th Legs

Half squats 135X10, 225X6X6, 275X6, 315X7, 365X6, 405X6, 455X6, 495X3, 545 missed, 545X3 walkout with 585 lbs (just to get the feel of it on my back)

Just above // squats 315X6, 365X6, 405X5

Super-deep squats 315X6, 225X15

Leg Extension/Leg press supersets 3 supersets, 12-20 reps each

The competition was fierce!