ironlion93
07-23-13, 2:36 pm
I've been lurking in the FORVM for a while now, and figured it was time for me to make a post. I waited until after one of my competitions so that I can start from the beginning.
First, a little background on who I am. My name's Greg, I'm 20, in the 83 kg. class, and I picked up the moniker the Iron Lion from an announcer at my first couple meets or so who kept referring to me as the Iron Lion, I liked it and it stuck. It wasn't until recently that I discovered my family crest is covered in lions, however, I digress. I started training for PL January of 2012. My first meet was in May 2012 and I totaled 1137, enough to qualify me for Men's, Teen, Junior Nationals in Orlando, my hometown. I competed there and placed fourth with a slightly better total. One last local meet in October 2012 qualified me for Collegiate Nationals in Killeen. I threw on the gear at this point. I placed 12th at collegiate nationals. It was a major ego check, as I went 5/9, not even coming close to my potential, except with a 601 lb PR third deadlift. I was asked to lift for Team USA in the Pan-American Championships. I cut way to hard for the meet, felt like complete shit, still came out with a second place medal and 9 points for the team. After this I had only 2 weeks until Raw Nationals. Between the two meets, my hip flexors locked up, my lower back was sore, and my glute med was tender as veal. It was to the point where I believed I wouldn't be able to compete. I went to the gym and did my openers for Raw Nationals. I could barely squat 435. Which is pathetic, considering during my training for Pan-Ams I would do 415x5x3 raw w/ a belt on without a problem.
A week of hot baths, mobility work, and stretching later, I totaled 607.5 kg 1,1336 lbs at Raw Nationals. I went 9/9 with a 458 squat, 292 bench, 590(not my best) DL. Although this only got me 7th in the Junior division, we all know medals don't mean shit. I could've entered as collegiate instead and won first place and a shiny medal. I spent the whole weekend in the Hyatt at Raw Nationals, Friday I coached/handled Saturday I lifted, Sunday I spotted. I saw the best lifting that the IPF has to offer at that competition. I saw Sioux Z win her 21st National Championship title. Watching Mike Tuscherer lift felt like I was watching how to videos. He's form perfect for every lift, it's inspirational. Of course, as I'm sure you've heard by now Ray Williams' World Record squat of 400.5 kg. and his failed 410 kg attempt, which he dumped on the spotters and left a pretty big dent in the squat rack. I feel like Forrest Gump being close to all the history being made while spotting Ray. The battle between Ray and Blayne was amazing to watch. I haven't seen intensity like that since I spotted Raw Unity 6 in Tampa. One of my favorite lifters was Niko Hulslander, who brings a shit ton of intensity to the platform. My biggest complaint against the IPF and USAPL is a lot of the lifters don't have much intensity when they're lifting. To each their own though. I like to get fucking psyched out of my mind, but not so much I don't remember my form.
This brings y'all up to speed on my lifting to date. What's next? The title's a bit of a spoiler. Raw Nationals qualified me to lift at the Arnold Pro Raw in Feb-March 2014. I basically made this thread so that I can be involved in the PL community, and keep anyone who's interested up to date with my training, eating, etc. I've used a run of the mill linear periodization program for all of my competitions to date, some programmed by the likes of Matt Gary, some I wrote myself. Seeing as how I have 250+ days until the Arnold, I plan to use a much less structured training method to try and bring up my 365 strength. I'm going to incorporate strongman and Oly lifting(which I really enjoy) and even some swimming(which I fucking hate, we're god damned land mammals, I don't have fins, I wasn't meant for that shit, despite the last name Phelps) but I figured it would really help out my hip and shoulder mobility problems. I'm going to do Smolov for squat, and Smolov Jr. for BP(clearly my weakest lift). Both of which require I much higher than average calorie intake. I've been looking forward to this time of year for a long time because IT'S BULKING SEASON, BITCHES. I'll try to make it a clean bulk, but it's gonna definitely have it's dirty parts. When it's the end of the day, you gotta be willing to eat a honeybun or 12 to get in the calories. I'm not a model, I don't need abs. Gonna work up to 200-210 in the next three months(from 183). I'll see where I stand strength-wise to determine which weightclass I'll lift in the Arnold.
More importantly, I look forward to hearing from the bros to see what you guys have to talk about. I'll be posting every day that I lift. 3-4 days/week, maybe more often than that. Let me know if I left any info out that you're interested in knowing about.
First, a little background on who I am. My name's Greg, I'm 20, in the 83 kg. class, and I picked up the moniker the Iron Lion from an announcer at my first couple meets or so who kept referring to me as the Iron Lion, I liked it and it stuck. It wasn't until recently that I discovered my family crest is covered in lions, however, I digress. I started training for PL January of 2012. My first meet was in May 2012 and I totaled 1137, enough to qualify me for Men's, Teen, Junior Nationals in Orlando, my hometown. I competed there and placed fourth with a slightly better total. One last local meet in October 2012 qualified me for Collegiate Nationals in Killeen. I threw on the gear at this point. I placed 12th at collegiate nationals. It was a major ego check, as I went 5/9, not even coming close to my potential, except with a 601 lb PR third deadlift. I was asked to lift for Team USA in the Pan-American Championships. I cut way to hard for the meet, felt like complete shit, still came out with a second place medal and 9 points for the team. After this I had only 2 weeks until Raw Nationals. Between the two meets, my hip flexors locked up, my lower back was sore, and my glute med was tender as veal. It was to the point where I believed I wouldn't be able to compete. I went to the gym and did my openers for Raw Nationals. I could barely squat 435. Which is pathetic, considering during my training for Pan-Ams I would do 415x5x3 raw w/ a belt on without a problem.
A week of hot baths, mobility work, and stretching later, I totaled 607.5 kg 1,1336 lbs at Raw Nationals. I went 9/9 with a 458 squat, 292 bench, 590(not my best) DL. Although this only got me 7th in the Junior division, we all know medals don't mean shit. I could've entered as collegiate instead and won first place and a shiny medal. I spent the whole weekend in the Hyatt at Raw Nationals, Friday I coached/handled Saturday I lifted, Sunday I spotted. I saw the best lifting that the IPF has to offer at that competition. I saw Sioux Z win her 21st National Championship title. Watching Mike Tuscherer lift felt like I was watching how to videos. He's form perfect for every lift, it's inspirational. Of course, as I'm sure you've heard by now Ray Williams' World Record squat of 400.5 kg. and his failed 410 kg attempt, which he dumped on the spotters and left a pretty big dent in the squat rack. I feel like Forrest Gump being close to all the history being made while spotting Ray. The battle between Ray and Blayne was amazing to watch. I haven't seen intensity like that since I spotted Raw Unity 6 in Tampa. One of my favorite lifters was Niko Hulslander, who brings a shit ton of intensity to the platform. My biggest complaint against the IPF and USAPL is a lot of the lifters don't have much intensity when they're lifting. To each their own though. I like to get fucking psyched out of my mind, but not so much I don't remember my form.
This brings y'all up to speed on my lifting to date. What's next? The title's a bit of a spoiler. Raw Nationals qualified me to lift at the Arnold Pro Raw in Feb-March 2014. I basically made this thread so that I can be involved in the PL community, and keep anyone who's interested up to date with my training, eating, etc. I've used a run of the mill linear periodization program for all of my competitions to date, some programmed by the likes of Matt Gary, some I wrote myself. Seeing as how I have 250+ days until the Arnold, I plan to use a much less structured training method to try and bring up my 365 strength. I'm going to incorporate strongman and Oly lifting(which I really enjoy) and even some swimming(which I fucking hate, we're god damned land mammals, I don't have fins, I wasn't meant for that shit, despite the last name Phelps) but I figured it would really help out my hip and shoulder mobility problems. I'm going to do Smolov for squat, and Smolov Jr. for BP(clearly my weakest lift). Both of which require I much higher than average calorie intake. I've been looking forward to this time of year for a long time because IT'S BULKING SEASON, BITCHES. I'll try to make it a clean bulk, but it's gonna definitely have it's dirty parts. When it's the end of the day, you gotta be willing to eat a honeybun or 12 to get in the calories. I'm not a model, I don't need abs. Gonna work up to 200-210 in the next three months(from 183). I'll see where I stand strength-wise to determine which weightclass I'll lift in the Arnold.
More importantly, I look forward to hearing from the bros to see what you guys have to talk about. I'll be posting every day that I lift. 3-4 days/week, maybe more often than that. Let me know if I left any info out that you're interested in knowing about.