Sea Speed said:

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Can y'all parent find a team with donations and fundraisers? I can't imagine it would be too terribly expensive as long as the school lets them use the gym.

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According to THSPA, it has to be a registered school team (schools have to pay an annual membership fee) and it has to be coached by a full-time school employee and they are technically required to work out at the school facilities. Part of what I was told by the AD was that their weight room was too small and it was booked morning to night for use by the existing boys and girls sports and they could not accommodate another team needing dedicated time several times a week.

I would be perfectly happy just having a small group work out together at a local gym and fudge on that and pay all the expenses ourselves. I think the sticking point would be having a school employee as a "coach". Maybe we can find a way around that. I do find it annoying though that THSPA won't allow individual lifters when it's truly an individual sport. Just make the requirement they have to be a registered student at the school. I mean I competed through THSPA years ago, and I assume it's still a great organization. That would be my only complaint.

Can't find a school nearby and do some sort of co-op participation? Or is that not allowed in Texas?

According to THSPA, you have to be a student at said school. If you make regionals or state you are actually required to submit a signed letter from your school admin that you are qualified academically (not failing classes, etc). I've gone through there rule book pretty thoroughly recently

I'm gonna contact them just to see what their response is to our situation, but going by their rules it doesn't look promising. But there are National federations with teen and high school divisions, I just don't know a lot about them, which is why I asked.

Plano high schools have actually had powerlifting teams in the past, but none of them currently do.

Very simple solution. He does not have to compete with a high school team. He can compete in any federation. I have seen young kids at several of the meets. Find a gym that has a bunch of powerlifters. If you want, I can do some research and get you the names of some good gyms. Most of the guys I knew up there were very helpful and very eager to pass along their knowledge. My experience, the coaches at high school are trash. He'll get better coaching from other powerlifters.

Our group, we had all kinds. Had a 15 year old girl that was the daughter of one of our lifters compete with us and compete in high school. I am still pretty good friends with her dad and can get you all kinds of information.

There is $45 yearly fee for youth - 13-17.

Meets are all over. There is one Saturday in Aransas Pass. The 5th of October in New Caney. 26th of October in Fort worth, etc.

I'm not a huge fan of the USPA. I like the APA(used to be APF) and WPC. Won my championships with that group. Competed in a couple of meet i SPA. To me the USAPL/WPC had the best and most consitant judges. Also the USPA did not have an equipped class and I enjoyed that MUCH more than raw.

Email me and I can probably get you a ton of information. Let me know on here if you email. I don't check it everyday.

email is my username94@ gee mail dot com.

Also, from what I saw, these kids and high school coaches - it is all about programming. Learning technique is WAY more important than programming. Most high school coaches don't know crap about technique. The old school guys you will find at a gym will help with that. They will take him under their wing, get him trained up, help with accessory work, help with meet prep and meet day management. All they will ask in return is for him to take it seriously and work hard - and then at some future date - pass the knowledge on.

For reference:

USPA - United States Powerlifting Association

HOME | APA Powerlifting

Like I said not a huge fan of this association, but in all truthfullness, they are the most dominant right now and as you can see, there are plenty of meet opportunities.

Desination Dallas is whay my firend says. He is a judge for USPA, also. Hard azz judge, but fair and consistant. About 15 minutes away from Plano.

Destination Dallas, Texas For the Core of the Iron Sport (destinationdallastexas.com)

Thanks for all the info man! That's exactly what I was looking for. We'll check out that gym as well. It's in Allen, not far from us. Really appreciate it!

After a brief lifting hiatus, I am getting back in the saddle. Took about 4 months off, got in some random training here and there but nothing consistent.

Planning to cut my volume in half from where I left off and build back up. Hoping I can get relatively close to where I left off in about 2 months.

Feel pretty pathetic not even having 2 plates on the bar for my squat workout and still being sore, but I'll shake the rust off soon.

It won't take long to get it back.

Regarding your volume, I actually think keeping your rep range higher as you're getting back into the swing of things. Sets of 12-15-20 reps as you rebuild your strength. That rep range limits the amount of weight you're using while you're getting back into the swing of things.

Squats on the other hand… I wouldn't wish someone doing more than 12 reps on squats on anyone lol

Yes, I'm going to reevaluate after a couple of weeks and see how things feel. My cardio has taken a hit, so I may try to knock out some sets of 10 after my working sets.

Going to spend November feeling things out and December to try to build back to where I left off. I did lose some weight so I'd like to keep it off, so I will be dialing my nutrition in too (as much as I can during the holidays anyways).

Then spend January building a solid base and start really pushing again in February.

More importantly, will you go back to the gallon of milk per day?

Hey, it was only a half gallon!

I probably will if I plateau. I still want 5 plates on squat and deadlift but with kids getting older and more extracurriculars it's probably going to be a slower grind than I'd like.

What's your usual dumbbell bench routine and how much do you lift relative to what you did on barbell?

I'll usually do sets of ten of either 75 lb dumbbells or I'll drop the weight and do more or take a quicker rest time.

Nice. I haven't messed with dumbbell bench consistently since I've gotten back into lifting. My adjustable dumbbells go up to 90 pounds so I think that should be plenty for high rep work.

What's a good strength maintenance program? I've been on a few cycles of candito 6 week program, and my squats are getting really good (doubled 425 this AM). My goal is 500 by 45 (turn 43 soon), and while I'm actually feeling really good, I want to kinda pause the gains and just maintain the current strength.

So what's a maintenance program for squats that I can incorporate into the bench program which I am still trying to make gains (would like to pause rep 315, probably around 295 pause rep right now)?

Why are you wanting to pause the gains on squat?

If you want to pause the gains, drop the weight and increase the volume or just keep doing exactly what you're doing now and don't change the weight and number of reps.

If you're working up to a heavy double, just keep your rep range around 4-6 reps at the same weight. If your strength increases in that range, switch to tempo pause at same weight.

Regarding your bench press, look into things like JM press to help with triceps strength. I'd also look at any other areas besides your chest that could be limiting your pressing strength. I'm not a fan of overloading front delts but that can be an area to improve as well.

I don't have a maintenance program to reference because maintenance to me has always just been lifting same/similar weight for the same amount of volume.

That is probably what I would do - I'd probably try to keep a similar rep scheme to what I was doing and just maintain the weight. I'd probably make my "gains" by toying with tempo, perfecting form, maybe mixing in high bar vs low bar squats, aiming for more depth, etc.

I would have to do something to mix it up/feel like I was making some kind of progress. But I'd make sure at least every other week to hit the last workout I was doing to make sure I wasn't losing anything.

Sorry for the delayed response, busy day at work!

I was just contemplating this because it's honestly quite annoying to spend 1 hour warming up to the eventual working sets (lift around 430 AM so need time to warm up). I thought if I take 6 weeks to stay in the 85% range I could maintain.

But, that's b*tch mentality and if needed I'll give myself 2 weeks of recovery prior to starting the next 6 week cycle.

Have you tried doing an active warm up by doing an isolation hamstring exercise before squats? You don't really use a lot of hamstrings on squats and may accelerate the process. I hated the idea at first but sort of grew to like it.

Don't do it anymore but it was a good way to "warm up" rather than the 15-20 minutes of stretching and warm up I do now for squats.

Haven't tried that, but I did do jump squats with 95lbs (ass to grass then jump), and that did help this last time. I had read before that box jumps are a good squat warmup.

On bench this AM, I was able to get 5x3 with 270lbs (and a 6th set of 2 reps). The program called for 5-10 sets of 3 with any weight between 255-270 ( recommends going as heavy as possible and if you only get 5 sets, that's preferred over going lighter and getting all 10). I don't know if I'm satisfied with only getting 5 sets, but I guess a day after doing squats and deads, that isn't too bad.

Wendler recommends warming up with the DeFranco Agile 8 and box jumps before workouts. Should be significantly less than an hour and he's been recommending it for years.

May be worth looking into.

If you can have a decent press day with no leg drive, that's always a good thing!

Might need to try box jumps. I do tempo pause box squats and then single leg body weight box squats for active warmup. I stretch between and then will incorporate deficit single leg squats (stand on box/olatform, hinge slightly, drop one leg down to ground and drive up).

When your doing sets of 3 at 90% of max on bench, how much rest should you take in-between sets? 5 mins? 8??

Minimum 3 mins for me. After 5 minutes, I do worse.

This varies from person to person though… science usually recommends 3-5 mins of recovery for peak strength on heavy compound exercises.

I can't remember off the top of my head but he says to do like 20 or 25, nothing crazy. At first I was worried it'd wear me out but I haven't noticed any negative effects. I'm not trying to do my high school plyometric workouts, I think the boxes I use are 12" and 18" depending on my mood.

Agree with ttha - on upper body, 3 minutes is about my limit for a rest.

Squat and deadlift, I will take up to 5 minutes but that is pretty rare. Usually around the 3 minute mark there as well.

Yeah, rest time for squats at 90% or more is 4.5 minutes minimum. I'll rest as long as 6-7 if needed but normally is 4.5-5 mins.

OK, it's safe to say that I've been completely neglecting my abs/core for the ~ 3 years since I've gotten back into this.

I think it's probably the main source of my intermittent back pain, because my lower back is overcompensating for a weak core.

What are some of your favorite exercises? I need some simple, easy, low effort ones I can tack on to the end of my workouts and then maybe some more complicated stuff for off days when I have more energy.

I was thinking of starting with planks and dead bugs.

As long as it takes to recover. The stronger you get, the longer it takes.

Not disputing but there is a point of diminishing returns. At some point I'll actually feel worse on bench, when I exceed say 5 mins or so. The science on recovering doesn't really say you're worse if you wait too long but shows that there is no additional benefit after a set recovery window for most people.

Squats I think I could take 10 mins between working sets when I'm north of 5 plates. I usually cap it at about 4.5 to 5 though or whenever my HR drops to "normal" resting range. I don't think I've ever really felt cold or as if I rested too long on squats…

There is a point where you start to get cold, but that varies person to person. I cant prove it, but I believe the primary factor is the amount of slow or fast twitch muscle you have. I was a right in the middle guy.

Completed strong lifts 5x5 first workout A, first day.

Pretty humbling to be doing empty bar rows and bench and having glute lock with just a 65 lb safety squat bar.

It goes up fast.