Cheeky Canadian Trains for an American Meet

[ilovethe80s]

Block pull looked perfectly done, congrats on ANOTHER PR!

I am falling off my seat at 200lb step ups. If I didn't see you do it, I would not have even have thought to put real weight on them, so thank you for unveiling this possibility

It has been awesome watching your progress over the last couple of years. 'Disgruntled-at-the-weights-Izzy' has her charms too, lol, but 'positive-attitude-Izzy' is moving some serious weight.

[izzygrant]

Wednesday February 12

@ PRSC

Squat
1 @ 205
1 @ 215
1 @ 225
1 @ 235

235 moved like an opener, with some of the best form I've ever had. again, pleased and somewhat shocked that all this repping of baby weights with slow negatives, pauses etc has somehow magically improved my heavier singles! trust the process, I guess

Squat Walkouts
255
275
295
315

I was expecting to die under 315, but actually these didn't feel too bad at all.

Pause Bench w/ Commands
1 @ 130 (x2)

Sumo Deadlift
2 @ 290 (x2)

Congrats on the bench PR! I know you've been wanting that for a while

thanks! foreverrrrrr lol.

Block pull looked perfectly done, congrats on ANOTHER PR!

I am falling off my seat at 200lb step ups. If I didn't see you do it, I would not have even have thought to put real weight on them, so thank you for unveiling this possibility

It has been awesome watching your progress over the last couple of years. 'Disgruntled-at-the-weights-Izzy' has her charms too, lol, but 'positive-attitude-Izzy' is moving some serious weight.

thanks, high praise from the Queen of Conventionals lol I can't take credit for the idea, except for finally being brave enough to let someone else do some programming for me. positive attitude Izzy is much happier with her lifting

[izzygrant]

Thursday February 12

@ PRSC

BB Step Up
10 @ 200 (x3)

may post video later since everyone seems so interested lol

DB Bench
10 @ 30 (x4)

HS Row
10 @ 85 (x4)

[izzygrant]

Saturday February 14

@ PRSC

Squat
1 @ 215
1 @ 225
1 @ 235
1 @ 245
add reverse minis
1 @ 245
2 @ 225 (x2)

technically 245 is a 3lb PR. squat feels solid again finally. fingers crossed it sticks around for another week.

SS Bench
1 @ 155 (x2)
2 @ 145 (x2)

Sumo Speed Pull
1 @ 235 + 100lbs band tension (x4)

[NorthStrong]

Still going skrong in here - nice work Izzy. Those stepups are silly.

[beatha]

winter open prep is looking solid izzy glad the squat form is feeling "on" again ... awaiting insanly heavy step ups vid lol

[izzygrant]

Monday February 16

@ PRSC

Squat
2 @ 195 (x3)

Paused Bench
2 @ 125
1 @ 135 (x3)



Conventional Block Pull
2 @ 315 (x2)

Still going skrong in here - nice work Izzy. Those stepups are silly.

thanks, let's see your rack pulls now

winter open prep is looking solid izzy glad the squat form is feeling "on" again ... awaiting insanly heavy step ups vid lol

thanks B! here you go, lol

[NorthStrong]

Doing sumo block pulls now so I can lift a bit more with them

also lol @ dat stepup rom...brb i can do 405 like that

[izzygrant]

Doing sumo block pulls now so I can lift a bit more with them

also lol @ dat stepup rom...brb i can do 405 like that

cheating cheater sumo

finally, an exercise where my femur to tibia ratio is an advantage... let's see them then, and make sure you turn the camera on before you start set safeties too

[izzygrant]

Wednesday February 18

@ PRSC

Squat
1 @ 185 (x3)

Paused Bench
2 @ 125 (x3)

Sumo
1 @ 255 (x3)

[izzygrant]

Friday February 20

@ PRSC

Squat
3 @ 165 (x3)

Paused Bench
3 @ 120 (x3)

Sumo
1 @ 225 (x5)

[izzygrant]

The purpose of doing this meet for me was to qualify for Nationals this year. I only needed a 315 kg total to qualify and just barely missed it at Westerns last year due to an injury on my second deadlift, so we decided in advance that this was going to be sandbag affair. I joked that the hardest part of the meet was going to be making weight, and it turned out I was right, though not quite in the way I expected.

I somewhat pride myself on being a responsible and effective weight cutter – I’ve easily cut up to 10lbs in the past solely through water and sodium loading with no negative effect on my lifting. My weight was right where it needed to be in the week leading up to the contest, and I thought I had no reason to worry. Then, the night before the meet, mother nature decided to gift me with some monthly water weight gain a little earlier than expected (this usually means about a 6lb overnight gain and lasts a couple days). So, since weigh ins weren’t until 11, I got to spend four hours in the morning cycling though hot baths and then the sauna while sucking on candy and spitting in a shaker cup, trying to get rid of weight that did not want to come off. It felt about as fun as it sounds. I deliriously pulled up Ronda Rousey’s motivational speech on how weight cutting was mental and if you missed weight it was only because you gave up, and read it repeatedly in the bath, heart pounding and the room starting to spin unpleasantly. Personal dignity was utterly abandoned; I drove little old ladies out of the sauna with my loud sucking and disgusting spitting. I stripped to my underwear in the public hallway outside the sauna to check my weight on my travel scale. I stumbled through the warmup room like a lost soul and burst into tears when I couldn’t figure out which platform I was on to get my rack heights (and tried to keep crying in order to lose more water). I almost threw in the towel at least ten times, but the entire purpose of this training cycle had been premised around the fact that I would do Winter Open and then Nationals, and if I didn’t make weight, there was no point in even lifting today. So I kept going.

On my third and final chance at stepping on the meet scale, I weighed in at exactly 72 kg. As I sat on the warmup room floor in the aftermath, nursing my pedialyte, dressed in oversized sweats, hair wildly dishevelled from a hasty blowdry to remove extra water, and white as a ghost with bloodshot eyes, my teammates kindly let me know that I looked like a meth addict. I refused to let them take a picture of me, but in hindsight, it would have made a great background for a “Powerlifting: Not Even Once” meme.

The nice thing about temporarily becoming a human sponge is that you apparently bounce back from dehydration pretty fast. Randy left to get some sushi, and 30 minutes later when he returned, he was shocked to find me dressed in my singlet, well-groomed, presentable, emotionally composed, and casually rolling my quads out like nothing had ever happened.

My lifts after that were relatively non-eventful. We opened ridiculously light with 97.5 (215) on squats and took 105 (231) for the second. I had a bad moment after missing my bench opener due to butt-lift – our bench in the gym is just a little higher than the one at the meet, and it made a difference – I regrouped to hit 55 (121) on my second. I opened with a lightning fast 145 (320) deadlift, and pulled the 155 (341) I needed to lock down my qualifying total on the second, despite the fact that I had to pull with my weaker hand overhand due to a recovering subluxated rib from a few weeks ago. Then we passed on the third to save my energy for Nationals, which is only 6 weeks away.

Excited to get in another productive training cycle and then take some lifts at Nationals that are more reflective of the progress I've made recently! Videos coming soon.

[beatha]

omg wow to that water cutting tale of woe
congrats on the successful training cycle and your winter open total being what you needed it to be .... staying tuned for vids

[izzygrant]

omg wow to that water cutting tale of woe
congrats on the successful training cycle and your winter open total being what you needed it to be .... staying tuned for vids

haha thanks B. hopefully it's at least entertaining; I feel like if I'm going to be a comedy of errors that at least I should get a good story out of it. all's well that ends well

[lazyaj]

Izzy what a brutal story! Do not envy at all. But I lol'd at your desperately re-reading Ronda Rousey's article in the sauna. Congrats on getting the total you needed, now on to Nationals!

[sheed30]

That's awesome that you still made the cut even after all of that hell and you ended up lifting well too. Congrats!

[izzygrant]

Wednesday February 27

@ PRSC

Squat
5 @ 185 (x5)

CG Bench
5 @ 100 (x5)

RDL
8 @ 225 (x3)

Izzy what a brutal story! Do not envy at all. But I lol'd at your desperately re-reading Ronda Rousey's article in the sauna. Congrats on getting the total you needed, now on to Nationals!

haha the more days pass the funnier the whole thing is. I don't recommend trying it though. thanks! excited for this next cycle

That's awesome that you still made the cut even after all of that hell and you ended up lifting well too. Congrats!

I don't know if I'd call that "well", it was infuriating to leave so much on the table. but a good exercise in self-restraint! thanks very much.

[psychodiver9]

In for weigh in pics.strong dedication

[sheed30]

I don't know if I'd call that "well", it was infuriating to leave so much on the table. but a good exercise in self-restraint! thanks very much.

Hahaha, well you had one goal (to qualify for nats), and you reached it. I'm sure things will work out better next time

[moshvr]

Congrats on the qualifying Izzy

[ilovethe80s]

Congrats on qualifying! Lol @ the weight cutting story . They should give women a 3 day window to pick when to weigh in and do the meet because there is this 48 hour timeframe where you're going to gain 5+ pounds and can't get rid of it no matter what you do. Unless you put yourself through absolute hell, which you did, but you made it!

341 pull with reverse grip is very good, and it sounds like you spared plenty of energy for the next comp.

[izzygrant]

I'm alive. no time to log what with going to Arnolds to coach and then catching up on work once I got back. my lifters did great, a whole bunch of medals and world records. I got to train on the Saturday while I was away at Metro Fitness in Columbus for the National Animal Barbell Club again, where Richard Hawthorne gave me deadlift tips, chief among them to improve my hip hinge and lock my knees out just before my hips. Pulled up to 325 for a few singles, which I was really pleased with on a crap gym bar with no knurling, 3 hours of sleep, barely any food and abject exhaustion.

In for weigh in pics.strong dedication

I was there to get something and I did

Hahaha, well you had one goal (to qualify for nats), and you reached it. I'm sure things will work out better next time

exactly. I'm going to the next higher weight class for Nationals. I'll probably weigh in like 1lb over but whatevs.

Congrats on the qualifying Izzy

thanks!!

Congrats on qualifying! Lol @ the weight cutting story . They should give women a 3 day window to pick when to weigh in and do the meet because there is this 48 hour timeframe where you're going to gain 5+ pounds and can't get rid of it no matter what you do. Unless you put yourself through absolute hell, which you did, but you made it!

341 pull with reverse grip is very good, and it sounds like you spared plenty of energy for the next comp.

it gave me comfort to recall your stories of ridiculous weight cuts and to remember, at least, that I am not the only one to whom this sort of thing happens. dignity is overrated anyway... right?!?

I was really pleased with that deadlift and there is plenty left in the tank. the rib seemed pretty much healed and then I got too eager and pissed it off again. this time I will pull with the weaker mix right up until the meet, and then hopefully everything will fly once I get there!

[izzygrant]

Monday March 9

@ PRSC

Squat
3 @ 195 (x5)

Bench
3 @ 115 (x5)

Sumo
2 @ 285 (x4)

30 sec goblet squat holds, DB press, SA DB row, 60 sec suitcase DL holds ugh

Wednesday March 11

@ PRSC

Squat
1 @ 210 (x6)

Bench w Commands
1 @ 125 (x5)
1 @ 130
1 @ 135

5-sec Neg Sumo
3 @ 225 (x5)

bulgarian split squats, DB CSR, single-leg plank off rings

Friday March 13

@ PRSC

Squat
3 @ 215 (x5)



Slingshot Bench
3 @ 150
3 @ 145 (x3)

Sumo Block Pull
2 @ 325 (x3)

BB step ups, DB OHP, BB shrugs, lying leg raises

[martin_mathers]

Still waiting on dem weigh-in pics tho.

[izzygrant]

Still waiting on dem weigh-in pics tho.

you gon be waiting a while den

[izzygrant]

Monday March 16

@ PRSC

Squat
3 @ 205

Bench
3 @ 120
3 @ 115 (x3)

loving how easy bench feels these days.

[MatTheCur]

Liking the speed on the squats Iz! Good job yo. Also, nice benching. How're the shoulders holding up?

[izzygrant]

Liking the speed on the squats Iz! Good job yo. Also, nice benching. How're the shoulders holding up?

thanks! shoulder has been rock solid (touch wood) for a while now. back work and learning to engage my rhomboids has really helped.

[MatTheCur]

thanks! shoulder has been rock solid (touch wood) for a while now. back work and learning to engage my rhomboids has really helped.

I'm actually thinking about adding in a few upper back deals for assistance, myself. Maybe some pulldowns, face pulls, and pullups.

I've also been thinking about doing an entire shoulder workout: https://www.t-nation.com/training/gr...ulder-training

Might be a saver for me, personally. Is there anything else that you're doing to help them?

[izzygrant]

Wednesday March 18

@ PRSC

Paused Bench w Commands
1 @ 130 (x2)
1 @ 125 (x4)

DB OHP, SA DB rows, DB suitcase holds

I'm actually thinking about adding in a few upper back deals for assistance, myself. Maybe some pulldowns, face pulls, and pullups.

I've also been thinking about doing an entire shoulder workout: https://www.t-nation.com/training/gr...ulder-training

Might be a saver for me, personally. Is there anything else that you're doing to help them?

agh! tnation! my eyes!!!

my upper back work lately has been the SA DB rows, both some heavy sets with a bit of body language and some lighter strict reps, head supported BB rows, chest supported DB rows, underhand band pullaparts with slow negatives. plus some "shrugs" that are really more like weighted scapular retractions, and some lateral raises and rear delt DB raises. I would love to do some lat pulldowns but our gym is really basic and has no cables, and that's one exercise for which I don't like the variable resistance of bands.