Kaleida's Powerlifting Journal

[kaleida]

I feel like a fresh new journal is in order, because my goals have solidified and my training just took a turn in an interesting direction. I signed up for my first powerlifting meet on December 7.


Goals:
To be a stronger and more efficient powerlifter*
To compete against myself in powerlifting meets and make new PRs.
Note that I'm not trying to fine-tune my physical appearance. Many different body types are beautiful to me - including the one I have.

Current PRs:
Squat - 210lb
Deadlift - 295lb
Bench Press - 102.5lb

Current Program:
Texas Method


*Edit: within the limits of being 100% natural, raw, and drug-free. No supportive gear except belt and wrist wraps. No steroids, no hormones, no drugs, no stimulants other than a reasonable amount of caffeine and sugar.
Forgot to mention that on the first pass since it's so far from my mind to do anything other than raw lifting. But it is very important to me.

[kaleida]

volume day

Just got back from volume day at the gym...I must have had my game face on today, because two random strangers asked me separately if I was getting ready for a competition. It felt really surprisingly good to say "yes - December 7" instead of "probably someday." Baby phase is over. Feels good

Squats - 5 sets of 5 with 155lb. I usually look in the mirror, but I faced away from it this time and took videos. I wasn't happy with my depth in the first few sets. So on the 5th set I was thinking "go deeper!" - and apparently that mental cue makes my chest try to get between my knees while my hips achieve exactly the same depth as before. lol. That's not good because my squat weak point is feeling like I need to "good morning" the weight up, and not being able to if I'm really close to a max. I need to keep my torso more upright and figure out a better mental cue. Unfortunately, with volume day weight I can "good morning" the weight up rather easily, so I'll definitely need a mental cue to avoid it... otherwise I'd probably just keep doing it and reinforce bad habits.

Bench Press - 5 sets of 5 with 75lb, less than I usually use, but all paused with a wide grip to work my weak point (chest / liftoff from chest). I was happy with this. I also practiced contracting my lats during all sets, which is new to me and something I have to think about consciously.

Rows - 3 sets of 5 with 25lb plates on a junior barbell ... how much is that? 22 pounds? 72lb total I suppose? I will increase it next week.


Edit: adding videos.
Here's set #5 where I was trying the mental cue "go deeper" ...not a successful mental cue for me as far as I can tell... no difference in hip depth but definitely extra work, with more of the good morning motion that I'm trying to avoid. It's visible to me on reps 2, 3, 4, & 5, but 4 and 5 were the most pronounced.

[kaleida]

texas method

Also some notes about my training program so I can get this on page 1 and refer to it later.

VOLUME DAY
- low bar squats 5x5
- paused bench press with wider grip 5x5
- barbell rows 3x5

LIGHT DAY
- front squats 3x5 (to practice keeping chest up, avoiding my "good morning" weak point)
- bent-knee good mornings 3x5 (to strengthen back so I can power out of squat weak point if I need to)
- overhead press or incline press 3x5
- pull-ups 3 sets to failure
- deficit deadlifts 1x5 (to strengthen deadlift weakness - hamstrings/glutes getting the bar off the floor)

INTENSITY DAY
- test squat max
- test paused bench max with any grip
- test DL max OR practice deadlift form with sub-max weight (depending on how I feel)


This will be revised periodically.
Assistance exercises are customizable to work on current weak points ... weak points might change, or the assistance exercise might not work. Current weak points are:

- Deadlift - lifting the weight off the floor. Need stronger glutes and hamstrings. I picked deficit deadlifts to work on this.

- Squats - need to either keep my torso upright enough to avoid "good morning" motion - or get my back strong enough to power through that motion with max weight. Plan A avoid weak point (front squats to practice this), Plan B power through it (good mornings to practice this). But honestly, I'm seriously considering leaving out the good mornings unless it becomes obvious that Plan A isn't going to work. Good mornings are a bitch to recover from with the eccentric motion and I like to save my energy for accessory exercises that I have a lot of faith in. I have a lot more faith in Plan A right now.

- Bench - need to pause on chest for competition. Pecs seem to be the weakest link at the moment. Doing paused reps and wider grip on volume day to work on this - no accessory exercise yet but I may add one later if the volume day form adjustments don't work.

[kaleida]

I did some more googling and decided to definitely leave out the good mornings for now. Going with just front squats and mental cues - plan A - avoid weak point - don't power through it. Mostly based on Glenn Pendlay's advice on page 3 of this thread (that is actually him, right?)

http://board.crossfit.com/showthread.php?t=65408&page=3






And I found a new squat mental cue to try next time...
This sounds goofy enough to actually stick in my goofy head

[kaleida]

lol.... 100+ views already and nobody said hello yet? It's ok, I don't bite

[auntielingo]

Just wanted to say hi! I love reading thru other female powerlifters' logs, but I rarely write anything. I keep mine on a different site, but I read here every once in a while. Anyway, looks like you're doing some good stuff!

[kaleida]

Just wanted to say hi! I love reading thru other female powerlifters' logs, but I rarely write anything. I keep mine on a different site, but I read here every once in a while. Anyway, looks like you're doing some good stuff!

Hi, thanks for stopping by! It's always nice to have supportive visitors

Do you do powerlifting too?

[kaleida]

another mental cue to try

I was reading a little bit more about my "good morning out of the squat" issue on my lunch break and came across another interesting idea for a mental cue. Can't remember where I read it, but the cue was: "stay in my knees."

It didn't make any sense to me when I first read it, but now it makes a lot more sense a few hours later. It's basically a cue to minimize that "knee-to-the-back-wall" movement that happens right out of of the hole, on the way up. Minimizing knee movement until I'm up past the weak point.

Some knee-back movement is good because it means my hamstrings contracted. Too much - maybe not good? Maybe that's the first step in shifting the weight into a good morning position? I'm not sure, but it is going on my list of cues to try.

A slow-motion squat where I lost the back angle on the way up.
I'm watching my knees, on the way up - they travel backwards a lot. Right after my knees travel backwards a lot and find a home, I look at my back - it's all good morning from that point on.


A slow-motion squat where I kept the back angle on the way up.
Knees travel backwards some, but not as much. Squat doesn't turn into a good morning.




I'm probably boring everyone to tears, but details like this really help me to optimize and be more efficient and lift more weight. An inch matters...Even half an inch matters.

[beatha]

In.

[kaleida]

In.

Welcome, beatha! Glad to have you here.

[tina722]

That's exciting to have the meet to train for - great sense of purpose. I'm in as well.

[FenderElectrics]

in

love seeing women get into powerlifting wish more would. How did you get started?

[kaleida]

That's exciting to have the meet to train for - great sense of purpose. I'm in as well.

in

love seeing women get into powerlifting wish more would. How did you get started?

Welcome, both of you! Glad to have you here too

I started lifting in December 2011 ... originally I was just trying to look better aesthetically, but after a while I realized that making PRs is so much more fun and rewarding to me instead of trying to change what I look like. Many different body types look beautiful to me - so why worry about that. A body that puts almost 300 pounds in the air is a body I feel really proud of, regardless of any physical imperfections I have right now. I get so much joy from PRs ... I want more of that.

BrotherWolf (who is also my boyfriend in real life) taught me most of what I know about powerlifting techniques... he started teaching me last April and helped me make a lot of progress. I'm not sure if he'll check in much here, because he helps offline a lot lately instead of in my journal, but of course he's welcome here too if he wants.

Anyway, light day is today which means I get to try some more front squats and some new squat mental cues to try to keep my torso more vertical...should be fun

[Vicque]

In.

I have a very good friend that is a powerlifter and eventually that's one of my goals as well, but I'm currently cutting and adding weight to the bar is pretty slow going. Dunno what my current 1RMs are since I haven't attempted to max in anything lately and have mostly been working at a "comfortably heavy weight" to work on form. Plus I'm waiting for my WL shoes to come in, backordered!

Are you worried about depth from a meet perspective? Or just a cue to make sure you hit depth cause it looks like your hitting parallel just fine but maybe too close to call at a meet?

[schnauzers]

Goals:
To be a stronger and more efficient powerlifter*
To compete against myself in powerlifting meets and make new PRs.
Note that I'm not trying to fine-tune my physical appearance. Many different body types are beautiful to me - including the one I have.

Awesome goals. I like the sentiment of competing against yourself. I like that you aren't fine tuning your body (even though I am ). I like the way you think

I have to re-read your posts in here because there is already a lot of helpful info in here. Please keep thinking aloud in your journal

ETA: Wow watching the slow mo vids is pretty helpful, huh? I think it was tina (sorry if I'm remembering wrong) that recommended that to me in another journal and I haven't done it yet but I need to get on that. I love watching you squat!!! It seems to come so effortlessly.

[kaleida]

In.

I have a very good friend that is a powerlifter and eventually that's one of my goals as well, but I'm currently cutting and adding weight to the bar is pretty slow going. Dunno what my current 1RMs are since I haven't attempted to max in anything lately and have mostly been working at a "comfortably heavy weight" to work on form. Plus I'm waiting for my WL shoes to come in, backordered!

Are you worried about depth from a meet perspective? Or just a cue to make sure you hit depth cause it looks like your hitting parallel just fine but maybe too close to call at a meet?

Hi I remember you, nice to see you again!! That's so cool you want to do powerlifting too...do you still have a journal here?

I do worry about depth even though BW tells me I don't need to ...I've been doing volume day consistently above parallel like that, but then when I'm close to a max then magically I am below parallel ... I think the extra weight pushes me down. In the beginning I was almost ATG but completely relaxing hamstrings & glutes to get there...took me so long to learn how to keep my everything tight, and the muscle tightness seems to keep me above parallel unless it's really heavy.

The mental cue I really want is one to keep my torso upright and avoid bending over - something other than "go deeper" because if I think "go deeper" then I bend my torso over too much and I can't "good morning" it back up when I'm close to a max. I can come back up with 75-85% of max though. I think shifting the weight to my back makes things deceptively easier at lower weight, but there's no way a good morning could be as strong as a squat at max weight, so I need to un-learn it!

Awesome goals. I like the sentiment of competing against yourself. I like that you aren't fine tuning your body (even though I am ). I like the way you think

I have to re-read your posts in here because there is already a lot of helpful info in here. Please keep thinking aloud in your journal

ETA: Wow watching the slow mo vids is pretty helpful, huh? I think it was tina (sorry if I'm remembering wrong) that recommended that to me in another journal and I haven't done it yet but I need to get on that. I love watching you squat!!! It seems to come so effortlessly.

Hi schnauzers, glad to have you here too!! I like how you think too
And I'm glad someone thinks my rambling is useful...

I might make some more slow-motion videos of the front squats I did tonight ....it was really helpful hmmm!

[kaleida]

light day

Light day happened
3 sets of 5 for most of this stuff except the pull-ups.

Front squats with up to 105lb - experimenting with different mental cues to see if I can find one that helps me keep my torso more vertical. I tried 2 different mental cues -
- set 1 - "vertical torso" / "nipples sliding up and down a wall"
- set 2 & 3 - "keep knees still on the way up"
I actually had surprising good luck with the "keep knees still on the way up" mental cue. My torso stayed more vertical and the whole thing looked smoother. In the video my knees are not staying still on the way up, but that's fine... the goal of that cue is just to keep my knees still enough that my torso can be more vertical, not to stop the knee movement completely. With minimal knee movement my back stays more upright - and it's a lot MORE work for my quads when my torso is more upright. My quads were like "what?! what are you doing? I don't usually have to do this job! Get your back to do it! not me! wahhhhhhhh!" In spite of quad whining I finished all my sets


Overhead press with up to 65lb

Light deficit deadlifts with just one 35lb plate on each side plus the bar, holding back and using really light weight, don't want to wear myself out on light day because I'd really like to test some maxes on Saturday and not be tired. Well, I'm contemplating moving deficit deadlifts to intensity day and using them as a mental prep / warmup kind of thing instead of a light day weekly accessory exercise kind of thing. Deadlifts might not be in the spirit of "light day" ... hmmm. They seem like they might be good for intensity day warmup because they help me activate everything I need to get the bar off the floor.

Pull-ups 2 sets of real pull-ups to failure (3 on each set), 1 set of negatives to failure, 3 sets of assisted pull-ups to failure with 50/40/40 pounds.

Left out the good mornings on purpose...I have faith in this front squat/mental cue thing instead


Here's the front squat video comparing these mental cues ... yeah I think the knee cue worked the best for me for some reason. In the first set when I was telling myself "keep my torso upright" I still see (and felt) some of that leaning forward in the torso that I'm trying to avoid. 3rd set I was really tired and I didn't do as well as the 2nd set, but I was still using the knee cue there and I think it still helped.

[kaleida]

front squat cue comparison in slow motion

This is the 4th rep of the 1st set, and then the 4th rep of the 2nd set, in 4x slow motion.

My thoughts, watching the first one: if it's possible to "good morning the weight up" on a front squat, I just did...somehow. I can see it even better in slow motion. Even that tiny bit of forward lean made it feel like less work for my lazy quads.

My thoughts, watching the second one: knee cue worked, torso stayed upright, very good. that little pause on the way up - that's my quads whining and complaining. haha

I feel optimistic though ... I have a good mental cue that might work for low bar squats too, and a good exercise to help make my quads less lazy.

[gobbles23]

Heehee! I love reading your journal, such interesting thoughts and videos!! Front squats look great

[Vicque]

Hi I remember you, nice to see you again!! That's so cool you want to do powerlifting too...do you still have a journal here?

I do worry about depth even though BW tells me I don't need to ...I've been doing volume day consistently above parallel like that, but then when I'm close to a max then magically I am below parallel ... I think the extra weight pushes me down. In the beginning I was almost ATG but completely relaxing hamstrings & glutes to get there...took me so long to learn how to keep my everything tight, and the muscle tightness seems to keep me above parallel unless it's really heavy.

The mental cue I really want is one to keep my torso upright and avoid bending over - something other than "go deeper" because if I think "go deeper" then I bend my torso over too much and I can't "good morning" it back up when I'm close to a max. I can come back up with 75-85% of max though. I think shifting the weight to my back makes things deceptively easier at lower weight, but there's no way a good morning could be as strong as a squat at max weight, so I need to un-learn it!

I have the same issue! I also tend to dive-bomb into the hole, because I think I'll get more bounce out of the hole that way, but it's generally a bad idea. Anyway, I agree your second set of front squats are smoother than the first set, so your cues look like they're working. My cue so far has been "knees out" but if there could definitely be something that works better.

[WeedyRainfall]

hello. stopping in to comment that i'm impressed to see a 32 yr old female giving the powerlifting thing a shot.

i'm gonna give the nipples thing a try. when i fail on a heavy squat, it's always my back rounding over, never my legs.

[Big_Sky_Guy]

Excited for you to do a meet!

[kaleida]

hello. stopping in to comment that i'm impressed to see a 32 yr old female giving the powerlifting thing a shot.

i'm gonna give the nipples thing a try. when i fail on a heavy squat, it's always my back rounding over, never my legs.

Excited for you to do a meet!

Thank you both! I'm excited too




thoughts before intensity day today

My weight this morning* sucks ... 134lb, 2 pounds heavier than normal, out of the blue. Probably water weight
I will test squat max and bench max and mayyybe deadlifts too....

I think want to try heavy deadlift singles today, and maybe try for a PR if the singles feel good... just to see where I am after the deload.

In the past 6 weeks or so I've tried to test a deadlift max every single week, and that was a train wreck...my max attempts started with a PR in my first week of Texas Method (295) then went steadily down because I wasn't eating enough and my exhaustion level increased ... 275, 260, 240 ... ugh lol. Then I deloaded for 2 weeks.

Now here I am, fresh out of a deload, feeling rested. I don't plan to try for a weekly deadlift PR any more, it's just too hard to recover from, but I might as well today since I'm rested. And I'm far away enough from my meet that I could deload again multiple times if I need to.



*2:51 PM is apparently "morning" for me on a Saturday...haha...don't judge

[kaleida]

intensity day

cliffs

- Bench press PR
- No squat or deadlift PR, but I don't expect that to happen every week so it's fine
- Squat technical details and mental cues need more practice
- Very strange deadlift day - conventional was stronger than sumo for the first time ever.

squat

First time facing away from the mirror, I had some technical / mental cue difficulties that I think will go away with more practice. I did not get a PR - 195 is the highest I went today.

I think with 185 and below, I can power up out of it even if I make technical mistakes. For anything about 185, everything has to be technically perfect otherwise I fail. If that makes any sense. Technique is still kind of hit and miss for me right now, even more so since I faced away from the mirror and I don't have that crutch.

This is 195, not a PR. Depth worries me here. Depth is higher than I usually am with this weight.
On the bright side: no good morning on the way up! I see my usual hamstring contraction out of the hole, but the knee-back movement is limited and my torso stays upright on the way up.


Depth check from the lowest point in that 195 video - I guess I'll never know if today's squat was deep enough, because the squat rack is hiding my hip crease. grrrr lol. It's close enough to concern me a lot.


205 squat fail - I actually failed in the hole this time. That's not where I usually fail. Usually I bounce out in the hole successfully and then fail 1/3 of the way up. I think I actually might have taken my "keep knees still" mental cue a little too literally today. To me the video looks like I kept my knees still by completely avoiding the hamstring contraction. No no no ... I need that hamstring contraction to get out of the hole. Hopefully I can practice the mental cues more on volume day and get it right. On top of the missing hamstring contraction, this was definitely above parallel.


bench press
Tested bench press max today, got 105lb PR

105lb PR video:


110lb fail - I honestly have no idea why I thought I could get this since it took me months add 2.5 pounds to my previous PR. But I was feeling good and I tried it anyway.
Failed on the chest...not surprising... that's where I usually fail if I fail. Hopefully the paused bench press and wider grip on volume day should help with that.


deadlift

This was a very, very strange and interesting deadlift day. Well rested today after a deload, I could not sumo deadlift 225 pounds. Not even once!

I kept trying and thinking "ugh I want to push DOWN into the floor but my feet are too wide!"
I kept bringing my feet in closer and trying again... eventually it was "ugh my arms are in the way of my legs!"

So on a whim I tried conventional stance and I lifted it in just a few seconds. Really fast and easy.

I went on to conventional deadlift 245 too - twice.
Failed conventional deadlift with 265 but I went back down to 225 and did three conventional deadlift singles.

245 isn't a deadlift PR for me - but it is a conventional deadlift PR. Previous conventional deadlift PR was 205 almost 6 months ago before I switched to sumo.



Then I started wondering why is my sumo deadlift getting weaker while my conventional deadlift gets stronger. It's not exhaustion - I feel full of energy today. I just felt like my legs had nothing to offer at the beginning of the lift with my feet outside my arms. Legs wanted to push down into the floor and they couldn't. Legs were like "What am I supposed to do with your feet wide like this? How am I supposed to push?" Same exact feeling that makes me want to bring my feet in closer when I'm close to a squat max.

I wonder if it's because I switched to narrow stance squats a few months ago. Narrow squats just felt stronger and easier to bounce off my hamstrings at the bottom, so I switched. I've been working completely different muscles and have not done a single wide squat in months.

I don't know, it's just a theory. If the squat and deadlift feed off of each other and go together as a pair, I wonder if it was a worthwhile trade to make, because my overall total went down with a narrow stance. Wide squat PR was 185, sumo deadlift PR was 295. Narrow stance squat PR is 210, conventional deadlift PR is 245. Total with wide stance was 480 ... total with narrow stance is 455.

It makes me want to alternate weeks - wide squats + sumo deadlift one week, then narrow squats + conventional deadlift the next - I'd like to know which of them is stronger when I give both of them a fair chance.

[BrotherWolf]

Total with wide stance was 480 ... total with narrow stance is 455.

there's your answer

[ChrizyKibs]

Damn girl, you're STRONG! I'm totally in! I'm curious as to what you're talking about when it comes to 'mental cues'? Can you explain; is it what will motivate you during your work out/lift?

[Vicque]

Yeah, depth is close, I'd say you're definitely hitting parallel, but it's close enough that it might be questionable to an inexperienced judge.

Have you tried keeping your elbows in tighter on the way up when you bench? They look fine on the way down but flare out on the way up. I'm not sure if you'll get more power that way, but it'll save your shoulders for sure.

Super weird about the narrow vs. wide squat/deadlift issue. I've never tried sumo deadlifts except for super light, high reps, in the occasional crossfit WOD. Any videos?

[schnauzers]

Lots of great thought in here, thanks for sharing it

I was wondering:

-the hamstring contraction and 'knees still' to get out of the hole...could you tell me what that means in a dumbed down version?
-congrats on your bench PR!!! Do you hit the bar to your chest to count as a rep? Also, this is gonna sound so dumb but...seeing you 'only' (bear with me here) bench 105 makes me think I'm doing it wrong. Because I can't remotely squat or DL anywhere near what you can yet I can bench 105 4x 6? Totally makes me thing something is off with my bench. Again, I hope that didn't come across the wrong way Any ideas on how I might be cheating and how my 105 isn't really legit?

Interesting about the wide vs narrow stance. I've always wondered if because I've always done wider squats if I've developed some sort of disconnect in my PC. I was box squatting today and my friend was watching and said he thinks that because I always use such a wide stance that maybe I'm not engaging my glutes as much as I could be if I went narrower. Does that even make any sense?

[kaleida]

there's your answer

oh hai there
I think you're right ... I'll go back to my medium stance next week ... somewhere in between narrow and super wide.

Damn girl, you're STRONG! I'm totally in! I'm curious as to what you're talking about when it comes to 'mental cues'? Can you explain; is it what will motivate you during your work out/lift?

Thanks, glad to have you here!
The mental cues are things I think about during a squat that help me get the form and technique just right. If I'm close to a max then it seems like my technique has to be "just right" otherwise I fail...basically trying to avoid technique mistakes that I'm not strong enough to recover from at max weights.

Yeah, depth is close, I'd say you're definitely hitting parallel, but it's close enough that it might be questionable to an inexperienced judge.

Have you tried keeping your elbows in tighter on the way up when you bench? They look fine on the way down but flare out on the way up. I'm not sure if you'll get more power that way, but it'll save your shoulders for sure.

Super weird about the narrow vs. wide squat/deadlift issue. I've never tried sumo deadlifts except for super light, high reps, in the occasional crossfit WOD. Any videos?

I think my bench form needs a lot of work... I haven't given it has much attention as squat and deadlift.
Maybe I should take some bench videos on volume day too. I'm honestly not sure if that elbow thing is something I do regularly or just a max-weight form breakdown because it was really hard and I was in "get this off my chest any way that I can" mode.

Lots of great thought in here, thanks for sharing it

I was wondering:

-the hamstring contraction and 'knees still' to get out of the hole...could you tell me what that means in a dumbed down version?

Oh my...I will try... my mind/leg connection is not very good yet, so I apologize if this doesn't make sense

If I'm close to a max then it seems like my technique has to be "just right" otherwise I fail... if I could describe what that "just right" technique looks like in a video, it would be this:
1. Breaking at the hips first (butt goes back)
2. While I descend, knees go forward to somewhere around my toes and then stay in the same spot
3. Knees do not move forward at the lowest part of the squat (if they do, that means my hamstrings relaxed and I fail in the hole)
4. Knees move 1-2" towards the back wall when I'm on my way up (this is a sign that my hamstrings contracted even more)
5. Knee movement towards the back wall is limited to just an inch or two (this is a sign that my quads contracted too)
6. I continue moving up with shoulders and hips rising at the same speed (i.e., my back angle becomes more vertical on the way up instead of briefly going more horizontal)

Oh and the hardest part lol: all steps have to feel really fast with max weight otherwise I'm likely to fail ...of course feeling fast and looking fast seem to be two very different things for me ... the video always looks slow.

I usually fail at step 5... sometimes failing at step 3...

- If my knees travel forwards at the bottom of the squat then that means I lost hamstring contraction and I fail in the hole, I just sink lower into the hole instead of coming up even an inch
- If my knees travel towards the back wall too much in step 5 then I've basically straightened my legs a lot without moving my shoulders, which means it basically turned into a good morning, and I fail because I can't good morning 200ish pounds.
- If my knee position looks good throughout but I still fail in step 5, that's just because my quads are the weakest link in the whole thing right now...they contracted but it was too weak to keep me moving up.

-congrats on your bench PR!!! Do you hit the bar to your chest to count as a rep? Also, this is gonna sound so dumb but...seeing you 'only' (bear with me here) bench 105 makes me think I'm doing it wrong. Because I can't remotely squat or DL anywhere near what you can yet I can bench 105 4x 6? Totally makes me thing something is off with my bench. Again, I hope that didn't come across the wrong way Any ideas on how I might be cheating and how my 105 isn't really legit?

Interesting about the wide vs narrow stance. I've always wondered if because I've always done wider squats if I've developed some sort of disconnect in my PC. I was box squatting today and my friend was watching and said he thinks that because I always use such a wide stance that maybe I'm not engaging my glutes as much as I could be if I went narrower. Does that even make any sense?

I do touch my chest with the bar ... that 105 PR wasn't paused though like I would need to pause it in a meet ... I'm working on that

I'm pretty sure your bench is probably fine. I think there are two ways to get a PR, A) you can get stronger, B) you can change technique or learn new technique to make it more efficient without getting stronger, I have done a LOT of that "option B" optimizing with my squat and deadlift, but I haven't put that kind of attention on my bench press yet. I secretly think I am not as strong as my squat max. BW taught me a lot of useful techniques there. I think maybe 20-30% of my progress in the squat has been from getting stronger, the rest of the increase was probably technique stuff.

[ilovethe80s]

When you figure out the stance thing, please let me know haha. IME you fix one thing and then another thing gets stronger, then one thing is good for competition\ maxes but another works in training... I personally hadn't noticed sumo deadlift doing so well on its own untrained, or wide stance squats either, where conventional and narrower stances do seem to go up from training wide. That is interesting that there was that much of a difference between maxes between now and then. Must be some sort of firing thing going on, we know you've only been getting stronger