Powerlifting coach and life motivator

I go on and on about how awesome my powerlifting coach is. Every week I always send my coach a report on how training is going. I didn't this last week. He never lets anything fall through the cracks. He misses nothing. So he contacted me to see how everything was going. Here was our exchange. As you can see, he really is awesome.

Coach,
I was a little distracted this week  I did all the workouts. But i didn't take any notes. But I was confused why all my numbers were going up except my pull-ups. I'm back up to 300lbs. Which explains both the strength gain and getting worse at pull-ups.

Thanks for the reminder.
Cody

Hi Cody,

I imagine you’re feeling pretty disappointed about that. What do you think has led you back up that road? Life stressors? Boredom? Want for strength gains? 

The first step back on the weight loss wagon can be the hardest. I’ve felt that hopelessness too. It helped me to remember that it is only one step, though. Get back on the diet for one day, then two days, then a week, then it slowly becomes a habit again. It’s one hard step, but it’s one step I know you can take when you’re ready. 

Vernon

Fixing powerlifting imbalances with a good coach

My powerlifting coach is awesome. I know I post about how wonderful he is all the time. Sorry if I'm beating a dead horse here. But he is by far and away the best coach ive had in any sport I've ever competed in. Coach Vernon told me he's programming a lot more back and lat work on my next block of training. He said my bench and chest is getting stronger quicker than my back is. He's wanting to make sure my body stays balanced and I don't end up having injury problems later. I never would have realized there was an imbalance going on the way he did. I can't count the times he's seen something that's made him adjuste my programming. I'm lucky to have him coaching me. I feel the sky's the limit with him in my corner.

My son and weightlifiting

Before the NM youth and master's weightlifting meet my former coach Joaquin Chaves of High Dessert weightlifting club called me up and asked if I needed him to warm me up, count attempts, and keep track of competition in my weight class and age group. He hasn't trained me as one of his athletes in over two years. There was no reason for him to do that for me. I was so touched.

On a side note my wife has been stressed out driving my son, Cody James to and from weightlifting practice with Coach Vernon Smith on Tuesdays. And now my daughter's volleyball practice is also on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It has gotten to much for her to handle. My wife asked me to pull Cody James out of weightlifting. Instead I called up Joaquin Chaves and asked him if he could take my son at High Dessert Athletic club. Coach Joaquin said yes. I'll be taking him to Joaquin Chaves on Monday's and Wednesday's. My mother-in-law will be taking him on Fridays. On one hand I'm excited that my son will be training three days a week with such an amazing man to guide my son in both weightlifting and life. But in the other hand this kinda sucks because his former coach, Vernon Smith was great with my son. I love Vernon. I think so much of him. Vernon been my powerlifting coach since I started powerlifting in October.

 My son starts HDAC on May 28th.

CrossFit triathlon, diet, and my Box

Last year I watched my buddy compete in the 4th annual Hellbox CrossFit triathlon. At the time I weighed in at 346lbs. I wanted to do that triathlon so bad. That's what got me back into CrossFit and eating right. I'm down to 265lbs. I've lost 81lbs preparing for that race so far. If I continue to lose the same rate as I have been I'll be down to approximately 230lbs by then. I will have lost 116lbs. They've renamed the race Enchant-Fit CrossFit triathlon.

This week my Powerlifting coach Vernon Smith is having me do a recovery week. Light weights and low volume. He also requested I don't do any crossfit workouts. All week I've been close to eating bad food and a lot of it. The only thing I've ever found that helps me stay on the diet wagon is crossfit. I'm not exactly sure why. But going to CrossFit keeps me motivated and on track diet wise. My calves were cramping horribly on all three of the runs. My body was freaking the heck out. Which is exactly why coach told to take some time off to recover. But ever since doing that workout i haven't been tempted to binge eat. I think doing that CF workout was the right thing. Perhaps not the best thing for my recovery. But it helped control my desire to over eat.

CrossFit. I don't always like it. I'm not built for it. But it's damn good for me. And I really love the people in my box.

On a side note. I failed the USPA referee test I took last week.

2018 NASA New Mexico Powerlifting state championships report

Body weight 265lbs
275lb weight class

Power clean 52.5k

Strict curls 57.5k (PR & state record)

Squat 435lbs (state record)

Bench 303 (PR & state record)

Deadlift 479 (tied PR & state record)
Total 1216 (state record)

My son
Weighed in at 64.2lbs
Lifted in 65lb weight class
Clean 55lbs (PR & state record)
Squat 60.3lbs (PR & state record)
Bench press 50lbs (PR & state record)
Deadlift 132.2lbs (PR & state record)

This weekend my son and I competed in the 2018 NASA New Mexico Powerlifting state championships.

I'm not going to go into a lot of details about the day. Most of this post will be about my sonss and my coacg. I knew two things was going to happen.
1) since I'd lost 80lbs in the last 7 months I knew I wouldn't be lifting anything amazing.
2) I knew my son was going to do some amazing lifting

My best squat was 435lbs. It was my 2nd best squat in a meet.

My best bench press of the day was a personal best and state record of 303lbs. I was pleasantly surprised by that lift.

My best deadlift was 479lbs. That tied my 2nd best lift.

My total was 1216lbs. My 2nd best total of all time.

Overall I did about the same as I used to do. But I used to weigh 346lbs. Now I'm only 265lbs. For me to have kept up my strength while losing this much is a near miracle. And truth be known, it's not something I'm doing. All the accolades should go to my Powerlifting coach Vernon Smith-More.  He's the most amazing coach I've ever had any sport. Most coaches know how to do one or two different approaches to training their athletes. If those don't work they'll blame the athletes diet, not sleeping enough, or they'll tell the athlete, "just stick with it. You're going through a plateau." Or "it's because your losing weight." But coach Vernon never stops trying new things to make sure I'm getting gains. He doesn't accept me not gaining strength just because I'm dieting. He's tried a lower volume, higher intensity program. A higher intensity, lower volume plan. High both, and low both. As he's trying these things he's watching my results and learning about how my body is responding and applying that knowledge to my next program. He's doing the same for my son. My son's total last year at this same meet was a 110lb total. In one year he's gone up to a 242lb total. His deadlift was 22lbs higher than his total was last year. Coach Vernon is the amazing. Not only is he a great coach, but he's a wonderful and compassionate human being too. As long as Vernon is my sons and my coach our future in powerlifting is going to be great. 

The bigger the base, the taller the peak

Ive been really dedicated to powerlifting training. I haven't missed a workout in months. I even trained this weekend in Durango Colorado when my family and I went out of town for the weekend. But I haven't been gaining strength recently. It's because I've been at a calories defacit for the last 6 months. I'm trying to lose weight and get into a lower weight class. Most coaches would just lay blame on the calorie defacit and continue sending the same training plan. Not my coach. He's trying different things just about every training plan. Trying to see what he can do to get my strength up while also losing fat. This training block he's decreasing intensity and increasing volume. I had a triathlon coach back in the day who tried this with me and we got great results. I gained a tremendous amount of speed and endurance. I realize triathlon training and Powerlifting are just about as different as humanly possible. But it's important to build a base regardless of the sport. There's an old saying, "the bigger the base, the taller the peak.". I think that's precisely what my coach is attempting to do. Build a bigger base. As usual, I really love my powerlifting coach. Here's awesome.

My Powerlifting coach

  I've had a ton of coaches in my life. Coaches in triathlon, CrossFit, nutrition, swimming, BJJ, weightlifting, Powerlifting, and more. I've never had a coach I was more impressed with than I am with my powerlifting coach Vernon Smith-More. Not only does he spend a tremendous amount of time, thought, and energy building a perfect program. He's also a fantastic problem solver. I'm a difficult athlete to train right now. There's a lot of things that prevents me from getting the gains a lot of athletes get. I'm in my 40's which minimizes gains, and I've been in a calorie defacit for a long time which also prevents a lot of muscle growth. He' tried a couple different approaches to training with me. When one thing doesn't work or he tries something else. That's rare. Most people coach by putting all their athletes on a cookie cutter program. If it works, great. If not, then that's just to bad. Vernon works hard at creating a tailored program. He's also great at keeping me on track and focused. I sent him an email requesting to do a Powerlifting meet in a couple weeks in Phoenix Arizona. He was able to convince me it was a bad idea. And that my long term development should be my greatest focus right now. Here's an example of a recent email I received from him.

Hey, Cody. I think that’d be a great meet schedule for next year! And yeah, any other meets you’d want to try in between we could just treat as “train through” meets and not necessarily adjust the programming for them. 

And as far as the upcoming April meets are concerned: I think I’d prefer you do the NASA meet. I’ve programmed this block with a bit more volume, but less intensity — which is different from how I’ve programmed you in the past. I’d like to see how you respond to a full block of submaximal training like this. If it goes well and you feel strong, we’ll have a good template going forward for how to best program for you in a caloric deficit. 

How does that sound?

Vernon

Next block, probably hypertrophy

I'll be getting my next powerlifting block today from my coach Vernon Smith. I'm pretty sure I'll doing hypertrophy again. That's bitter sweet. On one hand I seem to lose weight a lot quicker when I'm doing hypertrophy. Hypertrophy builds a lot of muscle, makes a guy look pumped, or swole (swole seems to be the new popular phrase). On the other hand my body isn't used to it. It hurts. And I struggle getting through the workouts. But I sure love the prospect of getting bigger and leaner.

I have another powerlifting meet on April 28th in Gallup NM. Its the NASA powerlifting (natural athlete strength association) state championships meet. I'm hoping to get a 450/300/500/1250

Pulled pectoral update

I had pulled my pectoral muscle a little less than a month ago. My powerlifting coach Vernon Smith has been helping me to build up the weights on bench again while avoiding injury. Yesterday I built up to a set of 3 reps at 225lbs. It felt great. No pain and the weight felt easy.

Have I mentioned how much I love my powerlifting coach? Out of all the coaches I've ever had he's by far my favorite. And I've had a grip of coaches. Coaches in Football, track, jui-jitsue, triathlon, weightlifting, Powerlifting, and more. There has probably never been a more unlikely duo. I'm a hard core libertarian, he's a devout socialist. But he's accepting of our differences, is able to figure out the best plan for just about anything in regards to training. I've got a hell of a coach, I'm happy to have him.

Pictures online

Because of how fat i got I refused to let any of my friends or family take pictures of me. And when they did I made them promise not to post it online. I was so humiliated by how obese I had become. Since September I've lost 60 pounds. And last night I posted a picture of my son and I with our coach at the gym. This was the first time in almost a decade I posted a picture of myself on Facebook. 60 down. 48 more to go. This was me September of 2017.

This is me last night.

I'm finally not ashamed of how I look. I'm not humiliated of who I am. I'm starting to feel confident and happy again.

Powerlifting knee wraps and CrossFit

At my last powerlifting meet I competed in the classic division. That means I could use powerlifting knee wraps. I've never used knee wraps, so I didn't compete with them. If I'd have used them I could have lifted somewhere around 50lbs more on both the squat and deadlift. I asked my coach to start adding an occasional set using the wraps to get used to using them. He agreed. Knee wraps.... I guess I'm a real powerlifter now...

I've been getting frustrated with CrossFit. In CrossFit they do a lot of technical exercises that i can't do. Hell, I've never been able to do them even when I was in the best shape of my life. Things like handstand push-ups, double unders, rope climbing, multiple sets of 20 pull ups. I've become frustrated enough that I've only gone to CrossFit once in the last week. 

Bad training days and great coaches

Last week I had a horrible day of squating. I was only able to squat 185X10. I can usually rep out 245 pretty easily. So today at the gym my Powerlifting Coach Vernon Smith pulled me aside to talk about it. He explained hypertrophy. And explained what I should do next time if I'm in that situation again. He put things in perspective. He even gave me a hell of a pep talk. It was exactly what I was needing. I'm ready for my next bad day of training. I know what to do in that situation and how to handle it. I really like my coach. He's awesome.

Life in Albuquerque

I'm finding myself blogging almost daily. Occasionally I'll post twice a day. It's been a long time since I've been so excited about something that I've done that. I'm getting stronger, I'm loosing weight, getting faster, building endurance, and having so much fun doing it all. I've found a great niche here in Albuquerque. I have a great powerlifting coach who is understanding about me wanting to supplement Powerlifting with CrossFit for health and weight loss reasons. I really love my CrossFit gym, the coaches, and members there. The support and encouragement I'm getting from both the Powerlifting and CrossFit community is awesome. And most importantly I'm not killing myself working overtime anymore. I have time to spend with my kids, working out, and time for myself. I think the word I'm looking for here is content. I'm content. I'm perfectly happy just the way things are. I still want to loose some more weight, get faster, stronger, and build more endurance. But I'm enjoying the journey instead of just obsessing about the end goal.

It burns!!!

Today was the first day of my new programming. Coach Vernon had me doing hypertrophy. That means high reps and short rest intervals. My plan was to go into the gym gung-ho and only take 45-60 second rests between sets. After my first set I realized short rests was NOT going to happen. I had no idea hypertrophy was going to burn so bad. I don't remember hypertrophy EVER hurting like this before. I'm not sure if it hurts like this because it's been so long since I've done hypertrophy (it's been 10+ years). Perhaps it's because I've never been this strong and done this much weight with high reps and short rests. Or if it's just because I'm getting old. But regardless it surprised me. This block of training is going to be unpleasant. The good news is hypertrophy makes it easier to slim down. That makes me happy. I've been hovering around 304-302lbs for almost a month. It would be really nice to get into the 200's again.

day one of 2nd training plan

 Coach Vernon sent me my next training block. It starts tomorrow. I've enjoyed this week away from the gym. But it got old quick. I can't wait until tomorrow. I miss training. I miss the stress relies and working towards a goal. I'm also thoroughly looking forward to test Tuesday at Bear Canyon CrossFit. I can't wait to find out what we're testing. Bench press and Grace are the two I'm looking forward to most.

Recovery mode

My body was really tired after the deadlift test on Tuesday. I tried doing a small squat workout on Wednesday. But my body is fried and needs some R&R. I'm not stepping foot in a gym or working out until Monday. And then coach Vernon Smith said he's going to be pushing me as hard as my body can handle. He warned me, this next training session will be intense. He told me he needed me to come into the gym physically and mentally ready. Because he's going to test my limits, So, no training for me until Monday. Sounds like fun huh?

2017 USPA New Mexico powerlifting state championships report

BW 138k
Squat 457.2lbs (PR & state record)
Bench 297.5lbs (tied PR & state record)
Deadlift 479lbs (PR and state record)
Total 1227lbs (PR and state record)

Yesterday I completed in the 2017 USPA New Mexico state powerlifting championships. I've been lifting exclusively for powerlifting for only 2 months. And two and a half weeks of that I didn't lift because the family and I were on vacation or I had started out at CrossFit and was to tired to lift. So after only 5.5 weeks of actual training I wasn't expecting much. My powerlifting coach Vernon Smith had a lot more faith in my abilities than I did. He sent me the lefts he wanted me to try and it was much much higher than I had faith that I could do.

The first lift was my favorite one. The Squat. I'd done Olympic style weightlifting for 4.5 years before jumping ship to powerlifting. We squat a lot in weightlifting. But there's absolutely no bench press. And only light weighted clean deadlifts. I got a little freaked out during warm ups because my last set of 405 I struggled with. My first squat of the day was 425lbs. It was felt moderately heavy, but lighter than the warm up 405. The next attempt tied a lifetime best of 440lbs. It didn't feel heavy at all. My last attempt was 457.2lbs. If I made that lift I'd have set a lifetime best of over 17lbs! My last attempt felt even easier than my 2nd attempt. Three white lights. Good lift!! I was shocked! How the heck did I get that strong in only 5.5 weeks of training? The squat was a state record.

Next up was the bench. I've always sucked at bench. And I haven't done any training for bench since Olympic weightlifters never do much upper body work and we NEVER bench. I really didn't think I could do what coach was wanting. But Eric, owner of Iron Soul told me, and I quote, "do what your coach days. You have him for a reason. Do it or your a dumbass." Well, I did it. 270, 285, 297.5 and I was shocked. I had more in the tank. My coach knew me well. The bench was a new state record.

When I first stepped on the platform for my first deadlift I felt like something was wrong. I couldn't figure out what was wrong. But there definitely was. My first deadlift of 430lbs was a good lift. It was also a state record. When the judge went to check my he said, "there's no great to check." I looked down and realized I had forgotten to put on my weightlifiting shoes, weightlifting belt, and knee sleeves. Once I geared up I feel a lot better on my 2nd deadlift of 451lbs. My last lift of 471lbs was going to be a 28lb personal best and another state record. It went up so easy I was amazed. I think a 500lb deadlift is in my near future.

My total of 1227lbs was a lifetime best by 39lbs and a state record. I'm shocked what I was able to do with only a couple months training. I can't wait to see what I'll be able to accomplish with more time in training and more weight loss guided by my awesome coach Vernon Smith.

Next training cycle

Have I mentioned recently how much I like my powerlifting coach? Well I think he's pretty awesome. I emailed him this morning and asked if I should start training more frequently. I asked if he thought I could handle training some two-a-days. His response motiated me.

His response, "I’d say stick with 4 days of powerlifting a week. Since we’ll be going off of 1RMs during this next training cycle (instead of just slowing getting back into lifting shape), the workouts should be much harder and much more taxing. Doing a two-a-day in the midst of such workouts would, I think, be Ill advised."

Looks like the next training cycle will be pretty intense. I can't wait!!!

Train less, gain more, hire a strength coach

For years I was a hard gainer. That's a term powerlifters, bodybuilders, and strength athletes use for someone who doesn't gain size or streangth easily. Someone who has to train harder and still takes longer to get gains than most. For years I'd heard how the majority of streangth athletes over train. And of course I thought I was training perfectly. I felt I was doing the proper amount of everything. And then I hired my powerlifting coach Vernon Smith. I'm training less now than I ever have. And now I'm getting the best streangth gains I could ever have dreamed. Turns out I was just like every other idiot amatuer athlete out there. To much training and not enough rest. All I needed this whole time was a good coach. I only wish I had figured this out when I was younger. I wasted a tremendous amount of time and effort in my twenties training religiously with hardly any gains.

If your an athlete. Do yourself a favor. Hire a coach. You'll be great full you did.

Powerlifting and CrossFit

Last night I attempted one heavy snatch and one heavy clean and jerk. And the weight I lifted was rediculously low. The last couple years I've been struggling at weightlifiting. I love weightlifting. But my body just isn't good at it. I can squat and deadlift very well. But not the snatch and clean and jerk. I've decided I'm going to train CrossFit and powerlifting. Which works well because I really like the powerlifting coach I've been training with. I know how rediculous this is. I've flip flopped between weightlifiting and powerlifting a dozen times the last couple years. I need to decide and stick to it. I think this time I will. But then again I thought I'd decided a bunch of times before and it changed shortly.