Ryan Wood at Aggressive Strength’s SPF Powerlifting Meet

About a week and a half ago a good friend and former SAPT coach Ryan Wood competed in his most recent powerlifting meet. I once again served as his “handler” for the meet. A “handler” is basically the lifter’s personal assistant throughout the meet, helping him/her into and out of their powerlifing gear, assisting with warm-ups, wrapping knees, and basically taking care of all miscellaneous business so that the lifter can focus on three things: squatting, benching, and deadlifting!

Here is a recap of his performance that earned him first place in the 181 single-ply division!

SQUAT

The squat is definitely Ryan’s best lift. He opened up with an EASY 390, and cruised right through his second attempt of 425. From there we called for 450 on his third attempt, which flew up surprisingly fast. 3 for 3 on the squat, with a 19lb PR!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoTmBoQgmN0

BENCH

My biggest concern with Ryan’s bench was waiting for the “rack” call on the attempts. Failing to wait for the head judge to give a “rack” call before placing the bar back onto the hooks will result in a missed lift, no matter how pretty the actual bench press looked. Some of Ryan’s training partners let me know that he was falling into the habit of racking the bar too early, so with every attempt I made sure the last thing he heard from me was “wait for the ‘rack’”.

His opener of 295 looked like dynamic effort work (it was lightning fast), and proceeded to hit 325 with no problem. His third attempt was 350, which was a grind, but he pushed through it and locked it out. All commands from the judge were obeyed and he went 3 for 3 on the bench, with a whopping 48lb PR!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQ4outaCFG0

DEADLIFT

Ryan will be the first to tell you that the deadlift is his arch nemesis. It is continually improving, but has always been a weak point in his powerlifting repetoire. He opened up with 375, a very clean pull. Second attempt was 405, which wasn’t too slow, but it definitely drained him. We called for 425 for his third attempt, and although he gave it a good ride the bar wouldn’t budge past his knees. 2 for 3 on the deadlift, but still walked away with a 2lb PR!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jllGgE5dwGc

TOTAL

All in all Ryan ended up with a 1205 total, a 69lb total PR, and 1st Place in his division! His consistency and hard work during his meet prep paid off, and got to leave the meet with some new numbers in the books, a plaque, and some new goals to achieve in his next meet. Big thanks to all those who came and showed support!

Sarah Walls
A little about me: I've worked in pretty much every corner of the fitness industry for about 10 years. I've had the great fortune of spending most of this time working with gifted athletes at every level. I've also had the great opportunity of designing and conducting research projects, writing occasionally for various publications and blogs, competing in powerlifting, and just generally having a killer time pursuing my passions wherever they may take me. Now I own two businesses: one is an athletic performance training company that I started in 2007 at age 26 and the other is a software company startup that was launched in 2014. Paramount to all the awesomeness of my professional career, is my family. My kids are a thrill and my husband continues to be my most critical and important supporter.
www.strengthboss.com
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