Who needs to squat!....Or how I performed well at the Arnolds without training squat...

Ahhhh the Arnold Weightlifting Championships, part competition, part freak show.  The theme for the weekend was "Let's get weird!"  And speaking of weird, my training going into the competition was the weirdest, most inconsistent, directionless training I've ever had.  I wasn't really following a specific cycle or plan for most of the time frame between the American Open and the Arnold.  I had a collaborative training cycle for about 3 weeks leading into the competition and that's about the extent of planning.  Since about the end of October I had done a back squat a grand total of one time and front squats maybe a total of three times, essentially zero focus on training a heavy bilateral squat for strength.  My squat training came in two forms: full lifts and split squats.  The rest of my strength training involved snatch pulls.  Yep, basically three things got me healthy, got me strong, and helped me nail a PR.  It's not the normal training I would prescribe but I had to think outside the box after pissing a year's worth of good training down my leg and hurting myself at the American Open.  And well, it worked so well it even got rid of nagging pains I've experienced for years. 

After waiting months to redeem myself from having to withdraw from the American Open it was time for a little ol' road trip to the thriving metropolis of Columbus, OH.  As the sun rose Thursday I was packing before heading to the airport to pick up my lifter, James, who unhappily arrived from Arizona to a snowy Chicago landscape.  We hit the road where we stopped in Indiana for a quality breakfast with the old folks at Bob Evans then gassed up & got provisions for the trip.  About 5 hours and one video of dancing gummy bears later, we arrived in Columbus.  A little pre-workout meal from Wendy's and we headed to the venue for our final training session before the competition.  I can happily and excitedly tell you that we were the very first people to use the warm-up room that was stocked with brand new Eleiko bars.  Post training meal involved James and Terry making fun of me for my lack of desire to parallel park my truck outside of the restaurant and then eventually getting a parking ticket for parking in a residential area.  Damn you, Columbus Meter Maids!

Friday was all about watching teammates compete, cups of bacon, exploring the expo, and one smart ass comment almost setting of a 'Roid Rage.  The hotel we were setup in thankfully had a free breakfast that involved more than tiny boxes of cereal and a box of mixed bagels, donuts, and danishes.  Post-breakfast we decided Terry would need a pick-me-up since he was trouble-shooting the scoreboard all weekend long so we packed a coffee to-go cup with bacon.  It was much appreciated and later repeated.  After the bacon delivery it was time to wander the expo, get free crap, and enjoy the freak show.  However, when at the Arnold Sports Festival I would recommend against offering to hold a man's purse while he attempts to axel deadlift 480lbs.  Otherwise you get an overly acned, overly large dude puffing his chest up in your face, posturing up like a gorilla in the safari telling you that that's his brother and not to call it a purse.  And that's when I quickly wandered away.  Haha!  Friday evening ended with a little driving tour around the Ohio State University campus and surprising my men's volleyball team when I showed up to watch them play against OSU.  While they played amazing and took it to 5 games, they eventually lost. 

Saturday!  Game day!  After breakfast with the teammates, they went off to the venue to wait around for weigh-ins and I stuck around the hotel awhile.  About an hour and half later, I was in rare form.  Showered up, make-up on, hair & nails did.  I figured if I looked pretty I would lift pretty.  Turns out that wasn't too far off.  Everything was feeling great during warm-ups and I told my coach that I wanted to open with a conservative 70, then jump to 74, and finally take a PR attempt at 78.  This was one of the few meets where I've ever had to go back into the warm-up room for extra lifts because there were so many attempts by other lifters between my announced attempts.  Opened with a solid 70, came out with an even more solid 74 on the second attempt, missed an extra lift back in the warm up room, shrugged it off, and boldly walked out for a stab at 78.  I don't recall anything between the point of lift off and when I was sitting in the bottom of the snatch just holding on to it, recovering slowly.  Stood up with it, got the down signal, stared down the scoreboard looking for those little white lights, and then bounced down off the platform like a 15-year-old cheerleader.  Three white lights and a confirmed PR!

On to the clean & jerks!  I realized that I'm either getting stronger or smarter or both but it really doesn't take me many attempts to get to my openers anymore. In this case I was ready for my opener after 4 warm-up attempts.  Again I went with a conservative opener at 85, I just needed to hit that to nail a good enough total to qualify for Nationals.  Solid, easy clean but a weeee bit of an unlock on the jerk.  Thanks to inconsistent judging I was able to get 2 of 3 white lights on it though.  After another lift in the warm up room, came back out on the platform with 90, again an easy clean but Lordy did I throw the jerk forward.  Locked it out, lunged forward, again got 2 of 3 white lights.  Again there were what felt like a million attempts between my second and third attempts and I was running out of gas so I didn't want to take an extra lift in the back.  I had gummy bears between snatch and clean & jerk (*gasp* don't care, don't want your nutritional advice) and they were quickly disappearing from their intended energy boost.  Stepped on the platform determined to go for broke on an attempt at 94.  Crussssshhhhhhhed the clean, stood up, and then the room started getting small.  One breath, two breath, dip, annnnd dumped the weight.  Holy hell was I gassed.  In the end I was credited with 78 & 90 on a 5 for 6 performance and within 1k of my best total ever.  Check it out.....

Overall I really do credit the split squats with not only being my saving grace but also the reason I was able to perform as well as I did without training heavy front or back squats.  One week out from the competition I was able to split squat holding 160lbs for two reps each leg.  In case you're wondering that's essentially what I weigh and I squatted it primarily using one leg.  I call that a win.  Who needs to train squats!  Well actually we all do but split squats are now going to be a staple of all my training cycles in some capacity.  8 hours worth of driving and 3 days later, I've already been back in on the platform twice.  One day of working of being patient during snatch and finding better balance & transition on the snatch pull.  One day of working on feeling the difference between a good jerk and a bad jerk.  Annnnnnd I squatted!  Back squat 100x3 like it was a warm up weight.  I know it's not that heavy but blah blah blah don't care, the point is I squatted 100k after not squatting since October! 

Who's back on the right track for big things this year?  This girl!  I hear a PR train rolling into the station and it's time to hop on.  Chugga chugga chooooo chooooo!