Powering through in 2010 with my powerlifting

I have just come to the end of my first training cycle of 2010. It has been a good start to the year. I have been following a Westside Barbell split, which I had good gains with a few years ago when I started powerlifting. On reflection, it has been good to come back to it and has definitely helped in two of my lifts (Squat and Bench) and not so good in the other (Dead Lift).

I am very pleased with my lifts, as only in November I was lifting significantly less, although I have put on weight and a fair amount of body fat since then. I am now weighing about 90-91kg, instead of the lean 81kg back in November at the Worlds. My lifts have definitely benefitted from this weight increase and now it is time to get my muscles a lot stronger and not just rely on the increase in body weight.

I am now taking a week off and looking to go into a new training cycle for the second quarter of 2010. Having gone to watch the British Championships this weekend, I can see I have a lot of work to do to catch up to the other 90kg lifters in that category, Andy Bonner and Henry Tosh both lifting 660kg + totals. It is great to have these goals though and I totally believe I can be among them, maybe not next year or the year after, but in a few years.

I have not decided on what program or split I am going to do yet and will keep you updated on the program choice. I am a believer in modeling oneself on people who have been successful, this doesn't just apply to my powerlifting, I apply this to my life in general. So, I am looking into programs such as Jim Wendler's 5 3 1 program, Ed Coans routines, maybe a different Westside Barbell Split, I am not sure yet. As I said though, I will keep you posted.

Harry