Go! Big Dog Go!!!

"Puttin' Strength to the Test"

Matt 4board did it. Friday. He singlehandedly beat the Canadians at the Police-Fire Can-Am Games. Took home a gold medal in his class (220 open). More importantly he set 2 pr's. Which means Matt is getting strong(er).

But the day did not start out so sunny. Well, ok it actually did. But M4 did his best to cloud it up. He appeared a little peak-ed after dropping weight for the weigh-in. He bloated back up but was not his usual shiny self. He opened with a strong 600 in the squat. (And his coach did not cough in lieu of an 'up' call. Ahem.) We decided on 635 for a pr. But fate had other plans (see my last post about life-not-being-fair). He got out of his groove on the way up and the spotters had to take it. OK, no problem, we would retake the weight and still get the pr. In the third attempt he got buried in the hole. It was so awful I could not look (well not really). Even with that he was still in the meet. I think he was a little rattled but WTF; it happens. We marched on.

Warm-ups went well for the bench. He opened at 410 and came down a little too slow and a little too low on his chest and it came up very slowly. So much for this being a confidence builder. (And he had the lovely Mrs. 4board and The Two Little 4boards in attendance. In the front row. No pressure though. I mean who wants to look bad in front of family. Me personally, I find if one does it enough on a regular basis no one gets surprised anymore. But thats off the subject...) We were very very very conservative for attempt number two; 420. It would give him a 5 pound pr. Well that one went down and up much better. Still a little slow but good. Sticking with the conservative theme, we decided on 435 for number three. And he smoked it with pounds to spare. It was the prettiest benchpress yet.

So on to M4's pet lift. His bread and butter; the deadlift. I think El Fourboard-o was starting to feel a little better. He complained his back was a little tight. We thinks it was from doubling over during the third squat attempt. Someone backstage had some Blue Heat (Horse lineament folks. For horses and hairy Irishmen. And cranky Pollocks too. Get some. It works.) and Matt tried some of it. He took it easy in the warm-up room to conserve energy. (In the midst of all this, Grandpa called and asked how M4 was doing. I gave him the rundown about the squat, and, the artful dodger that he is, Gramps asked, WTF? Is he a head case too?!? Confidence, friends. It is most reassuring when one feels the overwhelming support and love of friends. I told Matt that Gramps said 'hi' and left it at that. M4 smoked 600. Numero duo had 635 on the bar (another pr) and The Matt-meister ate it up. We discussed the third attempt. I said how did it feel. He said, a little heavy. I replied, well it sure looked easy. So he said, pick whatever you want. So I did. 650. It's what he blacked out during in his last meet. Now it was payback time.

The Board came out, moved the bar around a bit to where he wanted it and attacked it! He rolled it forward and back, then I swear he actually jumped off the ground, then, set to pulling that bitch off the floor. Well, it was a magnificent lift my friends. The jump threw me off a bit, but once the bar left the floor I knew it was his. It was his best pull yet. And it sure was p-u-r-d-y.

What a nice day. We learned some things. We have some things to work on in training and we had a great time. I spent some time talking to Larry Pacifico, who was coaching some lifters there, and enjoyed that. What a neat man. I think it is pretty cool that in my small area there are so many legendary powerlifting figures around. It is very humbling to be able to speak freely to them and call some of these guys my friends.

So congrats again to Matt, "Go big dog! Go!" He went alright.

And I didn't realize you were such an emotional person. I owe you a hug, big guy. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. (You can hit me later. And I'll remind you...)

Stay strong,
Ed T.