The Road So Far: Early College

In Fall 2010, I made what was probably the best decision I've ever made, and joined Penn State Powerlifting.  They quickly talked me into entering a meet called the Iron Lion Open.  Still running Westside, I competed in 181, and went 385/275/405.  No real PRs, but I had competed, which is a big step.

Eventually, I found real death metal.  Cannibal Corpse and Dying Fetus quickly took over my musical life.

For the rest of my freshman year of college, I did Wendler's 5/3/1.  I didn't really get anywhere with this.  My rep maxes went way up, but, after several months, I tested my maxes, and they had gone down.  It was at this time that I decided that I was smarter than I used to be, and ready to try Westside again.  I guess I got a little stronger, but, mainly, I just learned a lot about how I respond to training.

Here's where my taste in metal started to gain maturity.  My training partner introduced me to other forms of heavy metal like melodic death metal, extreme metal, and various forms of black metal.

Fast forward to fall 2011, beginning my sophomore year of college.  The team finally talked me out of continuing with Westside, and I did Sheiko 37 to prepare for the Iron Lion Open again.  I decided that I wanted to try to qualify for the 2012 USAPL Collegiate National Championships, and I wanted to do it raw (the qualifying numbers are meant for singly ply lifters).  This time, I competed at a body weight of about 185 and hit 420/315/450, barely missing my third deadlift of 515, which would have got me qualified.

After the Iron Lion 2011, I did a program made for the team by our coach to prepare for a small meet in January.  It was similar to Sheiko, but less volume with higher weight.  It went well, and I easily qualified for nationals in single ply.  I don't remember my exact numbers for this meet.  This was the first time I competed in gear, and I was hooked.

Next, I continued with another program written for the team by our coach to prepare for Nationals.  This also went quite well.  As a sophomore, I hit approximately 600/385/520, good enough for 14th place in the 220 lb class (I only weighed 205, but I was convinced to bump for roster purposes).

This is me at Nationals 2012 attempting my first 600 lb squat.

 Stay tuned for "The Road So Far:  College, Junior Year."