Opie's Summer at Diablo
(I'll try
to keep this shorter than a novel)
As little as a year ago, I was completely lost. How lost? For
starters, I thought I wanted to be a bodybuilder. Thankfully, at some point
during the past school year I realized that bodybuilding is kind of gay, so I
moved on to powerlifting. But even so, I was still very lost. My
form sucked—I couldn't deadlift heavy without hurting myself, I was a total pec
and shoulders bencher, and I wanted to be a quad squatter like all the Olympic
lifters. On top of that, I wanted to be RAWDAWG 4 LIFE!!!
Fortunately, I visited Diablo a few times over spring break and Ted
straightened me out about a few things. I started trying to bench like a powerlifter,
I switched to sumo deadlifting, and I started squatting out wide. I made
a little bit of progress on my lifts in those last few months at school, and
one lifter even told me that my squat form was "pretty good."
"Train wreck." That's what Ted said about my squat form when I
first arrived at Diablo for the summer. I quickly learned that all the
things I was trying to do right when benching—touch it low, back tight, arch,
pull the bar apart—I was actually doing completely wrong.
Furthermore, in one speed squat session Ted threatened to kill me and bury me
behind Diablo. I was scared shitless. However, later on in that
same session Ted told me that my deadlift form was "not a train
wreck," "not bad," and he might have even said it was
"pretty good" (but I might have misheard, or maybe he was talking
about something else). At least there was some hope. Ted and many
others worked with me on my form, and while it was far from perfect it was
steadily improving and I was getting stronger.
There was one person in particular who kept a watchful eye on me and made sure
I didn't screw up too bad: Steve. I don't remember how it came about, but
it was decided that George and I would be Steve's "lackeys."
One of his first decisions was about my weight gain. Throughout the past
school year I'd gone from ~185 lbs to a little over 200. On the day that
Steve decided my weight gain challenge, I weighed in at 206.4 lbs. Steve
rounded to 207. He told me that I had to be 222 by July 30th,
which was his 27th birthday. Now, I've never considered myself
a hardgainer because I think all too often people use that as an excuse for
sucking, but 15 lbs in just over a month? Damn, that was gonna be
hard!
I didn't make my weight gain goal. BIG MISTAKE!!! I was fairly
close—a little over 219 lbs—but close wasn't going to cut it, nor would it earn
me any mercy. For this failure, I was punished brutally. See the
last section for detailed accounts of the 3 most worst punishments.
Missing my weight goal was one of my worst moments at Diablo, but the Diablo
meet held 2 weeks later was one of my best. I squatted 501, benched 363,
and deadlifted 464. On top of that, "Dark Opie" made his first
appearance. This was my first meet and it was an awesome experience.
I had tons of fun.
Aside from the meet, one of my greatest accomplishments at Diablo was being
accepted as a member of Team V. Steve and Charlie are both great lifters
who have displayed an enormous amount of teamwork and dedication, and I'm
honored to be a member of their team. I hope to make them proud.
They have both been tremendously helpful to me over the summer, and thanks to
them I now dream of one day having a lackey of my own.
So what kind of progress have I made over the summer? I've gained close
to 30 lbs, going from a little over 200 to 230. Before coming to Diablo,
my best box squat to legal depth was about 365 or so. At the meet I
squatted 501, and last week I box squatted 475 with a safety squat bar and
wearing just the bottom of a single ply suit, which I don't think helped me out
all that much anyways. My squat form is much better than at the beginning
of the summer, and while it isn't perfect yet, I'm working hard to get it
right. My deadlift has gone from 435 to 505. I guarantee that in my
first week at school I will get at least 535, which would mean I improved my
deadlift by 100 lbs at Diablo. It would also mean that I can finally
out-deadlift Shannon and claim my rightful place as the strongest girl at
Diablo. I haven't tested full range bench in a while, but I know that my
lockout strength is way up and my triceps have gotten much stronger. I'm
still struggling with the transition from pec and shoulder benching to
powerlifting benching, but I know that once I get my form down and bring up the
right muscle groups (triceps and lats) my bench is going to jump up fast.
During the school year I'll continue to work on my squat and bench form, of
course getting stronger all the while. (Don't worry, I'm not going to
start taking squat advice from other lifters and end up doing stupid shit like
rocking on the box.) My deadlift has been going up like mad—120 lbs
improvement since May—and I hope to continue to ride this wave of
improvement. Also, I'll work on building up some street cred while I'm at
UCSD. I'll be back at Diablo for a month over winter break, and I'll be
sure to stop by whenever I'm home. By the time next summer rolls around I
hope to be a lot stronger and have my form on all 3 lifts pretty much dialed
in.
Sadly, summer is over now, and I must leave Diablo. Everyone I've met at
Diablo has helped me out at one point or another, and I'm extremely thankful
for all the help and instruction I received in my time here. I will
sorely miss the camaraderie and intensity of Diablo Barbell. Lifting at
Diablo has been by far the best lifting experience I've ever had, and I eagerly
await the day when I come back to the cult.
The Passion of the Opie
Detailed
accounts of my 3 most brutal punishments for failure to make my weight goal
Punishment 1
My first punishment took place the day I missed my weight gain goal. I
had to do 27 trips with the prowler. After 6 I was dry heaving.
Somewhere between 10 and 15 my legs fell asleep. Eventually I got all 27,
and I was ready to die. Then Ted told me to do 1 more, since I had to
push the prowler back inside. I did the 28th, and again I was
ready to die. Then he made me do 20 bodyweight squats. After that I
was beyond dead.
Punishment 2
The 2nd terrible punishment was 200 bodyweight squats. At
first I didn't think it sounded that bad, but it was brutal and then
some. The first 100 were hard. As with the prowler trips, my legs
fell asleep. By 150 or so, I could barely stand. I'm surprised I
didn't fall over. Somehow I managed all 200. Afterwards I was
walking around like a cripple. I was sore for over a week.
Punishment 3
The 3rd punishment was arguably the worst. I had to do walking
lunges in the parking lot with the giant cambered bar on my back. My legs
were dead after the 1st trip. Then I stood in place while
Steve strapped some knee pads on me. It's a good thing he did, because at
least a couple times on the 2nd trip I failed to get back up after
kneeling down, but I pushed onward and found a way to get back up and keep
going. After finishing the 2nd trip I was told that I had to
do 50 squats and 50 good mornings with the bar still on my back. My arms
and upper back were completely asleep, and just keeping the bar on my back was
a huge challenge. At one point I almost dropped the bar. Steve
later told me that Ted's eyes grew wide with excitement. I wouldn't know,
since I kept my eyes shut just about the entire time. Luckily I didn't
drop the bar, and I finished my squats and good mornings. Then I had to
put the bar back. This was incredibly difficult, since my whole upper
body was asleep by now, but somehow I did it. This punishment convinced
me to get to 230 lbs one way or another and end the punishment, and that's
exactly what I did.
Here is some video of Jeff from the 2006 Diablo
APF NorCal Open - Opie squats and Opie benches