This video touches me deeply. After I got back from Atlanta, in the emptiness in which I found myself here, I watched it every single day. I even downloaded “Written in the Stars” to my ipod. I listen to this song when I need an extra drive to my training. Not because of the song, much less the lyrics (they are just silly…. But because it reminds me of the video and the incomparable dream of building this movement. I invest all my energies in the ASUPO project. A new powerlifting, with everything good this sport brings with it: art, blood and guts, generosity, solidarity, laughter and a sense of awe. Minus all the bad and degenerate things that the wrong people brought into it. Thank you, Leonardo Cavaglia.

Ok!! I'm good with ANY platform, except this one! If you want to watch the video, copy and paste it - bb.com doesn't seem to care about it's bugs, that's what I think... 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kdwAY6Ve2uE

To my readers, please forgive me the unreadable texts I am posting. I have tried absolutely everything within my reach, from writing into txt editors, no formatting, to pasting to different text editors and avoid formatting problems, but there's a persistent bug here that scrambles my text.

Yes, I am writing from a non-English speaking country, at a locally manufactured computer and keyboard. But that should not be an excuse: digital information is universal.

I don't know what to do. This problem started about one and a half years ago and I haven't deleted this blog because I have been keeping it for years. It's hard to let it go. But the way it is, it's useles... 

More on my own hybrid training and how it is periodized. If you look at my table with five categories of training components (powerlifting, weightlifting, kettlebell, bodyweight training and “other” it will look like a sort of game with random dice throws. It’s not. This is a table I designed for myself in which I organized the exercise repertoires that may be relevant in different moments of my periodization. Some will be relevant all the time. I need power all the time. Weightlifting is a permanent component, whether someday I compete it or not. There is “some” WL everyday or most days, which means either full lifts or some accessory exercise. A few BW movements are useful most of the time – I’m still experimenting with them. Box jumps are great to improve power, pliometric pushups, etc. With kettlebell, I emphasize one or another exercise depending on the need. For example: my deadlift started to exhibit what seemed like the same problem at higher loads. So I videotaped the whole workout, from warmup to the actual training goal and bingo: I was losing lower back tightness. Looking closer, I was losing hip snap power. So, KB swings could help recover that (we’ll see), obviously combined with more specific exercises. So, along a periodized intensity and projected max progression, the latter based on educated guesswork (who doesn’t do that?) for the lifts, I organize the strategy with the resources that showed to be effective. These are the “hybrid repertoire” I mentioned before. Yes, I do “conjugate” on my strength days, thanks. Only my “strength days” are not necessarily only strength days. Does this work? All I can say is that it has worked, and it has worked for me. I have never designed anything this wild to any other athlete. I’m not that irresponsible. More on cycles, blocks and chunks of time later.

Stress. That’s the bottom line after endless tests and clinical evaluations. In the end, vulnerability to injury, problems with recovery from injury and staling in pre-competitive preparation. But where does stress come from? Unfortunately, the literature on sports psychology is mostly restricted to collegiate Olympic athletes and focuses on injury specific events. Many (if not most) athletes, however, are involved in non-olympic sports, such as powerlifting – my sport. And psychological stress causes stretch far beyond the traditional “fear of failure”, “loss of control” and “social inadequacy” triad. It may generate some unease to spit it out like this in public, but at least in powerlifting and other strength sports, bullying from adversaries, federation infight and other serious conflicts that emanate from the power games inherent to the sport may be the chief causes of stress. I have seen athletes being destroyed this way. I’ve seen others just drop out. Haven’t you? The other big one, of course, is how to balance “life as it is” with passionate commitment to one’s sport. Good subject for many articles.

Psychological stress, performance, and injury in sport.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1450888

Assessing strategies to manage work and life balance of athletic trainers working in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I setting.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21391805

(also at http://www.powerliftingwatch.com/node/21048 

South America showed up as a block the GPA (raw) World Powerlifting Championship, December 1-4 in Jonesboro, GA. The year before, World Champion Mauro Spinardi came alone, squatted the world record weight of 355kg and became the continent’s representative. During the following months, he brought four new country members to the GPA (Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador and Uruguay). This year, five lifters from Colombia and Brazil came with Mauro to the Worlds.

The South American block achieved relevant results in several weight and age classes. Mauro Spinardi broke his own previous squat and deadlift world records, establishing the impressive mark of 395kg and 341kg. Mauro’s raw squat is a historical record for all squats (with & without wraps), replacing the 869lbs previous mark of Jon Cole (USA, 1972, AAU).

Junior lifter Jason Samper lifted 255-115-275 (kg) , establishing a new world record in the squat and deadlift (Tn 18-19) and improving his own total of three months before in 90 kg. His father, Julio Samper, lifted 280 – 142,5 – 262,5 (kg), also establishing a new master’s world record for 110kg (M 50-54).

Saul Salazar, Colombia’s head coach , lifting with a badly injured right leg, did 220 – 160 – 220 (kg) and won the title for the M 40-44  100 kg category.

South American women also achieved important results: Daisy Kuischmann Medina, from Colombia, lifted 138 – 67,5 – 148 (kg) , won the Open category title and established a new world record for the squat and deadlift at the 67,5kg BW category. GPA Elite lifter Marilia Coutinho, from Brazil, won the Bench Press and the Powerlifting Championships for the 60kg open category , lifting 175kg (historical record, replacing the 330lbs squat by Anastasiya Amelina, 04/08/11, WPC, Russia) – 100kg – 170kg and establishing a new world record for the squat and the deadlift.

South American powerlifters have founded a continental organization in October 6^th, the South American Powerlifting Alliance (ASUPO). ASUPO’s president and lifter Leonardo Cavaglia, from Argentina, believes the continent is evolving well in the sport, chiefly because of the intense interchange of experience that has taken place in the last few years. Such networking resulted not only in the founding of the ASUPO, but in better structure in regional events, better local organization, and more information concerning training and strategic planning for the sport. More experienced lifters, from more traditional powerlifting environments, like Argentina, are finally able to help the rest of the continent to catch up.

Maximum strength supercompensation is a tricky matter. It’s slooooooooow. You may (and you must) snatch and you may (and you must) clean and jerk days before your meet. But you cannot touch the weights if you are serious about a heavy bench press many many days before the planned max.

To make things a bit more complicated, different people have different supercompensatory periods for max strength. This is known among lifters. Also familiar to us is the fact that diffent LIFTS demand different supercompensatory times. The deadlift is the slowest for most (if not all) people.

For me, the squat is the fastest and also the fastest to lose performance without proper stimulation. But “fast” is still very slow as compared to other motor tasks such as those involved in WL.

Max strength supercompensation is a bit like a stew, I guess. You spend a lot of time preparing the dish, cutting the meat, spicing, adding items, stirring and then you leave it alone and wait till its done. If you don’t wait enough, it will taste like crap and you won’t be able to eat it. If you wait too long it will burn.

I want to share with the sports community some thoughts that are not often talked about among us. Connectedness, integration and overcoming body alienation.

The link bellow is poet Eve Ensler's talk on TED, the most eloquent speech I ever heard about reconnection with one's lost body. She has cancer and she tells us about her journey back into herself through cancer.

I highly recommend it.

http://www.ted.com/talks/eve_ensler.html

I am going back to Georgia. Where the dogwoods bloom in spring and mountains stand high and silent. Hard rock against hard rock.

I remember Georgia from my childhood. I remember things I couldn’t understand at the time. It was the mid-seventies, hard days. Most of all, though, I remember love and friendship.

I am going back to Georgia to do what I do best in life: lift weights. The GPA World Powerlifting Raw Championship will be held there, at Jonesboro, near Atlanta. I am going there to lift weights and meet friends.

Lifting at the GPA World follows my participation on the GPA South American Bench Press and Powerlifting championship, last October. There, we founded the ASUPO – the South American Powerlifting Alliance. Most ASUPO country members are affiliated to the GPA (Global Powerlifting Alliance). We found there a hospitable, high level and morally impeccable lifting environment.

For years, taking part in powerlifting competitions, in my country, has been a burden. One I carried because of my unconditional commitment to the sport that saved my life. Obviously, my lifting was frequently way bellow the expected.

It was sad. I was in search for something that could save the sport and provide the celebratory environment that powerlifting championships should always be.

I believe this search is over.

I am going back to Georgia.

We were discussing Argentina today. The point of departure for this conversation was my account of what is happening today in Powerlifting: the “South American Revolution” lead by two Argentine athletes, Leonardo Cavaglia and Mauro Spinardi.

Why Argentina? Well, we must agree that they stand out in South America in historical and cultural respects. Argentina had virtually eradicated illiteracy before the middle of the 20th century, while the rest of the continent was educationally deprived. Argentina has three Nobel Laureates in physiology/medicine, in periods when doing science was an heroic endeavor (Houssay, Leloir and Milstein). It has two Nobel Laureates in Peace as well.

These facts alone hint at the nature of this “Argentine exceptionalism”, to use the sociological jargon. Taking responsibility and political initiative is a cultural trait in Argentina: unlike Brazilians, whose history includes a foundational subservient attitude and an inclination to avoid conflict at the expense of values and beliefs, Argentines confront.

In Brazil, even confrontation is unconfrontational. Confrontation here is a ritual act. One finds his/her tribe and “performs”. There is little true belief or soul in confrontation, which is most often collective. If one decides to confront alone, to follow a less trodden path, one is quickly reprimanded and, if necessary, silenced.

It wouldn’t be different in sports. Why would anyone confront the status quo? Report abuse (interpersonal violence, drug abuse, economic abuse, whatever), corruption or any other delinquent behavior by leaders? Better keep silent.

In powerlifting, those who were actually hurt by such abusive leaders either abandoned the sport, kept silent (like most rape victims in this country) or drifted into some parallel, alternative, absurd version of powerlifting: events and organizations that feed on lies. In these, lifters pretend they are lifting (when they’re not: there are no rules) and the rest pretend they believe. They are called "the other federations", as opposed to the "dominant federation". Again, in a very Brazilian fashion, life goes on as usual.

Maybe the revolution had to come from Argentina. It couldn’t come from anywhere else. I could try and explain why it didn’t come from the Andean countries, who live their own contradictions and pains, like the rest of us. But they certainly would be more likely candidates than Brazil.

All I can hope for is that, given the Argentine leadership in this powerlifting revolution, Brazil will follow.

PS – and they have a sense of humor, a critical attribute to accomplish anything. After all, if you can't laugh at yourself and the world, how can you have guts to change it?

Easy: a powerlifting championship. Just that.
Loaded bar goes down and up again, or vice-versa, if it’s a deadlift. Simple.

It was the first South American Raw Bench Press
and Powerlifting Championship (actually they were two separate and independent
events). There, we founded a new organization, the ASUPO, itself a political
statement for peace and understanding. A manifesto against rivalry and
discrimination. All athletes united for a common purpose: to excel and
transcend. Each helping the other in their own journey.

The journey is private: the lifter always ends
up alone on the platform. In front of him, his destiny in the form of a loaded
bar. Numbers mean nothing out of the context of that individual life. Whether
it’s a PR with no general impact or a world record, it’s his achievement and
only he will take it in and be changed forever by it.

Around him, referees and a community of kindred
souls. All focused on the movement, capturing every aspect of it and turning it
real and collective. Making it a passage rite.

I had forgotten how the celebratory moment of a
championship was. Or how it could be, how I wished it would be. For years, all
I experienced was the contrast between my own, sacred moments with the weights,
alone at my powerhouse or wherever I found an Olympic bar to lift, and the
contaminated competition environments in my country. Hatred, cheating, so much
of the game being played out of the platform had almost made me give up on
competitive powerlifting.

I would make it my solitary form of art, my
expression of love for life and commitment to human growth and integration. I
would lift alone, forever.

For some reason, I heard the call from a few
experienced lifters from South America. Great lifters, world class lifters who
had gone through a lot and still believed in change. Leonardo Cavaglia and
Mauro Spinardi started this crazy movement.

At first, it was hard to believe it would lead
anywhere. After all, we were only a handful of stupid visionaries floating in a
sea of opportunism and hidden agendas. It wouldn’t work, thought I.

But the idea kept growing. First that inquisitive
law student from Colombia, Daniel Zarco, who wrote witty things on the net, but
he did lift nice weights. Big weights. Then Uruguay, with Falcone, who was
always urging us to demolish everything.

And then it exploded into a fever.

On October the 6^th, there were
people from five countries agreeing on powerful rules of peace and
transparency.

I was away from home and from all my problems.
Didn’t want to think about them. I am not sure I felt I represented a country.
I was just there, as a lifter, watching the result of what didn’t seem real a
few months before. And although it was very real, I didn’t feel the burden of
making anything happen in the name of the country I came from.

With that lightness in my heart, I responded to
my name being called to the platform. Thirteen times I heard my name and
lifted. Yes, I did something many people thought was pretty dumb: I lifted both
on the Bench Press championship and on the Powerlifting championship the next
day. I weighed in twice. And I had the time of my life.

There’s no sensation that compares with the
weight of the bar in my hands in the timeless moment of a focused lift. I had
no name, no country, no body: I was just that movement I had prepared and
constructed with so much love. For once, I was whole. Exactly like I always
said a lift should be. An expression of integrity and art.

There’s no sensation that compares with being
there for other lifters in their moment of timelessness. I was there for them
and with them. And I will never forget any of their movements. The smells and
the heat, nothing.

I was there when Mauro Spinardi squatted 380kg,
Daniel on his left, Leo on his right, everybody around. I was facing that magic
lift.

Today I opened my wallet to pay for the parking
ticket. There were many pesos in it. My daughter said “you should exchange
them”. I won’t. I’m going to keep them. I’m going back next year for the Worlds,
so I’m gonna keep them. But that’s a lie: I’m keeping them because I miss Villa
Maria.

When I look at my trophy or the katana I won
(another crazy idea by Leo), I smile. I remember the people I met, whom I miss
so much now. But when I look at the pesos in my wallet, those moments are real
again. I’m back there, stuffing myself with all the items of a parrillada and
walking Chile up to the gym, where everybody is waiting for me, and we’ll lift
and lift and celebrate life.

In the end, there’s only Strength. Nothing else
matters.

The first Raw South American Bench Press championship
and the first Raw South American Powerlifting championship were held last week,
between October 7-9, at Villa Maria, Cordoba, Argentina. On October the 6^th,
ASUPO, the South American Powerlifting Alliance was founded.

The sanctioning body was GPA, the Global
Powerlifting Alliance, that now has three national chapters in South America:
Argentina, Colombia and Brazil. World champion and record holder Mauro Spinardi
is the South American GPA representative.

Numbers and world records broken at the South
American championships suggest that South America is rapidly growing as a
powerlifting relevant region. The most spectacular achievement was Mauro
Spinardi’s 380kg squat. At 31 ys old and 121kg body weight, Spinardi is three
times raw powerlifting world champion. Spinardi’s style is expanding into a
powerlifting school in South America and more members of his team achieved
impressive marks, like Mauro Almiron with a 302,5kg squat and 300kg deadlift at
19 ys old and 89,6kg body weight. Pedro Cordero, from Colombia, at 17 and
84,2kg body weight did a great job and broke a world record with his 215kg squat.
At the bench press championship, Facundo Soria, from Argentina, at 20 and
108,5kg accomplished a record breaking mark of 175kg, Antonio Falcone, master
athlete from Uruguay, did the same with a 190kg lift and Marilia Coutinho, from
Brazil, at 48 and 59,7kg bodyweight also raised the international bar with a
107,5kg lift.

The founding of the ASUPO inaugurated a new
concept in powerlifting organization in the South American continent. With a
pluralist perspective, ASUPO intends to represent friendly and compatible
international sanctioning bodies. ASUPO’s focus is the athlete and the
continental organization. There are no team awards and national rivalry is
discouraged. ASUPO’s leaders claim such rivalry is destructive to powerlifting
as a sport and to each lifter. They claim the continent needs clear and
straightforward rules, transparent procedures and fair judgement.

The three days during which the championships
took place suggest ASUPO’s project is sound and feasible: lifters from
different parts of the continent helped each other in an atmosphere of comraderie
absent from South America’s platforms for years.

The three days during which the championships
took place suggest ASUPO’s project is sound and feasible: lifters from
different parts of the continent helped each other in an atmosphere of comraderie
absent from South America’s platforms for years.

According to ASUPO’s project, today it is
affiliated to the GPA and also the WPC (the World Powerlifting Congress). In
2012, South American Bench Press and Powerlifting Championships will be held
under WPC in the city of Barranquilla, Colombia. The organizer, Daniel Zarco
Suares, is ASUPO’s vice-president.

The first Raw South American Bench Press championship
and the first Raw South American Powerlifting championship were held last week,
between October 7-9, at Villa Maria, Cordoba, Argentina. On October the 6^th,
ASUPO, the South American Powerlifting Alliance was founded.

The sanctioning body was GPA, the Global
Powerlifting Alliance, that now has three national chapters in South America:
Argentina, Colombia and Brazil. World champion and record holder Mauro Spinardi
is the South American GPA representative.

Numbers and world records broken at the South
American championships suggest that South America is rapidly growing as a
powerlifting relevant region. The most spectacular achievement was Mauro
Spinardi’s 380kg squat. At 31 ys old and 121kg body weight, Spinardi is three
times raw powerlifting world champion. Spinardi’s style is expanding into a
powerlifting school in South America and more members of his team achieved
impressive marks, like Mauro Almiron with a 302,5kg squat and 300kg deadlift at
19 ys old and 89,6kg body weight. Pedro Cordero, from Colombia, at 17 and
84,2kg body weight did a great job and broke a world record with his 215kg squat.
At the bench press championship, Facundo Soria, from Argentina, at 20 and
108,5kg accomplished a record breaking mark of 175kg, Antonio Falcone, master
athlete from Uruguay, did the same with a 190kg lift and Marilia Coutinho, from
Brazil, at 48 and 59,7kg bodyweight also raised the international bar with a
107,5kg lift.

The founding of the ASUPO inaugurated a new
concept in powerlifting organization in the South American continent. With a
pluralist perspective, ASUPO intends to represent friendly and compatible
international sanctioning bodies. ASUPO’s focus is the athlete and the
continental organization. There are no team awards and national rivalry is
discouraged. ASUPO’s leaders claim such rivalry is destructive to powerlifting
as a sport and to each lifter. They claim the continent needs clear and
straightforward rules, transparent procedures and fair judgement.

The three days during which the championships
took place suggest ASUPO’s project is sound and feasible: lifters from
different parts of the continent helped each other in an atmosphere of comraderie
absent from South America’s platforms for years.

According to ASUPO’s project, today it is
affiliated to the GPA and also the WPC (the World Powerlifting Congress). In
2012, South American Bench Press and Powerlifting Championships will be held
under WPC in the city of Barranquilla, Colombia. The organizer, Daniel Zarco
Suares, is ASUPO’s vice-president.

I have been posting news about PL landmarks in
Brazil for some years already. I have praised athletes regardless of their
federative affiliation. Those who read my articles are familiar with my
principles about merit neutrality.

The need to promote strength sports in general and
powerlifting in particular in economically peripheral countries is also a
recurrent theme in my writing. I’ll save you the intro, pointing you to the
link on the Global Strategy (http://www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/strategy/eb11344/strategy_english_web.pdf
) at the World Health Organization page.

Bottom line is: we need to promote physical
activity in a massive, cheap and effective manner in peripheral and rapidly
industrializing countries such as Brazil. Powerlifting and other strength
sports, such as Strongman have been pointed out as an alternative.

Everyone knows that the implementation of such
strategies involves many different action plans, publicity not being a minor
one. For this, and for other objectives, we need ROLE MODELS.

We had this young lifter, Gilberto Silva, from
a small (11 thousand inhabitants) town in a Southern state, breaking the 300kg
bench press “barrier” in 2007. Today, he is near 360kg and we believe him to be
the one who can reach the 400kg mark in the continent. We don’t see this as
merely a personal achievement, but a historical landmark in Brazilian strength
sports and a means to highlight the importance of resistance training and
accomplish higher goals in public health.

Gilberto is a shy, yet charismatic athlete. He instructs
people in a small gym in his town. People from all over the country write to
him for advice and have his picture as an inspiration.

However, government support we were counting on
failed us. We need real, solid support to keep our History on track.

We are open to suggestions and I do hope some
corporation will read this and understand the relevance for this support. If
anyone wishes to support our cause, copy and send out this text, please feel
free to do so. We are trying the traditional means of sponsorship application
as well, but you all know how hard this is.

Marilia

Gilberto Silva: mailto:olimpuss@brturbo.com.br
/ mailto:gilbertotop350@hotmail.com

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002311403366

Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/gilberto300kg

I
struggled with bowel infections for two months. First, a viral
gastroenteritis. After that, and probably influenced by the first,
diverticulitis. Any high performance athlete that goes through such
trials knows that the worst result is the sensation of having lost
performance and months of hard, periodized work.


This weekend I decided I needed to convince myself that in spite of
having lost a lot of weight and that last week everything felt heavy, I
didn't lose substantial performance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCHFDp2CA9U

Luiz Henrique Cruz, born in Rio de Janeiro and living in Vitoria, ES,
Brazil, passed away in April 6, 2011. Luiz Henrique was ANFs vice-president, FCBB’s
president and FCF’s president. Sports leader since 1999, Luiz Henrique was
international referee in bodybuilding by the IFBB Sudamerica and member of the
referee committee of the CBCM. He was CREF1/ES representative and CREF1/ES
parliament coordinator. Luiz Henrique was also a bench press athlete, with
regional, national and international titles. His generous, entrepreneurial and
dedicated spirit is irreplaceable and will be greatly missed by friends and
co-workers.

ANF: Aliança Nacional da Força (strength sports national organization);
FCBB: Federação Capixaba de Body Building (bodybuilding state organization); FCF:
Federação Capixaba da Força (powerlifting state organization); CBCM: Confederação
Brasileira de Culturismo e Musculação (bodybuilding national organization);
CREF (official Physical Education accreditation organism).