I weighed in at 125kg, exactly. I was two pounds over and had to do some spitting on the way and while I was at OBB. I made weight and went to Perkins to eat with Josh, Jo, Kenny, Chad and Garret. I took it easy and ate normal for the rest of the afternoon. I didn’t want to eat much junk food because I didn’t want to be any heavier than I was for training, so I kept it clean (Clint reference 2x). For the last meal of the day, Ria and I went to Caraba’s with Adam and his family, Frank, and Tony and his family. Great food – salad, bread, steak, pasta and vegetables. I went to bed feeling confident and ready to lift. Aside from my forearms still hurting, my body felt great.
MEET DAY:
There were three flights of full meet lifters and four flights of bench, so I knew we were in for a long day. We took our time and once the second flight was done with their warm-ups, we started ours. Here’s what the progression looked like after stretching and rolling:
Bar for a few
- 150 x 5
- 260 x 5
- 340 x 1
Briefs on
- 550 x 1
Suit on straps down
- 720 x 1
By this time the warm-ups were totally gridlocked and we were running out of time. I had to elect to skip 800’s and go right to last warmup
- 950 x 1 full gear
Opener: 1050 GOOD
Second Attempt: 1120 GOOD, 10 pound PR
Third Attempt: 1145 GOOD, 35 pound PR
Pretty much each attempt went relatively easy.
Longgggggggg break
Bench Warm-up:
- 135 x 8
- 225 x 3
- 335 x 1
Ace shirt on
- 475 x 1, 3-board
- 625 x 1, 1.5-board
- 700 x 1, 1.5-board
- 725 x 1, half-board
Opener: 750, GOOD
Second Attempt: 780, MISS
Third Attempt: 800, MISS
The first two went pretty good. When I took 780 pounds, it looked fast and strong, but I touched a little low and it was hard to correct it, so it was slow from thechest. However, hard work paid off, even though I didn’t PR. A 780 pound bench is better than no bench for sure and I’m not complaining. I didn’t get momentum on the 800 and it stalled at the top. It’s about total, not one lift.
Longggggg break
Deadlift Warm-ups:
- 135 x few
- 225 x few
- 315 x 1
- 405 x 1
- 500 x 1
- 620 x 1
Opener: 730 pounds, GOOD
Second Attempt: 775 pounds for a 2700 pound total…but tore callous
Third Attempt: 790 pound MISS at top
End result:
2700 total (40 pound PR) - No. 3 All-Time (Yarmbash 2799 No. 1, and Hoff 2750 No. 2)
Squat – No. 3 All-Time (Chuck 1175 No. 1, and Yarmbash 1168 No. 2)
I figured that between 2700 and 2750 was doable, but wouldn’t be easy. I had Frankl call my attempts and he did a fantastic job doing so. We went for total, so that’s why the deadlift attempts were so strange. I wanted to go 805 pounds on a third, but since my hand was bleeding so bad, I knew it was going to be very hard to pull another, especially a PR, but I tried to get a few more pounds tacked on, but a no-go. I have much room for improvement on the bench and that in itself will be a big boost in total.
The meet was very well ran and had many lifters, so it didn’t end till about 8PM (pulled last deadlift at 7:20PM). Brian always runs a great meet and has great spotters and loaders. Jo always does a great job on the microphone and letting us know where they are at in the flight, etc. Thanks for putting on a great meet OBB.
I want to thank my sponsors; Dave and Elitefts.com. I love the Metal gear and especially the Ace/Ace combo for squat. It’s untouchable and will be the combo I use to squat 1200. Mike Westerdal and Criticalbench.com for all of the help over the last two years. Thanks to Kiefer at Dangerouslyhardcore.com, for all of his nutritional and supplementation help and guidance. This has been a tremendous help with Team Samson’s recovery and health. You can’t hit PRs if you aren’t healthy. Thanks to Alex at Proteinfactory.com for all of his great supplements and protein powders that have aided my training and recovery. Thanks to Marc Bartley for letting me try his Spud Inc. bench and deadlift belts. They are the best that I’ve ever used.
Special thanks to my wife, Ria, for putting up with me and being a huge asset at meets and in general. Someone who is great to have in your corner, at all times. Thanks to Team Samson for all of the help during training and at this meet (Nate, Daniel and Clint). Congrats to Adam and Tony for their big PR days and it was awesome to lift with you. Thanks to Shawn Frankl for coming down and helping me with my numbers and dialing in my bench form. Thanks to Rob L for all of his help and suggestions for my bench issues that I was struggling with. Thanks to Josh McMillian for his help this weekend and support. Thanks to Dave Hoff for taking the time to make suggestions on how to fix my form and arch, right after he finished at the Pro-Am. He didn’t have to take the time to do that and he had good suggestions. Thanks to all of my friends who sent encouraging words to me and called to check on me. I appreciate it.
Squat
Bench
Deadlift
Read more about Brian Carroll’s training here.
PDF 
Brian has been a competitive powerlifter since 1999, when he broke into the sport with bench-only competitions. In 2004, within a year of his first full power meet, he finished second at the WPC Worlds in the open class as a junior – totaling 2000 pounds. Since then, Brian has recorded numerous top-two finishes, including the WPC Worlds, WPO Finals, APF Seniors and the IPA Pro-Am. For the past six years, Brian has consistently added 90+ pounds to his total each year, going from 1752 to 2700 over this span. Brian is employed as a licensed massage therapist in Jacksonville, FL. He enjoys coaching lifters, guiding their training and watching them succeed. Brian’s best lifts in the 275 class include a 1145 squat, 785 bench and 800 deadlift.
View Brian’s Training Log 
Phenomenal, no other word for it. Cannot wait to see you own 1200lbs!
Scary moment on the second bench video there though.
That 750 dead looked easy! You’re a beast, no doubt about that, looking foward to 1200lb on the squat.