I wanted to congratulate Eric Semifero for the massive gains he has made over the past 12 weeks. Eric did not miss one workout, worked his but off and has an outstanding work ethic. In one meet he had PRs in the big three and obviously the total. Eric accomplished this even though he is a busy science teacher and high school coach!

Checkout a video of his 725 squat

In his own words:

“Well it was a pretty good day over all. I posted a 1720 total, which was a 120 pound personal record (pr) for my total. I had the pleasure to work with Josh Bryant for my training to get ready for this meet. Josh did all my programming. The training sessions were pretty brutal in the beginning, but as we moved through the 12 weeks I got used to the volume and it all paid off in the end.

I also had a lot of help from my Team Get Some teammates. Jimmy Miller had the huge task of wrapping my knees for the squat, which he did an awesome job of, and Dave Humphrey handled the liftoffs for bench, another great job there as well. I could not have gotten through the meet without their help. I also had one of my wrestlers competing at the meet. He ended up winning the best teen lifter for the meet. Not too bad for his first time competing.

Let’s start with the squat. I opened with a pretty easy 650. Josh was calling my depth and called me nice and deep so we had a good idea of where I needed to be. Went with 700 on my second attempt, again nice and deep, and real smooth. I was really pumped, this has been a long time goal for me, and has been a huge number just sitting out there waiting for me to smash it. After the 700 Josh and I talked about my last attempt, and we decided to stay a bit conservative and go for 725, again another great lift, it was a bit more of a fight, but good depth and I had posted by far the biggest squat of the day!

After a short break we moved on to bench. Dave was handling liftoffs. I opened at 405, it went fine, then decided on 430 to get a PR. It was harder than I would have liked and had to gut it out a bit. I could feel my shoulder giving a bit, but I was not going to miss the attempt. I got the 5 pound pr and skipped my last attempt. I really wanted to take a shot at 455, but it just was not in the cards today. I will never poopoo a PR though!

Another short break and it was on to deadlift. I opened at 530 and smoked it, then the question was do I try 600 right away or stay with my original planned attempt at 565. Josh and I talked it over, and we decided it was more important to get over 1700 and than go for 600 on the last attempt. It was the right call. I got the 565 with a bit of a fight right at the top. Then we went for the 600. I missed it. It got to about my knees and my left hand gave. I might have gotten 585, but I had already gone over 1700 so we shot for the big number, I'll get it next time. I know it is close and I was happy I went for it. Again the 565 was a 15 pound PR, so no complaints there.

So I PR'd across the board, on all lifts and total. For the meet I had the biggest Squat, bench, and total out of the 34 lifters.

A huge thank you again to my training partners Jimmy and Dave for all their help in training and at the meet. To Josh for all his help in planning out training and at the meet. His knowledge and experience paid off huge for me. And last but certainly not least, my wife Amy for supporting me in my obsession in lifting heavy stuff, love you babe.

Well with wrestling season kicking off soon it will probably next June when I do another meet. I'll be trying to chase down an 800 pound squat, 455 bench and 600 deadlift. Till next time, train hard and GET SOME!!”