[Old_Fart2]

That'd be a great total!

My one and only pwerlifting meet was at age 37. I totaled 1235 in the 181 class (my actual weigh-in weight was 178). My squat at that meet was 480. Three years later I did 550.

My all-time totals equaled 1375: 325 bench and 500 deadlift. I quit deadlifting in my early 30's because it was just too rough on my lower back so I only pulled 460 at the meet. I also missed my second bench at 295 so I repeated that one again for the third lift.

My best bench routine was this one from Muscle and Fitness (I think it was called something else then) back in the late seventies or early eighties:

The routine was called a cycle (now known as periodization), one of the first I ever saw. Until then, I was simply doing pyramid sets and seemed to have maxed out at around 300. This cycle called for starting with 5 sets at 65% of your max the first week. Second week was one set at 65%, 4 at 70%. The weights kept increasing until you were only doing two working sets with the warm-up sets being some of the previous weeks sets. I don't remember the exact details but you get the general idea.

For supplemental work you did close grip bench immediately following your flat bench, then some dumbbell presses.

My bench went from 300 to 325 over the course of two cycles, with a break in between the two.

Diet-wise, I ate a lot of chicken, tuna, beef and eggs. I also had two protein shakes per day with a milk and egg powder mixed with raw eggs and honey. At the time, I was eating 3 dozen eggs a week (this was before I'd heard about salmonella). I was probably taking in 250 grams of protein a day.

I was also working out 6 days a week, 1-1/2 to 2 hours each work-out which was probably why my bodyweight never really increased.