The Bridge - W8S2
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Powerlifting Regionals 2017
All members of my powerlifting club who were competing this last weekend, as well as three supporters who came along to help with coaching/handling, traveled to Katrineholm, where this year's Regionals was hosted, on Friday night. Weigh-ins for our first lifters were Saturday morning. I judged the first three groups lifting Saturday morning and I competed myself Sunday morning.
My Friday morning weight was 88,0 kg, so I had plenty of room up to 93 kg. I focused all weekend of getting enough food between coaching, handling, judging, cheering and in general having a great f*cking time. Our club was definitely the loudest, most supportive and most tightly knit club of all the clubs there, which made me as president incredibly proud.
Sunday - time for my meet:
I got a full night's sleep and headed up at 6am to get a solid breakfast before weigh-ins. I had two pizzas for dinner Saturday night, so I was still quite full, but managed to eat quite a solid meal anyway. I weighed in at 90,6 kg and started preparing for the meet.
I have been very stiff and quite sore in the lower back for a week or two, but managed to keep it quite under control these last couple of days. The body felt good and strong during squat warm-ups, and I started to become hopeful that it was going to be a good and fun meet. We were 36 lifters in the -93 kg class, which made for a pretty long meet with 3 flights taking turns. I therefore had more than an hour between squats, bench and deadlifts, even if the time between each lift when actually lifting was quite short. I still managed to time nutrition and to stay on top of my game quite well, which in and of itself was a challenge to do during 4,5 hours. I have nothing to say about the hosting club, though, because they made sure that the meet ran as smoothly as it possibly could have!
Squats: 170 kg @8, 180 kg @9, 190 kg @9,95. I maybe (!) had 2,5 kg more in me, but it was quite a grinder and also border-line shallow, even if I managed to go 9/9 on my squats.
Final attempt:
Bench press: 105 kg @8,5, 110 kg @9,75, 112,5 kg @10. I had a hard time feeling comfortable on the competition bench, so all attempts felt harder that I think that they should have. I felt stronger and more stable during warm-ups. I came a bit off path on the last bench, so when pressing I came out of balance and accidentally lowered the bar a little bit to regain control, which I knew meant for three red lights. I then also lifted my ass to get the bar moving again, which also means three red lights. I really wanted the weight, though, so I finished it and can at least count 112,5 kg for a new "gym-bro PR". This was my only failed attempt and red lights.
Final attempt:
Deadlifts: 170 kg @7,5, 180 kg @9, 190 kg @10. I finished my meet with what is starting to look like my signature move: a slow-ass deadlift. I felt already from the start that I had it if I just could keep up the tightness and keep on pulling without fatiguing, and I started to feel how my vision got narrower and blurry towards the lock-out, but I managed to stay with it and lock in a very nice 190 kg for my last attempt, which I could only hope for a week ago.
Final attempt:
Total: 490 kg/311,79 Wilks. My total PR is 500 kg, from last year's Regionals, and given how bad 2017 has been training-wise, I couldn't be happier about this! My number 1 priority was lifting without back pain and to have fun, and I really managed to do both!
Originally Posted by slowmotion
