I Come From the Land of the Ice and Snow
OK, so I'm starting a log here, detailing my preparation for the Icelandic Powerlifting Cup on November 20th.
Some background first. I started lifting when I was 41 and I'm 48 in a couple of weeks so I've been weight training for nearly 7 years now.
I spent most of my life at around 70kg (154 lbs) and currently weigh about 95kg (209 lbs). Here are a couple of before and after pics.
I never did the Starting Strength program per se and didn't hear of it until last year, but after initially trying a machine based program for a few months, I read up on training on the internet and by instinct gravitated towards a very similar training scheme. I did mostly the basic lifts, squat, deadlift, bench, press and chinup, trained the whole body (push/pull/legs) with compound lifts each session, and mostly did 5-ish reps and 3 days a week.
The details have varied over the years and I've plateaued several times and needed to change something to break out of the rut, but mostly I train according to the same principles as before.
I competed in my first PL meet in April 2004 and totalled 425kg (937 lbs) at 87.3kg (192 lbs). Since then I have competed in several PL and deadlift meets and managed to become national champion at 100kg in 2009. For details see my athlete's bio.
Currently, my best raw lifts are 175kg (386 lbs) squat, 130kg (287 lbs) bench and 235kg (518 lbs) deadlift. I have squatted 200kg (441 lbs) and benched 140kg (309 lbs) equipped in old and loose-fitting gear.