Lessons from my first powerlifting meet.

[30French]

I competed in my first powerlifting meet yesterday, the Fife Power Co. Holiday Classic in Tacoma, WA. It was a USAPL meet, and was very well run. I had a blast. If you are doing the program, find a meet 3-6 months from now and enter. A lot of people are "waiting to get stronger" before they compete. Stop waiting. My 3rd attempt deadlift was the lightest in the flight. No one cared. The only person that will think your lifts are weak is you. The atmosphere was very supportive and friendly the whole day. I was writing down things to remember for next time and decided to make a post out of it in case any other first time lifters might benefit from reading it.

It was great to see the variety of people competing. There was a 68yo lady that squatted 124lbs. A girl in high school with an above-knee leg prosthesis deadlifted around 140lbs. With. One. Leg. A dude in his sixties that had open-heart surgery in JUNE deadlifted I think in the low 400s. Seeing these people lift was truly awesome, and was even more motivating than seeing the huge lifts that the open guys were putting up.

Cutting weight
This has been dealt with a zillion times on this forum and elsewhere. Don't cut weight before your first meet. I knew this to be a fact. Did I listen? No. Apparently I like things to be more difficult than they should be. I only had 4lbs to cut in a couple weeks, so I figured that would be easy. It wasn't. I wasn't drastically dehydrated on the morning of the meet, but my flight lifted in the afternoon and I had to go until noon without eating or drinking anything but small amounts. This was not exactly getting off on the right foot. Lifting in the next class up would have made my pre-meet training easier, and also would have meant a hearty breakfast the morning of the meet rather than half-dry oatmeal and peanut butter. Also, I could have made a Thanksgiving food consumption PR. As an aside, if you drink 2 liters of pedialyte in 20 minutes, make sure a bathroom is nearby.

Diet
As above, my diet was pretty strict lean meat and vegetables for the two weeks leading up to the meet in order to make weight. After the weigh in, I ate high-calorie quick-digesting food that I thought would get in pretty fast. Pedialyte, bananas, peanut butter/nutella sandwich, nuts, granola bars. I probably ate more carbs in an hour than I had in the past week. This was a mistake. After the bench I was seriously fatigued. Not in a muscle fatigue way, but in a Rip van Winkle go to bed and sleep for a few weeks kind of way. I was chewing up caffeine pills to no effect, they might as well have been tic-tacs. I think this was due to eating so many high glycemic carbs after being pretty clean for two solid weeks. Yet another reason not to cut. I think a better plan would have been to eat a hearty breakfast (eggs, bacon, toast) and eat some meat and carb combination in small amounts throughout the day. This would probably have avoided the coma I was slipping into right before trying to pull heavy stuff off the ground.

Technique
For the most part during my lifts, I was on total auto-pilot. Lifting in a meet is a unique experience. The adrenaline has a strange effect. During my squats, I could only pay attention to the judge's commands and maybe one cue. Knees out. That's it. It wasn't possible to think about depth, hip drive, back angle, stay tight, etc, etc. All that had to be on auto-pilot or it wasn't going to happen. I learned that my lifts on the platform are probably going to look identical to my lifts in the gym, so I had better get them perfect in the gym. This was by far the most important thing I learned from the meet.

I was aiming to go 9/9, but I missed my 3rd bench and deadlift attempts. I made a 150kg squat, 105kg bench, and 157.5kg deadlift for a 412.5kg (907.5lbs) total. My goal for next meet in late February will be to join the 1000lbs club. Don't really care if it happens in 198 or 220 this time.

[Bodybeing]

Awesome, thanks for sharing.

[damonwells]

That "auto-pilot" feeling becomes like crack. Making everything disappear except the head judge and your coach is really cool.

[Mark E. Hurling]

You strengthen my resolve. Thank you.

[Marotta]

Ammonia helps with auto-pilot, glad to see someone else getting out and competing.

I have my second meet next Saturday, and I can't wait.

[John2336]

Awesome write up! Thanks for the extra motivation!

Edit: Allright, I found a 100% RAW meet in AZ on march 26th. I just emailed the guy because the link to the sign up form is goes to last years meet results, not the entry form. Looks like I found my first meet.

http://www.powerliftingwatch.com/pow.../2011/AZ-state

[Brenden]

Shit dude, who were you? I competed too, in the 242, although I probably could have easily made the 220 weight class if I tried at all. It was my first meet, and I went 8/9. I squatted 140kg, 150kg, and 160kg, all of which felt super easy. I benched 67.5, 75, and missed 85. I pulled 165, 170, and 175. Squats and deads both felt super easy, and I set a 28lb PR on squat, and a 21lb PR on deadlift. Bench sucked, and I made too ambitious a jump on the third, but oh well. It was a hell of a good time, and I'm probably going to State in Tumwater in March.

Squat videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxWqqTtHW_k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPUu6m9GLPc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdHRw-iDZ88

[30French]

Yeah dude, I'm Sean. I think I met you in the weigh in room, right? I lifted in the 198s, so I missed your lifts. Those squats are super deep. Nice lifting. I'll be at the WA state meet too. See you there. I tried to find a link for the registration today but no luck. Let me know if you have details.

[Brenden]

Yeah, I think I remember meeting you. Doesn't look like registration is up yet. Good luck training for the state meet, and look forward to seeing you there.

Was it you who offered me a snickers bar?

[30French]

Ha! No, but that was the type of shit I was eating all day, unfortunately.