Janurary Web Lifting Meet!
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Maybe if i hit my goals for the year i will think about it!!!
If nothing else, it would be an experience that you hadn't had before. Honestly, it can be all kinds of fun just talking to the various lifters there, and hell you might even meet someone inspirational. In my case, I got to meet Jamie Lewis, who is pretty much the guy my entire training regimen is modeled after...and the reason everyone swears I will die of overtraining one day. xD
I definitely met an inspirational person at mine. An ELEVEN year old girl (under 95 lb weight class) who pulled a 200 lb deadlift, setting a record, and totaled 415 lbs. She is my new hero!0 -
Maybe if i hit my goals for the year i will think about it!!!
If nothing else, it would be an experience that you hadn't had before. Honestly, it can be all kinds of fun just talking to the various lifters there, and hell you might even meet someone inspirational. In my case, I got to meet Jamie Lewis, who is pretty much the guy my entire training regimen is modeled after...and the reason everyone swears I will die of overtraining one day. xD
I definitely met an inspirational person at mine. An ELEVEN year old girl (under 95 lb weight class) who pulled a 200 lb deadlift, setting a record, and totaled 415 lbs. She is my new hero!
I put that up there almost with one-legged powerlifters on the 'holy crap' chart.
The one we went to was in South Carolina. The primary reason we went to that one was because of JL lifting there. My wife planned the whole thing without my knowledge as a surprise honeymoon...yeah, we're weird. xD0 -
Maybe i should just attend one first and go from there..... get a feel for the atmosphere and all!!!!
That is what I am planning on doing also. I think the thing that makes me hesitant is just not knowing what to expect.0 -
Maybe i should just attend one first and go from there..... get a feel for the atmosphere and all!!!!
That is what I am planning on doing also. I think the thing that makes me hesitant is just not knowing what to expect.
I'm sure they vary from location to location, but it basically goes like this:
-Weigh ins will be done roughly 24 hours before the actual lifting to decide weight classes. This gives you a change to rehydrate and refeed in case you were cutting hard to make a weight class.
-Show up maybe an hour or so before the meet if you so desire. This is probably a good idea for first timers so you have a chance to get there, relax a little, let the nerves settle, etc.
-You'll be put into a flight (group of lifters, usually divided by pro/amateur/whatever).
-They call flights in numerical order.
-They inform you of when lifts will be starting so everyone can start warming up.
-They call lifters three at a time, one to lift at that time, one person to be next in line, and the next person behind them (referred to as lifting, on deck, in the hold respectively).
-Warm up area is separate from the actual platform.
-When lifting, three judges will be watching from three different angles, and give you white (lift) or red (no lift) lights depending on their rule. Two of three whites required for the lift to pass. Don't get discouraged over bull**** calls by judges. It happens all of the time, and there's nothing you can do about it.
-Three attempts on each lift, for which you predetermine the weights. These can be altered during the meet. Say for example you get red lighted on your second squat due to depth, you can change your planned third lift to be what your second lift's weight was for another shot at that weight.
-Your numbers for the meet are your best passed lifts for each lift type.
-When in doubt, watch what others are doing.0 -
Maybe i should just attend one first and go from there..... get a feel for the atmosphere and all!!!!
That is what I am planning on doing also. I think the thing that makes me hesitant is just not knowing what to expect.
I'm sure they vary from location to location, but it basically goes like this:
-Weigh ins will be done roughly 24 hours before the actual lifting to decide weight classes. This gives you a change to rehydrate and refeed in case you were cutting hard to make a weight class.
-Show up maybe an hour or so before the meet if you so desire. This is probably a good idea for first timers so you have a chance to get there, relax a little, let the nerves settle, etc.
-You'll be put into a flight (group of lifters, usually divided by pro/amateur/whatever).
-They call flights in numerical order.
-They inform you of when lifts will be starting so everyone can start warming up.
-They call lifters three at a time, one to lift at that time, one person to be next in line, and the next person behind them (referred to as lifting, on deck, in the hold respectively).
-Warm up area is separate from the actual platform.
-When lifting, three judges will be watching from three different angles, and give you white (lift) or red (no lift) lights depending on their rule. Two of three whites required for the lift to pass. Don't get discouraged over bull**** calls by judges. It happens all of the time, and there's nothing you can do about it.
-Three attempts on each lift, for which you predetermine the weights. These can be altered during the meet. Say for example you get red lighted on your second squat due to depth, you can change your planned third lift to be what your second lift's weight was for another shot at that weight.
-Your numbers for the meet are your best passed lifts for each lift type.
-When in doubt, watch what others are doing.
This is really helpful - thank you0 -
Oh, and since I derped and forgot, fourth attempts are allowed if you are trying to break a record in your weight class and division.0
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Oh, and since I derped and forgot, fourth attempts are allowed if you are trying to break a record in your weight class and division.
Awesome info..... that's my concern getting red flagged would suck..... that's why I want to perfect form first then maybe just maybe I would feel confident enough to do one! :indifferent:0 -
Oh, and since I derped and forgot, fourth attempts are allowed if you are trying to break a record in your weight class and division.
Awesome info..... that's my concern getting red flagged would suck..... that's why I want to perfect form first then maybe just maybe I would feel confident enough to do one! :indifferent:
It's not a big deal, honestly. It happens. There was a girl there who was competing for the first time. She got red lighted on two of her three squats due to depth and two of her three benches. She got called on the squats for depth because she wasn't used to it, and no one was calling her depth for her. On her one attempt that passed, a coach for a team that was lifting there noticed what was going on and called her depth for her. You could tell she wasn't used to going that low, as her face looked pained but she kept going down as he yelled "knees out! down! down! knees out! down!", then once he yelled "UP!" she blew the lift out of the water. She has the strength, she just needs to get used to competition lifting. It's something that only experience can help. On the same token, her benches got red-lighted because she wasn't pausing at the bottom.0 -
Yeah I think my depth is good in squats but I don't think I really pause in benches but then again don't really understand the idea behind that so much as long as you aren't bouncing it off chest but still touch chest seems it would be good enough. Oh well I will start working on the pause!0
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If anyone is interested, here is a link to the rules for USAPL. There are also rules around what you may wear and whether it puts you in the raw class or the geared class. For example knee sleeves are ok for raw; but knee wraps are not - those would put you in the geared class.
http://www.usapowerlifting.com/aboutus/rulebook.shtml
Also, regarding the technical rules of the lifts, it's not about good form per se. For example, they don't care if you do something like round your back during a deadlift - that would still be a valid lift as long as you don't hitch it and you lock out until the judge says to put it down. For the bench, you have to pause at the chest and get the bar to completely stop moving; then wait for the press command before pressing and locking out.0 -
If anyone is interested, here is a link to the rules for USAPL. There are also rules around what you may wear and whether it puts you in the raw class or the geared class. For example knee sleeves are ok for raw; but knee wraps are not - those would put you in the geared class.
http://www.usapowerlifting.com/aboutus/rulebook.shtml
Also, regarding the technical rules of the lifts, it's not about good form per se. For example, they don't care if you do something like round your back during a deadlift - that would still be a valid lift as long as you don't hitch it and you lock out until the judge says to put it down. For the bench, you have to pause at the chest and get the bar to completely stop moving; then wait for the press command before pressing and locking out.
Precisely, especially on the deadlift. There have been many world records set with rounded backs and deflated lungs (see Bob Peoples for a ridiculous example that would freak everyone here out if posted as a 'how's my form?' thread).
@Gigi, the pause is intended to make sure that all momentum has ceased. The muscles can work the same way as a bench shirt does, by retaining 'elastic' energy, making it easier to spring the weight back up. The pause removes all of this 'ricochet' effect. At least, that's how I've been made to understand it.0 -
Cool, i will work on that pause.... we talking 2-3secs???0
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Precisely, especially on the deadlift. There have been many world records set with rounded backs and deflated lungs (see Bob Peoples for a ridiculous example that would freak everyone here out if posted as a 'how's my form?' thread
Link it! :-)0 -
A couple of examples of Peoples' "bad" form that ended him up setting a DL record that stood for over 40 years, until Ed Coan showed up in the 80s and started crapping all over every lifting record he could make weight for:
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Agreed! Don't stress to much about being red lighted. It DOES happen a lot, even to the strongest most experienced lifters. Lots of people were redlighted at my meet on the 2nd and 3rd attempts and most not even for not following the rules but for attempting too heavy a weight that they could not put up (challenging themselves). The best thing you can do is know the rules inside and out and practice your lifts the way you'd need to do them at a meet, with someone giving the commands if possible. I didn't have someone to practice giving me commands in my training, but I read the rule book weekly in the month before my meet. I always always practiced my 1 rep max's with a paused bench and did my squats ATG, waited a sec on racking for bench and squat, and making sure I locked out my deadlifts properly and waited a sec before putting them down.
I was pretty worried about getting red lighted for not following rules and went a little light on the weight. Being my first meet I wanted to complete as many lifts as possible. I just followed the commands and got 8 out of 9 of my lifts. My one failure was due just not being able to get my bench up. The rules honestly are really simple. Watch the other lifters is great advice. Watch them warming up and competing as well. Now that I know I can easily follow the rules, I want to push myself more on my attempt selections next time. I still did end up with a deadlift PR though - woot!
PS - my lifts and videos are on page 3 of this thread, I think they kinda got buried - shameless plug! LOL But being my first meet, I'd love some feedback!
TIA! 0 -
If anyone is interested, here is a link to the rules for USAPL. There are also rules around what you may wear and whether it puts you in the raw class or the geared class. For example knee sleeves are ok for raw; but knee wraps are not - those would put you in the geared class.
http://www.usapowerlifting.com/aboutus/rulebook.shtml
Also, regarding the technical rules of the lifts, it's not about good form per se. For example, they don't care if you do something like round your back during a deadlift - that would still be a valid lift as long as you don't hitch it and you lock out until the judge says to put it down. For the bench, you have to pause at the chest and get the bar to completely stop moving; then wait for the press command before pressing and locking out.
The rules can be slightly different for each fed. The SPF allows knee sleeves and knee wraps for raw. I personally did not wear either, since I have never trained with them yet. I used a belt for my DL and squat, and wrist wraps for my bench. Competed raw full powerlifting. If you do pick a meet, make sure you read the specific rules for the federation that is running it since the commands can differ also. At my meet, there was no "squat" or "up" commad for squat, only a "rack" command. You could go down and come up as you pleased, as long as you made depth and stayed in a continual motion each way (no bouncing, etc). Also, be aware that some feds use monolifts for squats. I had never used one before (my gym doesn't have them) and I always walk my squats out in training. I had the option to walk my squats out at the meet if I wanted to, but it felt awkward with the lower height of the bar and safety straps being there so I just did the monolift. It threw me off on my first attempt (I got it any way) but by the 2nd and 3rd attempts I was able to understand how to position myself much better.
Always take you time getting set up for your lift, get in the proper position, take the right breaths, don't rush yourself.0 -
PS - my lifts and videos are on page 3 of this thread, I think they kinda got buried - shameless plug! LOL But being my first meet, I'd love some feedback! TIA!
My lifts were on page 3 too.....no worries about the plug LOL!!!!! As far as your lifts i think they looked good but i couldnt see the beginning of the squat so im assuming it was plenty deep!!! ;-)0 -
A couple of examples of Peoples' "bad" form that ended him up setting a DL record that stood for over 40 years, until Ed Coan showed up in the 80s and started crapping all over every lifting record he could make weight for:
Sorry i will not sacrifice form for weight...... ouch!!!!!0 -
That's actually one of my primary gripes with the current state of Powerlifting, honestly. There's too much variance between federations, yet only one set of records.
The monolift thing is a great example. Now, don't get me wrong, few serious squatters consider the walk out a major part of the lift, so this isn't some plug for squat rack elitism. It's more that monolifts can be very uncomfortable for some due to their sway. I've read several stories from lifters who got so freaked out at the way the thing can move while locking the bar into your shoulders (especially with a really heavy weight on the bar, like 900+) that they ended up failing a lift they could push very easily. Nerves can do terrible things to a lifter on the platform. Others are so used to a monolift that they've almost lost all sense of how to walk a max effort weight out. Either use a mono option for all feds, or get rid of it altogether.0 -
Sorry i will not sacrifice form for weight...... ouch!!!!!
LoL, it didn't actually hurt him. That's a form that he came up with after years of tinkering with his body's leverages. The guy had an upper back and shoulders that looked like the Appalachian Mountains. Peoples is called 'Mr. Deadlift' for a reason. It was the only lift he truly cared about, and he spent many years figuring out how to get better at it. Keep in mind, his record was set well before steroids existed too, and it lasted decades until Coan broke his record...and Coan's record in that class still stands today, over 20 years later.
That's something I try to get through to people, but a lot of younger lifters have become so enthralled by the 'perfect form or you may die' boogeyman that they are scared to try things that might work better for them. They don't get that 'perfect' is a relative term in cases like this, as no two human bodies are exactly alike.0
