Finding a meet and signing up

I had been thinking about doing a powerlifting meet for several months. At first I assumed there would be something very close to me, because I live in a decent sized city. I go to a hardcore gym and asked a few powerlifters I know, and they assured me that Rockford is a powerlifting dead-zone. So I turned to the Internet, looking at first on powerliftingwatch, but nothing seemed convenient/close by. I “liked” every page I could find about powerlifting and powerlifting feds on Facebook, and eventually found a meet an easy two hour drive from me. I decided to sign up for the meet on April 21st, almost immediately after registration opened. The meet was located in Bloomington on August 16th, an easy two hour drive from my home.

The training

As soon as I signed up for a meet, I decided to bulk continuously straight into it. That was mainly because I also had a goal of a 1000 lb total, and I wasn’t strong enough to do that yet. I didn’t adjust my training at all. I ran SL 5x5 and later Jason Blaha’s Novice Program, and my training these days is essentially a modified ICF 5x5 to account for the fact that I can no longer recover from that program as written, it buried me once the weights got heavy. I decided to stick with my existing training program, because I was still making making gains at a good rate. In fact, during this bulk, I was able to add 60 lbs to my squat, 90 lbs to my deadlift, and 20 lbs to my power bench, all increases referring to working weight not 1RM.. I asked several experienced lifters for technique advice along the way, and part of these increases were due to improvements in technique, not just strength. I think this was especially true for the deadlift.

A major issue in my training was I have runner’s knee, confirmed by MRI, which is more or less a chronic problem that flared up in my training. That was a severe limiting factor in my squat sessions, and I needed to spend a lot of effort rehabbing that knee. I worked with a physical therapist who works with athletes and is himself a distance runner. I believe my squat and possibly my deadlift would have improved even more if I had been able to train the squat more consistently. But I am very happy that I could work through this issue and it did not derail my meet, because it easily could have.

Before the meet.

I got a room at a decent hotel so I could enjoy the night before. I decided to drive to the gym that was hosting the meet just to get familiar with the surroundings, since I had never stayed in Bloomington before. The meet director was there, and he weighed me in, set my squat height, and asked about my openers. With my weight class determined, I decided to have a big meal that night.

Day of the meet.

I arrived at 8:00 to take part in the rules meeting. The only question I asked was if the spotters would provide a liftoff for the bench press, the answer was yes. One guy mentioned his opener would be a world record, and wanted to know if he would get a 4th lift based on that, LOL. Then the women who were doing a full meet began warming up for their squat attempts, since they went first.

I also realized I didn’t know if the 3 judges had to signal good lift unanimously, so I looked that up on my phone later. It turns out, 2 whites are sufficient for a good lift. Noob questions, LOL.

The meet started at about 9:00. I started warming up as soon as the women started their attempts. The warmup area was busy, but was not the madhouse I was expecting, and people were accommodating to let me work in. Coaches stayed out of the way.

This passed very quickly, and I looked to see where I was in my squat flight. I was 5th or 6th, so I decided to just go up to the front since I didn’t know what to expect. My opener was 145 kg, 320 lbs, which is lighter than I normally use for a 5 rep training set.

I decided I would do a ridiculously deep squat the first time just to make absolutely certain I hit depth. I did not want to deal with the added stress of missing my first lift. The first lift went very smoothly, but I was so focused that I only noticed the head referee. After I completed the lift, I went up to the desk to tell them what my next attempt would be. I asked her if it was a good lift. I could tell she was surprised at the question, since there were 3 enormous white lights, and it was announced over the loudspeaker that it was a good lift. I had tunnel vision and was completely unaware, LOL.

I didn’t feel nervous, just excited. I ended up squatting a best of 358 lbs, which was still a bit conservative. It went up really fast and I was happy with how the squats turned out.

I was thinking that the meet would be over pretty quickly, and I grew concerned that I wouldn’t have time to warm up for the bench press and deadlift. Boy, was I wrong. There was a long delay between squats and bench press, and bench press and deadlift. A powerlifting meet is truly an all day thing. By the time I needed to warm up for bench press, I had cramps in my lower back and hamstrings, and needed to foam roll the cramps out. Same before my warmups for deadlifts. I also learned it’s not a bad idea to bring your own lawn chair, the metal chairs they had were sturdy but not exactly all day comfortable.

It’s a small community. Even though it was two hours away, I ran into a couple of guys from my gym. I actually didn’t recognize them at first, but they introduced themselves. There were interested in powerlifting and had come to watch the meet, instead of just signing up for one like I did. One of them told me my squats looked smooth and they cheered me on during my remaining lifts. I thought that was pretty cool of them.

I ended up missing my third bench press attempt due to not waiting for a “press” command. I was still suffering from a bit of tunnel vision, and without having the referee stare me in the face, I think I reverted to training mode. I paused briefly and pressed, similar to what I do in training.

That put me in a bind for my deadlift attempt; it meant I would have to go pretty heavy in order to achieve my goal of a 1000.0 lb total. I punched some buttons on my phone and told my girlfriend that I didn’t know what my second deadlift attempt would be, but I knew what my third would be. It was just slightly over what a one rep max calculator said I should be able to do. So it was possible, but remember I am not rested at this point.

Just before attempting the lift, I walked up to the DJ and requested he play Rollin’ by Limp Bizkit. This is a song I like for training. When I was called up, I was totally confident I would make the lift. But then, you have to be.. I gripped the bar and put everything I had into it And though it felt heavy, it went up smooth and it felt great to make the lift. I ended the meet with a 455 kg total/1003.1 lbs.

Some key take aways:
- You’re going to be there all day. Plan to be comfortable, and plan to get food.
- Wait for a press command (lol)
- I probably could have added 50 lbs to my total without too much trouble. I think even the deadlift could have been heavier. But I would probably be somewhat conservative with my opener still.
- It was a very friendly atmosphere, both the competitors and spectators were supportive. I didn’t ask too many questions because that’s not my nature, but the ones I did ask were answered. One of the spectators, a total stranger to me, went out of his way to compliment my deadlift.

Video of my best lifts:
http://youtu.be/2DcCkKeRowg

If you’re interested in doing a meet, find one that is convenient, and sign up. I recommend it to all lifters.