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Meet reports are something I enjoyed quite a bit from the other place, so I thought I'd do one and hopefully get the ball rolling on Lemmy.

Last Sunday was the Rocky Mountain State Games meet. It was my sixth meet overall and my third after moving to Colorado. It seems like the competition in Colorado is much tougher than it was in Texas as I haven't placed above 5th place since moving here lol.

I trained for about 9 months total for this competition. My meet prior to this one was 1 October, 2022. My training was broken up this time around by an injury and a 2 week trip to Japan that involved minimal training (bands only). The injury was an SI joint issue that crops up once or twice per year that required me to do easy sessions for 2-3 weeks. The program I run is Sheiko Gold. It consists of going up to RPE 8 on hard days and RPE 7 on recovery days. Due to my injury, probably half of my training was easier recover days. I fully expected my strength to decrease due to this.

The meet was held at the D1 training facility in Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA. The warmup situation was mostly good - plenty of squat racks to go around and most people were able to get their own. As usual, my wife came along with me to serve as my coach for the meet.

Squats went better than expected. I opened at 155 kg but jumped the squat command and got 3 red lights. It was a very snappy lift so I decided to increase 10 kg to 165 kg. 165 moved pretty well, at RPE 7 weight, but I decided to play it safe for the next lift and only increased 2.5 kg to 167.5 kg. This last attempt was more difficult, at an RPE 8, but I think I could have jumped 5 to 7.5 kg and still have gotten it.

Bench was fun. This was the lift I was expecting to set a PR on. I opened at 115 kg, which felt great, so I increased to 120 kg. This was a little more difficult than expected, but I really wanted a PR so I increased 5 kg more to 125 kg. Here, sadly, I got stuck halfway up and missed the lift. I think I could have gotten it on a better day.

Deadlifts were the most interesting lift! I opened at 175 kg, smashed that attempt and was expecting to go to 185 kg. My wife accidentally told the people at the desk my third attempt weight even though I was only going for my second attempt at that time. So I made a big jump from 175 kg to 192.5 kg. 192.5 was a dream weight and I didn't think I could get it. Other athletes were screaming at me, hyping me up. I got it! It was an absolute grind but I got it. Needless to say, I didn't come out for a third attempt.

Overall, it was a fun meet so I'd say it was successful. I didn't lose too much strength although I didn't train super hard for it. I'm looking forward to the next on in February, and plan on working a lot harder for it!

Videos:

Squat

Bench

Deadlift

Meant to post this here but ended up on r/weightroom instead. Love that sub, but here tends to be better for powerlifting specific convo. In case anyone is wondering why they're seeing this twice...

Background and Training

This was my first meet, as ridiculous as that sounds. I’ve done powerlifting for around 3 years and lifting for 10+, including handling my girlfriend/fiance at two meets, but the stars never quite aligned for me to do my own meet. This year, after the USPA drama, II finally pulled the trigger and signed up for a local WRPF meet. In February, I started working with Matt Domney from Compound Performance for individual coaching. So far, it’s been an excellent experience and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend his coaching to anyone else.

Meet Prep

My prep into this meet was a funky one. I had come off a super intense 20+ week chunk of training at the beginning of January 2023. During that block, I added 300lbs to my total (transitioned to untested… hence the insane progress). I was pretty burnt out and needed a break. This also coincided with ski season, and I ski ~40 days a season. With that in mind, I didn’t realllllly start following structured training until ~8 weeks out.

At ~8 weeks out, I realized that if I was going to do this meet, it was time to buckle down and get serious--so I did. Things were going pretty well until about ~4 weeks out when a lower trap strain made low bar squats impossible. It was a major bummer, but thankfully I was able to continue deadlift and bench with minimal interruption. With lots of prehab-y movements + 2 massages I was able to start low bar squatting again ~1.5 weeks out. GF also had surgery ~2.5 weeks out, and this was a bigger interruption than I thought it would in terms of stress + sleep. Mentally, this prep was a bit of a struggle. I didn’t feel great for most of it, weights moved decently but below where I wanted. I had a lot of doubts and even considered dropping the meet on many occasions. I needed lots of reassurance but thankfully Matt and my GF were always there to provide it.

Taper + Water Cut

Hit final heavy workouts for squat and deadlift at just over a week out. Bench tapered a bit later. Had easy workouts on M/T/W on meet week, then completely off on T/F. I still went to the gym on both Thursday and Friday, but just did some yoga-type movements to move around. Did not touch a barbell. In hindsight, Matt absolutely nailed my peak and taper.

This was my first time water cutting and I was pretty nervous. My normal daytime weight was ~85kg / 187.5lb, so I knew it was a very doable cut. I looked at all the popular guides from reputable coaches and basically did a lazy amalgamation. Here’s roughly what I did:

• Monday: vaguely try to drink more water than usual. (avg weight 187.4)
• Tuesday: actually track 2 gallons + added sodium. Normal food intake. (Avg weight 190.9)
• Wednesday: 2.5 gallons, added sodium for 1st gallon, no added sodium after that. Cut carb intake in half (did not track, estimated). Cut fiber significantly as well. Dandelion root in the PM. (Avg Weight 191.3)
• Thursday. No water after 7am black coffee. No food other than raw walnuts, rice cakes, and peanut butter. Had ~100g of walnuts, 1 rice cake, and 30g of peanut butter. 100ml of water before bed to stave off the thirst. Dandelion root in the AM and PM. (AM weight: 185.x, PM weight before bed 181.7)
• Friday: Weigh in @ 9am. Was 179.8 upon waking at home. One more bathroom trip, and weighed in at 79kg / 174.1lbs on the calibrated scale. Guess our scale runs heavy? Upon weigh-in, drink 1L of gatorade with 1g added salt + 2 pop tarts. Sip another liter of water on the hour drive back home. From there I was basically eating carbs and drinking water with a pinch of salt continuously all day. The intent was to toe the line of uncomfortable and bloated but not in any real gastrointestinal distress. By the end of day, I was sitting back at 188.9 according to home scale.

Overall, my water cut went great. Thursday was predictably miserable, and I slept poorly, but not enough to truly be an issue. Next time, I’d probably track carbs more strictly. I’m good at estimating, but the peace of mind from actually knowing would be good. I would also start the water load ~12 hours earlier to be safe. I don’t think there’s any need to start much earlier than that. Recomp was also successful.

The Meet

This is where the nice things started—woke up on meet day feeling pretty decent. A little tired + nervous, but also weirdly at peace. I had spent so much time stressing the past several weeks that I was just ready to do the damn thing--regardless of the outcome. The hour of driving to the meet gave me a good opportunity to listen to some music and clear my head.

Matt provided a meet day sheet that had warmups, timing, attempt selection, and everything I needed. I shared this with my GF and she handled everything from there. I had two friends that did all my loading. It was honestly perfect. I didn’t do anything except focus on lifting and feeling good. GF let me know when to start warming up, when to take my last warmup--everything.

Once I started warming up for squats, I started feeling good. Lower trap felt the best it had since hurting it, and things were MOVING. After taking my first attempt, and seeing the video, I couldn’t help but laugh--it was so damn easy. From there, my confidence was sky-high. I let my GF call every attempt with no input from me. She was following the sheet (and knowing me as a lifter), so I knew that whatever she picked would be within my ability. I also texted with Matt all day.

Squat

• 242.5KG / 534.6lb, ⚪🔴⚪: Jumped the rack command--center judge gave me a warning. Fastest this has ever moved for me
• 257.5KG / 567.7lb, ⚪⚪⚪: Again, the fastest this has ever moved for me, gave me the confidence to go for my best-case 3rd attempt.
• 272.5KG / 600.7lb, ⚪⚪⚪: Perfect attempt I think. It was hard, but I got it. Huge milestone. Was genuinely on cloud 9 after this. All the doubts melted away.

Bench

• 145KG / 319.7lb, ⚪⚪⚪: Bumped my opener up 5kg which def stressed Matt a bit, but I was very confident based on warmups + how my bench strength scales. I wanted to bump my opener that way I could take smaller jumps to reach a realistic 3rd. Moved as an opener should.
• 155KG / 341.7 lb, ⚪⚪⚪: Another great attempt, felt very confident
• 162.5KG / 358.2lb, ⚪⚪⚪: Took my top-end 3rd attempt and again was perfect for the day. Hard but confident lift.

Deadlift

Fatigue and stress started coming in a bit here. Deadlifts were great all prep, but I had the most questions about my ability to push the weights here. My heaviest pull all prep was a 302.5kg @ 9.5 (@8.5 if you ask my coach). Again, though, my final warmup at 265kg/585lb was just so easy that it gave me more confidence.

• 285KG / 628.3lb, ⚪⚪⚪: Smoke. Felt great
• 305KG / 672.4lb ⚪⚪⚪:: lifetime PR, and it was RPE 8.5-9
• 317.5KG / 699.9lb \(I’m calling it 700 ok\), 🔴🔴🔴: Took a shot at a big lift and ran out of talent. So damn close, but techincally, wasn’t quite there. Got pulled forward and after i felt that downward motion, I knew I was done. Honestly, wasn’t even upset.

Total: 740kg / 1,631lbs

DOTS: 514

Placement: 1st and best lifter

124 all-time @ 181 (by DOTS, according to OpenPL)

Final thoughts

This was so much fun. All our friends showed up and cheered me on. I got so many compliments and comments of recognition from my fellow competitors. I would honestly list it among the best days of my life. It was incredibly validating to have everything go so well. All of my 3rds were in line with my best-case scenarios.

Plans for the future are to take a decent off-season and build some muscle. I was one of the smaller guys in my class, even at this local meet. My squat and deadlift are good; my bench still is by far the weakest link and should be low-hanging fruit to improve. Similarly, I think my pull has some technical limitations that become more apparent at the top end. That 700 should have been mine. It's not acceptable to have performance fall apart that quickly from 672 to 700. I think 82.5/83kg is the right class for me, and given that I weighed in at 79.0kg… I have room to grow. Haven’t had my post-meet call with Matt yet, but we’ll see what makes sense!

Very proud of myself for pushing through prep and performing the way I did on meet day. I was so locked in all day. There were a number of small annoyances about the meet that I’ll list below. Hopefully, the WRPF can continue improving on the local level:

• Meet registration said squat bar would be used for squats over 200kg. So… I made a point of training with the squat bar the last several weeks of prep. Well, they didn’t use the squat bar for my flight. I guess because not everyone in the flight was squatting over 200kg?
• On the note of flights, rather than organizing flights by opener, they did them by weight class. This meant that in the same flight of 12 people, there was a 92.5kg and 300kg deadlift 3rd attempt. Why? Slower meet and more work for the spotters.
• The gym the meet was held in was great, but, also had some issues for warmups. There were no deadlift bars for warmups. For squats, I had a Rep Sabre bar + bumper plates. Over 200kg, it was an absolute noodle with no knurling. There weren’t enough ‘real’ power bars and steel plates for everyone, or even most people to warm up on. Genuinely not trying to be a princess, but this is kinda rough for warmup equipment at a powerlifting meet.
• To be clear, this was a local meet, I’m not expecting a flawless experience with unlimited competition equipment for warmups. Additionally, I’m used to training on all manner of equipment, none of this threw me off. But, worth mentioning. It should have been better, and I will prioritize that for future meets.
• Officiating was consistent and fair. Everyone running the meet was friendly and accessible. No complaints here.

TL;DR

First World Championships.

195/117.5/280 for a 592.5kg total at 73.7kg

Came 21/23 in my class and 171/195 overall. An incredible experience.

Background

Started lifting in 2017 as a way of trying to be healthier. Started off with 5x5 and eventually gained strength over time. Powerlifting started off as a hobby and eventually become so ingrained to my personality. Entered in my first meet in 2019 with a total of 460kg. Slowly but surely increased the number consistently over time (my numbers did take a massive hit during COVID). Coming into the World Championships was unexpected. I came second in the South African national meet with a 580 total and didn't expect to get the call up to the national team. I work as a Management Consultant and I was fortunate we have a policy of "Flex months", in which I was able to take the month off prior to World's to prepare for the meet.

Going into World's I didnt expect I'd do remotely well. I'm not particularly built to be a powerlifter - I'm 181cm tall (5' 11" for freedom units) and I normally hover at around 77kg. Nor am I particularly built - I'd estimate my bodyfat to be around 16-17%. But, given that I had the opportunity to do so, was keen to give it my everything.

Leading up to the meet

Despite having the additional time to prep, I found myself with numerous injuries starting from 4 weeks out. Started off with Spasms in my lateral hamstring tendons which took a few days to heal and ended off with strains in my levator scapulae, which led to shoulder impingement. My peak was impacted due to these issues, but injuries are the name of the game and adapations need to be done. I used the METH protocol to try and rehab all of the injuries I picked up. Thankfully no tears happened during this time.

Given that I weighed a bit more than 74kg, I needed to do a bit of a water cut. I've had quite a bit of experience with water loading, sodium manipulation and gut cuts, but I made the rookie mistake of not buying water prior to my flight to Malta. Numerous requests for the air staff to give me sufficient water was not sufficient for my water intake 3 days before and I tried compensating with this leading up to the meet... Spoiler, it did not go well. A day before the meet I woke up a 76.7 and started stressing on my weight. Additionally, my girlfriend ended up breaking up with me on this day and the stress was pretty intense. I had to resort to a slow dehydration throughout the day to make weight - I was fortunate that the hotel had a sauna and spent a good portion of the day sitting there (I was fortunate to meet and chat with Pana whilst he was also chilling in the sauna prior to his meet). I managed to cut down to 74.3 before sleeping. I woke up at around 73.7kg and began my rehydration process around an hour before competing. There was no net change from my waking up weight to weighing in - possibly indicating I could have recomped a tiny bit more. After weighing in and equipment check - I cannot tell you how good it felt to down some water!

Squats

Attempt 1: 175kg ⚪ ⚪ ⚪: I had planned on opening on 182.5kg but my coach recommended 175kg in case of any nerves to be on the international stage and to ensure I got a total on the day. It was pretty easy.

Attempt 2: 187.5kg ⚪ ⚪ ⚪: I misgrooved a bit on this attempt, leaning a bit more forward than I would have liked and didnt drive through my legs enough on the come up, leading to a sticking point which I pushed through.

Attempt 3: 195kg ⚪ ⚪ ⚪(Meet PR +10kg): Based on my second, we decided to do this for a third. There was so much more left in the tank. I had done 200kg in training and went into the meet wanting 205kg. I'm sure I'll be able to attempt this next time.

I got the A7 Rigor Mortis sleeves (Medium) 2 weeks prior to the meet. They definitely helped me and looking forward to see what numbers I can push in future.

Bench

Attempt 1: 105kg ⚪ ⚪ ⚪: Easy. Something I had done for 5 prior to getting injured. The bar did not feel comfortable on my setup, but it went up fine.

Attempt 2: 112.5kg ⚪ ⚪ ⚪: Didn't feel too bad. This was a Meet PR for me at the time

Attempt 3: 117.5kg ⚪ ⚪ ⚪ (Meet PR +7.5kg) It was well selected and happy with how it moved on the day.

My long arms are not built for bench. My levator scapulae and shoulder impingment were really of concern leading up to this, but happy with how everything worked out. Even on a local level, my bench is not competitive at all, but with that being said, I'm happy on how things ended up. Similarly to squats, I feel as though bench is finally starting to click. I think there's some potential to improve on this.

Deadlifts

Attempt 1: 260kg ⚪ ⚪ ⚪: I planned to open at 270kg, but we changed this to account for my neck killing me. Easy.

Attempt 2: 280kg ⚪ ⚪ ⚪: I have done this weight numerous times. Felt confident and it felt fine.

Attempt 3: 295kg 🔴🔴🔴: Failure. I rushed my setup, hips rose early and it was never going to make it up after that. Its so easy to look at things retrospectively and find your errors, but going forward I will definitely emphasise my starting position more. Happy I broke it off the ground though.

The only lift I was somewhat competitive in is the deadlift and I went to World's for my third deadlift, with the hope of being the first South African in around 9 years to do the 4x bodyweight deadlift (and be the second in history). I'm really keen to work on this more in future though. I've done 285kg in a meet before, and I really want 300kg as a 74kg lifter. It might take time, but I will get it.

The experience

It was one of the most memorable weeks of my life. I never would have imagined I would ever compete on the international stage and everything just felt surreal - the lights, the cameras, the stage and getting the opportunity to fangirl whenever meeting the famous lifters I've followed on instagram over the past few years. I'm also fortunate to live in South Africa, where standards are admittedly lower than other countries.

I can say that I will be back next year, stronger than ever.

​

​

Well, I will start with the good things because there weren't very many of them. Nothing got injured. The meet was run very well. This was my 50th time competing in powerlifting and the following information should make an excellent case for me still not knowing what the fuck I am doing.

On to the litany of things that sucked. Two days before I weighed in, I was 267lbs. My goal was to compete at 242 but it's hard to do that when you sabotage your own diet and fuck it all up. I started a slower weight cut months before the meet and it was going fine. Then, two weeks out, I went to a family reunion and spent about 72 straight hours stuffing my face and getting hammered. Whatever calories I cut over the two previous months were re-consumed in that time frame and my soft shitty body responded very well to them. I did a pretty east water manipulation a week before the weigh in, cut out salt and carbs about 36 hours out, fasted and did a couple HIT sessions to attempt to deplete my glycogen (which I calculated out to about 15lbs of my total bodyweight), and then spent about an hour total in my sauna the morning of the weigh in. This got me down to 245lbs. I hate weight cuts. I don't advocate for them ever, but I had some personal goals I was trying to hit that were all pretty much immediately out the fucking window when I didn't make 242. I had my weight back up in the 260's by that afternoon so I was hoping that it wouldn't negatively impact my lifts too much. But, oh boy, I was wrong.

Squat: I opened with a 600lb squat that looked like an empty bar. I was feeling a little tired and the polar opposite of anything resembling being "fired up," but this flew. Even though my motivation for the day felt like something akin to soul diarrhea, I was happy about this and thought the day could possibly go well. The moment I unracked my second attempt, 633lbs, my brain immediately started screaming, "PUT IT BACK DIPSHIT, PUT IT BACK!" Me, being the seasoned experienced competitor that I am, completely ignored the cascade of biological-left-over-Neanderthals'-survival-mechanism messages that were flooding every inch of the inside of my body and walked the weight out anyway. To really drive home how absolutely fucked I obviously subconsciously wanted this squat to be, I got my feet set somewhere between a full fucking split and a lunge. The decent actually felt alright. It was out of the hole that I realized two things:

1. I didn't brace at all
2. I have a very durable spine

About halfway up, my suit felt like it was trying to shove my body out of it and I lost the bar going forward. The spotters and loaders were top notch all day. This was a good thing because the first 5 rows of spectators would have been killed if they didn't save my life as well. I scratched my third because I just didn't want to do that again.

Bench: Weirdly, this is my worst lift and the only one that went well. 402 and 435 were about as easy as bench presses have ever been for me in a meet. 451 on my third would have been the most I have benched since a pretty catastrophic shoulder injury and surgery a couple years ago. Key word, "would." For a reason I will never understand, I decided that the best position for me to press out of would be with my back completely flat on the bench and me aiming the bar at my fucking knees off my chest. Luckily, again, the spotters caught the bar before I could crush injury induce an evisceration on myself.

Realistically, I only sign up for these stupid fucking things to deadlift anyway so I wasn't super bummed out... yet...

Deadlift: I am pretty sure my 705 opener is still floating around in outer space somewhere. This could have been a power clean. I went to pull 766 on my second, got it up to my knee in about a millisecond, and then just didn't feel like doing it anymore. I had pitched way forward and again completely forgot that bracing was important. I can't even explain that fatigue I was feeling at this point. All I wanted was to sit down have have a bourbon. Scratched my third, took all my shit off, couldn't find my pants, and called it a day.

Something was definitely off the day after. I am almost never sore from competing. My hips and middle/upper back were so lit up when I got out of bed the next morning that I thought I slipped a disc in my sleep.

50 meets I have done and this was probably one of the worst ones I've ever had without actually bombing out. Whatever. 14 weeks until Nationals in Vegas. That should be plenty of time to unfuck my stupid body.

Introduction

Second meet! I bombed out on squats at my first meet back in November for several reasons, so my primary goal going in was 9/9 good lifts.

Weigh-In

Did a water cut the week of weigh-ins: started that Monday at about 76.5kg and weighed in Friday morning at 73.0kg. For fluids, I essentially water loaded Monday and Tuesday, went to about 75% normal intake Wednesday, and probably 3 sips all Thursday. For food, I cut out most salt and carbs, and did a heavy calorie restriction from Wednesday morning to Friday morning.

After driving 3 hours and weighing in, immediately went to refeeding and rehydrating (as I stepped out of the gym chugging Gatorade and water, I immediately started looking for the nearest breakfast burrito).

Meet Day

Woke up about 2 hours before meet start even though I was flight C as I wanted to get in a good breakfast and have time to digest (I love me my scrambles, toast, potatoes, and black coffee).

Squat

1. 142.5kg (314lbs) ⚪️⚪️⚪️
2. 155.5kg (353lbs) ⚪️⚪️⚪️
3. 170kg (374lbs) ⚪️⚪️⚪️

I was SUPER conservative with my squat weights as I have a persisting left knee injury and didn't want to push it too far (and bombing out last time was still pretty heavy on my mind). Opener and 2nd attempt felt good, but knee started feeling a bit funny as I came out of the bottom on 3rd. Still, didn't bomb out so already improved from last time.

Bench

1. 102.5kg (226lbs) ⚪️⚪️⚪️
2. 115kg (255lbs) ⚪️⚪️⚪️ (Meet PR)
3. 120kg (264lbs) ❌❌❌

Opener was something I could confidently pause triple, and while it felt like a small grind on the platform it flew in the video. 2nd was something I had never paused, but was fairly confident I could do; definitely a more noticeable effort. 3rd attempt was something I had only ever done touch and go, but decided "screw it." In retrospect I think I got way in my own head and loosened up during the grind. Oh well, still meet PR.

Deadlift

1. 200kg (440lbs) ⚪️⚪️⚪️
2. 220kg (484lbs) ⚪️⚪️⚪️ (Meet PR)
3. 227.5kg (501lbs) ⚪️⚪️⚪️ (ATPR)

Like a lot of people, deadlifts are my favorite of the three so I felt the most confident about these. Opened with my 3rd attempt from last meet, and it felt really good. 2nd attempt was a match of my training PR and it moved way easier on the platform (my god I love deadlift bars). 3rd attempt was my second ever attempt trying for 500 (failed the first attempt in training). So hitting this felt extremely good. After pulling it and watching the video, I probably had leeway to add a little more weight on 3rd attempt, but pulling 500 was a side-goal for this meet so am still satisfied.

Link to videos of all attempts

Conclusion

Went 8/9, 24 white lights. Ended up getting 2nd place in 75kg class, which I was absolutely not expecting. Next thing is figuring out this knee thing so I can really start testing my squat again.

Well, I will start with the good things because there weren't very many of them. Nothing got injured. The meet was run very well. This was my 50th time competing in powerlifting and the following information should make an excellent case for me still not knowing what the fuck I am doing.

On to the litany of things that sucked. Two days before I weighed in, I was 267lbs. My goal was to compete at 242 but it's hard to do that when you sabotage your own diet and fuck it all up. I started a slower weight cut months before the meet and it was going fine. Then, two weeks out, I went to a family reunion and spent about 72 straight hours stuffing my face and getting hammered. Whatever calories I cut over the two previous months were re-consumed in that time frame and my soft shitty body responded very well to them. I did a pretty east water manipulation a week before the weigh in, cut out salt and carbs about 36 hours out, fasted and did a couple HIT sessions to attempt to deplete my glycogen (which I calculated out to about 15lbs of my total bodyweight), and then spent about an hour total in my sauna the morning of the weigh in. This got me down to 245lbs. I hate weight cuts. I don't advocate for them ever, but I had some personal goals I was trying to hit that were all pretty much immediately out the fucking window when I didn't make 242. I had my weight back up in the 260's by that afternoon so I was hoping that it wouldn't negatively impact my lifts too much. But, oh boy, I was wrong.

Squat: I opened with a 600lb squat that looked like an empty bar. I was feeling a little tired and the polar opposite of anything resembling being "fired up," but this flew. Even though my motivation for the day felt like something akin to soul diarrhea, I was happy about this and thought the day could possibly go well. The moment I unracked my second attempt, 633lbs, my brain immediately started screaming, "PUT IT BACK DIPSHIT, PUT IT BACK!" Me, being the seasoned experienced competitor that I am, completely ignored the cascade of biological-left-over-Neanderthals'-survival-mechanism messages that were flooding every inch of the inside of my body and walked the weight out anyway. To really drive home how absolutely fucked I obviously subconsciously wanted this squat to be, I got my feet set somewhere between a full fucking split and a lunge. The decent actually felt alright. It was out of the hole that I realized two things:

1. I didn't brace at all
2. I have a very durable spine

About halfway up, my suit felt like it was trying to shove my body out of it and I lost the bar going forward. The spotters and loaders were top notch all day. This was a good thing because the first 5 rows of spectators would have been killed if they didn't save my life as well. I scratched my third because I just didn't want to do that again.

Bench: Weirdly, this is my worst lift and the only one that went well. 402 and 435 were about as easy as bench presses have ever been for me in a meet. 451 on my third would have been the most I have benched since a pretty catastrophic shoulder injury and surgery a couple years ago. Key word, "would." For a reason I will never understand, I decided that the best position for me to press out of would be with my back completely flat on the bench and me aiming the bar at my fucking knees off my chest. Luckily, again, the spotters caught the bar before I could crush injury induce an evisceration on myself.

Realistically, I only sign up for these stupid fucking things to deadlift anyway so I wasn't super bummed out... yet...

Deadlift: I am pretty sure my 705 opener is still floating around in outer space somewhere. This could have been a power clean. I went to pull 766 on my second, got it up to my knee in about a millisecond, and then just didn't feel like doing it anymore. I had pitched way forward and again completely forgot that bracing was important. I can't even explain that fatigue I was feeling at this point. All I wanted was to sit down have have a bourbon. Scratched my third, took all my shit off, couldn't find my pants, and called it a day.

Something was definitely off the day after. I am almost never sore from competing. My hips and middle/upper back were so lit up when I got out of bed the next morning that I thought I slipped a disc in my sleep.

50 meets I have done and this was probably one of the worst ones I've ever had without actually bombing out. Whatever. 14 weeks until Nationals in Vegas. That should be plenty of time to unfuck my stupid body.

Introduction

Second meet! I bombed out on squats at my first meet back in November for several reasons, so my primary goal going in was 9/9 good lifts.

Weigh-In

Did a water cut the week of weigh-ins: started that Monday at about 76.5kg and weighed in Friday morning at 73.0kg. For fluids, I essentially water loaded Monday and Tuesday, went to about 75% normal intake Wednesday, and probably 3 sips all Thursday. For food, I cut out most salt and carbs, and did a heavy calorie restriction from Wednesday morning to Friday morning.

After driving 3 hours and weighing in, immediately went to refeeding and rehydrating (as I stepped out of the gym chugging Gatorade and water, I immediately started looking for the nearest breakfast burrito).

Meet Day

Woke up about 2 hours before meet start even though I was flight C as I wanted to get in a good breakfast and have time to digest (I love me my scrambles, toast, potatoes, and black coffee).

Squat

1. 142.5kg (314lbs) ⚪️⚪️⚪️
2. 155.5kg (353lbs) ⚪️⚪️⚪️
3. 170kg (374lbs) ⚪️⚪️⚪️

I was SUPER conservative with my squat weights as I have a persisting left knee injury and didn't want to push it too far (and bombing out last time was still pretty heavy on my mind). Opener and 2nd attempt felt good, but knee started feeling a bit funny as I came out of the bottom on 3rd. Still, didn't bomb out so already improved from last time.

Bench

1. 102.5kg (226lbs) ⚪️⚪️⚪️
2. 115kg (255lbs) ⚪️⚪️⚪️ (Meet PR)
3. 120kg (264lbs) ❌❌❌

Opener was something I could confidently pause triple, and while it felt like a small grind on the platform it flew in the video. 2nd was something I had never paused, but was fairly confident I could do; definitely a more noticeable effort. 3rd attempt was something I had only ever done touch and go, but decided "screw it." In retrospect I think I got way in my own head and loosened up during the grind. Oh well, still meet PR.

Deadlift

1. 200kg (440lbs) ⚪️⚪️⚪️
2. 220kg (484lbs) ⚪️⚪️⚪️ (Meet PR)
3. 227.5kg (501lbs) ⚪️⚪️⚪️ (ATPR)

Like a lot of people, deadlifts are my favorite of the three so I felt the most confident about these. Opened with my 3rd attempt from last meet, and it felt really good. 2nd attempt was a match of my training PR and it moved way easier on the platform (my god I love deadlift bars). 3rd attempt was my second ever attempt trying for 500 (failed the first attempt in training). So hitting this felt extremely good. After pulling it and watching the video, I probably had leeway to add a little more weight on 3rd attempt, but pulling 500 was a side-goal for this meet so am still satisfied.

Link to videos of all attempts

Conclusion

Went 8/9, 24 white lights. Ended up getting 2nd place in 75kg class, which I was absolutely not expecting. Next thing is figuring out this knee thing so I can really start testing my squat again.

Well, I will start with the good things because there weren't very many of them. Nothing got injured. The meet was run very well. This was my 50th time competing in powerlifting and the following information should make an excellent case for me still not knowing what the fuck I am doing.

On to the litany of things that sucked. Two days before I weighed in, I was 267lbs. My goal was to compete at 242 but it's hard to do that when you sabotage your own diet and fuck it all up. I started a slower weight cut months before the meet and it was going fine. Then, two weeks out, I went to a family reunion and spent about 72 straight hours stuffing my face and getting hammered. Whatever calories I cut over the two previous months were re-consumed in that time frame and my soft shitty body responded very well to them. I did a pretty east water manipulation a week before the weigh in, cut out salt and carbs about 36 hours out, fasted and did a couple HIT sessions to attempt to deplete my glycogen (which I calculated out to about 15lbs of my total bodyweight), and then spent about an hour total in my sauna the morning of the weigh in. This got me down to 245lbs. I hate weight cuts. I don't advocate for them ever, but I had some personal goals I was trying to hit that were all pretty much immediately out the fucking window when I didn't make 242. I had my weight back up in the 260's by that afternoon so I was hoping that it wouldn't negatively impact my lifts too much. But, oh boy, I was wrong.

Squat: I opened with a 600lb squat that looked like an empty bar. I was feeling a little tired and the polar opposite of anything resembling being "fired up," but this flew. Even though my motivation for the day felt like something akin to soul diarrhea, I was happy about this and thought the day could possibly go well. The moment I unracked my second attempt, 633lbs, my brain immediately started screaming, "PUT IT BACK DIPSHIT, PUT IT BACK!" Me, being the seasoned experienced competitor that I am, completely ignored the cascade of biological-left-over-Neanderthals'-survival-mechanism messages that were flooding every inch of the inside of my body and walked the weight out anyway. To really drive home how absolutely fucked I obviously subconsciously wanted this squat to be, I got my feet set somewhere between a full fucking split and a lunge. The decent actually felt alright. It was out of the hole that I realized two things:

1. I didn't brace at all
2. I have a very durable spine

About halfway up, my suit felt like it was trying to shove my body out of it and I lost the bar going forward. The spotters and loaders were top notch all day. This was a good thing because the first 5 rows of spectators would have been killed if they didn't save my life as well. I scratched my third because I just didn't want to do that again.

Bench: Weirdly, this is my worst lift and the only one that went well. 402 and 435 were about as easy as bench presses have ever been for me in a meet. 451 on my third would have been the most I have benched since a pretty catastrophic shoulder injury and surgery a couple years ago. Key word, "would." For a reason I will never understand, I decided that the best position for me to press out of would be with my back completely flat on the bench and me aiming the bar at my fucking knees off my chest. Luckily, again, the spotters caught the bar before I could crush injury induce an evisceration on myself.

Realistically, I only sign up for these stupid fucking things to deadlift anyway so I wasn't super bummed out... yet...

Deadlift: I am pretty sure my 705 opener is still floating around in outer space somewhere. This could have been a power clean. I went to pull 766 on my second, got it up to my knee in about a millisecond, and then just didn't feel like doing it anymore. I had pitched way forward and again completely forgot that bracing was important. I can't even explain that fatigue I was feeling at this point. All I wanted was to sit down have have a bourbon. Scratched my third, took all my shit off, couldn't find my pants, and called it a day.

Something was definitely off the day after. I am almost never sore from competing. My hips and middle/upper back were so lit up when I got out of bed the next morning that I thought I slipped a disc in my sleep.

50 meets I have done and this was probably one of the worst ones I've ever had without actually bombing out. Whatever. 14 weeks until Nationals in Vegas. That should be plenty of time to unfuck my stupid body.

Introduction

Second meet! I bombed out on squats at my first meet back in November for several reasons, so my primary goal going in was 9/9 good lifts.

Weigh-In

Did a water cut the week of weigh-ins: started that Monday at about 76.5kg and weighed in Friday morning at 73.0kg. For fluids, I essentially water loaded Monday and Tuesday, went to about 75% normal intake Wednesday, and probably 3 sips all Thursday. For food, I cut out most salt and carbs, and did a heavy calorie restriction from Wednesday morning to Friday morning.

After driving 3 hours and weighing in, immediately went to refeeding and rehydrating (as I stepped out of the gym chugging Gatorade and water, I immediately started looking for the nearest breakfast burrito).

Meet Day

Woke up about 2 hours before meet start even though I was flight C as I wanted to get in a good breakfast and have time to digest (I love me my scrambles, toast, potatoes, and black coffee).

Squat

1. 142.5kg (314lbs) ⚪️⚪️⚪️
2. 155.5kg (353lbs) ⚪️⚪️⚪️
3. 170kg (374lbs) ⚪️⚪️⚪️

I was SUPER conservative with my squat weights as I have a persisting left knee injury and didn't want to push it too far (and bombing out last time was still pretty heavy on my mind). Opener and 2nd attempt felt good, but knee started feeling a bit funny as I came out of the bottom on 3rd. Still, didn't bomb out so already improved from last time.

Bench

1. 102.5kg (226lbs) ⚪️⚪️⚪️
2. 115kg (255lbs) ⚪️⚪️⚪️ (Meet PR)
3. 120kg (264lbs) ❌❌❌

Opener was something I could confidently pause triple, and while it felt like a small grind on the platform it flew in the video. 2nd was something I had never paused, but was fairly confident I could do; definitely a more noticeable effort. 3rd attempt was something I had only ever done touch and go, but decided "screw it." In retrospect I think I got way in my own head and loosened up during the grind. Oh well, still meet PR.

Deadlift

1. 200kg (440lbs) ⚪️⚪️⚪️
2. 220kg (484lbs) ⚪️⚪️⚪️ (Meet PR)
3. 227.5kg (501lbs) ⚪️⚪️⚪️ (ATPR)

Like a lot of people, deadlifts are my favorite of the three so I felt the most confident about these. Opened with my 3rd attempt from last meet, and it felt really good. 2nd attempt was a match of my training PR and it moved way easier on the platform (my god I love deadlift bars). 3rd attempt was my second ever attempt trying for 500 (failed the first attempt in training). So hitting this felt extremely good. After pulling it and watching the video, I probably had leeway to add a little more weight on 3rd attempt, but pulling 500 was a side-goal for this meet so am still satisfied.

Link to videos of all attempts

Conclusion

Went 8/9, 24 white lights. Ended up getting 2nd place in 75kg class, which I was absolutely not expecting. Next thing is figuring out this knee thing so I can really start testing my squat again.