I competed in my first meet yesterday, the Guerrilla Squad Barbell Classic in Richmond KY. The meet was SPF. The weigh-in was 24 hours, and since I had gotten very sick on Tuesday and was below my normal resting weight of 210, I decided that I might as well cut down to 198. All three scales in my house are crap, and none of them gave the same readings, so I have no idea how much I actually weighed at any point, but I think I cut about 8lbs and weighed in at 195.0. After gorging myself and drinking two gallons of diluted Gatorade on Friday, I was 206.4 on the morning of meet day, and felt just fine, if a little congested. I ended up going 6/9 with a disappointing 1295 total. Full report follows.
Squat: 550 (3/3)
My squat was by far my best lift, despite struggling a bit with the monolift. We tried to simulate the monolift in our power rack, but it really wasn’t the same. I opened 490 and had no trouble with it, despite not getting the bar set on my back quite right. I had squatted 565 in training, and it hadn’t been a grinder, so I had planned to go 490, 550, 600, but I didn’t feel very good about making a 60lb jump, so I took 530 as my second attempt. My setup still wasn’t quite right, and it was harder than it had been in training, so I decided to go 550 for my third attempt. This time I got the bar in the right spot on my back, got everything locked in tight, and smoked it. Our handler said it was faster than my opener.
Bench: 275 (2/3)
Garbage. I strained my rotator cuff 12 weeks out, aggravated the injury by continuing to squat with a straight bar, tried to bench again too soon and reinjured it 7 weeks out, then re-reinjured it 4 weeks out. As a result, I got in a grand total of 3 productive sessions in my shirt, and was completely unable to bench or train my left arm for almost 9 weeks of the 12 week meet prep cycle. However, I was confident that I could get my opener to touch, and I was definitely getting something out of the shirt, if only because my raw bench is just that bad.
I had set my opener at a token 135 in case squatting aggravated my shoulder. It felt fine, however, so I warmed up, put the shirt on, finished warming up, then took the shirt off and took my opener raw. Then I got my shirt back on, and took 275 with no problem. I decided on 305 for my third attempt. I stalled halfway up on the injured side. I tried to stick with it, but I hadn’t put enough leg drive behind it, and my triceps just weren’t strong enough to finish from my sticking point. I was not pleased. I would rate a 275 single ply bench @198 somewhere between “what are you even doing here, kid” and “shit”.
Deadlift: 470 (1/3)
I pulled with only a belt. I don’t like pulling in a suit one bit, and I wasn’t competing with anyone, so I didn’t.
I knew coming in that I had set my opener too high at 470, but I really wanted a 500lb deadlift, and felt sure I could get it. I had pulled a PR of 475 at 5 weeks out, and knew it wasn’t my max, but I also knew that I probably couldn’t double it either. However, I didn’t count on how tired my whole back would be after benching, and it seemed like they blew through the two flights after mine. I got 470, but I had to grind through my sticking point a couple inches above the knee. I tried 500 anyway, and it flew off the floor, like my pulls always do. I got it past knees and the bar just stopped. I pulled on it for at least 5 seconds and it just wouldn’t move. My third attempt didn’t even last that long, because I was totally gassed from my second attempt. I wish I had video of my second pull, because I’m pretty sure I let the weight swing out away from me and got out of position. I’ll be hammering my upper back pretty hard for the next 6 weeks.
I had a good time, won a trophy by virtue of being the only single ply 198, met some other lifters, and, except for my squat, totally embarrassed myself in front of a bunch of other lifters and their families. I had never really planned to compete, but when my training partners decided to do this meet, I figured I would too, to see what it was like. I can’t say that I’m hooked, but it’s definitely something that I’ll do again, if sparingly.