First Meet

Bigger Stronger Leaner Powerlifting & Strength Sports
1

Well here’s the rundown. I decided I’m sick of going to the gym and not training for anything in particular, as in lacking a competitive training goal. In high school I lifted to supplement my rowing, in college I lifted to supplement my lacrosse. Now post-collegiate I’m no longer being overly competitive in either rowing (though I do coach high school rowing) or lacrosse due to working for the man and lacking time.

That’s the background of me in a nutshell. This has lead me want to compete in a powerlifting meet. I’ve got one chosen out (early Nov. USAPL meet) and am wondering how to work towards hitting some big max’s. I will be competing raw.

Current lifts:
Deadlift: current PR is 535, belt only
Squat: dealing with a slight injury that has been making it hard to go after the real big weights but last time I squatted heavy I put a solid 425 up. I’ve rested my hip enough that I think I’ll be able to start hammering away again.
Bench: Haven’t gone for a true 1RM here. Did 245 for solid 3. Feel as though I might be able to put up 285-295.

http://tnation.T-Nation.com/free_online_forum/blog_sports_body_training_performance_bodybuilding_log/lm_training_log

that’s my log.

I’ve been running a modified 5/3/1 for about 16 weeks.

Current bodyweight is 178-179 lbs.

Any and all advice as where to go from here to really put myself in a good position for this meet would be greatly appreciated.

LM

2

Yoooo, first of all, compliments on your lifts. Does wendler include anything about meet prep for 5/3/1? That would probably be handy.

I’m sure you might have guessed this, but generally you want to taper off your total work or volume leading up to a meet, and jack up your intensity (lifting heavier weights.) Now if you have a belt or other equipment that you are planning to use, i’d say you’d want to use it for at least the last 6 weeks of your training leading up to the meet.

I’d say 3 weeks out from your meet you might want to attempt near max effort on all your lifts. you don’t want to go for an all out single, because you want that attempt saved for the meet. Then the second week out you want to hit something lower than your openers, and you might only have 2 training sessions that week. For your last week, I say do absolutely nothing. If you do nothing, you’ll be bouncing off the walls by the time you get to the meet. This is good.

Since this is your first powerlifting meet, I advise you to not put undue pressure on yourself, since a meet can be a chaotic high pressure environment. This means you want to keep your opener to something that you could triple in the gym NO SWEAT, because you don’t want to bomb out for your first meet. This also means not worrying about making weight. Try to get PRs and don’t worry about your competition. Your warm ups for each lift at the meet will probably be similar to your workouts the second week out.

Don’t worry about protein consumption that day, just try to keep your blood sugar on an even keel. I recommend eating foods that are familiar and comforting.

any questions, PM

3

  1. Make sure you know the commands for each lift. I hate red lighting new lifters who fail to follow commands, but it happens all the time. PM me if you want specifics on the commands and what the refs look for to give you the commands.

  2. Make sure your equipment is legal - this includes your t-shirt, singlet, underwear (no boxers), knee high socks, and shoes. Belts, wrist wraps, and neoprene knee sleeves are also legal in USAPL Raw. No logos on the t-shirt, everything clean and not full of holes, belt can be no wider than 4" and have no velcro.

  3. Bring food that is easy to digest and won’t come back up. I like peanut butter and jelly, gatorade, bananas, and any candy type things I might want. Of course, I rarely have time to eat all the crap I bring to a meet, but I like to have plenty of options. I don’t worry about protein until afterwards.

  4. Tape your squats from the side and make sure you’re convincingly deep. USAPL is full of depth Nazis, and while the rules say “hip crease below the knee” some people interpret that to mean “pick up dollar bill with ass cheeks.” Your first squat should be ass to grass perfect.

  5. First attempts - something you can triple while drunk and having sex with a clown. Second attempts - PR or near to one. Third attempts - go for broke.

  6. All lifts will be in kilos, not lbs. There will be kilo charts there, but I’ve seen people who wanted 245 in lbs who put that down, and would’ve ended up with 245 in kilos if the scorer’s table hadn’t verified the number.

4

Thanks for the help. Only equipment I’ll be using will be the belt that I’ve currently got and wrist wraps for bench since those are allowed under USAPL bylaws.

I’m not too worried about weight, after years of competitive lightweight rowing I have mastered how to get my weight to where it needs to be without sacrificing performance. As it stands now I’m under the 181 class that I’ll be competing so definitely not worried about that.

I’m about 10 weeks out so I guess I’ll keep going as I’ve been going with my modified version of 5/3/1. Wendler doesn’t say anything about meet prep in the book but I’m sure there’s stuff on EFS site that I haven’t read.

Ideally I’d like to try and make a 1300+ total at the meet.

For my lifts I was thinking:
Deadlift: 500, 530, 565
Squat: 405, 435, 465
Bench: 255, 275, 300

If I nail it that’d put me at 1325 which for 181 raw I’d be pretty happy with. I know I can hit the 2nd opener on all those, but my final lift on each of those would be new PR’s (at least at this point in time, I’ve still got 10 weeks).

Side note the meet I’m competing at is:
USAPL GA and Southern States Powerlifting Championships - Duluth, GA

Anyone going to be there? If so come say hey and give me some pointers.

5

Read the rules, practice lifting to commands, make sure you’re deep on your squats, start conservative and make sure you get a total. Just have fun and see if it’s something you want to pursue. Don’t worry about trying to win something.

6

I’m on a deload week this week but I’ll get some video of my lifts up and maybe you all could tell me if I’m good or if I’d get red flagged.

7

Just be prepared to squat like twice as deep as you usually do unless you Brian Siders of any other big name guys they love to give red light for depth especially on younger lifter.

8

Thanks for all the tips everyone. I’m going to need to find a training partner to learn the commands it sounds like (mine moved due to work) and definitely make sure my squat depth is solid. Again I’ll grab some footage and post it so you all can see if I’m good.

9

So I bought a pair of elbow sleeves from EFS and I know they’re supposed to be tight but hell, I have a problem just getting them on (bought the large which says for 175-200 lb range). I’ve got 16" arms flexed but I wouldn’t imagine that they’d be this tough getting on. Anyone have any suggestions on how to get them on easier? Also are these USAPL approved?

Thanks,
LM

10

You can’t wear those in competition in USAPL.

11

Oh well, they’re a pain to get on anyways, just one less thing to worry about.

12

true, geared lifting is tough if you’re one guy.

13

I can imagine. I don’t currently have a training partner (mine moved to CA) so even finding people capable of giving me a lift off/spot at my current craptastic gym is a pain. Half the people look at me odd when I deadlift or use bands/fatgrips/chalk or anything of the like. The only positive is that the staff leave me alone and don’t bitch about the chalk or the noise from deadlifting. I suppose that’s all I can ask for in a world dedicated to mediocrity. So if anyone is in the north GA suburbs and wants to do a training session let me know.

14

As a person who trains solo, I have learned to embrace the Power Rack. Start thinking of ways to be creative in your training. The only down side is you have to learn to unrack the weight yourself when benching but have the pins there in case you dump the weight. Or, just ask some random butt clown to give you a lift off and that is it! NO SPOT or help, just lift off and tell him to go away. Otherwise, the butt clown will feel obligated to stay there as you attempt a PR and try to spot you. He will then proceed to grab the weight when you asked him not to because he is used to the “It’s all you bro” while doing barbell back rows/curls.

Also, grab a video camera and tape yourself as you squat and DL. The camera does not lie and you will have to change or continue to lie to yourself.

Good luck at your first meet and listen to Pushmepullme and the others who gave some damn good advice and go there relax, have fun and ask questions of the bigger guys. You will find they have a lot of offer as far as advice and training tips; but don’t pester them. lol

15

I live in the power rack. I come in and people get out/stay away, probably because most people in commercial gyms have no idea what it’s used for anyways and not my own badassness.

The biggest issue is definitely not having a lift off for bench. It’s hard for me to stay tight in my shoulders if I have to lift off myself, and most people I’ve asked in the gym are unable to do much for a liftoff.

I brought the video camera for DL day on tuesday but forgot about asking someone to video tape (good job me). I’ll get vids up though this coming week and let you all have at it.

I’m not too worried about bothering people at the meet, I’ve competed at some of the highest levels in other sports and know how to not be an annoyance, since I have never appreciated it in my other ventures.

Thanks again for all the tips everyone, I’ll update this again when I’ve got video of DL/Squat.

16

[quote]LiquidMercury wrote:
Thanks for the help. Only equipment I’ll be using will be the belt that I’ve currently got and wrist wraps for bench since those are allowed under USAPL bylaws.

I’m not too worried about weight, after years of competitive lightweight rowing I have mastered how to get my weight to where it needs to be without sacrificing performance. As it stands now I’m under the 181 class that I’ll be competing so definitely not worried about that.

I’m about 10 weeks out so I guess I’ll keep going as I’ve been going with my modified version of 5/3/1. Wendler doesn’t say anything about meet prep in the book but I’m sure there’s stuff on EFS site that I haven’t read.

Ideally I’d like to try and make a 1300+ total at the meet.

For my lifts I was thinking:
Deadlift: 500, 530, 565
Squat: 405, 435, 465
Bench: 255, 275, 300

If I nail it that’d put me at 1325 which for 181 raw I’d be pretty happy with. I know I can hit the 2nd opener on all those, but my final lift on each of those would be new PR’s (at least at this point in time, I’ve still got 10 weeks).

Side note the meet I’m competing at is:
USAPL GA and Southern States Powerlifting Championships - Duluth, GA

Anyone going to be there? If so come say hey and give me some pointers.

[/quote]

If you are 10 weeks out I wouldn’t start worrying about your openers yet. Just train get stronger and see where you are as the meet gets closer. Also, remember that these meets are long. You will likely be there all day. If you are anything like me at my first meet you will be nervous for the squats, settled by the bench, and tired for the deadlift. I’ll give you a little rundown of the lifts.

Squat:
Make sure you can get 3-5 reps with this weight in the gym. USAPL judges will call anything that doesn’t go convincingly below parallel.

Bench:
be ready for the hit to your strength from the squat. The squats take more out of your bench than you would expect. Also, be ready to pause the bar on your chest for what seems like forever. The faster you can get the bar to your chest and motionless the better.

Deadlift:
You will be tired… the combination of lack of sleep the night before (I sure as hell couldn’t sleep the night before my first meet) and first meet jitters takes a toll. Again open light and take into account that you just squated and beched for 6 reps that are 90% and above.

With that said you will have a great time. Just open light and have fun with it. You have good numbers and will be pretty competitive if you can hit those in competition.

17

Do all the meets go Squat, bench, deadlift? Or do I have the option to go Deadlift, Bench, then Squat?

18

Always S-B-D

To reiterate- open light. My first (only) meet I took my last warmups as my openers and it was a fantastic idea. Took all the weight off my chest regarding totaling at the meet and I could just focus on having fun and going for broke on my 3rds. So definitely start a little on the light side.

You’ll feel better and often (in cpu anyway, so I hear- with my vast experience this could be totally off) smoking your openers makes the judges a little less likely to be sticklers about minor stuff in later attempts.

19

[quote]LiquidMercury wrote:
Do all the meets go Squat, bench, deadlift? Or do I have the option to go Deadlift, Bench, then Squat? [/quote]

Always S/B/D.

The bench is only there to rest for the DL.

20

[quote]DoubleDuce wrote:

[quote]LiquidMercury wrote:
Do all the meets go Squat, bench, deadlift? Or do I have the option to go Deadlift, Bench, then Squat? [/quote]

Always S/B/D.

The bench is only there to rest for the DL.[/quote]

Your avatar just fucked my world up.