So I’ve got my first powerlifting competition this sunday, just wanted to double check that my openers seem reasonable. So firstly my training maxes are 165kg/125kg/225kg. The bench was a touch and go rather than paused, although I hit a long paused bench of 120kg yesterday.
So I was thinking opening as 150/115/215, decided squat should be a bit further off my max because I know as its my first lift of the competition I’ll probably be a bit nervous etc.
Anyway let me know what you guys think, thanks!
I set up my opening numbers with this in mind: a number I could hit for 2-3 on a bad day. They’re there to get you in the meet, get you rolling and get your confidence up.
If it were me, I’d probably drop all of those a little bit and shoot for 5-10 kg under my training max for 2nd attempt. Then on 3rd attempt, depending on how I’m feeling, go for what my training max was or go a little above. I always cringe with sympathy when I see people bomb out, and a lot of times it’s because a person’s ego got in the way of being realistic.
I agree with Zen Taco–Regard your openers as the last warm-up. Also bear in mind that the squat attempts can degrade bench press performance, so be very conservative there.
Be extra cautious with warm-up for the deadlift.
For a first powerlifting competition I always advocate conservative numbers. Think about the new situation:
- Strict commands… Are you used to holding the bar 2 seconds before getting a start command?
- Are you pausing steadily for long enough?
- Are you used to deadlifting after a long day of squattting etc?
- Are you cutting weight? (I hope not!)
- Are you squatting to depth?
etc
etc
etc
With this in mind, based on the numbers you have given, I would say 145/105/200 would be great choices. There is no reason to miss openers or second attempts (particularly with raw powerlifting). Also, there is nothing wrong with 10-15kg jumps (or even more for those lifting more).
So if things are feeling great there is nothing wrong with:
Squat: 145/160/175
Bench: 105/115/125
Deadlift: 200/220/230
Now it would surprise me if you hit straight PRs like this, but hey, it is possible. Also, there is nothing wrong with going 9/9 and leaving 10-15kg on the platform for your first meet.
It is also possible that by opening bench at 115kg, you aren’t used to competition situation, and bomb. You decide which you prefer.
Thanks for the input guys. So I think I’ll drop my bench by 5-10kg, as although I have been getting a friend to give the press command after pretty long pauses its still a good idea to open easy.
I just hit 170 squat today for my last workout before tapering, it wasn’t pretty but solidly below parallel so I would have thought 20kg below my PR is a good opener?
With the deadlifting I know its never good to bomb out but I’ve hit 215kg for 4 cluster reps with 30-45 seconds rest between reps, so I was thinking that if I can still hit 215kg after doing 3 reps within two minutes beforehand then I really shouldn’t need to worry about not hitting it in a meet for a single?
Thanks again and I hope this doesn’t come across like a beginner thinking he knows best
[quote]rusty92 wrote:
With the deadlifting I know its never good to bomb out but I’ve hit 215kg for 4 cluster reps with 30-45 seconds rest between reps, so I was thinking that if I can still hit 215kg after doing 3 reps within two minutes beforehand then I really shouldn’t need to worry about not hitting it in a meet for a single? [/quote]
It’s a totally different fatigue. Hitting a weight 10 kilos below your max for 4 reps within a few minutes while extremely impressive, isn’t the same as a meet environment. While I can’t speak for all meets at my first meet lifting started at 8 a.m. and I didn’t start deadlifting until 7:30 p.m. so it’s a pretty long, tiring day
[quote]tylerkeen42 wrote:
[quote]rusty92 wrote:
With the deadlifting I know its never good to bomb out but I’ve hit 215kg for 4 cluster reps with 30-45 seconds rest between reps, so I was thinking that if I can still hit 215kg after doing 3 reps within two minutes beforehand then I really shouldn’t need to worry about not hitting it in a meet for a single? [/quote]
It’s a totally different fatigue. Hitting a weight 10 kilos below your max for 4 reps within a few minutes while extremely impressive, isn’t the same as a meet environment. While I can’t speak for all meets at my first meet lifting started at 8 a.m. and I didn’t start deadlifting until 7:30 p.m. so it’s a pretty long, tiring day[/quote]
It’s not a training tired, it’s a meet tired. To get on the platform and compete you are forcing adrenaline. If it’s a long day, I can start to crash and it’s a hard crash. Most of my meet numbers are less than what I may do in training but the next day I will often sleep quite a bit from the rebound.
Once again thanks for the advice everyone, I have to say that as first meets go that it was a really enjoyable experience and it couldn’t have really gone much better. Got 8 out of my 9 lifts with:
Squat: 150:165:175
Bench: 110:117.5:122.5(fail)
Deadlift: 215:227.5:235
So a 5kg Squat PR and a 10kg Deadlift PR.
congrats man! i was wondering how the meet went for you. How was the fatigue?
Cheers! Erm the fatigue wasn’t too bad, I think it helps that I’ve been a competitive swimmer all my life so I’m used to sitting on a boiling hot poolside for 3 days in a row 12 hours at a time, so in comparison chilling in a gym was pretty nice! Also I’m definitely going to do another meet, there’s one in the same place in 6 months time so that should give me a good amount of time to add a fair amount onto my lifts I hope
Well done especially on your PR’s 