My First Powerlifting Meet

Intro

So, yesterday was my first powerlifting meet. I was heaps excited the night before and knew I would have a little trouble sleeping. I was in bed by about 1am and then woke up at about 7am then went back to sleep, woke back up, went back to sleep...etc. Finally got up at about 830am but wasn't feeling that tired.

I picked my mates up from the gym; Joe, Chris and Edwin. Edwin wasn't competing, he was just taking some footage.

We got to the gym where the meet was held at about 1130am for weigh in. I wasn't sure if I would be just over or just under the 83kg class....turned out I was just under; 82.15kg.

My goal for the day was to hit a 500kg total for the weight of the three lifts combined.

Squat

The event started with the squats so all the competitors went to warm up. The warm up section was just the regular gym area of the facility. The squat power rack there ws shit though. The uprights were too close together so you would scrape your hands when you racked the bar and there were these bizare metal plate type things on the floor which prevented me from getting my feet positioining right. It was also a challenge for me in terms of timing my warm ups because I was never really sure how long it would be until I would be lifting. With more experience I could of judged this better.

I eventually went out to the platform for my first attempt at 170. I knew this was going to be easy and it was. Even though it was my first meet and I was a little nervous, once that weight was on my back, it seemed there was nothing else around me. And I don't think this focus was due to any heightened sense of adrenaline due to the competition (I simply wasn't that pumped up), it's just how I lift every rep every time I'm in the gym. The meet was no different. There wass a slight bit of controversy though, after the lift I had a guy (who was taking photos of everyone at the meet and giving them generic cues during the lifts) came up to me after the attempt and said, "Good squat but you have to have your thumbs around the bar". I shrugged this statement off really, because I believed he didn't know what he was talking about and continued on my way.

Second attempt was 180. Smashed this one too. The plan was never to push myself hard in the squat though because of my recent hip tendonitis. I'm on the road to recovery. Again though, the same guy was back with the thumb comments, this time he was a little more forward with his recommendations. I could see this was developing into a problem  but I honestly thought, "these guys don;t know what they are talking about" and just continued on my way.

For my third attempt, I was considering 190 or 185. I ended up going conservatively with 185 because I didn't see much point in pushing myself at this stage. Coming off a lay off and no PR in sight, I was never going to win the competition, I just wanted the experience. So, out I went onto the platfoorm and gripped the bar, as I do, thumbless. I unrack the bar and the judge says to me, "You have to grip the bar with your thumbs"
I reply, "I can't". I literally couldn't with the grip I had. Biomechanically impossible.
"Then rack the bar", he says. So I rack the bar and get ready to start over, not really knowing what I'm going to do. The judge says to me again, "You can have a thumbs over grip but they have to wrap around the bar"
By this stage, I'm still totally convinced they don't know what they are talking about; lots of people squat with a thumbless grip and the whole point is that the thumbs stay out of the way so you can get better bar placement and shoulder position etc. Just before I unrack the bar for a second time I reply to the judge, "I've been holding the bar like this for 2 years, I'm not going to change my squat form now". He didn't reply to that. At this stage, I was well and trully over the politics of the situation and just decided, in that moment, that I was going to squat the way I wanted, all the same expecting the judge to fail the lift. So I unracked it, easily squatted the weight, but didn't wait for the judge to give me the "rack" command before racking the bar. I failed the lift.

Afterwards I had officials telling me I had to wrap my thumbs around the bar. I replied that I would have to see that in the rule book myself before I believed it. They assured me it was, however, I still didn't buy it. However, the incident was great ammunitiuon for humpurous jokes by the boys all day long. "I'll be banned from the federation for disrespecting the officials" we all quipped. It was a great old laugh. Needless to say, I couldn't of cared less about their decision.

As soon as I got home, I was on the IPF (Intenational Powerlifing Federation) websited to check their official technical rules document. The rules stipulate that fingers must wrap the bar, not thumbs. Benchpress rules however, stipkulate fingers and thumbs must grip the bar. I was right. Morale of the story; don't trust authority and people that claim they know what they are talking about, usually don't.

Bench

First attempt 102.5 x 1. Got it. Second attempt 107.5 failed. Got close to lock out but couldn't get it. I easily got this in the gym a week or so ago but in the comp I realised I was working under fatigue. By this stage it was about 2pm and we had already been there for 2 and a half hours. Lifts are extremmely spaced out and there is a great deal of waiting around involved. This coupled with heavy lifts is extremely tiresome. I literally could have layed down and fallen asleep at this stage. I didn't bother with a 3rd attempt bench. Was back was cramping up and it wasn't really feasible that I would get 107.5. My bech was so far behind the competition. 120-180kg benches were the order of the day. In my weight class, the good benchers were hitting 130.

Deadlift

I was most excited about the deadlift because I knew I could get a PR. 1st attempt 195, easy. Second attempt 205, pretty easy. 3rd attempt 210 and got it pretty easy too really, considering I really jerked the bar off the floor. This was a 10kg PR which was great considering I've only been deadlifting for 6 weeks, I think, after months out through the soccer season. I was glad it was all over though.

Summary

I had a great time hanging out with the boys from the gym but overall the experience wasn't as fun as I thought it would be. The waiting between attempts is a bit ridiculous. I waited about 30 minutes between squat attempts which isn't fun and also not optimal for performance. I mean, realistically, unless you want to make some sort of living out of competition, I don't see much of a point in it. With that said, I'm sure I will enter another down the track. A good experience nonethe less.

Here's the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TphbFzbyneg&list=UUvzsj4BPiX2zewq6o_LPdtw&index=1&feature=plcp