So in Part 1 you got to see how the day went and some key lessons I learnt; make a plan, know the process and stay composed. I am going to touch on each of these in more detail to help the new powerlifter out.
First things first, I want you to have a plan of what numbers you are going to attempt for each lift. The only numbers set in stone are the openers, all the others can change on the day, but we will have a plan for that too. Using the below you will a guide that will get you a 100% success rate and give you the best chance of doing well in your meet.
What Weight?
Right, so you have been training with a meet in mind for many weeks or months. All the hard work you have put in is being put to the test on this one day. Hopefully you have been increasing your intensity slowly and have built up a good amount of volume prior to the meet. The last few weeks should have got you pretty well prepared for shifting heavy weights.
In the video below you can see how I recorded my main lifts and noted down how each set was feeling, information and footage like this is very helpful when picking your lifts.
Using your training notes you can look over the sort of weights you were achieving for a given number of reps, you can use these to look at what you estimated 1 rep maxes might look like. This will give you a good idea of what you 1 rep max on the day might be.
This gives you your starting point, you have your estimated 1 rep maxes. They give you a range to work from, you can set yourself a minimum and maximum for each lift. That way you know if you’re feeling crummy on the day you have a minimum you can hit and if you’re feeling super you have a maximum to aim for.
Picking Your Opener
The way I see it is that your opener is just an extension of your warm up. So this should definitely be something sub-maximal and shouldn’t take away from your next attempts. This is the only lift you have to hand in before you start, so you cannot judge how your warm up is going to give you an indication of how this lift might go. Therefore, it makes even more sense to pick something you can hit any day of the week come rain or shine.
This should be a weight you could hit hungover wearing the clothes you had on during your night out. That means no belt, no lifting shoes, no chalk, you get the picture; no chance of failure. Furthermore, because it will be easy it will give you confidence for your next lifts going forward.
So because everyone likes rules of thumb;
- Your opener should be 80% of your final attempt (1 Rep Maximum).
- A piece of pie, whether hungover or not.
Picking Your Second Attempt
So after killing your first opener you’re ready for your second attempt. Again, we are going in with the mindset of hitting every single lift. Because, a missed attempt is as good as wiping your ass with cling film. Messy, uncomfortable, embarrassing and an all round epic fail. So 9/9 is our aim, therefore the second attempt is again something we are confident about hitting.
However, you have the first attempt to help guide you here. My advise is to have a couple of options before you get to your meet, have a feeling shitty option and a feeling good option. If your opener felt a bit slow, then opt for the feeling shitty second attempt, if it felt like it should, easy, then go for the feeling good option. Too many options will only leave you second guessing, if things are going to plan, you should be feeling good, it will be pretty clear if things aren’t.
Either way this lift again should be a no-brainer, not dead easy but not hard either. Something you could hit for a 2-3 rep max on a good day and hit for a single when you feel like utter crap.
Right so how do you go about picking these two?
- Feeling shitty 85% of your final attempt (1 Rep Maximum).
- Feeling good 90% of your final attempt (1 Rep Maximum).
- Something you could hit for a triple on a good day.
Picking Your Final Attempt
Right so now you are in a great position, whether you’re feeling good or not, you will have so far succeeded in getting every attempt, 6/6, good job! So using the 1 rep max calculator and your lifting history you have an idea of what you should be able to hit. Again I suggest having a feeling crummy attempt and a feeling good number.
As a rule of thumb set your final attempt at:
- 100 – 102.5% of your estimated 1RM.
Remember, we are going for 9/9, and especially because this is written for the powerlifting newb we are assuming a lack of meet experience. Therefore, you do not know whether you bloom under the competitive environment or crumble. It’s like those kids who know all the answers to the questions in lessons, and do well on their course work, but when it comes to exam conditions they suck. We therefore have little meet history to go off, so we are going to be conservative. As said before, a missed lift is useless, so we don’t want any second guessing.
The Take Home Message
If it wasn’t clear by now the take home from the above is that you want to avoid missing lifts. As someone new to powerlifting you want to be especially conservative, and learn from the process. Having a plan allows you to have better focus on the day, plus by having a minimum and a maximum you have a great way of selecting weights on the day, because who knows how you might be feeling.
In the parts to follow I will talk more about each lift, nutrition, weighing in and all the details of the meet day.
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