So 4 months after competing in a Natural Bodybuilding contest I decided to try my hand at Powerlifting. Why not? They both require you to be strong, and can really compliment one another. In short, bigger muscles are stronger, and by focussing on strength you are continually progressively overloading your muscles, key for growing.
In this following series ‘The Powerlifting Newb’ I am going to take you step by step through my transition form Natural Bodybuilding to the meet. However, in a Star Wars esq. fashion I am going to start with the ending first and tell you how I got on in my meet.
Night before Worries
So the night before the meet me and my girlfriend had a long discussion about my lifts and what weight I would attempt. There was me stressing about the fact my first and second attempts were a walk in the park and wasn’t sure about my third attempt. Going back and fourth about what if you miss that or if that makes you tired later etc. It was stressful and very unproductive. I stuck with the programme and forgot about the debate. This was a very good idea and I will go into depth about weight selection in another part.
Lucky for me I didn’t have to worry about my weight, as I have been sitting around 77-79kg consistently for about a month. Not a chance I would be over the 83kg limit. For those close to it, there is the potential to manipulate things…again, this part is about me and my lifts on the day, that will be covered later.
Day of Meet
Typically I eat a late breakfast, normally around midday. However, I wanted to make sure to get in sufficient fuel before the lifts. Breakfast therefore was a bit random and I went for a protein shake, banana and cookie, easy on the stomach and energy dense. I weighed myself at home after this and I was still well under 80kg, so all good. We then set off for the meet, the drive would take around 2 hours.
Once arriving we signed in and got in the queue for a kit check and to weigh in. This was my first newb moment as I had one of my Revive T Shirts to wear, for a meet you’re only allowed blank T’s or logos affiliated with powerlifting e.g. SBD. All my kit was fine, and then I weighed in, they checked out my briefs (which you must wear) and I selected my openers.
Now we weren’t due to lift until 2pm, so I had a good couple of hours to kill. I ate a tuna sandwich and had a drink, from there I just hung out with my girlfriend and kept an eye on who was lifting. Then at 1:15pm we got called up to select rack heights for the squat, after which we began warming up.
Some people had started warming up an hour before lifting, in my mind that is overkill, who warms up for an hour? No one. So with half an hour to warm up I was happy, people were all really nice and shared the racks. To say it was cramped is being kind, there were only 2 racks, really not enough for the number of lifters. So I probably had my worst warm up ever, but hey, I was under the same pressures as everyone else.
The Squat
For the squat my plan was:
- 165kg opener
- 180kg second attempt
- 190-195kg third attempt
My first and second attempts went really well. However, on both I only got 2 white lights. These lights are bit like those in X-Factor, except it’s not whether they like the performance of not, the three meet judges decide whether or not the lift met the required rules. So my first two attempts may have been slightly lacking in depth, according to one judge anyway. This put me off, and so I decided to just go for 190kg on my third attempt.
This final lift was my best, a grinder but it was deeper than the last two. It looked good, it felt good, it was a 10kg PR, but it didn’t count. Steve the newb powerlifter racked the weight before he was told, bad Steve, no lift.
The Bench Press
For the bench my plan was:
- 90kg opener
- 100kg second attempt
- 110-112.5kg third attempt
The bench was something I was really confident on, not because I was strong, in fact it is my worst lift, but in terms of my plan. I actually think I can hit 115kg, but I went conservative, and for bench, this is a good idea, that I will touch on in a later part when I go over weight selection.
So 90kg is around my 8RM, or 80% of my 1RM, so it was easy. However, I felt like an idiot when I failed this lift. Not because I couldn’t lift it, but because I wasn’t aware of the first call ‘Start’. I thought once I had said ‘My Bar’ I was good to go, but no. Yet, for my second lift I went onward with 100kg, because I knew it was easy. As thought, I got it comfortably.
Then I was in two minds whether or not to go for 115kg, but I played it safe, it was my first meet, so I went with 112.5kg a 2.5kg PR. Again, the lift felt good, a slight grind, and as I normally would in the gym, I hit the rep and racked it. Error number 2, I racked too soon, I forgot to wait for the call, no lift.
The Deadlift
For the deadlift my plan was:
- 185kg opener
- 205kg second attempt
- 225-230kg third attempt
Right, so by now you are getting a pretty clear picture of how things were not going to plan. With a total of 280kg I needed 332.5kg to qualify for nationals, which was my intentions. Sadly if my 190kg and 112.5kg lifts counted I would only need 210, which I had hit for an easy triple a couple of weeks back. So as you can imagine my opener and second lifts went up easy. So on my final attempt I went for a very unrealistic 232.5kg, which would be a lifetime PR, let alone this bodyweight. As expect I didn’t get it, and to be honest I went into lift it with the wrong mindset.
Lessons Learnt
So as you can see on paper I didn’t do very well at all, however I still came 7th out of 15 lifters and for my first meet, that isn’t terrible. Annoyingly, if I had hit all my planned lifts I would have qualified easily and come third. But hey ho, you live and you learn. I now will have the confidence I know what is required for my next meets. Furthermore, my clients will know what to expect when preparing for a meet. In future I would practice lifting under mock conditions more regularly, and I would get my clients to do the same.
Key Lessons:
- Go in with a plan, trust the plan and be confident.
- Know the calls and meet expectations, train like this prior to the meet.
- Keep composed, especially when benching and squatting.
Those are just some of the lessons I have learnt. In future parts I will go over training running up to the meet, nutrition, warming up, lift selection, mind set and much more! So stay tuned.
You know what I am disappointed but I will #ReviveStronger watch this space.
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