Meant to post this here but ended up on r/weightroom instead. Love that sub, but here tends to be better for powerlifting specific convo. In case anyone is wondering why they're seeing this twice...
Background and Training
This was my first meet, as ridiculous as that sounds. I’ve done powerlifting for around 3 years and lifting for 10+, including handling my girlfriend/fiance at two meets, but the stars never quite aligned for me to do my own meet. This year, after the USPA drama, II finally pulled the trigger and signed up for a local WRPF meet. In February, I started working with Matt Domney from Compound Performance for individual coaching. So far, it’s been an excellent experience and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend his coaching to anyone else.
Meet Prep
My prep into this meet was a funky one. I had come off a super intense 20+ week chunk of training at the beginning of January 2023. During that block, I added 300lbs to my total (transitioned to untested… hence the insane progress). I was pretty burnt out and needed a break. This also coincided with ski season, and I ski ~40 days a season. With that in mind, I didn’t realllllly start following structured training until ~8 weeks out.
At ~8 weeks out, I realized that if I was going to do this meet, it was time to buckle down and get serious--so I did. Things were going pretty well until about ~4 weeks out when a lower trap strain made low bar squats impossible. It was a major bummer, but thankfully I was able to continue deadlift and bench with minimal interruption. With lots of prehab-y movements + 2 massages I was able to start low bar squatting again ~1.5 weeks out. GF also had surgery ~2.5 weeks out, and this was a bigger interruption than I thought it would in terms of stress + sleep. Mentally, this prep was a bit of a struggle. I didn’t feel great for most of it, weights moved decently but below where I wanted. I had a lot of doubts and even considered dropping the meet on many occasions. I needed lots of reassurance but thankfully Matt and my GF were always there to provide it.
Taper + Water Cut
Hit final heavy workouts for squat and deadlift at just over a week out. Bench tapered a bit later. Had easy workouts on M/T/W on meet week, then completely off on T/F. I still went to the gym on both Thursday and Friday, but just did some yoga-type movements to move around. Did not touch a barbell. In hindsight, Matt absolutely nailed my peak and taper.
This was my first time water cutting and I was pretty nervous. My normal daytime weight was ~85kg / 187.5lb, so I knew it was a very doable cut. I looked at all the popular guides from reputable coaches and basically did a lazy amalgamation. Here’s roughly what I did:
- Monday: vaguely try to drink more water than usual. (avg weight 187.4)
- Tuesday: actually track 2 gallons + added sodium. Normal food intake. (Avg weight 190.9)
- Wednesday: 2.5 gallons, added sodium for 1st gallon, no added sodium after that. Cut carb intake in half (did not track, estimated). Cut fiber significantly as well. Dandelion root in the PM. (Avg Weight 191.3)
- Thursday. No water after 7am black coffee. No food other than raw walnuts, rice cakes, and peanut butter. Had ~100g of walnuts, 1 rice cake, and 30g of peanut butter. 100ml of water before bed to stave off the thirst. Dandelion root in the AM and PM. (AM weight: 185.x, PM weight before bed 181.7)
- Friday: Weigh in @ 9am. Was 179.8 upon waking at home. One more bathroom trip, and weighed in at 79kg / 174.1lbs on the calibrated scale. Guess our scale runs heavy? Upon weigh-in, drink 1L of gatorade with 1g added salt + 2 pop tarts. Sip another liter of water on the hour drive back home. From there I was basically eating carbs and drinking water with a pinch of salt continuously all day. The intent was to toe the line of uncomfortable and bloated but not in any real gastrointestinal distress. By the end of day, I was sitting back at 188.9 according to home scale.
Overall, my water cut went great. Thursday was predictably miserable, and I slept poorly, but not enough to truly be an issue. Next time, I’d probably track carbs more strictly. I’m good at estimating, but the peace of mind from actually knowing would be good. I would also start the water load ~12 hours earlier to be safe. I don’t think there’s any need to start much earlier than that. Recomp was also successful.
The Meet
This is where the nice things started—woke up on meet day feeling pretty decent. A little tired + nervous, but also weirdly at peace. I had spent so much time stressing the past several weeks that I was just ready to do the damn thing--regardless of the outcome. The hour of driving to the meet gave me a good opportunity to listen to some music and clear my head.
Matt provided a meet day sheet that had warmups, timing, attempt selection, and everything I needed. I shared this with my GF and she handled everything from there. I had two friends that did all my loading. It was honestly perfect. I didn’t do anything except focus on lifting and feeling good. GF let me know when to start warming up, when to take my last warmup--everything.
Once I started warming up for squats, I started feeling good. Lower trap felt the best it had since hurting it, and things were MOVING. After taking my first attempt, and seeing the video, I couldn’t help but laugh--it was so damn easy. From there, my confidence was sky-high. I let my GF call every attempt with no input from me. She was following the sheet (and knowing me as a lifter), so I knew that whatever she picked would be within my ability. I also texted with Matt all day.
Squat
- 242.5KG / 534.6lb, ⚪🔴⚪: Jumped the rack command--center judge gave me a warning. Fastest this has ever moved for me
- 257.5KG / 567.7lb, ⚪⚪⚪: Again, the fastest this has ever moved for me, gave me the confidence to go for my best-case 3rd attempt.
- 272.5KG / 600.7lb, ⚪⚪⚪: Perfect attempt I think. It was hard, but I got it. Huge milestone. Was genuinely on cloud 9 after this. All the doubts melted away.
Bench
- 145KG / 319.7lb, ⚪⚪⚪: Bumped my opener up 5kg which def stressed Matt a bit, but I was very confident based on warmups + how my bench strength scales. I wanted to bump my opener that way I could take smaller jumps to reach a realistic 3rd. Moved as an opener should.
- 155KG / 341.7 lb, ⚪⚪⚪: Another great attempt, felt very confident
- 162.5KG / 358.2lb, ⚪⚪⚪: Took my top-end 3rd attempt and again was perfect for the day. Hard but confident lift.
Deadlift
Fatigue and stress started coming in a bit here. Deadlifts were great all prep, but I had the most questions about my ability to push the weights here. My heaviest pull all prep was a 302.5kg @ 9.5 (@8.5 if you ask my coach). Again, though, my final warmup at 265kg/585lb was just so easy that it gave me more confidence.
- 285KG / 628.3lb, ⚪⚪⚪: Smoke. Felt great
- 305KG / 672.4lb ⚪⚪⚪:: lifetime PR, and it was RPE 8.5-9
- 317.5KG / 699.9lb (I’m calling it 700 ok), 🔴🔴🔴: Took a shot at a big lift and ran out of talent. So damn close, but techincally, wasn’t quite there. Got pulled forward and after i felt that downward motion, I knew I was done. Honestly, wasn’t even upset.
Total: 740kg / 1,631lbs
DOTS: 514
Placement: 1st and best lifter
124 all-time @ 181 (by DOTS, according to OpenPL)
Final thoughts
This was so much fun. All our friends showed up and cheered me on. I got so many compliments and comments of recognition from my fellow competitors. I would honestly list it among the best days of my life. It was incredibly validating to have everything go so well. All of my 3rds were in line with my best-case scenarios.
Plans for the future are to take a decent off-season and build some muscle. I was one of the smaller guys in my class, even at this local meet. My squat and deadlift are good; my bench still is by far the weakest link and should be low-hanging fruit to improve. Similarly, I think my pull has some technical limitations that become more apparent at the top end. That 700 should have been mine. It's not acceptable to have performance fall apart that quickly from 672 to 700. I think 82.5/83kg is the right class for me, and given that I weighed in at 79.0kg… I have room to grow. Haven’t had my post-meet call with Matt yet, but we’ll see what makes sense!
Very proud of myself for pushing through prep and performing the way I did on meet day. I was so locked in all day. There were a number of small annoyances about the meet that I’ll list below. Hopefully, the WRPF can continue improving on the local level:
- Meet registration said squat bar would be used for squats over 200kg. So… I made a point of training with the squat bar the last several weeks of prep. Well, they didn’t use the squat bar for my flight. I guess because not everyone in the flight was squatting over 200kg?
- On the note of flights, rather than organizing flights by opener, they did them by weight class. This meant that in the same flight of 12 people, there was a 92.5kg and 300kg deadlift 3rd attempt. Why? Slower meet and more work for the spotters.
- The gym the meet was held in was great, but, also had some issues for warmups. There were no deadlift bars for warmups. For squats, I had a Rep Sabre bar + bumper plates. Over 200kg, it was an absolute noodle with no knurling. There weren’t enough ‘real’ power bars and steel plates for everyone, or even most people to warm up on. Genuinely not trying to be a princess, but this is kinda rough for warmup equipment at a powerlifting meet.
- To be clear, this was a local meet, I’m not expecting a flawless experience with unlimited competition equipment for warmups. Additionally, I’m used to training on all manner of equipment, none of this threw me off. But, worth mentioning. It should have been better, and I will prioritize that for future meets.
- Officiating was consistent and fair. Everyone running the meet was friendly and accessible. No complaints here.