I went into this year deciding to finally join a meet instead of just doing my regular 2x a year max-out session and commit to it. My handler was John Gaglione and I trained at his gym 3-4x in the 5 months leading up to the meet. I just thought it made sense to have the person hosting the meet to be my handler/coach and he was very attentive online, in-person and on the day of the meet. Goal for this meet was to go 9/9 with room in each lift and just have fun.
Squat:
155kg ⚪⚪⚪ - Easy and I've done this for 5 during an AMRAP
170kg ⚪⚪⚪ - Easy as well
180kg ⚪⚪⚪ - This felt like I had 5-7.5kg more in me. The attempt selection was good because I lost a little balance at the bottom and corrected myself on the way up. Still scary
Bench:
120kg ⚪⚪⚪ - Felt harder than at the gym 2 weeks previously
127.5kg ⚪⚪⚪ - More moderate jump than originally planned and it was a struggle. Felt like I had only 2.5kg more in me
130kg 🔴🔴🔴 - I tried everything I could to hit this, even trying to reflex my legs to get some momentum but still stopped around 80% of the way. Sad I couldn't go 9/9 but bench is my weakest lift anyway so not too bad
Deadlift:
205kg ⚪⚪⚪ - Really easy
230kg ⚪⚪⚪ - Originally supposed to be 225kg but I asked my coach to go up because of how I was feeling. Moved up 5kg and it still flew
245kg ⚪⚪⚪ - I've never made any weight move like this and I genuinely think I had 10-15kg more in me. First time I've actually felt "strong"
Some improvements: Definitely diet. I let work get the better of me but I weighed 206 and had to water cut down to 198 for weigh-ins. Had to literally strip to get the last .6 lbs for my class and I was a little disappointed here.
Overall: I don't think I peaked for bench as well as the other two but everything was still a PR for me so I couldn't be mad at all. The biggest thing for me this whole training cycle with John was improvement on my squats and they definitely improved. I went from struggling to hit depth on 375 to going near ATG at the meet with 397. I've had influencers and some ATWR holders as coaches but progressed the most with John, which makes sense looking back.
Maybe this is me personally but I didn't feel hype or anything during my lifts, just happy with the meet later on, because I have bigger goals in mind for my next meet. Hoping to hit 590-600 in early 2024.