Video of all 9 lifts:
Stats
- Height: 5’7″
- Weight: 80 kg/ 176.4lbs
Background and Training
- 5’7/24/M, I’ve been training as a powerlifter for a little over a year now, and have competed in one meet prior to this one (in July, 565kg @ 83kg). I generally train 3-4 days per week, and squat 3x/week, bench 2x/week, and deadlift 1x/week. I’m following a blend of Nuckols’ programs, and using Prilepin’s chartto guide me in my volume selection for the workout. I don’t really track my diet too closely, just making sure to have high amounts of protein for recovery. And I’m on that creatine juice.
Meet Prep
- I followed a tapering protocol laid out by CWS, as I felt this taper seemed pretty straightforward and logical (I’m sure most tapering protocols are similar). I dropped volume over a period of a month, and increased weight week to week, until I was performing openers a week out, then just going through the motions during the week leading up to the meet.
- Sleep has sucked lately; I find myself lying awake at night for long periods of time, but I still try to force myself to bed around 10 (I’m typically waking up at 7 or 8).
- My weight cut… was just normal dieting. I ballooned up to ~195+ in July shortly after my last meet, and walked around at that weight for a couple of months before I began dieting in October. I reached my goal weight of 182 about a week out from competition, so I ended up just having to maintain weight for a week – fairly easy.
- Injuries: I was actually pretty happy with my body coming into this meet. My nagging shoulders were pretty well healed, and my hip healed fully from a bout of over-training from squatting 3x per week. Overall, can’t complain.
- My goals going into this meet: get that 400 wilks, get that 600kg total.
The Lifts
I weighed in at 80.3kg, and went 6/9 overall.
Squat
- 197.5KG, make: Completing this lift eliminated all of my nerves, and from this point on, I approached the platform in a zen state of mind. Went smooth, as all openers should. 3 white lights, 7.5kg/16.5lb meet PR.
- 207.5KG, make: Perhaps a little slower than my opener, hit an all-time PR on my second attempt. 3 white lights, 17kg/38.5lb meet PR.
- 217.5KG, miss: Took too big of a jump, just wasn’t strong enough. 3 red lights.
Bench
- 165KG, make: So bench fell apart for me today; not sure if it was because of exhausting a lot of energy on the squat, but I was only able to hit my opener. Grinded out 165kg for a questionable 3 white light 5kg/11lb meet PR.
- 170KG, miss: Burned out, again, strength wasn’t there, 3 red lights after sticking with it for about 5 seconds before failing it.
- 170KG, miss: Some confusion in setting up the bench for me: the guy before me made a stink about the safety bars being set too high for him (they weren’t), so when they loaded the weight for me, they stopped me mid-setup because the rack height wasn’t set right, so I left, had to come back, re-setup… I know it all sounds petty, but it messed with the confidence I had to make the lift, and this weight didn’t move off my chest at all. 3 red lights.
Deadlift
- 215KG, make: Nothing to see here. Opener flew up, 3 white lights, ties meet PR.
- 225KG, make: The lift flew up again, but grip started to go towards the lockout. Another second or two and I may have dropped it. Got it down in time though, 3 white lights, 10kg/22lb meet PR. Officially in the 500lb deadlift club!
- 230KG, make: My third attempt was a very conservative jump, due to how grip went in my previous attempt. However, to my horror, I realized as I was setting up that I forgot my fucking belt. I ran off the platform, grabbed my belt, quickly threw it on (one notch too tight, but I was in a hurry), setup, and managed to finish the pull easily with 8 seconds left on the clock. I felt like an idiot, but was euphoric that I still made the lift. 3 white lights, 15kg/33lb meet PR.
Results
- Placed first in the 83kg Raw Open, out of approximately 14 competitors, totaling 602.5kg, which means I got a Wilk’s score of ~410! Woo!
- I got to pee in a cup because I was “randomly” selected for a drug test. So that was cool.
Final thoughts
- 12 hour day, with absolutely no sitting down until the end, as I was also coaching and handling my fiance for her first meet. She too did very well, with a total of 250kg in the 63kg class, coming second in the open (out of 7 girls, awesome!) and first in the Junior class (because… she was the only Junior). Even with the constant running around, while I didn’t make all of my planned lifts, I am extremely happy with my performance. Next up: Collegiate Raw Nationals in April!
