Considering Powerlifting

Correct.

Training with a meet in the croshairs and “power training” are two very different things. The internet is full of pussies who break balls on squat depth, bench arches, raw bullshit, sumo is cheating, etc and none of these idiots have the balls to enter a competition and put out.

Anyone who steps up and enters a meet regardless of age, level, gender, disability, etc. is worthy of respect. Gym lifts for youtube mean JACK SHIT.

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I would watch videos of people’s meets on YouTube and look at what it’s really like, there are a lot of great ‘what to expect at your first meet’ type stuff too. You need to learn commands and follow the rules of the federation you want to compete in. There’s a TON of resources on this, on here and elsewhere. Finding people to follow on YouTube of IG will give you a lot of stuff to look at. If you’re looking to compete it’s important to figure out your weight class and focus on your 3 lifts. Your training should be focused on learning and following the commands, meeting the criteria for a “good lift” and increasing your strength and finding your 1rm. Closer to the meet you need to figure out your openers, they should be conservative so you have a chance to experience the platform and accomplish something that will give you confidence for your next 2 attempts, the importance of this cannot be overstated, I watched my friend bomb all three attempts on squat because he got cock, at a meet you can only go up in weight, not down.
You can research the records in your state and determine where you stand in your weight class. It’ll give you something to work to.

As far as training goes, depending on how many weeks you have, I would spend a week testing your 1rm. Solid warm up, low reps, go heavy with good form, practice commands and use the gear you’ll use at the meet. The following week’s should be higher volume, and the next a 5x5 or similar, to follow with another high week do go heavy 1rm again. This isn’t a perfect split by any means, but it’s an okay example. Focus on the muscles you use to perform your lifts, triceps are used heavily in bench, hit quads and hammies hard in different ways, do rack pulls and rows and stuff for deadlift. Don’t neglect your arms and core.

Make sure you’re eating enough. If you’re not trying to cut fat I’d say 1900 isn’t enough. Make sure you’re getting adequate protein and don’t train on an empty stomach. Don’t do hard core cardio, stay in the fat burning range. Track it so you really know how much you’re eating, my fitness pal is a good app to use. Keep a log of your lifts and look at exercises that help your weak points.

Meets can get expensive, if you have an opportunity I would go watch a meet before you sign up for one, I would. Or get a couple friends together and do a mock meet at the gym. READ THE REGULATIONS FOR YOUR FEDERATION. It sucks to see people arrive and be unable to use a piece of gear they have or, worse, get red lighted on stage because they didn’t know what is expected of them. Even if you train and compete and hate it, the experience you have will be invaluable.

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clyder I’m new to this sport as I’ve only be weight training for 3.5 years. I personally don’t think it matters whether you jump into a meet right away or wait. The important thing is being consistent in the gym and continuing to strive to meet your goals; in the context of powerlifting the goal is simple, move as much weight on the bar for 3 clean lifts. But with that said, I would encourage you to not put an artificial timeline or an artificial total out there as an impediment to your first meet. You already have decent numbers for your first meet so don’t worry about your total right now.

For me personally, powerlifting (i.e., actually competing as the guys mention above) is great b/c:

-validation that all the hard work in the gym, the sacrifice you make in spending time there, the sweat, and occasionally the blood was for a reason.

-I like competition. Whether in business, or back when I raced motox as a kid, and later racing mountain bikes, then cars. So competing in a meet feeds the monster. In powerlifting, I’m striving to hit an Elite total.

-I’m a numbers person.

At the end of the day, I doubt I’d be as devoted to the iron game w/o actually competing b/c powerlifting gives a reason to drag my butt into the gym when I’m dog ass tired or not in the mood or just plain lazy. After I complete a workout I never regret the decision to show up and smash some weights.

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