Sept 30th - North Bay Meet Write up
Weighed in a 172 in just underwear
Squats:
Attempt 1 - 435(good lift)
Notes: Squats felt great, although the warm up and the morning of getting ready didn’t really help. I didn’t really get any solid food in until 30 mins before my first lift and my warm ups stopped at 315 because I didn’t hear when I was going on and someone suddenly came to tell me I was on. 435 still felt great on my back. I just made sure to sink it so I’d be in the meet right away no matter what.
Attempt 2 - 468(good lift)(small PR)
Notes: Sunk this lift too. Everything was feeling in line to hit a wicked PR. Was feeling pretty great.
Attempt 3 - 490(failed)
Notes: Right before the lift everything felt great. I chalked up my hands, my back, took 3 big snorts of ammonia aaannddd that’s where I messed up. The meet adrenaline + the ammonia got me so psyched that I just stomped up, got under the bar, and walked it out, only to realize my belt wasn’t tightened. I asked the head if I could rerack to put my belt on and he just looked at me and said “squat”. So I took it for a spin anyways and got as tight as possible but I just couldn’t pop out of the hole. Lesson learned for sure.
Bench:
Attempt 1 - 285(good lift)
Notes: Warmups went well. Timed them much better for bench and my opener turned out super easy as expected. I was feeling pretty good for the next few attempts. The only thing that concerned me early was the guy giving the hand offs. Worst hand offs for bench I’ve ever received. Basically pulled my shoulders out of line and made me wobble side to side. Regardless the strength was there.
Attempt 2 - 315(failed)
Notes: I felt good going into this. I’d hit it pretty easily last maxout with a long pause and felt like I could at least grind it out. However, then the worst handoff in the world happened, and since I’d only taken 315 for a full bench for a spin once, I wasn’t ready for anything less than a perfect hand off. With the extra distance created by my shoulders coming out + the wobbling, I wasn’t able to stay very tight and lost the lift at a 2 board height. Plus without the bar moving my hips automatically shot up so my set up had just gone to shit.
Attempt 3 - 315(failed)
Notes: Took 3 huge snorts of ammonia but made sure to be careful of my technique during set up. I wanted to just smash the weight up no matter what. This time the spotter gave the same weird hand off but more to one side of the bar so only one shoulder was pulled back and the other came out. The side spotters than tried to balance me so I wobbled again. I just got as angry as I could and smashed it up once I got the command but about at a 3 board height I felt my glutes rocket off the bench and just let them take it.
Deadlifts:
Attempt 1 - 475(no lift)
Notes: Warm ups were good, timed them well again. Walked up to the bar and smashed this attempt but the head judge told me “knees locked” or something at the top and I didn’t understand because I felt fully locked out so I started going back down a bit, maybe like an inch, and he says it louder so I flex my knees and he says “down”. I miss the lift due to moving up and down, but I knew I had much more in me.
Attempt 2 - 515(good lift)(10 lb PR)
Notes: I prepared myself much more mentally for this next lift. I knew since I increased the weight I needed to smash it or I’d be out of the meet. I walked up to it, got into the perfect position and ripped the bar as hard as I could. I flexed everything as much as I could all the way up in order to ensure perfect lockout and I got 3 whites. I felt good for more but I didn’t know how much.
Attempt 3 - 540(good lift)(35 lb PR)
Notes: For this lift I let everything sink in, the meet adrenaline, the pressure to perform, the fact that I wanna be the strongest I can be. Then I took 3 ginormous snorts of ammonia, walked up to that bar, and smashed the weight easier than either of my previous attempts. I flexed as hard as I could again and felt amazing. 3 whites again. That lift made me good for 3.1x bw, so goal accomplished.
Total - 1293
This was an amazing experience for me and I’m more in love with this sport now than ever before. I missed a few lifts I could’ve made but so what, I still had an awesome time meeting people and supporting strangers that love the same sport that I do. Oh I also ended up winning my weight class, as well as overall best novice and overall best male lifter. And there were some stronggg guys there too. I’m just really happy with the experience, but now it’s back to the drawing board to hit an even bigger total.