First Meet - 512 Record Breaking Squat

here it is folks, six months of meet prep training all culminating into one day, nine lift attempts.
I weighed in the night before at 217.2 so i felt pretty good about how i had timed my diet. We had a big Dennys meal afterwards to try and plump up a little bit. A good nights sleep and a solid breakfast kicked off the day. They were dragging a lil bit on getting the meet started so we were left just sitting there for a lil bit.

Once we got up and running it moved pretty quick. I had the heaviest squat opener of the meet, and only 1 guy in the whole thing squated heavier on his third attempt than i did on my opener.
Squat
#1 - 479 pounds(Good) - took it all the way to the basement and shot back to the top, tons of pop in this lift.
#2 - 512(State Record Breaker - No Good) - I took this one pretty slow, not my style, went deep deep and didnt have the pop i needed out of the hole to finish it.
#3 - 512(Good this time) - Smoked this one, not as deep as the first two but more pop than both. This just left me wondering what could have happened that it wasnt so easy on the second lift.

Bench
#1 - 270(Good) - Smoked it, no problems here
#2 - 292(Good) - Tons of pop here, It jumped off my chest so quick that i almost wasnt read for it when the weight transfered from the shirt to my triceps
#3 - 303(No Good) - Tons of pop off the chest again on this one but had to do quite a bit of fighting once the weight was to my triceps. head judge said one of my hands came down and went back up in the lift (i didnt see it in the video, i just see one hand stall)oh well i still handled 300+, ill take away the positive

Deadlift
#1 - 460(Good) - came right up no problem, just like the opener should
#2 - 485(Good) - had to really focus on not jerking the weight off the floor so i wouldnt pull myself forward, locked my legs a little early but still finished the lift pretty easily
#3 - 501(No Good) - Came off the ground quick and got to mid thingh in a flash, then i stalled for about 8 seconds before failing the lift, Ive had trouble everytime i get to 500+ deads, this is gonna be something i really focus on in my next training cycle.

Overall i was very happy with the meet, Id like to do better than 6 for 9 but theres always next meet. The goals for the next meet are to get a 530-550 squat, bench 300+, and deadlift 500+. Hopefully ill total somewhere close to 1400 pounds.

Looking for comments, compliments, and criticism.

So how stoked were you after the meet? It’s a great feeling isn’t it?

Congratulations on the record and too bad about the last deadlift. I’ve been there; an inch from lockout and it just isn’t happening.

How tall are you? You look like you’re all arms and legs. That has it’s own fun challenges.

Good stuff!!

On the squats, just be careful with your set up. I wouldn’t be surprised if you got called for not being fully “locked out” at the start of the lift with stricter judges!

that bench call was bullshiet.
and good luck on that dead
495 is a goal of mine, too.

good stuff bro. man, i envy some squats around here. in time i suppose…

Nice job AJ.

Keep hammering those weights in the gym and you’ll smoke this total next time.

Great job, very nice work on coming back and making that squat and getting the record. You should be proud of yourself for being able to do that. Maybe you put your knee wraps on too early for the 2nd attempt? Just a thought.

Good work

heres another angle on the lifts
the depth on the third squat looks alot better from this angle

hey man nice work. keep me and the rest of the T-Nationers up on your progress, your gear numbers are close to mine.