Yeah… she is some special…makes me all warm and fuzzy inside, I act like a big goofy fool when I am around her. heavy sigh
So, my first geared meet was pretty funny, and fun. I borrowed a shirt off of a buddy who ways in the vicinity of 330 pounds (I weighed around 275), so needless to say, it was a little loose and I was able to put the shirt on and take it off by myself, but it still gave me a little pop at the bottom.
I bought a single ply Titan squat suit… and it arrived about 10 days before the meet, so never having squatted in a squat suit before, I squatted 3 days in a row in the suit leading up to the meet just to get used to using one. Different animal all together, but must admit, I like it. With the suit on, I found that I needed a minimum weight of 530 pounds to break parallel. I had worked up to 585 pounds in the suit leading up to the meet pretty easy, so was I looking for a 600 pound squat as my 3rd lift.
So… I go to the meet. I am still not 100% confident with the squat suit, so the plan was to do the first squat raw at 455 pounds, just to get on the board… then put he suit on and go for the second squat at around 535… then go for the 600.
So, my first squat at 455 raw, walk it out, wait for the command, down… up… easy peasy… rack on command… red lights. WTF?? They said i still had a slight bend in my knees before racking. Great. So now what? Do I attempt the second lift raw… or say screw it and put the suit on without being on the board?
An experienced lifter was present, and advised me best to get on the board first if I was not confident with the suit. So, second attempt… 455… white lights… run down to the warm up room, and of course, now I’m sweating, trying to put this damn squat suit on, which I am sure you all know, is not an easy task when one is sweating. I finally managed to get the damn thing on, do a few warm up sets trying to get the damn thing seated properly… and they call my name, I’m up. So, out I go, 535 pounds, unrack, down I go… about 1 inch above parallel, and I can go no deeper. Fuck. So, I am paused down there for a good 3 seconds, I can see the spotters start to move in nervously, so up I come like a rcket… ridiculously easy and fast. Red light on depth. I am sure if I had another 30-50 pounds on there I could have broken parallel. Shit.
So… onto the bench portion… no drama… 355, then 375 and missed 390.
Then onto the deadlift, which I do raw. Again, no real drama. 585 opener, then 600… and then went for a PR at 640… no go. Total was 1425 pounds I believe, which is pretty damn sad seeing as I have had a total of 1480 raw, lol! Nonetheless, I had fun and it was a learning experience. I will definitely lift geared again in the future.
So, there you have it folks!
