Competed In My First Powerlifting Competition

I just competed in my first powerlifting competition last Saturday, the 2016 USA North Carolina Powerlifting Championships.  It was a really big show with over 100 of the state's best lifters competing.  When I checked-in and I saw all those competitors, I thought to myself "wow I maybe in over my head!"

The hardest thing about the competition was learning all the rules to each lift.  There are three lifts you have to complete in the competition; a squat, a bench press, and a deadlift.  Every competitor gets three attemps for each lift and your best score of the three lifts is used as a part of your overall total score.  The competitor with the highest overall score of the three lifts wins.  Simple enough?  However, there's a strategy as I learned involved as to how much weight you pick for each of the three attempts.

There are three judges who decides whether or not you perform each lift properly, and you want to choose a weight for your initial lift that's not too easy, but you're sure you complete.  Then on your next lift  attempt you want to increase your weight to where you are nearly at your limit, and on your last attempt you want to go all out.

On my very first attempt I failed to complete my lift properly which meant I couldn't use that score, and as a consequence, I was immediately behind the eight ball, so to speak.  I knew I needed a score in that lift so I did my second and third attempts at a weight that I was sure I could complete properly.  The good news is I made my mistake early and the rest of the competition was smooth sailing.

My best lifts were: a 353 lb squat, a 303 lb bench press, and a 452 lb deadlift for a grand total of 1108 lbs.  Not bad considering it was my first powerlifting competition and I had only nine weeks to train for it.  One of the funniest things about the day was that I was mistakenly put in the 40 to 49 nine year old class and I held my own (maybe I still look that young, least I can hope so).  Well. I've got the bug now an this won't be my last show!