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"Do I have to wear a singlet?" "How can you say that's not to depth when the bottom of my thigh is below parallel?" "But I like my Superman t-shirt!" "I know this belt isn't on the approved list. Can I wear it at national level competitions?" "What do you mean I have to pause my bench press?" "But I always lift in hiking boots!" "Why was that a red light? It went up, even if it dipped a little on the way." "Someone said I could drop my deadlifts, why did that get three reds?" "Do I have to wear long socks for deadlifts?" "But I like benching on my toes." "Why can't I wear wraps in a unequipped comp?" "How long do I have to get my next attempt in?" On behalf of all those involved in arranging powerlifting competitions and the referees, I make this plea to everyone who is considering competing. Here's a link to the technical rules and approved list for IPF. If you want to lift with any IPF affiliate, please read them and (at the very least) understand the standards for lifting, the clothing rules and the approved list of equipment before you compete. http://www.powerlifting-ipf.com/fileadmin/ipf/data/rules/technical-rules/english/2015_V2_IPF_Technical_Rules_Book_2015_classic_rules_in_back_section.pdf http://www.powerlifting-ipf.com/rules/approved-list.html If you want to compete in another federation, read their rules. It's not that complicated! Just read them! It might take you an hour or two to really get to grips with them, but saves you a lot of time, expense and hassle in the long run.

As many of you might know, I took up a place in "Team Scotland" at the Commonwealth Powerlifting Championships in Richmond, BC, Canada at the beginning of the month. For those of you who don't know what the Commonwealth is, it's an association of 53 countries for whom Queen Elizabeth II is still head of state. Fourteen of those attended the championships at the Richmond Olympic Oval. We flew out to Vancouver four days before I was due to lift to give me a few days to recover as much as possible and booked a little AirBnB apartment with cooking facilities for the first two nights so that I could cook for myself and get my weight under control. Thankfully, I'd weighed in at 62.7kg the morning before flying out, so I was confident that my weight would be fine. I just went easy on the salt, drank lots of water and carried on eating as normally as possible. Unfortunately, other things weren't going as well. I struggled to catch up with the 8 hour time difference and woke up at various times in the night, and the occasional eczema on my hands flared up so badly that my knuckles split open and started bleeding. That said, all in all, I was feeling alright and fairly confident. I raided LuluLemon and had a great time bouncing around the shops, and got to know my teammates (some of whom I'd only met a couple of times). The Big Day The day before the competition, I woke up heavier than I'd been all week at 63.2kg but I made a conscious decision to keep on eating and drinking as normally as possible and sweat it out if I absolutely had to. I went out for lunch with teammates before the opening ceremony and then for steak and potatoes at dinner (even had some cheesecake). Not exactly starving myself! Unfortunately, I woke up the morning of the competition and my weight had dropped out overnight. I was 61.9kg at 7am, had breakfast and a small coffee and yet still weighed in at 61.8kg at about midday. I turned up at the venue just before 11am for my weigh in to start but, between kit checks, rack height confirmations and just the size of the queue, I wasn't weighed until almost midday. I wasn't too stressed about it, as it was already clear that they were running behind, but I was definitely ready to kill for my next coffee! They did a full kit check for the first time with everything, even knickers, being checked to make sure that it met with regulations. One girl had brought two non-legal belts so her dad went and bought her a legal one from the stands (despite offers from quite a few of us to lend her ours). I got stuck straight into a huge bag of salt and vinegar crisps (as recommended by Tankweazel) and loads of water. I know I ate a couple of oat bars too, but actually can't remember the full details of my post-weigh-in feasting. There was definitely a doughnut from Tim Horton's, though! Eventually, they announced that we'd be lifting off at 3pm (two hours late) so I headed to the warm-up room about half an hour before to start getting ready. Squats actually felt pretty decent. I was one of the heaviest openers in my class so I was feeling good. Two of the guys were acting as my "coaches" for the day so I handed my signed slips over to them and told them what the plans were. Squats My opening squat at 125kg was pretty quick and clear, but I decided to play it safe and go for just a 7.5kg jump to my second squat. Despite that, I just couldn't come back up from the second squat. I don't know what happened, but the spotter pulled it off my back when he helped me recover and (being a total idiot) I let go for a second before realising what I'd done and getting back under the bar. I crossed my fingers hard that I wasn't disqualified (which they were within their rights to do) but I was allowed to continue. I did get 132.5kg back up on my third attempt, but it was high. I was so freaked out by failing an "easy" weight on my second attempt that I just totally blew it. Bench So onwards to bench. I warmed up but it wasn't feeling right so decided to drop my opener to 65kg for safety. I'm really glad I did. I got my opener at 65kg and my second at 70kg but 75kg was glued to my chest. I'd been watching other people's lifts and knew that 70kg was enough to give me a bronze medal on bench, much to my shock, as long as one of the other girls failed her third attempt. Deadlifts By this point, I just wanted deadlifts to be over and done with. I knew my strong wasn't there so I just wanted to total and move on. Given deadlifts rely on confidence for me, I suspected I wasn't going to do hugely well. I was freaked that 120kg felt heavy-ish in warm-ups so dropped my opener to 125kg. Got that and 130kg but 135kg only moved a couple of inches before I gave up. I think it was that I gave up, because watching it back I can't see any breakdown. Regardless of that, I danced off the platform delighted that it was over and that I had a total. I don't think they'd ever seen anyone so delighted by such a poor showing on deadlift. The Medal Ceremony I went and watched the 72kg girls deadlifting before the medals ceremony then filtered backstage to be called out. But I wasn't. They got to bench in my weight category and called someone else's name. I was confused, but pulled up the score sheet and right enough she'd benched 2.5kg less than me. I got the guys who'd been coaching me to go up and point it out but it was too late for me to get my moment on the podium. I had to go backstage to tell the girl (Kristie) that there had been a mistake and that the medal for bench should have been mine. It wasn't exactly a pleasant experience! Eventually, I was called up to the platform alone to receive my medal, but it wasn't exactly the same thing. Either way, it was done. We were finally finished at about 7:30pm, having been at the venue for over 8 hours, so we sloped off back to the hotel before heading out to the local Irish bar where they had a special on wings (a big portion for $3.90) and awesome nachos. The girl whose medal I'd "stolen" was on the next table with a bunch of the other Aussie girls, so we went over to hang out with them. The biggest joy about competitions for me is meeting new people and there were so many amazing lifters around to hang out with. EVERYONE liked talking about lifting. EVERYONE wanted to eat (after they'd lifted). Barely any diva behaviour, no commenting on how much the girls ate, even the referees were really friendly. The next day, however, was an even bigger challenge... I was coaching for the first time! TBC (Photos will be added later.)

Well, it’s finally official. I’ve waited a long time knowing but not being allowed to announce this! I started on NF having pretty much never touched a barbell but loved Spezzy’s story and was desperate to start lifting and today I have officially been selected to go to my first international powerlifting championships within the IPF. I think that makes me the first Nerd to go from newbie lifter to international competitor (Tankweazel was already international elite by the time she joined). I will be representing Scotland at the Commonwealth Powerlifting Championships in Richmond, BC, Canada (near Vancouver) from 30 November to 6 December 2015 (probably lifting 2 December). I started, as many of us do, as a newbie to fitness.I did my first powerlifting competition in February 2014.I was Scottish Unequipped and Senior -63kg Champion 2014.I went to my first British Championships in September 2014 and came 7th in my weight class.I represented Scotland in the Four Nations (Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and Wales) Championships in November 2014.I’m currently ranked around 17th in the UK, 3rd in Scotland and now, NOW, I’m going to my first ever international powerlifting championships.Three years ago, I was still recovering from Post Viral Fatigue Syndrome and now I train every day without fear. My life has absolutely turned around and the support of friends, family and, last but not least, Nerds here on NerdFitness! Not only that, but I finally got my certification through from my Fitness Instructor training so I should be able to start a powerlifting club at work to help other lifters get started. I'll be in Vancouver from 28 November to 6 December, Seattle 7-9 December and Boston 9-12 September if anyone wants to meet up!

Much like Jaymul, I have a coach who does all my programming for me, so I'm not actually going to have strength goals this time. That might seem odd given the title of this challenge, but that's just about keeping on trucking. I've got Scottish Seniors on 22 August and British Classic (Nationals) on 19 September so everything is focused around keeping positive, keeping moving and keeping healthy. I don't know what my actual goals are for each competition, but I'd really like to hit 140kg squat, 80kg bench and 145kg deadlift to give me my 365kg total and (bodyweight depending) 400 Wilks. Programme is as usual: Monday - YogaTuesday - LiftingWednesday - Pole or restThursday - LiftingFriday - YogaSaturday - Lifting (plus optional yoga)Sunday - PoleThere may be some shifting around of days around competitions i.e. moving to lifting Monday and Wednesday to get more rest for Saturday. (Actually, I may do that next week too, because I have a do on Thursday. I'll see!) Don't drop out: Okay, I'm terrible for dropping out of challenges of late, so first goal is just to make it through the challenge without getting so miserable about my challenge that I drop out. To counteract this, I'm going to post a kitten gif every day (and feel free to join me). Work that rock-hard ass Okay, so I have a rock hard ass... and not in a good way. Basically, my glutes are so knotted up that they're practically solid and it's actually causing me a lot of pain. The goal is to lax ball my glutes for at least 5 minutes a day (excluding days when I have massages). Also need to keep stretching out my adductors and rolling them, because they go ping a little too often at the moment when I used to be able to pancake. Also arranged with a qualified friend to get regular sports massages on Saturdays. This is going to be painful. SLEEP! I don't sleep enough, so I'm going to try to get 7h30m sleep a night. I'm not going to penalise myself as long as the time between lights out and the alarm is more than 7h30m but the aim is to get that much sleep based on my FitBit readings. Overall gradings: Given I usually just make up my gradings anyway, I'll assign points at the end of the challenge based on how I feel. I think I actually did alright in the last challenge but was so disillusioned that I gave myself no points. Usual +5STR and +5CHA for every Scottish record I can break and +10STR and +10CHA if I either take Best Lifter or break a British Record. (P.S. Tanky, if you're reading, you totally need to start self-awarding for international medals, British Records and Best Lifter trophies.) Current lift PBs: Squat - 125kgBench - 70kg (although have done that for three triples in three sessions in a week)Deadlift - 125kg (did an easy triple at 122.5kg a couple of weeks ago, so again more there)