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The Ghost returns! I'm not super active around here as much anymore, but thought I'd still drop a meet report. F TL;DR: Went 7/9 (again) (failed 3rd squat and deadlift attempts (complete fail)), left some pounds on the platform but still set some 4 PRs. Amazing experience for my first meet and reinforced my stance that everyone who ever thinks about doing a meet, competition or race should just do it. PLAN YOUR WORK. WORK YOUR PLAN! TRAINING & MEET PREP: Going into this meet I ran Candito's 6 Week Strength Program, which has been amazing. Prior to that I ran Layne Norton's 13 Week PH3 program which was sweet. Decided to do this meet 6 weeks out, when @miss_marissa told me to just do it. This was my second powerlifting meet, first with AAU. Training went amazingly, especially squats. Bench, as always was a little rough. Deads weren't feeling great either. But overall, all lifts weren't on the decline and I had no lingering injuries or aches & pains. Here are my squats leading up to the meet: As you can see I was feeling strong in squats, which is by far my best lift. MEET: This was my first meet with a 24 hour weigh in, first meet I had to travel and sleep at a hotel for. The original plan was to feel like a bad ass and ride the motorcycle 2 hours South from Vegas to Laughlin, but the wife put the kabosh on that when weather reports were expecting 45-50mph gusts that weekend. So (no thanks to myself) I played it smart and drove down in the car. The day of the meet was a bit long, as anyone who has competed knows. Rules briefing was at 830 and then the meet started...the weightlifting meet. Didn't realize WL would be going first before PL. It's always amazing to see the skill, coordination and grace of weightlifters, but I was mentally amped to start lifting a lot earlier than I would get to. I had been worried about making weight as a couple of months ago I was push 200lbs and debating if I should just cross the border and see how big I could get. The "diet" was relatively simple; cut out beer (6-12/week), cut out fast food, cut out cookies and snacks. That got me down to the mid to high 180s, and then a week out I started to waterload, and water loading SUCKS BALLS. Drinking gallons of water is just not fun and causes so many trips to the bathroom and a few 90mph trips on the highway to avoid pissing myself. Thankfully, I easily made weight coming in at 178.6lbs on that Friday. After I weighed in and got checked into the hotel, I made a dash to the casino buffet and drank & ate ALL THE FOODS. So many carbs were consumed and everything was heavily salted to replenish all the stuff I had been peeing out for the past 5 days. SQUAT: Warmups for squat started while the WLers were on their 3rd snatch attempts. Training at a gym with typical plates in pounds sucks when doing a meet in kilograms. Warm ups were rough and I couldn't take the jumps I normally do because of lifting brain and having to accommodate other lifters as well. The most stressful part for me leading into a meet is picking my attempts. Again @miss_marissa gave me advice to just be conservative with my attempts and I chose not to listen. I really wanted a 435 squat and based my attempts on that goal. Opened at 175kg/386lbs and that felt smooth and easy enough. This was a meet PR, as my best squat last year was 374 or so. Once I racked the bar, any nerves and butterflies instantly disappeared. But as I did for my first meet, I got in my own head when going up to the scorers table to make my second attempt. The plan was for 185/408 or being conservative at 182.5/403, but ended up at 180 and this is where the wheels wobbled. Second attempt was 397 and felt pretty okay. This was another meet PR. Third attempt was 187.5/413 and the wheels fell off. My issue, I think, was not staying on my plan and then not just staying off of it. I should have just stayed conservative here and got a clean lift. Hopefully I will be better at the next meet. Tied for best raw squat at 180kg. BENCH: Warmups for bench was fast...because I'm weak and use light weights. I went 3 for 3 here, which as an improvement over last year where I missed my second attempt. No bench video because poverty bench can't afford recording devices. Opener: 95kg/205lbs Second attempt: 102.5kg/226lbs Third attempt: 105kg/231lbs (Meet & Overall Pause PR) DEADLIFT: Deadlift warmups did not feel especially well due to abnormal warmups. Opened at 375lbs just to make sure I got the first attempt easily and didn't bomb out. Second attempt there is no video but hit 185/408 which is a meet & overall PR. I was a mess. Chalk covered hands and baby powder covered forearms and thighs, I'm the weakest cheater. Third attempt was conservative at 187.5/413, but was a miss. Back started to round and I think I just gave up. RESULTS/WRAP UP: Went 7 for 9 with two complete misses. Ended up getting 4 PRs. Increased my total by 30lbs and increased my squat PR by 20lbs or so. Didn't do nearly as well as I wanted to, especially on squats. Not sure how I placed, as the results are not out yet but I think I came in 4th overall, with the top lifter have an equipped squat and deadlifts in wraps and ended up with a medal. RANDOM THINGS: Masters and youth lifters are still and forever will be the coolest lifters at any meet. 74 year old, 70% blind lifter set a couple of bench world records. 12 year old did the weightlifting meet and then came back and deadlifted. And a 14 year old set multiple world records for all 3 lifts. I was not thinking about competing or seriously lifting weights when I was that age, I was out doing things 12-14 year olds should not be doing, but none of them involved setting records. One lifter flew in from Nigeria to compete, thought that was crazy. Had the day not been so long, I would have participated in the MAS wrestling competition that was held right after MOVING FORWARD: Again I was really happy with this meet experience. I was looking at doing another meet in September that would be more local so the family could finally attend, but that has been pushed up to July. The Sept meet is AAU Worlds and is capped at 300 lifters, July meet is capped at 50. It would seem cruel to have anyone not into lifting sit thru that long of a meet. So the plan is to have a fuck around bodybuilding deload (starting today), run Candito with low training maxes and then run Candito with more accurate maxes.

Hey guys! First meet report (and first meet) here, had a total blast and wanted to share and hopefully get some advice on further training and progress. TL;DR: Went 7/9 (failed 3rd squat attempt (complete fail) and 2nd bench (technical)), left some pounds on the platform but still set some PRs. Amazing experience for my first meet and reinforced my stance that everyone who ever thinks about doing a meet, competition or race should just do it. PLAN YOUR WORK. WORK YOUR PLAN! TRAINING: Going into this meet I ran Candito's 6 Week Strength Program, which has been amazing. However for various reasons the cycle was awful: lack of sleep, poor nutrition, and just awful posture...all due to a new, non English speaking U.S. citizen arriving in my house (and sharing a bed with my wife) a few months ago. So safe to say this meet was a bit last minute and the training was bit rushed. I was able to make just about every training session, but hip issues made my squat pretty disappointing leading up until the Monday before the meet where I hit my PR pretty smoothly. Bench was feeling amazing and deadlifts felt strong. MEET: Got into the gym around 8, thankfully the gym is only a 5 minute walk from my house, so there wasn't much planning needed for travel. If any of you know me or follow my challenges/battle log, I'm a fatty with no will power when it comes to burgers, beer, and cookies. So I was very worried about making weight, but after some water manipulation I came in at a pretty light 81.9kg/180.5lbs and easily made weight. Brought a bunch of food and a decent amount of candy and didn't really eat much of it to be honest. After weigh in I was able to run home, eat a sandwich, make breakfast for the family and change into the above. The meet started at 10:30, but was delayed by about 45 minutes or so due to difficulties with the computer. There were a total of four flights and about 10 lifters in my weight class. SQUAT: The only thing I was really worried about coming into the day was how to time warmups. My gym is awesome and there are about 7-8 places to squat, so we didn't have any issues of 5+ guys per rack, so warmups went pretty well and everything was feeling good. I just warmed up during the 2nd attempts of the first flight and that gave me more than enough time to warm up properly, but not have to run to the platform after my last single. Opener was super easy (as an opener should be) at 160kg/352lb. I was supposed to go for 172.5 (a PR) if I felt good and 170 (current PR) if things felt bad. I did not follow this plan. Second attempt was a pretty easy 170kg/374.8lb. I then jumped up to 177.5kg/391.3lb and completely failed it right out of the hole. So unfortunately there was no squat PR on this day. Had I worked my plan I should have taken 172.5 for my second and just 175 for my third and gotten a 10lb PR. A lot of lifters were getting red lighted for depth or weak/soft lockouts, not an issue for me as I often waste depth and never worry myself about it. BENCH: Warmups for bench was fast...because I'm weak and use light weights. I was 6th or 7th in my flight with squats, but maybe 4th for bench. Opener again was super easy at 92.5kg/203.9lb. Commands were super easy to follow and I ended up using a hand off though I didn't expect to being that I never get a hand off in training. Followed the plan here for choosing my second attempt and went up to 100kg/220.5lb for my second attempt and FAILED it. My butt and heels came up off the bench and I didn't have to sit up to see the red lights and know I failed. The actual lift felt good, so I took a conservative jump to 102.5kg/226lb despite the miss. Came back and nailed it, small grinder, but the butt and heels stayed in contact though it was CLOSE. DEADLIFT: And the embarrassment begins. My deadlift is by far my worst lift. So I went from 6/7th on squat, 4th on bench and then like 2nd/3rd on deads. My third attempt for deads I went second, only after a 70 year old lifter. Anyway, opener was super fast. 2nd attempt was a very modest (1.8lb) PR which was easy. So at this point I had to figure out if I wanted to go for over 405lbs or if I wanted to play it safe and break 1000lb total. If I missed my 3rd attempt I would end up at around 997lb total and I just couldn't let that happen, so I played it safe and went with 182.5kg/402.3lb, despite a fellow lifter telling me my 2nd attempt looked super easy and I should go higher. I stepped up to the bar and easily pulled 182.5kg and right about at my knee I got pissed that I didn't go higher. RESULTS/WRAP UP: Went 7 for 9 with one complete miss and one technical lift. Ended up getting 2-3 PRs and finally broke 1,000lbs. A good number of lifters bombed out for various reasons (not listening to commands, not knowing the rules (they needed @SpecialSundae to tell them to RTFM), or just poor attempt selections). The one guy I hung out with most of the very long 10 hour day went 2/9 and missed all squat and bench attempts. I, surprisingly, had absolute no issues or nerves going into this meet besides making weight. Also, I thought I would have had a bit more nerves dealing with the commands and just having 150+ pairs of eyeballs watching me lift, but the commands were easy enough and I honestly didn't see the crowd whatsoever on any of the lifts. The meet was absolutely amazing and it really helped that my first meet was at my own gym. I mean it made EVERYTHING easier - "travel", food, knowing the equipment, et cetera, but the best part was that I spoke to about 10 lifters that I see in the gym regularly that I never talk to and everyone from my gym was super loud with cheering when I was stepping up to the bar. This was my first powerlifting meet, but not first competition and every time I'm still shocked at how nice and supportive EVERYONE is at these things. Unfortunately I got no footage at all of any of my lifts as we couldn't get a babysitter and the room where the lifting was, was just WAY too stuffy and packed for my wife to have the baby in. Though I did get to have the kid on my shoulders to watch a few lifters squat and he absolutely loved it and apparently when he left he was telling strangers about his dad lifting weights, so that was great to hear. RANDOM THINGS: Masters lifters are the coolest lifters at any meet. 70 year old lifter bombed out on squats due to depth, but he went thru and finished the meet. Just really cool watching him and he likely got some of the loudest cheers.Two spotters got hurt. The first was an issue with the bar loading, one loader went to raise the rack height while the loader on the other side was changing plates at a lower height. All the weights slide off making the bar drop, and then once the plates were off, that side came flying back up into his groin/crotch reason. Had that been me, the meet would have been postponed/suspended cause I would have been rolling on the floor in a puddle of vomit, so he is a much better man than I. The other one was more serious (if that's possible). Lifter squatting 585lb dumped the bar over head and said bar landed on the spotter's foot and apparently there was a lot of blood and a good chance of several broken toes/broken foot.MOVING FORWARD: Again I was really happy with this first meet experience. Going into it I was looking forward to getting it over with and being able to relax for a bit. However, as I walked out of the gym I was just thinking about finding my next meet and was up at 3am or 4am that night looking up deadlift programs to fix my baby deadlift. I'm looking to increase my deadlift about 90lbs and my bench about 40lbs by the end of the year. Sounds very aggressive in my head, but I feel like both lifts need to be drastically increased to make me a bit less pathetic. I'm thinking about paying $40 for George Leeman's P.R.O.M. deadlifting program. For bench I might run Candito's Advanced Bench Program at some point this year. I don't know and I don't really have a plan as of yet. All I know is that bench and deads are holding me back.

I was urged to drop this into the generic forum to try and encourage a few more of us to compete in a comp whether it be strongman, powerlifting or weightlifting. Hope this helps anyone who is on the fence.