powerlifting

This past Saturday I headed to Clifton Park, NY for my second powerlifting meet. I signed up almost a year ago for this as a birthday weekend treat. Well I do have to say I felt less prepared for this meet than my last and there were many factors in that. Overall, squats went as expected and I PR’d in deadlifts. I was all ready to PR for bench, but unfortunately my set up screwed me up and I missed my second two lifts due to where I had the bar. I did not scoot up enough which messed me up when trying to press the bar. I knew I had the strength to do so and I was upset and mad about that. However, it’s just a meet and I lift “light” compared to most at the meet so I knew I wouldn’t medal or anything and it was more for fun and experience.

Let’s back up a bit to Friday evening. We drove out to Clifton Park and it was only a 2.5 hour drive which wasn’t bad. It was spitting rain a good portion of the way which was that annoying rain where you want to use your wipers but there isn’t enough rain to constantly use your wipers. I was also on high alert for deer and did see one off the side of the road. I am happy it’s light out later as it was light most of the way and Brian took over the driving half way through. We stayed in a nice new Fairfield Marriot that I was able to get the room with credit card points so that was exciting. The hotel had that new hotel room smell to it (yeah I’m probably crazy). I worked on stretching and rolling a bit before showering and heading to bed.

Saturday morning we had an alarm set for 6:15 which is now considered sleeping in for the both of us HA. We were slow moving though. Check in started at 6:45 and we were about a 15 minute drive from the gym. There was a Panera in the parking lot over from out hotel, so we stopped there for coffee for Brian and a bagel to go for me. I also found out I had my free Panera birthday treat so I grabbed a cookie while there too. I saved the food until after weight in knowing I was close to the top of my weight class this meet. It wasn’t too bad waiting, but I did start to get hungry driving over. Then we pulled into the wrong gym parking lot. I later found out a ton of others did the same. The gym we were lifting at had the smallest sign on the bottom of the plaza signs that we ended up one parking lot too far.

So we got there about 7:15. Check in was smooth and then I got my rack heights and weighted in while talking to some other women. I weighted in about 3 pounds under the top of the weight class which was great and then I was able to eat my bagel and cookie and drink tons of water. The last meet we weren’t at a gym so I had no access to water, which was horrible. This time at least I had Brian to run out and get water if needed, but thankfully we were at a gym with a water fountain that you could easily fill your water bottles. I had some time to digest and then it was time to stretch and warm up for squats. I did my opener for squats at about 125lbs. Then I jumped to 135lbs (it was in kg but I forget the exact kg). I missed the second one due to depth, but then retried on the third and just barely got it. That went as expected.

Next up was bench and I was pumped knowing my bench was getting strong. I was warming up and chatting with a coach as I was sharing a bench with one other girl. The coach saw me do 90 lbs and said I could totally go for 105lbs. I was so ready. Well then I started at 90lbs and the bar felt so much heavier, but I made the first bench. The second time came with 100lbs and I got stuck. I didn’t fully realize it was my set up, but I was stuck because the bar was so far up I was knocking the clips that hang out. So I tried for number 3 doing 100 lbs and I totally had it except I was not lined up and I was hitting the clips, so unfortunately for bench I only got 1 of 3 and I was upset.

I rested and had a snack and then got myself ready for deadlifts. This time there would be no equipment in the way so I knew I had it for deadlifts. I started with 170 lbs which I knew was easy for me at the gym. I then did about 186lbs the second time. It was heavier but still good. Staying conservative, I didn’t want to jump to 200lbs and miss a lift, so I went to 192lbs which was still a PR for my third lift and another coach commented that I made it look so easy. I was happy to get 3 for 3 on deadlifts and PR and end on a high note. I have more confidence in myself now that I can pull 200lbs for deadlifts.

After the meet Brian and I went out to meet up with a college friend in the area for some lunch at Druthers. By the time we ate lunch it was about 3pm so I was definitely hungry. I had a burger and fries and it just feels so freeing at the moment to not worry about being in a weight class and eat what I want. I wasn’t even full after the meal.

We then headed to Saratoga Spa Park and walked around to see all the geysers. Brian enjoyed taste testing the water from each while I just simply enjoyed the smell of nature and taking the walk. It was above 70 degrees and beautiful. I was so excited to wear my new shorts from Stitch Fix and they are super comfy.

Around 5pm, I had nearly 10,000 steps (and I didn’t even wear my Garmin at the meet) and I was tired and ready to start heading home. Time to drive, but not without a stop at The Cookie Factory branch in Clifton Park for a delicious late birthday treat. I turned 29 this past Tuesday, but I stayed good and other than a piece of cookie cake for breakfast Monday morning (yes breakfast), I stayed low on the treats for my meet. So I got a delicious chocolate chip fugde filled cookie. There were so many cookies I wanted to try, but I definitely made a good choice. I also got a peanut butter cookie. Sugar overload, but that was essentially our dinner until we stopped at McDonalds and I got some chicken nuggets that I hadn’t had in many years but it was protein I guess?!

We got home shortly after 8pm so it was a good time. I immediately unpacked and got videos on my computer from the meet. I know now that I need to work more on my bench set up and for squats, I need more mobility (yoga) work and lower my weights a bit to work on depth. I don’t have plans to sign up for another meet at the moment, because I know that my focus right now is more on school. I love going to the gym and my weight training won’t be stopping, but I need to work more on technique and do workouts that might be a little shorter to fit my busy schedule right now. I’ll probably renew my powerlifting membership just in case next spring or summer I decide to join a meet, but for now I need to restructure my workouts and maybe I will do a post on that next. This spring has been super busy between work, school and wedding planning and summer I am sure will be busy and fly by as well. Just going to work on enjoying the moment, enjoying the strength I am gaining and hey I lifted 40 lbs more in deadlifts than my last meet. My muscle gains may be slow, but working at a pace that I won’t injure myself and that works for me.

I’ve been counting down since I signed up 4 months ago for my first powerlifting meet. The weekend finally arrived and I was so excited to just go away for a night. The powerlifting meet was in Rochester which is a 2.5 hour drive for me so I booked a hotel for the night and drove up after work on Friday. I was glad I booked my hotel months in advance as well due to it being graduation weekend for many schools in the area. Since I was only there for one night, I booked one of the cheaper hotels and you could tell from the paper thin walls as I was woken up by my neighbors early Saturday morning. Good thing I also had an early alarm.

{warning: this is a long recap, but I hope you read to the end to see what I learned and what’s next}

I arrived around 7:30 Friday evening to my hotel and ate the second half of my turkey club wrap I got to go from a restaurant near my work.

I then snacked and turned on the tv. I couldn’t figure out how to get on the wifi, but that didn’t matter because I had cable tv and was heading to bed shortly after getting there. After some snacking, I took a shower and treated myself to a face mask while watching a documentary about the new to be princess Meghan Markle (I don’t really follow the Royal family so while I knew there was a wedding next weekend, I didn’t know much about the bride so this was interesting). I then got ready for bed and found the movie 27 Dresses on tv. As much as I love that movie (I own it), I needed some sleep as well.

Saturday morning my neighbors had a 5am alarm…who wakes up at that hour on Saturday and doesn’t leave right away?! My alarm was set for 5:45am, but I was pretty much awake at 5:30 thanks to my neighbors chatting away. Oh well…cheap hotel, what can you expect?

I got ready to go, chugging some water, because I could tell I was dehydrated already which wasn’t a good start for meet day. I checked out of my room at 6am and stole some peanut butter from the breakfast area. I had brought some mini bagels to eat but didn’t have packets of peanut butter.

Check in for the meet started at 6:30am. I was the third car to pull into the lot and we were there before the judges even arrived. Once the judges and volunteers got things set up, we checked in, got equipment checked and got our rack heights. Weight ins were at 7am and I was in flight A so I was one of the first to weight in. I made sure with being my first meet and trying to gain muscle/weight, I signed up for a weight class where I would have no issues being under.

Once weight ins were complete, it was time to munch on snacks I brought. I drank water and then had to search for whatever water I could find throughout the day. Next time I will bring my own gallon or a case of water. Thankfully everyone was very nice and I was able to get some water from one girl who did bring a case of water with her. I still was dehydrated though and had a slight headache grow throughout the morning which was no good.

I also think next time I need to make something with more fats or something in it to hold me over. I had a lot of carbs, some fats and protein from nut butter bars and beef jerky, but I still felt a little off. It could have just been my lack of water and salt though.

It was a long waiting game after that. I met a few girls who arrived at the same time as me and kind of hung out with them talking about how meets go. With lifting starting at 9am, people started to warm up around 8:30. I think I should have warmed up for longer before squats as I was one of the first lifters and I could have stretched more. It was a small warm up area too, but also a smaller local meet from what I learned hearing about other meets people had been to.

I did bring my yoga balls to roll out my feet and shoulders and that really helped. Then it was time for squats. I started with 110lbs which I had done at the gym the week prior and then I just increased from there. You have to give your weights in kilograms, so luckily they had a pound to kilogram conversion right on the table so I just would pick the next one up.

I think out of all the lifts, my squats need more work. I passed with 2/3 lights but I did get a PR the second lift and the third lift I missed. I think it was my depth or maybe my footing. However, I was still pleased to hit a new PR as 110lbs had been my most recent PR. Now my new PR is 121.25 lbs.

After my flight A finished 3 rounds of squats, flight B went, so I had a bit of time. I then warmed up for bench and while I worked in, another coach gave me pointers. I think this helped a lot because I train by myself at the gym and I try to take videos, but to have another coach watch me in person and tell me what to do helped a lot.

I started at 80lbs for bench press. Honestly there was a period a month or so ago that bench felt the hardest for me. Then the last few weeks, I was finally able to push more in it so getting to 80lbs a week ago was a great success for me. I ended up making all three lifts successfully for bench and hitting my new PR of 93.5lbs!! That last one was heavy, but felt great. I kept those arms in tight.

[Thanks so much to one of the lifters boyfriend’s for taking videos of each of my lifts on my camera]

In between I snacked and drank some more water. Then it was time to warm up for deadlifts. Again I was pretty light for deadlifts, in fact I was placed first to go since I was using the lightest weight of the rest of flight A. I started at 145lbs which again was a new PR for me last week. Then I moved up and again with some pointers from one of the coaches there, I was able to make a new PR of 159.75 lbs during my third lift. I think the judge could see I could pull more weight. I felt it was heavy, but I guess it appeared to look like just a warm up. The coach giving me pointers even told me a few fixes for my form and I could add on another 20lbs to my deadlifts. I guess deadlifts have been a weak point for me getting back to them this past year and sometimes taking them too fast as I tweaked something in my hip at one point so I have been very careful about my form throughout my weight training sessions. However, getting the pointers in person really helped and I will definitely be taking what I learned to my next training sessions.

Overall it was a great first meet. Going in, my expectations were to have fun, not compare to what others are lifting and set some new PRs. I met every one of those goals and came out networking with more lifters. I even got a third place medal for my weight class and place. I mean I was 3/3 but still a medal which is awesome!!

A few things I learned:

Bring lots of water with you
Pack a real meal if possible, like a sandwich or avocado with toast. Even some fruit would have been nice too (this was hard for me since I was traveling up the night before but I could have stopped at Wegmans had I thought about it since I had a mini fridge in my room)
Don’t be afraid to say hi to others and jump into the warm ups. Usually you take a few minutes in between warm up sets so you can easily jump in.
Never be afraid to go after what you want, even if it means traveling alone. (I already pretty much knew this, but even with traveling alone to this event, not having anyone there that I knew, I went in with an open mind and a coach just adopted me in to give me pointers. People cheered you on as they called your name. Even when you don’t know someone, just cheer their name and that can make such a difference. )
Hiring an online coach was one of the best decisions/investments I have made (I seriously would not have progressed so far since October had I not) Shout out to SD Evolution for my programming and nutrition advice.

Sports really do bring people together. I wasn’t an athlete growing up. I was on the swim team one year in high school and even with knowing other swimmers and divers, I always felt like an outsider to the swim team at my school. I also didn’t like how it really took over my life, but I stayed committed for that one season so that I wasn’t a quitter mid season. I believe you really have to find something you love to do to enjoy it. I love swimming, but I don’t have the same love for it as I do with weightlifting/powerlifting. Just like how I love yoga, but I can’t solely do yoga.

Even if I have been slow with my progress, it’s just my mind holding me back. I now know from this meet that I can go heavier. Do I need to warm up more? Yes. As I lift heavier, I understand the importance even more for warming up. I also lift at 5am for most of my sessions, so I need to warm up because it’s the first thing I do in the day. When I lift in the afternoon, I am more warmed up just from walking around during the day and being up for hours already. However, getting in that morning weightlift session before work feels amazing since I can head straight home at 5pm and make dinner and relax in the evening.

Weightlifting has brought me more confidence in myself. I LOVE how my body is getting stronger each day. Weightlifting helps my shoulder bursitis so that I am not in constant pain. I do have pain sometimes, but it’s usually after sitting poorly for a while or not weightlifting for a period of time or driving too long (for me, more than 3-4 hours). Weightlifting has helped me find a community of people every time I move. Hello, living in 3 states in 6 years. I love my current gym because there are so many men and women training for meets there and you know they are committed to their workouts.

It certainly is not always easy. I am not always a fan of tracking my food for one. I cook a lot for myself but entering a new recipe all the time takes effort. I mainly focus on meat and veggies to keep things simple for both cooking purposes and tracking. However, due to tracking I have learned that before getting a coach, I wasn’t eating enough to gain muscle. I not only wasn’t eating enough protein, but overall calorie wise I wasn’t eating enough. Recently I was really hungry as well and so in time my metabolism has gotten faster and with that comes the reward of eating MORE!! This doesn’t mean junk, but just eating good for you foods, like fruits and veggies. Honestly, it does become a lifestyle because when I do eat too many sweets or junk, I feel sick and who wants to feel sick…so instead I prepare most of my food on the weekend and one night mid week. I feel better and lift better thanks to eating well. I love that weightlifting and eating well have become my lifestyle. Together they make me a stronger person, help my confidence in myself and also keep me active and my energy up.

I love that I did this first meet and I can’t wait to do another and set some more PRs in the future. First, though, warrior dash in August. So now I need to learn how to run a bit…

My Second Powerlifting Meet and Celebrating 29

First Powerlifting Meet: Rochester Rumble 5/12/18

A few things I learned: