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…