Weekender Meet Report – Not the Best Day

I am one of the Weekenders training at the EliteFTS Area S4. My last meet experience in April 2011 was a huge step forward and took my total from 1,900 to 2,130 pounds. Six months later on October 8, I was back on the platform in a lighter weight class with a goal of achieving a 2,100 pound total, which would qualify me to lift in professional meets where money is involved. Rumor has it these pro meets are held in really nice places like bowling alleys or Shriner’s Halls. If you get that joke, you spend too much time reading internet forums.

Unfortunately, after a grueling 12-hour event and many mistakes on my part, I came up 30 pounds shy of the goal.

The Program

The meet training cycle was programmed by Dave Tate and was almost identical to my last meet, with max effort on Saturday (lower) and Sunday (upper) and dynamic effort on Tuesday (lower) and Thursday (upper). Exercises were generally done in two-week waves. Working sets and reps for all movements varied by session in order to avoid CNS burnout, as there were no deloads over the 14-week cycle. Last meet’s cycle is provided in detail in The Vault e-book, which you can get for free by signing up for the elitefts™ Strength Club on the Web site.

The Weight

For the last meet, I put on extra pounds and competed in the 275 pound weight class. During most of this training cycle, I was hovering in the low 250’s, so we decided to make the cut to 242 pounds.

Monday began the hydrating and sodium loading. Sodium was cut off Wednesday. By Wednesday night, I was a nicely bloated 255 and ceased most fluid intake. By Thursday evening, I was 250 pounds. After two 30-minute sessions in the hot tub, I was down to 246 pounds. I was hungry and thirsty and still had a few more pounds to go. But, sleeping was better than being awake, so I took three Biotest Z-12 capsules and called it a night.

Weigh-ins were Friday at 8AM, so I was up at 6AM for two more rounds in the hot tub. Bingo! Weight was at 241 and I headed out. I sweated a little more on the drive to the venue and stepped on the scale at 239 pounds. My final tally was 16 pounds lost in 34 hours.

Now that the weight was off and I had 24 hours to put as much bloat on as possible prior to first attempts, the rest of Friday went something like this:

• Immediately after weigh-ins, half-Gatorade/half-water mix and continued drinking throughout the day
• Breakfast 30 minutes after weigh-ins of country fried steak, pancakes, and biscuits and gravy
• Mid-morning Finibar snack
• Lunchtime buffet at Italian restaurant with particular focus on the pasta dishes
• Mid-afternoon Finibar snack
• Dinner of chicken wings, onion rings, cheeseburger and fries

Then, things got interesting. Dave sent me a text asking where my weight was after dinner. I managed to get up to 253 pounds, a 14-pound gain in 11 hours, and I was feeling pretty good about myself. However, this was unacceptable to Dave and I needed to get heavier. After about a dozen texts with very specific directions, I had a game plan for the rest of the evening – consume 400 grams of carbs with no fats, moderate protein and sodium. Specifically, I was to eat big bowls of Fruit Loops in skim milk with salt sprinkled on top, chased with a couple Cokes. I am not kidding. That is what I did and then called it a night. I was weighing 257 by bedtime, an 18-pound gain over the course of a day.

The Meet
The meet was part of a sport expo hosted by Lexen Xtreme consisting of a Jiu-Jitsu tournament, a strongman competition and a powerlifting meet. This was a great idea and allowed spectators to get a glimpse of multiple sports. Sanctioning for the powerlifting meet was through the IPA and judging was by the book.

The venue was an indoor sports complex in Columbus, Ohio, about a 20 minute drive from my house, so there were no travel issues. The space was huge and the warm-up room had plenty of equipment. Ted Toalston was there to make sure I was where I needed to be all day. Dave and the rest of the weekend training crew from elitefts™ was also there to help. Gerard Mcwhorter provided my hand-offs on the bench, because Ted was six weeks out from back surgery and I didn’t want his spine exploding across the room.

Squat: Metal Ace Pro briefs and Jack Pro Squatter. I opened with 755 pounds, took it down, got an “up” call and stood back up. No lift. The side judges called it for depth. They said I was close, but not quite there. I went to 775 pounds for a second attempt, took it down, started to come up and stalled. This was completely my fault, as I was thinking more about form and depth than exploding with the weight. I took 775 pounds again on the third and final attempt with a single goal – to be aggressive. I went down and up quickly for a good lift. After two failed attempts, I was at least in the meet.

Bench: Metal Viking Pro bench shirt. I opened with 685 for a good lift and moved to 705 pounds for the second attempt. The weight moved nicely for another good lift. I took 735 pounds for the final bench. It felt good, but I did not tuck my elbows hard enough and didn’t engage the lats enough. When the weight came up to lockout, I had already flared my elbows too wide and couldn’t get that last inch to fully lock the elbows. It was close and I held it at the top for a while, but in the end it was, “No lift.”

Deadlift: Metal Ace Pro Squatter. I switched from conventional to sumo deadlift style for this meet in an attempt to engage my hips more and help with lockout. It didn’t do any good and my deadlift was still awful. I opened with 560 pounds for a good lift. Then, I went to 590 pounds for the second attempt and got it. I tried 620 pounds on my final lift of the day. This would have given me a pro-qualifying total of 2,100, which was the goal for the meet. I had a good set-up, then the weight broke off the floor and got in front of me and I lost it. This is a major weakness I need to fix. Rather than pulling up and back, I tend to pull straight up and get my shoulders over the bar, which causes it to drift forward and I lose it. I have to fix this if I am ever going to progress.

This was a 2,070 pound total across all three lifts, but still 30 pounds off my goal and 60 pounds below my last meet. However, the last meet was done at the higher class with no weight cut. If there is a positive to take from the day, the 2,070 was a 170 pound PR for me in the 242 class. I also did walk away from a 50-plus lifter meet with the best overall male award by coefficient. But, those were of little consolation. I failed to achieve my goal and failed to PR on any of the three lifts.

Learnings

• I need to find a balance between being patient, with respect to the commands on the lifts (a weakness last meet) and being aggressive with the weight (a weakness this meet). This will be a primary training focus on max effort days.
• My deadlift needs practice. I plan to incorporate more pulling on dynamic effort days in an attempt to get the work in while not taxing the CNS too much. This may be a tough balance, but if I do not fix this poor deadlift, I will never reach higher levels of the sport.
• Bench is still solid, but I lost concentration and it cost me that final inch that would have gotten the total I sought. I need to train in a more focused manner so that I am better conditioned on meet day.
• I am not sure how much the weight cut hurt. I put back on what I wanted and felt ok, but not as strong as last meet. I believe the yo-yo effect of the cut sapped energy, but can’t specifically say that was the reason for the poor performance.

Props

Huge thanks to Ted Toalston. The meet ran for 12 hours and he was there every step of the way. Also, to Dave Tate and Todd Brock. I’ve said this before, but even with running the business and everything on his plate, Dave always makes time to help lifters succeed. The rest of the training crew at elitefts™ also deserves a nod – Molly Edwards, Zach Nicolay, Steve Gabrielsen, Jon Taylor, Matt Goodwin, the anonymous See Bear and even Jason Pegg, who can always be counted on to verbalize how absolutely horrible my training is. Finally, thank you to my wife, Tracy, who holds down the fort while I disappear to train every weekend.

Thoughts on Competing

This meet did not go as planned, which was very humbling. And, I don’t mean it like when pro athletes getting paid truckloads of money and being on the receiving end of the adoration of millions of fans, say it is humbling. This is a hobby done for the enjoyment of the training and process. Meets are the measuring stick and the weights do not lie. Meets are the independent third party to the judging progress – outside of your gym and outside of your training partners. Months of blood, sweat and effort go into meet preparation and then success or failure is based on a lockout here, or an inch of squat depth there. This meet was humbling in that I believed I was at a certain level and, at the end of the day, discovered I was not.

This is why I have a great deal of respect for anyone who makes the commitment to step on a platform, regardless of how much they lift. There is nowhere to hide and there are no bumps to the bar from your buddy who then says, “It was all you.” You either lift the weight, or you do not and your successes and failure are on display for all to see. Now, I recognize that this is a hobby and there are more important aspects to life that need attention before prioritizing how your powerlifting total is progressing. But still, it takes guts to put it all out there.

In the end, I was disappointed but not discouraged. I know what work needs to be done and have a goal for the next meet. It’s all part of the process…and besides, who wouldn’t want to look like this for work on Monday?

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