[ Meet Write Up ] USAPL Central FL Open - 1443 @ 212lbs

[ErickStevens]

Normally I'm too shy to post one of these but for once I'm actually happy with how I performed. A little background: After spending close to 10 years training like a bodybuilder I took an interest in powerlifting late last year. I competed in my first meet in October of 2011 and totalled 1225 @ 198 with a 415 squat, 260 bench, and 550 DL. This was to be my fifth and final meet of my first competitive PL season, so I wanted to go out with a bang. All my previous meets were with RAW United and this was my first with USAPL. I almost skipped this meet as I became very rundown near the end of my prep cycle but I decided to stick it out and see what happened.

We got a room in the same hotel that the meet was at the night before so I wouldn't have to wake up at the ass crack of dawn to drive two hours to weigh in. My entire training cycle I had hovered right around 215lbs (Thanks to the BioRhythm Diet!) but I still wanted to be careful so I was very conservative with my dinner that night. I ended up eating a big old sandwich from Larry's Giant Subs and a brownie that my fiancee had made. I really wanted to watch the UFC PPV that night but it turned out there was nowhere in the hotel that was showing it and we weren't able to watch it in our room. With nothing to hold my attention on TV I ended up falling asleep around 11PM and got 8 solid hours, marking the first time I've been able to get satisfactory sleep before a meet. After talking with some friends the next day I learned that the fight card ended up running long so I suppose it was a blessing in disguise. I was one of the first people to get down to the weigh ins and checked in a little over 212lbs. I got my equipment checked out and then headed back to my room to foam roll.

The meet started on time at 9AM and began moving very quickly. There was an even mix of raw and equipped lifters although there was only a handful of females competing. The squat was the lift I had the least confidence in going into this meet based on the last couple weeks so I was very conservative with my opener of 485lbs. Warm-ups felt light so I wasn't too worried but I still didn't want to be "That Guy" and bomb out like an idiot. 485 felt like 485 but I didn't want to get too crazy, so I decided to make a conservative jump to 510 and see how it felt. Once I unracked it the side judge made said I wasn't upright enough so I ended up having to hold it a few seconds longer than I would have liked. Even with that delay it still felt easy, so I figured I'd go for 520ish and call it a day. While I was over at the scorer's table looking at the KG=LBs chart, my fiancee came over and asked what I was planning on going for next. I told her and with a disgusted look she said "That's it?!". I knew the record for the class was something like 526 and my squat PR was 530, so I kind of shrugged my shoulders and said "540?". She nodded and that was that. It wouldn't be the last time she inspired me to go for a big number. I knew 540 was good as soon as I unracked it. New USAPL 220 FL State record and a 10lb PR for me!

Bench was next. I hate benching. I had (finally) hit a 300 paused bench in the gym so that's what I was shooting for coming into the meet. The competition bench felt alien and I couldn't really get comfortable so I kind of knew a big PR wasn't coming. I played it safe and went 275, 285, and finished with a 2lb PR (lol) of 292.

After a 20 minute intermission it was time for my main event - The deadlift. I decided to open with 575, a weight that I was probably good for at least a triple with. Oddly enough this would also be a USAPL 220 FL State Record although I had no plans at stopping there. When I began warming up I immediately realized a critical mistake I made during my training cycle - USAPL uses a stiff bar for DLs and not a DL bar, so I knew it was going to be a rough adjustment. As soon as I walked out to the platform and looked down I knew I done goofed. The knurling was completely different than the bars in the back and I totally effed up my hand placement. You can see in the video my grip is actually outside of shoulder width which is insanely uncomfortable for Sumo deadlifting. My technique also blew ass as I let the bar get away from me and ended up doing a 575lb Romanian Deadlift while expending way more energy on an opener than you ever should. I knew that if I buttoned up my form that the second attempt would be much easier so I decided to go for 600. Just like I thought, my improved form made 600 fly up even easier than 575. I'd missed 600 on my third attempt at my last two meets, so this was a huge moment for me. I walked back to the scorer's table and contemplated skipping my third attempt as my lower back was obliterated by this point. After a brief discussion with my fiancee, it should come as no surprise that I put in 611 for my third attempt. It was a battle but I ended up grinding it out giving me an 31lb meet PR and an 11lb all time PR.

After going 9/9 for the first time in my competitive PL career, I finished with a 1443lb total. It was my best ever total by 43lbs and also a 220 FL state record. I ended up winning first place in the 220 class and I also had the highest Wilks total of all the raw lifters at the meet. Oddly enough I didn't win best male lifter as I was bested by an equipped guy (wtf) for that award. I thought it was ironic that an organization that prides itself on it's level playing field wouldn't take suits, wraps, and bench shirts into account. Regardless, knowing I was the best raw lifter was enough for me and it gave me a good note to go out on for the year.

What I Learned:

- Don't be your own worst enemy. No matter how weak or beat up you feel in the week(s) prior, all that matters is how you feel on game day. Don't psyche yourself out like I did.
- Rest more. This was the first time I took the entire week before a meet off and it made a big difference. This is going to be a standard practice for me from now on.
- Longer training cycles. I'm going to take my time prepping for my meets next year and spend 8-10 weeks instead of my usual 6. This way I won't put so much pressure on myself to progress so quickly and end up running myself into the ground like I did this prep cycle.
- I need to get my bench up. Some how, some way. It has to happen.
- No DL bars during meet prep. Next time I prepare for a USAPL meet I'll be doing all of my pulling with a stiff bar.



Thanks for reading!

[BombDonald]

Nice write-up and great job at the meet.

To be fair, I believe it's 12.5% they add to a raw total to compare it to an equipped total.

[Jason2459]

tl;dr















kidding, awesome job

[ErickStevens]

Nice write-up and great job at the meet.

To be fair, I believe it's 12.5% they add to a raw total to compare it to an equipped total.

Ah, that seems more fair.

tl;dr















kidding, awesome job

Thanks man!

[45PIRATE]

Great job! There should be a best lifter Raw and best lifter equipped.

[bonkerzzz]

Nice one! Props for going into it after feeling rough and setting a PR, that's what it's all about.

[Torrtrefireto]

Nice work man. Don't call it a stiff bar though, deadlift bars are just extra non stiff.


Lulz at your wife being the one to make you ball up

[NIsrael]

nice job, my friend competed as well and actually asked if i had seen you at local meets before bc you were killing it

[darren.dugan]

gjdm! Now you gotta work on beating your own state records

[ErickStevens]

Great job! There should be a best lifter Raw and best lifter equipped.

I agree.

Nice one! Props for going into it after feeling rough and setting a PR, that's what it's all about.

Felt good man.

Nice work man. Don't call it a stiff bar though, deadlift bars are just extra non stiff.


Lulz at your wife being the one to make you ball up

Good point. Yeah, I was being a scared little bitch and she set me straight.

nice job, my friend competed as well and actually asked if i had seen you at local meets before bc you were killing it

Who is your friend?

[ErickStevens]

gjdm! Now you gotta work on beating your own state records

I'm planning on making a run at Alex Tirtiski's 198 records next year. 545 squat (Soon), 675 DL (I got work to do), and 1564 total.

[C0bra]

What exactly does your prep cycle look like?

[NIsrael]

Who is your friend?

Alex Loicano(sp)

[ErickStevens]

What exactly does your prep cycle look like?

Last prep cycle was a mish mash of the Conjugate and Texas Method. Squatted 3x per week, deadlifted/benched 2x per week.

Alex Loicano(sp)

Ah, I'm not sure if I talked his ear off or not. Whenever I get nervous I babble on forever so I was trying to talk to everybody. I probably annoyed him.

[Newbtime]

Fukking jacked.

[WHT_LIGHTNING]

hell yeah, great ****ing job bro.


Way to rep the 941

[ErickStevens]

Fukking jacked.

Thanks, means a lot coming from a PL forum vet!

hell yeah, great ****ing job bro.


Way to rep the 941

Thanks, I tried my best!

[TomMutaffis]

Nice work at the meet... three PR's and a couple of records.

Do you attribute the success to anything specific from your training? Or just overall progress due to experience and discipline?

[ErickStevens]

Nice work at the meet... three PR's and a couple of records.

Do you attribute the success to anything specific from your training? Or just overall progress due to experience and discipline?

Thanks Tom! Yeah, I pretty much experienced "newbie gains" all over again this year. Now that I've tacked on ~200lbs to my total I have a feeling I'm going to have to train that much harder to increase my numbers.

[xRequiem]

Good job man, nice numbers

The Texas DL record @ 220 is almost 750 xD

[Filmbuff81]

wicked job! Great write-up too. Can't wait to finally get into a meet myself. Not much happening in my parts for a while though.

[7399martyn]

great work.

[Big Sexy J]

hell yeah, great ****ing job bro.


Way to rep the 941

aww yah

[shoefanatic23]

Great write up and awesome job!

[wakechica]

You killed it, great job!

[ErickStevens]

Good job man, nice numbers

The Texas DL record @ 220 is almost 750 xD

Thanks man. FL State records are kind of weak, it's up to me to make them a bit more respectable.

wicked job! Great write-up too. Can't wait to finally get into a meet myself. Not much happening in my parts for a while though.

It's an awesome experience, you'll love it!

great work.

Thanks!

aww yah

You can't own your own gym and be a non lifting *******!

Great write up and awesome job!

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it.

You killed it, great job!

Thank you!

[NIsrael]

Thanks man. FL State RAW records are kind of weak, it's up to me to make them a bit more respectable.

fixed lol

but in reality you are correct. Once the records are updated I will hold the equipped open 181 and 198 total records and while i think I am pretty good I dont think it should have been that easy to break those records lol

[arian11]

I'm planning on making a run at Alex Tirtiski's 198 records next year. 545 squat (Soon), 675 DL (I got work to do), and 1564 total.

Haha, I remember that dude. I pulled like 435 in June at 198 and my teammate pulled 475 and we were trying to figure out what place we were gonna get. Then Alex comes out and pulls 675 and completely destroys us lol.

[dtaps24]

Thanks man. FL State records are kind of weak, it's up to me to make them a bit more respectable.

This is from USAPL's imperial headquarters in Florida:

[arian11]

This is from USAPL's imperial headquarters in Florida:

Lol, USAPL Georgia records are even more watered down because the raw records are broken into all the divisions while Florida only does raw open. At our October meet, the UGA team had some tiny little brown kid lifting baby weights and I see he has several state records. Like a 226 lbs squat at 132 lbs lol. Also at our October meet, a dude tested positive and it looks like he has Georgia state records as well. I wonder if he got tested and passed in the Georgia meet or they didn't "randomly" select him. All in all, seems like you got alotta work to do in your own state dtaps.