5 Things To Know Before Your First Powerlifting Meet
When it comes to competing in powerlifting being prepared is the best way to perform. Often I see lifters come into their meet unprepared; especially first time lifters. Follow these five things and you will be feeling more confident than ever.
1.) Know What You Will Eat On Meet Day
Some meets are long days, others short. You need to have a plan of what to eat on. You should have a plan for a long day and a short day. Hopefully you will know length in advanced. Here are some useful tips for your nutrition on meet day:
1.) No Protein Or Vegetables
2.) Carb Up
3.) Electrolytes Are Your Friend
4.) Know Your Meal Timing
5.) Eat Safe Foods
Protein and vegetables are filling foods that are beneficial in having a healthy active lifestyle and you should eat them everyday….. except meet day. You can eat some protein or vegetables, However limit them and save them for after your meet. Protein and vegetables offer many performance and health benefits outside of meets. You should learn to work them into your daily diet. On meet day they are poor energy sources. On meet day you want simple carbohydrates. Simple Carbs will provide fast and effective energy sources. Protein is an emergency energy source and helps your muscles recover. Vegetables provide you with longer term energy. On meet day you’re not focused on recovering or long-term sustainable energy, you are focused on short term performance. On meet day its all about the carbs.
You want carbs that are simple and fast digesting, sugars. You will find a lot of lifters on meet day eating candy. Simple sugars may not be the greatest in daily eating especially if you have weight loss goals. However, on meet day they will fuel you to hit some big PRs. Some common meet day simple carbs I’ve seen before include, Rice, Gatorade, Juice, Candy, rice cakes, anything else that you enjoy that is a simple carb will also suffice.
On meet day you DO NOT want to cramp. It could result in a missed lift or worse an injury. Cramping while handling a max effort load is not a good thing. Make sure to get your electrolytes in the night before as well as on meet day. You can do this with sports drinks like Gatorade or Pedialyte and it will also provide you with carbs or you can buy electrolyte tablets to eat if you find that easier.
Know your meal timing for your lifts, this will look different for everyone. The night before the meet if you do not have morning weigh ins you will want a large carb focused meal. I suggest pasta as it typically sits well in your stomach. The first meal of the day will be breakfast. Depending on how early you wake up and how you can digest food to not feel heavy will determine how heavy or light your breakfast is. You should try to get in at least a piece of fruit in the morning. The exception being if you are water cutting for morning weigh ins. You may snack after breakfast before squats but you will likely keep the snacking light, you do not want your stomach to feel overly full when bracing for squats. After squats will be your next “meal” and this will likely be your largest of the day. This will be your most important meal time. Your body will be depleted of carbs from squats and after squats is when you will have the most digestion time before deadlifts. Likely if your stomach is a little full feeling for bench press it wont effect you so you can carb up for deadlifts right after squats. Once this meal is consumed the rest of the day will be snacking and liquid calories trying to manage keeping energy high without getting too full leading into deadlifts.
Last thing to think about with your food is identifying your safe foods. Meet day is not the day to be trying eating new foods. Stick to foods you are used to. If you are not used to eating simple carbohydrates, utilize your mock meet before your meet to try some different simple carbs to see what works best for you. You want to avoid eating foods that make you feel bloated, sick or make you need to poo. On that note the night before the meet probably don’t get Indian food as that’s not what you need to be dealing with the next morning when you compete the night before also make sure to eat safe foods.
2.) Have Extra Equipment
You never know what will happen on meet day. That means having your equipment prepared and having extra equipment. Most meets will require you do an equipment check at weigh ins; have your equipment ready for that. If possible have two of everything when it comes to your equipment. If you spill water on your singlet or one of your wrist wraps break you want to have a extra available to be prepared and comfortable. Being uncomfortable may cause you to lose focus and not perform your best. If you find your tee shirt getting sweaty makes you uncomfortable there’s nothing wrong with having extra tee shirts available to switch in between lifts. If this means you bring 6 or more tee shirts and switch it for every attempt that’s fine. Here’s a list of all your equipment to pack on meet day(this may change based on the type of powerlifting you do and the federation this list is built for the typical RAW meet).
- Headband(if sweat gets in your eyes)
- Singlet (Second one if you have an extra)
- Wrist Wraps (second pair if you have an extra)
- 2 (or more) Tee shirts
- 2 pairs of Underwear
- Knee sleeves (Second if you have an extra pair)
- 2 Pairs of deadlift socks(Knee high)
- 2 pairs of regular socks
- Shoes you will wear for squats
- Shoes you will wear for deadlifts
- Shoes you will wear for bench (these may be your squat or deadlift shoes as well)
Just remember to have a backup plan for everything including your equipment you want to be ready to face adversity.
3.) Have A Handler You Trust
Ideally the person picking your attempts is your coach. If you do not have a coach or your coach is far away than here’s some things to know.
Picking attempts for athletes you don’t coach is tricky. Some athletes peak well and others don’t. Respect to the coaches that work with national teams that are picking attempts for athletes they don’t coach full time and doing it to win against other national teams that’s a skill of its own.
There is two types of attempt selecting, selecting to hit PRs and selecting to place and beat other athletes at the meet. Most lifters will be doing the former. I won’t be speaking on the second because I don’t have experience in attempt selections for head to head battles. If you are reading this article and are looking to win high level competitions against other lifters hire someone to pick your attempts.
Without a coach you will have to know how to pick your own attempts. Figure out what is realistic for your third attempt in kilos(unless the meet is in pounds). This ideally is a small PR unless you have something holding you back like an injury or an inconsistent training block leading up to the meet. Now that you have your thirds planned out you want to pick your first and second attempts. For your second attempt you will want to subtract 2.5kg, 5kg, 7.5kg, or possibly 10kg from your third depending on how big of jumps you like to make. The bigger jump you can make the fresher you will be for your third attempt but the more you will lose off your total if you miss an attempt. For first time lifters I suggest taking off 5kg from your squat and deadlift and 2.5-5kg from your bench. Now finally the first attempts these should be another 5-10kg less than your second attempt and these should be low enough that you can do them even on your death bed. You should know going in you can hit your first attempts with ease to competition standard. You can squat or opener to depth easily(probably for a few reps). You can pause your bench for at least a few seconds in case the judge holds you down there longer than you expected. You can lockout your deadlift without losing grip or using straps with no hitching. You will know you can do all of this through practice which is why I suggest doing a mock meet.
4.) Know And Practice The Lifting Commands
There is more to powerlifting than just lifting weights. Lifting weights at the gym there is no standard or rules to follow; in a meet there is. If you want to be a powerlifter you must abide by the rules in place by your federation. Here are some of the rules to note however keep in mind this will change from federation to federation so look up what the individual rules in your federation are.
Squat:
- Generally federations will require you squat until your hip crease is below your knee. If you have been training to at or above parallel on squats You will want to change that and make sure your squats meet the standard in training.
- Commands. In meets you will have commands for your squats they will usually include a squat command and a rack command. This may change based on federation.
- Once the judge sees your knees are locked out and the bar is motionless they will give you a squat command meaning you may start your squat. You do not have to squat right away, as long as your knees stay locked out you can start whenever you would like. I suggest taking a big deep breath after the judge gives you the squat command. Many people rush when they get the squat command taking this breath will calm your nerves.
- If your knees come unlocked out and then relock that will count as your squat and you will get a no lift so ensure that you keep your knees locked out until you are fully ready to squat.
- Once you complete your squat you will stand all the way back up and show your knees are locked out again you will get a rack command. If you walk the bar forward or move your feet before this command you will get a no lift.
Bench:
- I see the most lifts missed on commands on bench. Nail your commands and your meet day will be smooth.
- After un-racking the bar in some federations there will be a start command in others there will not. So un-rack the bar pull the bar out over your chest to your ideal start position and show that the bar is motionless and your elbows are locked. In federations with start commands you will then receive the start command and be able to descend the bar down in other federations you can just start. In the federations without start commands you must still show that your elbows are locked and the bar is motionless before you can start. You are never allowed what’s know as a rolling start where you pull the bar off the rack and immediately start pulling it down. All federations require you demonstrate control over the bar before starting.
- Once the bar is on your chest you will receive a press command and then you can lift the bar up. Every federation requires the bar to be motionless on your chest before you receive the press command. This can be subjective based on the judge they decide when the bar is motionless. You should practice getting the bar motionless as fast as possible to get the press command faster. At the end of the day its really up to the judge and the best thing you can do is be prepared to hold the bar down there longer than you will hopefully need to.
- Finally once you’ve lifted the bar up successfully without any downward motion and shown control of the bar at the top you will get a rack command and can rack the bar. Like squats if you rack the bar before this you will get a no lift.
Deadlift:
- Deadlift has the least commands but a few things you should know.
- The only command on deadlift is the DOWN command. Once you have completely locked out your knees and hips and shown control of the bar the judge will give you the down command and you will bring it to the ground.
- You are not allowed to drop the bar from the top you can bring it down at the speed of gravity but you must have your hands on the bar until it is on the ground.
- You must grip the bar with your bare hands no gloves or straps are allowed however chalk is allowed and encouraged.
- No hitching or down and up motion of the bar. The bar must continue to move up without moving downwards at all. The bar is allowed to stop but not go down and then start moving up again or it is a no lift.
- Additionally I’ve seen people with crazy setups where they yank on the bar to get hyped up before lifting it. If while doing so the plates came off the ground the judge could call that a no lift. (Example Below)
You may be thinking “That’s a lot to remember, How do I prepare for this?”. The answer is practice. Many powerlifting programs implement squatting, benching and deadlifting on the same day. These serve two purposes. The first is getting used to performing all three lifts on one day. Performing all three can be physically taxing. Practicing all three on one day can help you be physically prepared for the meet. The second is you can use this day as a “mock meet”. Now you should be practicing all the rules of lifting every time you perform the lifts however some of the commands can be hard to practice. You can practice them in your head and you should be every time you lift. With that said practicing the commands in your head and practicing them with someone saying them can be different. If you are an experienced lifter this probably isn’t a big deal however if you are new to powerlifting I feel “mock meets” with a coach or friend that knows powerlifting giving you the commands is imperative. Treat one of your SBD days a few weeks out from your meet as a practice meet. Bring in a coach or friend and have them give you all the commands. Treat this day just like the real meet, Bring the food you plan on eating and see how it feels in your stomach. Wear your singlet. Do everything exactly like you would on meet day. You can do this more than once if it helps your confidence.
Not knowing the rules and bombing out of your first meet sucks. I find a lot of lifters quit the sport because of this. Missing lifts and having a bad day can really turn you off from the fun that a meet can provide. These things weren’t taught to me before my first meet and my meet was horrible. I never wanted to compete again. I’m glad I did though cause this sport has given me so much. I hope if you’re reading this you practice these things and have a better experience than I did.
5.) Practice Visualization
The final tip I must give is visualization. This is a skill I learned playing college football. Want to know a sure fire way to feel more prepared on meet day? Have played through meet day thousands of times in your head already. Envision yourself squatting. You wrap your wraps do up your belt, set your hands get under the bar pull the bar tight into your back. Envision every little detail for each of your attempts. Envision warming up. Envision getting that medal around your neck envision winning best lifter. Envision bombing out. Envision making lifts. Envision missing lifts. Do not just envision the good, envision the bad too. Envision things going wrong and calming yourself down and responding to the missed lifts. Be prepared for anything so you are prepared to succeed, and nothing can catch you off guard. Bad lifts will happen trust me I’m like the king of 4/9 and 5/9 on attempts at this point. Don’t believe me? Go check my open powerlifting. However every missed attempt, Every bad day was an opportunity to learn and grow and made me a better lifter and a better human frankly. Be prepared to perform your best but also be prepared to learn and grow from the bad.
Hope you enjoyed this article and learned how to become a powerlifter. I hope this inspires you to try out powerlifting if this is something you have been thinking about for awhile. And if you already are a powerlifter I hope a few of these points help make you a better lifter.
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