As a follow up to my post earlier in the week ‘So you want to start powerlifting…’, I thought it would be beneficial to pass on my advice in relation to the day of your powerlifting competition.
Your first powerlifting competition you will no doubt be a bundle of nerves (I certainly was, I still am even!). The best thing to do when you are uncertain about something is to try and learn as much as you can about it before you get there so you will kind of know how everything works and it won’t all be completely foreign too you!
// Weigh-in Advice
Weigh in is generally the day of the event which means that you don’t want to be thinking about things like dehydration tactics as it will only harm your performance on the day. Especially for your first competition try to make sure you are well underneath your chosen class weight rather than being within a 100grams as all scales read slightly differently. It is pretty nerve wracking waiting to be weighed, some competitions you will just form a line and weigh in when you get to the front of it and others will call you up in weight or lifting order. Most people choose not to eat until after weigh-in, with the competitions I have been too this wasn’t an issue as weigh-in was relatively early.
// Choosing your weights
While you are at weigh in (or shortly after) you will be required to let them know your starting weights for each lift. Make sure you know what your opening lifts are going to be, and make sure they are lifts that you can easily get, even on a bad day. This will ensure you get points on the board as you don’t want to miss out on a score for one of the lifts. Have your second and third ideal lifts written done somewhere as well so that it is easy to hand these in after your first lifts (your second lift needs to be written down and given in within 1 minute of completing your lift – so you don’t want to make a rash decision here.) Having it written down makes it super easy and if the lift was too easy or too hard you can go up or down slightly from your ideal lift prior to competition day.
// Order of Lifts
If it is a big competition the lifters will be put into ‘flights’ which just means they break you down into smaller groups. As a general rule the females and the lighter males will be in the first flight. The squat is first, then bench press and deadlift is your last lift. You will have three attempts for each lift and then the next flights will complete their three lifts before moving on to the bench press and deadlift etc. The amount of time between your attempts will depend on the number of people in your flight and how much you increase your weight by each lift. Generally it is pretty quick between your attempts say 5-10 minutes which is good as you aren’t standing around for too long but it allows enough time for recovery.
// Warm up Advice
My best advice for your warm up is to only do enough repetitions that you need to, to get you sufficiently warm and prepped for your lift. You do not want to be wasting energy on light (or heavy) lifts which are not going to add value to your lift on stage. At the same time you do not want to go straight from the bar to 80kg then go into your competition lift of say 90kg. Practice finding a balance of the number of reps you need at each weight to feel comfortable before the big day. I personally find I need 10 reps of the bar and a light weight and then I start going down to lower reps as I increase the weight and get near my opening lift. Keep yourself warm and mobile and don’t be afraid to ask to jump in with someone else while they are warming up as there are generally only limited amounts of equipment to warm up with. Bringing a resistance band can be helpful for your first warm up for bench but not essential.
// Commands
It is super important to make sure you listen carefully to the commands which the head referee will say to you whilst you are performing your lifts. Not obeying a command will mean a failed lift, despite whether or not you completed the lift successfully. You have one minute to complete your lift from the time your name is called so make sure you are near the announcers table when your flight begins.
Squat: The squat has two commands, the first command ‘squat’ will be called once you have un-racked the weight and both yourself and the bar are steady (no wobbling or fumbling around), the second command ‘rack’ will be called once you have completed your squat and are fully standing upright back at the top of the squat.
Bench Press: The bench press has the most commands and you are facing away from the head judge so you really do need to have your ears switched on and be ready for the calls. The first command is ‘start’ and then means that you can lower the bar down, you must then pause at the chest and wait until you hear the second commands ‘press’, you then press back upwards and wait at the top with your arms locked out until you hear the third command ‘rack’ where you can then rack the weight.
Deadlift: The deadlift is the easiest of the three as there is only one command to listen to and it’s generally fairly obvious as you are facing the referee. Your only command for the deadlift is ‘down’ when you are at the top of your deadlift and have locked out at the top, this signals you to put the weight back down (without dropping it!).
// Nutrition
The advice that is given when you enter a powerlifting competition is to eat high carbohydrate items such as chocolate bars and creamed rice on the day of your powerlifting competition. Personally I eat much the same as what I would on any other day, however I will sometimes treat myself to a bit of chocolate or a slice on the day of the event to help keep my energy up as it is a very long day. I wouldn’t go with anything wildly different from your usual diet as you don’t want to get halfway through the day and then start to feel average when you have max lifts to perform. You also want to make sure you are well hydrated as it is a very long day and if you have been usually training each lift in individual sessions it will feel like a VERY long day as you will be doing the equivalent of three training sessions. (minus any accessory work you have been doing).
// Reading the Results
After the competition, usually within a couple of days the results will be posted on the relevant websites or Facebook pages depending on the association you have joined. When I first tried to read the results I had no idea what it all meant so thought it might be helpful for some of you if I explained it. As an example the image above (click to enlarge) is the results from the Zenith novice competition I did last year. From right to left the categories are; Name of Lifter, Weight Class (F-O is female open), the bodyweight of the athlete on the day, the weight class each athlete is entered in. You then come to each of the lift attempts for each lifter, there are three numbers for each lift. The green is a successful lift and the red is a failed lift. The total at the end is the sum of the best lift for each of the three lifts for the athlete. The Wilks score comes next – I mentioned the Wilks score in my last post however as quick recap the wilks score is a score which is applied to each athlete based on their bodyweight and their totals successful lift for the day. It is a way of comparing people on a more even scale despite the bodyweight of the athlete. The very last comment is a summary of how the lifter did in their class, for example mine has 1-F-O-57-PL, this means that I was First in my class (1), which is female open (F-O), 57kg category (57) in powerlifting (PL) – some competitions run bench press only which is where the PL comes in.
Any questions? Comment below and let me know, I love hearing from you!