[Meet Report] Seattle Summer Classic

Training

After my last meet in February, I switched from 5/3/1 to the Texas Method, because I felt that my squat would do better with more squatting.

I switched back to 5/3/1 for Powerlifters about 5 weeks before the meet, because there is a pre-meet specific template. Unfortunately, I got a horrible cold 2 weeks before the meet. I was off training for about 5 days, and wasn't really eating very well. I tried to make up for it at the end of the week, but was still quite weak and couldn't hit my usual training weights.

Weight

I didn't do a proper cut for this meet. I had been eating more than usual because I wanted to get my squat up, so I saved any cutting for a few days before the meet - just going low-carb and not having anything before the weigh in. My home scale put me at 202 this morning, but I weighed in at 196lbs. Clearly, my scale is a dirty liar.

Food

I ate oatmeal and a protein shake before I got started, then ate a muffin and nibbled on trailmix for the rest of the day.

---

I weighed in at 88.8kg/196lbs

Squat 1: 80kg/180lbs

Squat 2: 87.5kg/192.7lbs

Squat 3: 92.5kg/203.7lbs (No lift)

Bench 1: 47.5kg/105lbs

Bench 2: 52.5kg/115.5lbs (No lift)

Bench 3: 52.5kg/115.5lbs (No lift)

Deadlift 1: 110kg/245lbs

Deadlift 2: 120kg/264.5lbs

Deadlift 3: 130kg/286.5lbs (PR)

Total: 265kg/584lbs

Wilks: 230.285

---

Clearly, my bench is bad and I should feel bad. This is going to be my focus for the next couple of months.

I came down high on my second lift, lowering the bar more than I needed to, hunching my shoulders, and flaring my elbows.

I got stopped after several seconds on the start of the third lift for having one heel off the floor. By the time I restarted, my arms were trashed, the weight went down to fast and stayed there.

Lessons Learned

• Don't get sick right before a meet. I have no idea how this effected me, but I'm sure it did something. In retrospect, I would have done very, very badly if I hadn't gotten better as early on as I did.
• You have to remind people to bring cameras. No pics or video this time.

**Edit: I was wrong, a friend took a pic :)