Officially Picking Things Up And Putting Them Down Again

Blacktie.

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

Thought about it but it didn't suit so sticking with May.

I'll be sure to say hi this time.

coffee_cake

We're all off to cork so
Frantic refreshing on Friday

Alf Veedersane

bluewolf wrote: »

We're all off to cork so
Frantic refreshing on Friday

At least I won't be stuck in the middle of nowhere with intermittent reception on my phone this time! Nearly dropped a weight class with the stress the last time.

Two weeks later than originally flagged which means two extra weeks of high volume suffering...

Alf Veedersane

bluewolf wrote: »

We're all off to cork so
Frantic refreshing on Friday

Ah jayzus. Ringaskiddy!

Dtp1979

What's abs?

Alf Veedersane

Dtp1979 wrote: »

What's abs?

It's a gym in Glasnevin...there's an open there in April.

Blacktie.

bluewolf wrote: »

We're all off to cork so
Frantic refreshing on Friday

Ugh I hope not. I have to go to a stag at 1:15 at the latest. Can't be sitting at home mashing the F5 key.

I'm hoping that was just cause it was in Dublin last time!

Mellor

Bunch of elitiest powerlifters.

#SoloStrongman

Blacktie.

Mellor wrote: »

Bunch of elitiest powerlifters.

#SoloStrongman

Ye well any baby can pick up some rocks so there!

Mellor

The thread title makes more sense for picking up rocks.
No powerlift picks up a barbell efore he squats it, using a frame like a geriatric

pumpkin4life

The feels lads

MightyMandarin

pumpkin4life wrote: »

The feels lads

Saw 'Weightlifting', half-expected him to discuss the 'ol snatch and clean and jerky. I am disappoints.

Alf Veedersane

bluewolf wrote: »

We're all off to cork so
Frantic refreshing on Friday

There was frantic refreshing alright. Had it open on two browsers on the phone and another 2 on the computer. Smoke coming off F5.

Alf Veedersane

I wasn't entirely surprised but it's still deadly

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10154665256089230&id=1585421641695700

coffee_cake

In for May
Boom

Blacktie.

Much smoother process this time!

Mr. CooL ICE

Nicolas Cage wrote: »

This x 1000

I did my first meet last year. Finished last in my category by a good bit, but I didn't care then and I don't care now. It was great fun and everybody was sound.

My 2nd meet is in under 2 weeks and I honestly cannot wait. I've seen the openers of the competition and yeah, I'll most likely finish last again. But who cares? Not this guy. I'm hooked.

About this... yeah, it's kinda hard to describe, but a meet is just a tremendous amount of fun. Nothing can describe the roller coaster of emotions you go through from weigh-in til final deadlift. Even seeing that other guy who you don't know and have never met that missed his first two attempts grinding away to complete his third is worth going to alone, even if you're not competing.

A video on a private facebook group cropped up after the meet and emphasised the spirit of powerlifting. Basically, it was a lifter's two failed deadlift attempts. What he was pointing out in the video was a guy on the left of the screen was roaring at him to get the lift, along with the left of the room. What most people didn't realise was that the guy roaring was on the national squad, and if the lifter made the deadlift he was attempting, he would have taken the guy's place on the national squad.

May is too soon for me as I've got a ton of things I need to adjust, form-wise. But next time a meet crops up after that, I'm in again.

Alf Veedersane

Nicolas Cage wrote: »

A video on a private facebook group cropped up after the meet and emphasised the spirit of powerlifting. Basically, it was a lifter's two failed deadlift attempts. What he was pointing out in the video was a guy on the left of the screen was roaring at him to get the lift, along with the left of the room. What most people didn't realise was that the guy roaring was on the national squad, and if the lifter made the deadlift he was attempting, he would have taken the guy's place on the national squad.

"What I want you to focus on is Arthur Lynch, also known as "the handoff". Not only is he cheering and pushing me for both lifts but he also grabbed the mic before the last attempt and told the crowd to give it all they have for my attempt.
Most of this is nothing special. What you probably don't know is if I was successful with one of those I would be in a position to be selected over Arthur for the world championships. It's a testament to this sport that a man who spent two 16 hour days on his feet can give that much to a guy who is trying to beat him!
Sometimes this sport drives me mad cause of do a behaviour and politics but ultimately I love it because of incidents like this."

Alf Veedersane

bluewolf wrote: »

In for May
Boom

Also in like Errol.

It's funny but a few lads that train in the gym and who compete (and are considerably stronger) - who I haven't really spoken to before - must have seen me in the Leinster Open via COH's instagram feed and just came over to say well done and fair play for competing.

Just thought it was really sound.

laserlad2010

Well lads I'm not sure if I'm looking for emotional support or a kick up the hole but here goes.

Tl;dr I bombed at the IPO Nationals - my first squat competition

I'll write it all out to both clear my own head, because I've been depressed ever since Saturday night, and to see if you more veteran lifters can give me any more advice other than "it happens".

Last week was deload week, and coupled with trying to cut under the 100kg I don't think my prep or nutrition was quite right. I had a gym PB wrapped squat of 200kg that came up slow but I felt that with the adrenaline of the comp I'd hopefully break that. How wrong I was!

Refuelling went alright, plenty of carbs and I had a good night's sleep beforehand. I'd had the same recurrent bits of advice "don't watch the whole comp you'll be wrecked" and "rest up on the day" so when I found my heart pounding watching the AIPO Women's lifts I knew I had to get out:P:P. Men's comp due to start at 4 and my flight was 5pm so I went off into town at 1 and back at 2 for a power nap.

Woke at 3 and ambled upstairs to see what the craic was to find the first mens flight was halfway through second attempt. Disaster!! I estimate this put me at least an hour behind my own mental/physical warmup plan.

My nerves went to ****. 120kg for 3 felt slow and shaky and I had no confidence. The monolift broke forcing me to walk out the reps and delayed my warmup as more lads were queueing. My own coach was off with his lads from the first flight actually competing. I'd noone to have a few quiet words with, to adjust my technique as despite 10 years of squatting this was the heaviest I was planning to go and my first squatting competition.

Finally the lads from my gym arrived and we did a wrapped 160kg squat that actually moved ok. A bit of much needed confidence. I wanted to drop the opener but kept my mouth shut telling myself I was gonna be grand.

Wrapped and walked out, first of all light straight into my eyes my heart pounding I couldn't focus or concentrate. Horrendous technique. "drop into the squat let the wraps take over" was my mantra. Dropped the weight... nothing.

No leg drive. No strength. "take the weight off me yis ****s" I thought desperately. Walking away I knew, just knew that I wasn't going to make those lifts. I had no mental strength, lads were lifting huge weights there and I struggled with a weight I'd smashed only two weeks previously.

My coaches just told me to get my head straight, they thought it was just nerves but I was done. Walked out again and dropped into the hole, nothing. Shame isn't even enough to cover it:(:(

Anyway what frustrated me even more was that my bench went perfect, matched my PR which after the squat disaster was a miracle. Deadlift went slower but that was sheer exhaustion and to add insult to injury I dropped my third attempt, my PB through tiredness.

Game over. I was a wreck yesterday and even though the tiredness is going my mind is all over the place. Now the body shape I was accepting cos of increasing my total is annoying the f**k out of me.

Anyway, rant over, excuse the emotional nature of the post but powerlifting has become a passion and I put my heart and soul into training for the last 9 months, 4 days a week with mobility and solid "80% of the time" nutrition and I'm just empty after the weekend.

My preparation on the day was a disaster, I should have kept more of an eye on the proceedings but I genuinely never thought they'd be so far ahead of schedule. Other lads arrived with less time to warm up than I did!

I'm gutted because I'm a far better squatter than what I put on display and I hate that I let myself down like that.

Has anyone got any advice, criticism or beer :pac::rolleyes::o

COH

You learn more from the bad days man - remember how you feel now and just dont let it happen again :-)

Weight cutting can take its toll - that might have been a factor, even with a 24hr weigh theres no guarantee of feeling great the next day if you were depleted.

An opener particularly at your first comp should be something you know you could do having contracted ebola, with a broken foot, and possibly after being set on fire by someone.

Alf Veedersane

You're training for everything to go right on the day and the truth is some days it just won't go right, no matter how well you've prepared.

I'd say the stress levels of feeling rushed didn't help the squat.

But you matched the bench PR on the day and had a go at the deadlift PR when you're tired and p*ssed off.

You had a rough start. Being rushed threw all the good of having the nap etc out the window. You're on the back foot, stress through the roof...and then you've to go squat heavy.

All the hard work in preparing has still been done. You haven't undone anything.

Get your next comp lined up, figure out what you'd change about the day itself and learn from it.

But remember, you weren't far off leaving with two PRs from three lifts.

laserlad2010

COH wrote: »

An opener particularly at your first comp should be something you know you could do having contracted ebola, with a broken foot, and possibly after being set on fire by someone.

In hindsight I now agree fully! I just do what I'm told though :P

Thanks lads. It's just one thing to fail in the gym, another to fail on a stage... three times!

Watching the IPO on the Sunday made me feel a bit better as those monsters were failing two out of three lifts at times.

Alf Veedersane

laserlad2010 wrote: »

I had no mental strength, lads were lifting huge weights there and I struggled with a weight I'd smashed only two weeks previously.

My coaches just told me to get my head straight, they thought it was just nerves but I was done. Walked out again and dropped into the hole, nothing.

Just on this, that's one place you don't ever want to let yourself go again. It can happen because it's your first full comp, up on stage, an audience and next thing you miss a lift you would normally crush.

But it happens to the best of them. You just wipe it clean and remember the last time you walloped it in the gym and remember it's something you're comfortable lifting and then you go back and nail it on your next lift.

Someone, i think it was Henry Ford, said something along the lines of "whether you think you can or you can't, you're probably right". I think he was talking about benching at the time but it applies to everything.

DylanJM

What weight was your opener? I'm not sure if that's mentioned in the post.

I'm not a powerlifter but a red flag for me is that you mention struggling with a 120kg triple (I'm assuming w/o wraps?) during the warm up having previously done a 200kg wrapped squat in training. For me that doesn't add up at all (even accounting for your raw squat being somewhat lower than your wrapped squat) and, to me at least, may suggest something could be amiss with your training or technique. The fact that you didn't have the same problems with the bench or DL I think also supports this.

laserlad2010

DylanJM wrote: »

What weight was your opener? I'm not sure if that's mentioned in the post.

I'm not a powerlifter but a red flag for me is that you mention struggling with a 120kg triple (I'm assuming w/o wraps?) during the warm up having previously done a 200kg wrapped squat in training. For me that doesn't add up at all (even accounting for your raw squat being somewhat lower than your wrapped squat) and, to me at least, may suggest something could be amiss with your training or technique. The fact that you didn't have the same problems with the bench or DL I think also supports this.

My opener was 175kg, something I'd done easily in the gym when we tried it.

My point about the 120kg triple was mentally I wasn't right. A 120kg triple would have been halfway through my warm up during a gym workout, no sweat, nice and fast.

I'd benched and deadlifted in a comp before, I knew what the deal was, and I prefer those lifts to squats any day.

We'll be revisiting my technique and you'll have to question my training with my coaches:D but thanks for the analysis.

whippet

I feel your pain lad.

I was there on Saturday when you bombed … and my heart went out to you.

The running order of the day went really quick … the organisers ran a great show and they were an hour a head of schedule at lunch time and something unheard of when 70 lifters were set to take to the platform.

There are a couple of lessons to learn from that day … your first full power:

1- Never leave the venue (at least never lose touch with the venue) as you never know what might happen
2- Always be prepared to drop your opening weights, especially on the squat. Your opening squat is only to get you in the game everything after that is about building a total.
3- Expect the unexpected. The mono in the warmup room was put out of action by one of the coaches who raised it too high and the bottle popped out .. actually it nearly took the hands off another coach standing behind it.
4- Nerves .. they are the fuel and the poison that will ruin a day. If your not nervous your not normal .. but its how you deal with the nerves. For first time or novice lifters the best way to deal with nerves would be to set an opener which as said before could be done on one leg with an arm tied behind your back.
5- Realise your mistakes and get back on the platform again .. and rediscover the reasons why you spent months preparing and took a weekend out of our life to compete.

It was a great competition and the addition of the AIPO (tested) section was a real success as far as I could make out. I enjoyed every minute of it and while I didn’t hit any PBs I had an overall competition PB and comp PB on all three lifts.

The equipment, venue and promoters were brilliant.

On the IPO side of the house on Sunday there were some massive lifts .. a 345 RAW (with Wraps) squat.

laserlad2010

whippet wrote: »

I feel your pain lad.

I was there on Saturday when you bombed … and my heart went out to you.



There are a couple of lessons to learn from that day … your first full power:

.

Yeah don't get me wrong, the competition itself was fantastic and I've no complaints. I loved watching it all and being involved. Definitely next time I'll be keeping a closer eye on proceedings!

I think a lower opener might have helped but the nerves were something awful and I'll have to do a bit of motivational research to help beat it again.

I've worked beside that lad Jake in Boyneside in Drogheda and he's monstrous. Just so wide :D

Thanks lads for all your words of support and analysis. I've always had a poor squat and I'm just going to have to knuckle down for a few months and really work on it.

whippet

laserlad2010 wrote: »

I've worked beside that lad Jake in Boyneside in Drogheda and he's monstrous. Just so wide :D

and he is still somewhat a novice for competitions !

Beau

Well,

I'm entering the below beginner competition. It'll be my first one. I'm a rugby player first but this would tie in nicely as I come to the end of my pre preseason. You don't have to get all the gear etc but if you don't your score isn't official. I'd like to do it properly even if it's not a serious comp. So what do I need!? I bought this belt in the below link which i think is allowed and I have Adidas lifting shoes. I need a singlet, anything else?

Belt: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01M62IER7/ref=pe_385721_37038051_TE_3p_dp_1

Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1026502100814097/?ti=cl