Tiny Powerlifting Comp

Today was the day! I recruited my gym buddy J and another coworker to be my spotters, and headed down in the afternoon to see how much heavy stuff I could lift.

The competition was small and super casual; it was roughly 15 lifters sprinkled through 2 days. My session was me, a tiny older lady, and a young guy (who lifted some truly staggering amounts, his goal total was >1200lb). There were 4 women that entered the comp, and I was the only one anywhere near my weight class (the next heaviest woman was in the 140-150lb class).

I decided that my openers would be 135lb for bench, 155lb for squat, and 215 for deadlift. These were pretty conservative numbers, but I wanted my first comp to feel a little easy.

Squat was first. My spotters got me racked up, and 155lb went up like a breeze– I set that one way too light. I blew through 165lb, and finished at 185lb– still easy. I’m kicking myself for setting my opener too light! Squats had been a big problem the past couple weeks, but I had them sorted out today.

Bench was next. I’d been working hard on bench and felt good about it, so the opener was my actual 1RM. 135lb was okay, then they talked me into 145lb– which I failed. I backed it down to 140lb and failed again. Well, it’s what I expected and it’s what I got. Can’t complain.

Last, deadlift. They talked me into taking my opener up to 225lb, and I did– no problem. Tried 245lb, still good. 265lb– took a little work, and getting my shoulders back was a chore, but it was okay.

So my total was 185+135+265 = 585. Not too bad for my first little comp!

I stuck around after my lifts to spot the older lady (who did great, beating her old PRs by a lot) and the young guy (I swear, I had to use every 45lb plate in the place to rack his lifts). It was fun. I would definitely do it again! But it would be nice to have everyone lifting together; I think that would make it feel more formal and increase the excitement. It’s hard at a work gym on a weekday though, people always have things to do.

Now I get to decide if I want to keep working on lifting, get back to running, or do something else…

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