Post-Competition Reflection

Despite that fact that I compete in powerlifting very recreationally, I do take my preparation and performance quite (very) seriously. I really love powerlifting as an avenue of self improvement. While the objective goal is more weight on the bar, to me the more meaningful goal is becoming a better person in the pursuit of that — and that comes from self reflection and holding myself to a consistently high standard.

After each comp, I send my coach a debrief on everything I thought I did well, could do better, what went well, ideas I have, things I want to do for fun because that is valid too, etc. It’s positive for me personally in getting some closure on the day and identifying areas and means for improvement, but it also gives coachy guidance too. He knows where I want to go, what I’m willing and not willing to do to get there and demonstrates that I want to collaborate with him, not just expect him to make me strong with little input from myself.

Anyway, I thought I’d share here how I personally reflect on my competition preparation and performance in the hope that it may prompt some thought in you on how to get more out of your training and competition experiences. This is basically (with slight improvements in paragraph structure and a few more photos) what I wrote to Lyndon the day after my most recent competition - The TSF Birthday Bash at The Strength Fortress.

Competition Results.

Weight: 63.3

Squat: 120 / 127 / 132

Bench press: 73 / 77 / 80x

Deadlift: 124 / 133 / 140

Competition lead up.

The lead up to competition day was a total shamble: comp postponed, peaked two weeks out, gym closed/out of work for three weeks, anxiety at a near all time high, daily hysterical crying, not very present in most of my training sessions and have been repeatedly sick * sigh * But all that said, I do think my training has gone surprisingly really well. I’ve felt strong, all loads have moved as well as I could have hoped (with the exception of deadlifts) and I am quite pleased with my training overall.

Perhaps it’s worth discussing methods to bring more mindfulness to my training at times that my mind is seemingly everywhere else.

Body weight.

I have been much too light for weeks in the lead up, with my body weight sitting consistently under 65kg. This can be explained by a couple of things:

1. I lost my appetite each time I was sick recently

2. I lost my appetite again when stressed about the whole gym lockdown situation

3. My activity levels sky rocketed through lockdown when I was killing time with daily walks

I absolutely could have been more creative/force fed myself in response to each of those things, but I didn’t. I don’t feel too disappointed about it but I think given my time again I’d probably handle that differently. It was realistically just complacency that probably cost me. I can and would like to do better there.

I also haven’t competed in an afternoon session since 2015 so it was a little unfamiliar managing my weight for an afternoon weigh in. I did enjoy being able to eat breakfast and drink water on the day with the later weigh in, but I could have been significantly heavier and still gotten away with that.

I do feel small and skinny and feel somewhat remorseful for allowing that to happen so all aboard the gain train. Many lessons learned here.

Note: I have since discussed this with Lyndon who shared that he wasn’t sure how to handle the topic of my under-eating at times of high stress. He asked to clarify how I would like him to handle that/if I would like him to intervene in future. For me personally, food is not a source of stress or overwhelm, nor something that demands a lot of time from me. Therefore, having someone to gently kick me in to gear when I’m letting my intake drop would very likely be enough to prevent this happening again. * dusts hands *

Squats.

My squats felt really really good! My squat training has been great and I went in super confident. 132kg was harder than I expected but I am pleased with how I held my shape and stayed with it. Not much else to say really. I am very happy with how squats are humming along.

Bench press.

My bench training has been awesome. I really thought I had 80kg on the day. My first two attempts felt great and the bar felt great in my hands, much lighter and more comfortable than it did when I did 80 in training recently. So to be honest, being pinned by it surprised me a little. I haven’t done a lot of training with press commands, maybe due to nerves but also due to doing most of my training alone and it has been something I have been nervous about. Maybe I hesitated and was a little bit rattled by the anticipation — how long was the pause gonna be? This is something I’d like to work more on: more press commands and potentially some long pause work in training. I need to get more comfortable with that. Being underweight was almost certainly a factor too. So, seems like two easy things to address. Alas, still very happy with how bench has been progressing and optimistic that will continue.

Deadlift.

My deadlift continues to baffle me but I do feel like my comp performance was extremely insightful. In training, we’ve seen my deadlift performance consistently worsen with repeated exposure to heavy loads. 140kg moved great yesterday after two weeks of extremely light pulls, much better than it has in weeks! I am interested in undulating my deadlift training with 1x heavy week then 2-3x light weeks and see what difference that makes. Deadlifts are not bae but I do feel a glimmer of optimism after how they moved on the platform.

Psychology/composure.

This is something I am super proud of. My anxiety on competition day has decreased so much comp to comp, to the point it seemed like hardly a factor at all. I was calm all morning, enjoyed spending time with friends before the comp and it only really clicked to me that I was competing when I was under the bar for my last squat warm up.

I felt really present all day and I was where my feet were all day, which is probably a first and a huge win. I think this is reflective of my improved attitude towards competition but also the small group (six lifters) and extremely short rests probably helped too. There was just no time to get in my head.

I also felt largely unrattled after failing my third bench. Lyndon, John Paul and Julz were all quick to come check on me and see if I was okay after missing but I can hand on my heart say I felt fine. Sure, a little disappointed but it just didn’t at all affect me as it would have in the past. I was able to move on and keep the day going which I am really proud of. This feels huge for me.

I had a blast and feel so positively about the whole day. I’m proud that I can enjoy my hobby for what it is rather than being a ball of anxiety and forgetting to have fun. I think this is a huge gain and will have very positive implications for not only future performances but also just my enjoyment.

Suggestions + ideas moving forward.

1. I would like to get my weight back up to ~67kg (+2-2.5kg). I would like Lyndon’s input in to what rate of gain he’d like to see and how heavy he is happy for me to get.

2. I’m keen to get in to some high rep volume work asap.

3. I want to use new pendulum at the gym :D

4. As above, I am interested in undulating my deadlift training. One hard week to every one to two easy weeks or there abouts? Maybe Don wants me to take a break from conventional pulls? To discuss.

5. I would like reintroduce comp bench with press commands much earlier for next comp and/or introduce long pause bench press to build my confidence and responsiveness with pauses.

6. I would like to introduce some fun core training just for some novelty.

7. I would like to introduce the glute isolation circuit from Dan Godeassi 2x per week to see what difference that makes to my glute strength and how damn tight they always get after squat and deadlift training.

Overall, I had a super fun day and my seemingly unbreakable love for powerlifting continues. Keen to get jacked, train hard and have another run at the end of the year :D

Big thanks to:

• Coachy Lyndon Purcell for being a phenomenal coach but an even better friend,

• John Paul for his constant support and for stepping up as full time training partner and spotter every time we go in to lockdown,

• Anthony at Elite Myotherapy Maidstone for knowing my body better than anyone and for always squeezing me in at a moments notice and

• Mikey at Lift Heavy Media for the epic photos.

I love this sport :)