Meet Report

Weigh in
I weighed in  at 238.7 pounds Friday morning around 11:30 a.m.   I cut 11 pounds of water in 22 hours by low carbing, not eating, not drinking, using the sauna and hot baths to sweat, caffeine and over the counter diuretics.

• 12:00 p.m. Thursday - Last meal and water.  Low carb - huge romaine taco salad (beef, cheese, guac, lettuce, salsa).  On reflection, I should not have used taco meet.  It is loaded with sodium, which should be minimized 72 hours out from weigh in.
• 5:00 p.m. - 150 m.g. pamabrom, 5 hr energy.
• 5:30 p.m. - light workout with 135 pounds
• 6:00 p.m. - started 20 mins in 180 degree sauna, 5 minutes out.  4 total cycles.
• 9:00 p.m. - scalding hot bath.  Submerged as much as my torso/head/hands as possible.  This was good for another 2 lbs.
• 11:00 p.m. - 100 mg pamabrom, 10 fiber tabs, 2 tbsp peanut butter.
• 7:00 a.m. Friday - 150 mg pamabrom, 10 fiber tabs, 5 hour energy.
• 8:30 a.m. - small coffee (I was "backed up."  This did the trick)
• 11:30 a.m. - weigh in.
• I drank 4 gatorades and a liter of pedialite in the next 20 minutes.
• Spent an hour at all you can eat pizza buffet.  Forced myself to eat/drink the rest of the day.

I'm happy with the amount I loss.  Make no mistake, forcing yourself to endure 90 minutes of the sauna when already dehydrated literally fucking sucks.  I started having crazy thoughts about water later in the night.  I think I would have been good for 15 pounds easily with better sodium loading.  Matt Kroc has two good articles on cutting water using the sweating technique without prescription drugs here and here.  I had no reason to get as extreme as Kroc.

Saturday Morning

I normally don't eat breakfast, but I got up at 7:30 and force fed myself thick cut bacon, greek yogurt, and muscle milk.  I felt refreshed, not withstanding the drunk retards that came into my apt building screaming about the cardinals winning at 2:00 a.m.  (When I came out to tell them to stfu, they said "dude aren't you a cardinals fan?!?!?!?)

I got to the Eagle Gym around 10:00 a.m.  After rules, squats, and the first flight of bench, I didn't start warming up until 1:00 p.m.  I had plenty of protein, gatorade, and beef jerky in the interim.  I felt fucking GREAT warming up.  I immediately felt I was going to have good day.  

Eagle Gym is small, beat-up, cramped, and they put on a kick-ass meet.  Warming up with the big boys had my adrenaline pumping like a mother fucker.  A huge peavey system blared metal as we warmed up.  When I say blare - I mean it was loud as fuck.  You had to lean and shout to communicate with someone standing next to you.  There were no stands, all the spectators just crowded around us.  I can't really describe how pumped this atmosphere made me.  I was a slightly below average bencher in the 2nd flight at this meet, but with 50 people watching just feet away, my form was ultra tight and crisp.  My last warm-up was 275.  I remember thinking it was easily the lightest 275 ever felt.

Bench

I opened with 315.  Confidence soared after warm-ups.  Three plates flew up.  Based on my opener, I knew I had a legit shot at hitting an all time bench PR.  I told the old man keeping track of attempts I'd take 340 for my 2nd lift.

340 was a grinder, but I wanted the PR.  I got the "cns spasms" mid-lift, but overall it wasn't too ugly.  I got a couple compliments for sticking with the lift.

I missed 350 about 3 inches off my chest.  I'm a "fast" lifter, so if its a pound beyond my max, I'll get stapled.  Missing 350 didn't bother me in the least. I hit a PR, and I knew 340 was close to my max, or was my actual max.

Deadlift

Warm-ups only felt average.  The max effort bench (and miss) took a lot out of me.  My lower back felt slightly fatigued from bench.  Still, one of the strongmen from the gym said my pulls were super easy looking during warm-ups.  I stopped with 450.

520 went up without issue.  The old man taking attempts said it looked fast - I told him said it didn't feel that way.  I decided to go for 560 - a five pound all time PR.  I hit 560 on my second attempt and it was hard as hell.  I could tell I was close to my limit, and at this point I had a couple options.

There are two camps when it comes to a third attempt deadlift at the end of a meet.  The first says, "go for broke," or "do something crazy."  Its the last pull of the day, so what do you have to lose?  I've always thought this is fucking stupid.  The entire point of powerlifting is to perform successful green light lifts.  Though I'd just hit a 5 pound all time PR, I knew I'd be pissed if I went for something huge, missed, and left pounds on the platform.  That is a shitty feeling. I opted for the second option and attempted a weight I knew was possible.

570 was loaded for my final attempt.  It was slow the second it left the floor.  My only thoughts were "speed" and "fuuuuuuuccck."  The entire lift was a grind, but I never let it slow. I locked the mother fucker out.  Powerlifting meets are awesome at times like this.  No one knew who I was, but as I was grinding and my head rose, I saw the crowd start to rise with me.  People stand, hands go up, and the yelling swelled as I neared lockout.

I couldn't be happier with this meet.  I hit a 5 pound all time PR in bench, and a 15 pound all time PR in deadlift.  I'm taking next week to rest, recuperate, and come up with a plan going forward.  Before this week I was a little "lost" on whether or not I was going to pursue powerlifting in the short term.  After this meet however, lifting heavier weight is the only thing on my mind.