I’ll begin at the end:

But our story begins much earlier.

I’ve usually kept in pretty decent shape. About three years ago I made weightlifting my primary fitness activity. Why? Well, I’m older and not as fast as I was – but I can readily be stronger than I ever was. It’s actually easier to put on mass and muscle now than when I was younger. Lean into your strengths.

And, I wanted to push myself in a new direction. It doesn’t help that lifting makes you look pretty good, too.

Probably about a year and a half ago I focused my lifting on strength, not mass. (There’s a difference.) The program I’ve been using is 5 3 1. I adhered to it pretty strictly. I became (by my standards) gigantic.

To make my achievements official, I decided to enter a powerlifting competition. The first one I signed up for was canceled due to COVID, but I eventually made it to the Fall Finale in Haymarket, Virginia.

These competitions pretty much all work the same way. There are three lifts – the squat, the bench press and the deadlift, in that order. For every lift, you get three attempts. After you attempt a certain weight for a given exercise, you cannot try a lower weight at that same exercise in your subsequent attempts. The weights of your best successful attempts are added up, and that’s your score.

My goal initially was to get 1000 pounds total. It soon was clear that that was too easy, so I decided to go for 1050. And, I thought it just barely possible I might get 1100.

I mostly worked out myself, and practically never with anyone who knew anything about powerlifting. So I was nervous. Would my form be up to competition standards? For every lift there was a point that made me nervous:

• For squat, I had to make sure I was deep enough – crease of hip below the knee. This was something I worked hard to achieve through my workouts. Most people who don’t know what they’re doing don’t squat this deep so they can do more (useless) weight.
• For bench press, I had to practice pulling the bar down, pausing with the bar until I was motionless and then pushing up. I only practiced this way for a couple months before the competition.
• For deadlift, I had to make sure I didn’t hitch – re-bend the knees and then pull upward. I didn’t think I did this, but was I sure? I’ve almost blacked out from heavy deadlifts before, it’s hard to know what a desperate body is doing.

The week before the meet I did very little exercise. I did yoga once or twice. I did a very light lifting workout 4 days out. I stretched most days. My main form of preparing was eating very large amounts of food. (But I still didn’t gain any weight!)

Arriving at the meet, I was a bit nervous, but mostly excited. It was fun to be in the company of other people who took lifting seriously. There were people bigger than I, of course, but quite a lot of females and juniors as well. During the meet one very petite female set a national record (for her weight class) with a squat that I could have easily curled.

I was the only male in my weight class (205 to 231 pounds – weight 211, so I’m on the light side for that class) and age group (Masters age 40 – 44). So, I knew that as long as I had a valid lift in all three events, I would win. But it would have been very lame to simply start with the bar. It would have disrespected the sport and besides, I wanted to see what I could do, not just get a participation trophy. I also wanted to do better than at least some of the people in my weight class in the open (any age) category. (Well, I was never going to do better than all of them, unless they happened to get struck by lightning and NOT develop superpowers.)

OK, first lift, squat – 305 pounds, something I’ve done many times before. I just did it the same way I do in the gym – step out, squat down, back up and rack the bar. Not even that hard!

“Platform 2 – no lift.” What, why? Was I not deep enough? No – I had failed to wait for the judge’s signal to re-rack the bar. Goddammit.

Well, I had to make sure I got at least one good lift, so I kept the weight the same for the next attempt. (Gone was my plan to squat 305, then 325, then a personal best at 345.) Down and up – no harder than before. Stared hard at the judge and re-racked on command. Success!

I chose to go for 331 pounds for my final lift. I did it easily. I could have done more – but I wasn’t really sure how big a jump up I could handle. You have to warm up to do heavy weight. No one, to take an extreme example, squats 200 on their first attempt and 300 on their second.

To keep my energy up during the meet, I drank coffee (which I don’t habitually do) and ate starches and grains. And before the last lift for every exercise, I had a sniff of ammonia salts to make sure I was perked all the way up.

I had about 55 minutes to warm up for the bench press, and I used about 40 of it. My first two attempts were good – 255 pound and 276 pounds. I thought I had the next – 287 – in the bag, but the damn bar just wouldn’t go up.

Next meet, I will start warming up deadlift at the same time as bench. The people before me flew through – I learned that this is normal; the deadlift always goes faster than the other lifts. And, warming up for the deadlift is harder (at least for me) than for the others – it uses more muscles than any other lift, and I was getting out of breath. It was the only time during the meet I really felt the mandatory mask to be a handicap.

I flew through my warmups and was ready for my first deadlift attempt at 425. Success. An experienced lifter suggested that I baby powder up my thighs so that the bar slides up them more easily, which I will do for next time. He also gave me advice on when I should take my ammonia salts. (Right before I lift.)

At this point I had three valid lifts – so was going to be able to finish with a score. I also had a thousand pound total. My next lifts at 445 and 457 were also good.

Total – 1063. I hit personal bests in all three lifts – though only by a pound or two in each case. Still, I’ll take it!

Next powerlifting meet is outside Nashville. We’ll see if I can still make it while biking like crazy alll weekend!

Here is a video compilation of all my lifts (for all lifts, I’m the one on the right, platform two):