Quote:
Originally Posted by chaddukes
Also, how well would a flat out rookie be received if they tried to participate in a meet?
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I've been to several and they are all pretty courteous and supportive of new people.
Here's a few tips from my experiences.
Belt.
They usually won't allow padded belts. Get one of the plain leather ones if you don't already have one. They are hard to find in stores, but you can order them off the internet.
I had one of those padded "Gold's Gym" ones I got from Wal-Mart for less than 20 bucks.
Cheap SOB that I am I took a single edge razor blade and carefully and neatly cut out the padding.
Socks.
For Deadlifts they will want you to have socks that come up to your knees. That way when you skin your shins pulling the bar up the blood won't show and freak people out.
You can buy special Deadlift socks or you can go the cheap SOB route like I did and buy a pair of extra-large, extra long heavy socks from a military surplus store for about 3 bucks, cut the toes out of them, and pull them up to your knees.
Bench Press.
Lots of people miss the Bench Press because they don't follow the commands.
There are three. First you take the weight out of the rack. The spotters will help you if you want.
Then you need to hold that weight until the head judge sees you have control. This is only about a second or so. Wait until you hear him say "start", then lower the weight to your chest.
No, you can not bounce the bar off your chest like it's a trampoline. You gotta hold it on your chest until the head judge says "start".
Then you press the weight up. Once you get it locked out, and here is where a lot of people miss their lift, you have to hold it there until the judge says "rack". Then put it in the rack.
I've seen quite a few lifters miss on this, especially after a difficult lift, because the natural instinct is, as soon as that lift is over you throw it in the rack.
So remember, there are three times you have to hold that weight still and wait for a command. The wait is never very long, usually a second at most.
To make it easy on myself I do all my workout reps in meet form.
Squats.
The most common way that people miss squats is that they don't go low enough.
I have a plastic milk crate in my garage that is 12" high, well below parallel for me. I do all of my squats as touch and goes down to this crate. I have never missed a squat in a meet.
The three lifts are in the following order.
Squat, Bench Press, Deadlift.
You get three attempts at each.
Always start with a weight that you know you can lift easily. If you miss a lift for any reason you have to make your next attempt with a weight at least as heavy as your last lift.
How to find Powerlifting Meets, Orgs, etc.
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