Written by Team Juggernaut
This past Saturday, Nov. 23, I competed in my first powerlifting competition – the USPA Central California Powerlifting Championships, which was held in San Luis Obispo.
I left with my buddy Drew “Vynsanity/Notorious V.Y.N.” Vyn, from Orange County around 1PM Friday, and weighed in at SLO High School at 5:30PM on Friday night. I weighed 299.8 pounds, though I was expecting to be 3-4 pounds heavier, so I guess I need to check out the scale at Juggernaut. After the weigh-in, we went and ate a lot of pizza and garlic cheese bread at a place called Woodstock’s, which was really good. I then passed out at about 9:30PM.
After a decent night’s sleep, I was up around 6:30AM to shower and get things together for the meet. After a stop at IHOP for an avocado, bacon and cheese omelet and some pancakes, I was ready to lift. We got to the venue around 8:40AM, with the lifting scheduled to start at 9:30AM. With this being my first meet, I wasn’t really sure what to expect, so I made sure to get a review of the commands, rules, etc.
On to the squat…
I started my warm-ups about 9:30, (10 or 15 minutes earlier than I needed to in hindsight) and worked up to a very easy 635 x 1 in wraps in the warm-up room. After waiting around for about 15 minutes after my last warm-up, I opened at 722, which I smoked. From there I went to 800 for my second. I missed it, due to a lack of tightness in my setup and my head/chest falling forward about halfway up. I came back for 800 on my third, with much better focus and intensity and powered it up pretty well. I had never had more than 765 on the bar before, so this was a big confidence boost to come back and make 800 on my final attempt.
In the bench..
I had the timing of the warm-ups down better and went to 375 x 1 in the warmup room, before opening at 415. This was easy, but I got one red light for my heels being up, which isn’t allowed by this federation. I also almost jumped the start call, but luckily it ended up perfectly synchronizing with the head judge. Next I went to 445 pounds, kept my heels down and got it no problem. My third was 463, which came off the chest well, but got stuck about three inches above my chest. However, I was able to power it through for three whites.
Deadlifts…
The first flight of deadlifts got underway around 2PM and I was pretty worn down by this point, despite my diet of Grow/Surge/Creatine shakes and Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal bars. I worked up to 565 x 1 in the warm-up room. I opened at 655 pounds and got it easily. Next, I went to 700, already knowing that it would be my last attempt for the day. I popped my last ammonia cap, and went to it. I struggled off the floor, but once it got past my knees it was no problem. I thought about taking a shot at 736 for a 2000 total, but was cashed out by then.
Here are the videos…
Thanks to Dave, Jim, Rhonda and everyone at Elite for their support. Thanks to my business partner Nate Winkler and all our staff at Juggernaut for supporting me and covering for the time I was gone. Love all you guys.
