Just go and do your first Powerlifting Competition

A lot of people will wait and wait and wait to enter their first powerlifting competition. Giving themselves arbitrary numbers or totals that they need to hit before their first competition. I have seen people call themselves a “powerlifter” but have been training for 3+ years and not competed. Imagine if people waited until they were as good as professional footballers in order to start playing Sunday League level. That’s what it is like when people wait until they’re “strong enough” in order to compete at their local meet. Going and actually doing your first powerlifting competition is the best thing you can do as a powerlifter. Which sounds obvious when it’s said. There are so many benefits, which I will go through in this blog.

First, I want to go through the actual criteria in order to compete. It’s a lot easier than you think.

• Can you Squat, Bench, and Deadlift 25kg? If so, brilliant, those are the actual minimum weights at local meets.

• Have you read the rulebook and understand everything in it? No good having a 500kg total if you can’t follow the rules of your federation. Commands, equipment criteria, form rules.

Done those 2 things? Congrats, you can now compete whenever you want. Here are the benefits.

Something to train for:

Having an actual goal or event to train for, can make a world of difference to your training. It will stop you just going through the motions and make you take it more seriously. You will end up training harder and eating better naturally as you have that goal and event to work towards. Meaning you will get stronger than if you had no competition to train for. It gives a purpose to your training and accountability.

Great place to hit PBs:

The competition environment is the perfect place to get a PB. Especially if you have plateaued, this is the perfect place to break past that plateau. The conditions are perfect, you should have a great peaking and tapering phase leading up to the meet. The crowd will be there cheering you on, everyone at a meet wants you to do well. Powerlifting is such a positive and supportive community and that is a powerful thing when going for a PB.

Experience:

Experience is an underrated thing in powerlifting. Knowing how to pick your attempts, timing your warmups, the best mental routine to lock in and make that lift. That all comes with experience. If you never do a competition, you’ll never gain experience. And experience is hugely important to becoming a better powerlifter

Get rid of nerves:

You will be nervous during your first competition, it’s only natural when you care about doing well at something. But the longer you leave it, the more anticipation and expectations you put on yourself. If you wait 2 years to do your first competition, you’ve put so much time into that moment. That’s a lot to stress about. And too much stress and nerves can ruin your first competition. If you go into your first competition early with no pressure on yourself and just go out and have fun, then you will end up having a better performance compared to if you leave it too long.

Meet like-minded people:

Competitions are great places to meet people. New friends, training partners, coaches, all in 1 place. Although it is a sport where for the most part, you’re competing against yourself and just trying to get better numbers with each competition, the social aspect of it is valuable. Especially if you train in a commercial gym where there aren’t many powerlifters, you can start to feel isolated and just comparing yourself to what you see on social media. Which isn’t healthy and creates unrealistic expectations. Meeting people in the sport in person and creating those connections is brilliant and so valuable. It can really help your progress, especially if you can find someone to have a healthy but competitive rivalry.

Gives you a starting point:

Once you do your first competition you have your starting point. You have your competition standard Squat, Bench Press, and Deadlift. That gives you something to work past and improve on for your second competition. Where you will have more knowledge and experience on how to get the best performance out of yourself.

Have fun:

Powerlifting is meant to be fun. Especially since there is very little money in the sport as an athlete. This will most likely be a hobby. Something to make you feel good and become a stronger and better person. And so, if you are not having fun with it and spending too much time stressing about being “strong enough” then you aren’t going to last in this sport. And if you don’t take the leap, then you might never. So go do your first competition and have fun with it. Enjoy yourself, the atmosphere, other people’s lift, everything. Take it all in and enjoy it.

Overall, just go and do it. Sign up to your first competition. So long as you read the rules and do some research on how competitions work and are laid out, then I promise you, you won’t regret it.

If you still feel nervous and feel like you need help or guidance preparing for your first competition, and/or need a coach for during the competition then send me a message on the contact form to enquire about coaching.