Having enjoyed competing in a strongman competition earlier this year, I recently made the decision to have a go at powerlifting. I’ve been looking for a strength/fitness based sport to compete in and powerlifting is a sporting endeavour that I think I am well suited to – for a couple of reasons:

1. I really enjoy weightlifting and want to increase my maximum strength.
2. Unlike other sports I enjoy participating in i.e. crossfit and strongman, powerlifting has weight classes, which gives the competition a level playing field.
3. It’s easy to track progress, which is great for me as I am outcome focused and am driven to see continued personal improvements (no matter what the endeavour).
4. Its an individual based sport, where it can be more about the competition against yourself – pushing yourself to achieve your best, rather than competing against others.

With these thoughts in mind, I decided to start training for the Singleton Strength Triathlon, which was held last Saturday (22 May 2010) in Singleton NSW. I purchased some powerlifting suits, weightlifting shoes, and registered with Powerlifting Australia.

With the help from Pete at A.C.T Barbell I started a 7-week training program to help me prepare for the competition. With only a short time to get prepared, and it being my first powerlifting competition, my focus was on simply getting some competition experience under my belt.

I planned on competing in the 48kg – 52kg weight class, but unfortunately when I weighed in on the day I was 52.6kg, which pushed me up into the 56kg weight class. Not that it mattered as I was only using the competition as practice.

There was 30 competitors on the day, but only 5 of these were women (as you can imagine, powerlifting is a male dominated sport). It was a great competition and it gave me the opportunity to talk with some seasoned professionals – a couple of which, have been powerlifting for over 40 years!

Below is some video footage of my best lifts on the day:

87.5kg Squat

50kg Bench Press

92.5kg Deadlift

I enjoyed the competition and sharing the experience with the other Canberra competitors – Mel, Jamie and Pete, and the support crew of Clare and Sal. I walked away with a medal and some helpful tips.

I am now focusing on the next competition in 4-weeks time, where I will get some more experience and hopefully some bigger lifts!

Tags: powerlifting