Why You Need to Compete…Now

No matter how you like to classify yourself, unless you're competing, you are NOT a powerlifter.

For that matter, I take the same view with strongman, Olympic lifting, arm-wrestling, and any other sport you’d like to throw out there. On elitefts™, we talk a lot about “walking the walk,” and until you’ve walked your ass out onto the platform in front of a crowd and judges, you haven’t yet earned the right to classify yourself with those who have.

This may sound like somewhat of an extreme point of view, but I contend that it’s really not.

Competition is an essential component of all sports. Calling yourself a “powerlifter” without at least one meet under your belt would be like referring to myself as a football player without ever having been on a team. I can run as many drills as I want, but there's a difference between being trained like an athlete, and actually being one.

Obviously I’m biased on this view…but the focus of this piece is not to judge those who haven’t yet competed…it’s to convince you to take the plunge. Seriously, if you take lifting weights even the slightest bit seriously, but don’t compete, what the f--k are you waiting for?

Still need convincing? OK, here goes…

Competition = Improved Performance

Competition is a much greater CNS stimulus than training is. Learn to harness it, and you will set yourself up to exceed your best day in the gym by a considerable margin, just by stepping onto the platform. The trick here, is that it can take time to learn to control the rush of energy and emotion that typically accompanies hearing your name, along with “bar is loaded.”

This is why I recommend lifters compete often when they're starting out. The more times you go through it, the better you’ll be using the adrenalin rush to your benefit.

Did you ever wonder why most pros have higher numbers in competition than they do in training? Now you know.

Competition = True Personal Records

 No matter how hard you think you’ve worked in the gym, the meet will tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt whether you really put the work in, or you were just kidding yourself for the last 16 weeks. Your friends might tell you that your squats were “right there” but the judges will tell you the truth.

Whenever we plan a training cycle, we base our training around numbers we’ve hit in competition, and nowhere else. Otherwise, we run the possibility of planning our training around lifts that really weren’t performed to the necessary standard.

By competing now, you are setting yourself up for more productive training cycles in the future.

Competition = Structure

One of the major issues novice powerlifters struggle with is how to structure their training, not just on paper, but in practice. What I mean by that is anyone can get through a program by following sets and reps on a page. But to reach your absolute potential, you’ll need to know when and how to go “off script.” Quite often, this is a question of context, and there’s no better source of context than a meet date.

For example: Let’s say you show up for a bench session, but your shoulders and elbows have seen better days. Do you pop a handful of Advil and “nut up,” or do you call an audible and give yourself a break, by either scraping the session or at least backing off?

Well, if you’re four weeks out from a meet, and this is an important session (and assuming you’re not actually injured), you’re probably better off going for it, knowing that you’ll be deloading very soon. If you’re 16 weeks out, you better back-off for now, so you’ll be healthier and better able to hit it hard when it’s crunch time.

On the other end of the spectrum, let’s say you’re feeling great, and you smash a huge training PR, and you know you’ve got another in the tank. Do you go for it?

Again, it depends on where you are in the meet cycle. If you’re nowhere close to the meet, sure, go for it. If you’re four weeks out, you’re probably better off shutting it down because you’re already on track to PR at the meet. Plus, the risk of a miss (or worse, an injury) is of greater concern when it’s getting down to the wire.

In either case, without a meet to take into consideration, it’s much tougher to make the right call. Incidentally, in my experience, most non-competitive lifters will make the mistake of going all-out too often, leading to stagnation and injury.

Competitive lifters, on the other hand, tend to make much more progress year in and year out, because they not only know what they are doing, but why they are doing it. Elite and pro lifters know when to toe the line, and when to take a step back.

Competition = Knowledge

The most informative training discussions you’ll ever be involved in don’t happen on internet message boards. For that matter, they don’t even happen in seminars. The greatest training discussions I’ve ever had happened at meets, usually over dinner or at the hotel bar.

Meets are like mini-vacations to powerlifters. We spend most of our time in the real world, interacting with people we have nothing in common with. Meets are among the few opportunities where we get to interact with other lifters (outside of our own band of misfits at the gym). It usually isn’t long before the conversation turns to training.

Think about it, if you get 50 or so experienced lifters staying in one hotel, you’re likely to have 500-1000 years of combined training experience, all under one roof. And all it takes to tap into this wealth of information is to ask.

Some of the most helpful tips I’ve learned in the sport came from casual conversations with other lifters. If you’re not going to meets, you’re missing out on some of the best training advice you’ll ever get.

Competition = Fun

By far, the most important reason to compete is because it’s a blast. Thinking back, I don’t think I ever saw a lifter get through their first meet who didn’t feel like going home, getting a good night’s sleep, and doing it all over again the next day. And I don’t just mean the lifters that do really well either. As funny as it may sound, sometimes the lifters that do poorly the first time, wind up being the most motivated to come back.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… if you enjoy lifting weights at all and you’re not competing in some form or another, you are missing out on the most fun you’ll ever have sober.

I’d really like to be able to describe how it feels to nail a big PR in competition, but there are really no words.

You’ll just have to find out for yourself.