So there were no records broken on my end for this meet, not even close. This meet was kind of a "reset" for me as I decided to change some things that drastically affected my strength training. I knew going in that my lifts would not be what they were -even at my last "prep meet"- I was curious to see how much they would be affected. The meet itself was fantastic, each flight was smaller, roughly 15-20 lifters per flight. All the lifters in my flight were experienced so there was no "waiting" on anybody, the spotters had the weights changed fast and the lifters were ready prior to the weights being loaded. I like this pace since I cannot stand waiting forever between lift attempts, then again I am not going for a world record.

Squats during warm up felt fine, on the platform though I am not sure what happened but my body felt like a wet towel in the hole with my opener, I collapsed, the spotters were right on me to pick me up with no chance of straining or injury, they were on point all day. My second attempt I bitched out and cut it high. The third attempt I put up a prayer, I was in my head and on the verge of bombing out of my first meet with a weight I have been under more than 10 times in the past 2 years. The look on my face after racking it and waiting for the announcer to exclaim it was good or not is priceless, seriously its funny, pause the video. They gave it to me and this did not turn into an expensive squat session flying out here.

Bench went as well as I could have hoped, my opener actually moved like it should. My second attempt I got loose in my lats and could not finish the lift, I started the never ending battle in my head. I was prepared to only go 3 for 9 at this point with how I was feeling. My third attempt came around and I was able to get my planned "second attempt" number of 370, I was, however, given the fastest press command of my life which helped me a lot.

By the time deadlifts came around I still was not in the correct mindset of, "have fun", which is something I need to work on in training and my next meet. I hit my opener, slower than I would have liked but it still came up. Re-watching the video my, I let my hips rise and did not have my lats set very well, which I yell at everyone about. I knew my second attempt would be interesting if I did not correct these two things. Sure enough, I was still out of position and my second took a lot of work to get through but I completed the lift. After letting the weight hit the floor and seeing 3 whites I decided the risk was greater than the reward at this point and passed on my last attempt.

All in all the experience was great and I learned a lot of things as a lifter. My training will have to adjust the next cycle and I am ready to take a step away from the barbell for a bit and work on putting on some much-needed size. I will hope in with the powerlifting crew at my facility and start training with a group again which is exciting.