Thread: 1st meet advice

Quote: Originally Posted by Andre518 Today I tested the water with 275 and 300, 275 went up fine and 300 was a little heavy but it was clean. What advice would you guys give on the situation. Don't be "testing the waters" since it's not going to help you at the meet, but rest will. I almost always have a horrible bench session a week or two before the meet, but at all 6 of the meets of competed in, I've set...

This weekend will be my 1st meet and I'm a little up in the air about my bench. Two weeks ago I was feeling really good I was thinking of going 290-300lbs for my bench opener then then go 315 2nd and around 230-240 for my third. But last Friday I had a really bad bench day at 295 my butt kept coming off the bench and everything felt heavy so I was thinking of dialing back some maybe 275 opener 300 2nd and 330 3rd I worried that I will hit...

2 things... 1...you should NEVER care about what your opening with. Your opener is to get you into the meet, and nothing more. If its your first meet, you should probably open even lighter because lifting in a meet is NOTHING like lifting in the gym. Nerves, the crowd, listening to the commands, everything can and will get to you. 2..you should go into a meet confident in your training, and your lifts. So you had one bad bench day...big...

Dude, for your first meet you have WAY too much thought going into it. You're supposed to HAVE FUN. What number do you ABSOLUTELY want to hit? 315? Then open 285. Go to 315 on your second. This way, if something goes wrong (for example you forget to hold it at the top and/or forget to wait for the press call) you can take again on the 3rd. If you do hit it, you can go for broke on your 3rd and take a shot at 330/340. Stop worrying and...

"My biggest goal now is not bombing out of my first meet" In that case open light. Meet jitters can cause an adrenaline dump. That dump can make you feel weak and a little unstable under the bar. It happens alot with new lifters, but even established lifters have to deal with it once-in-awhile at the bigger meets. It's not where you start, it's where you finish.

I tell all of our lifters this, open with a weight light enough you can do if you got kicked in balls right before.

You can do a search and find a lot of really good information on this. We've covered it a few times

An opener should be something you can get 2-3x times even on a bad day. The 2nd lift you should go for it, in that you know 90% you could get it. Then 3rd lift is the bonus where you try something you never did before or what REALISTICALLY you could do that day on how you feel. Dont worry, I went through the same thing man! I had a bad workout 2 weeks before my meet and even slightly injured myself even! I could only deadlift 585 lbs for one!...