After a couple years of casually strength training I decided that I would compete in a powerlifting competition. There was one held on October 22nd and I signed up for it. Having heard about the even much earlier in the year, I wasn’t too sure if I would compete or not but when a spot opened up about 2 weeks before the competition I decided to jump on it.

I’m glad that I did because it was a really great time! A friend of mine and regular to the competitive scene, Simon, helped me get prepared in such short notice. First thing I had to do was lose about 5lbs to fit in to the 83kg weight class (~183lbs) and find out where my calculated max lifts will be.

During those 2 weeks I trained harder than I ever have to make sure I was ready and knew what kinds of weights I would be lifting. Unfortunately I had a hard time dropping down to the 83kg weight class so the day before the competition I had to really try and drop water weight. The reason I wanted to fit in the 83kg weight class so bad was because the next weight class was 93kg and I didn’t want to compete with guys almost 20lbs heavier than me.

All my hard work paid off and at the weigh in for the competition I managed to be 82.2kg! Right on target. After hydrating and warming up the competition began. First was squat, then bench, then finally deadlift. It was a very long day and I was absolutely exhausted but I managed to squat 303lbs on my 3rd attempt, benchpress 187lbs on my third attempt and deadlift 374lbs on my third attempt. These were all personal records for me and I placed 3rd in my weight class.

I have some videos of the competition on my instagram page: @stuffwithevan