So why did I miss the 300 lb. deadlift as my third attempt at Albany Strength last Saturday? I’ve been trying to figure out on what the cause was. Earlier today at the gym was back day which means it was deadlifting day. I did a little deadlifting. Mostly heavier sets and low reps. When I started my deadlift session, I opened my set with a 275 lb. single and it felt kind of heavy so I only did one rep. I’m like, “uh oh, did I lose a little bit of deadlift strength?” Yes, I did I guess. Why did I lose a little bit of deadlift strength? Was it because I stopped deadlifting heavy a bit too early before meet day? Yes, I think that’s definitely it. I stopped heavy deadlifting 3 weeks out of the meet. The week after that I lifted everything super light all week, the next week after that I took a 5 day break from the gym. I guess I lost a little bit of muscle and strength ’cause of that.

Another reason I missed the 300 lb. deadlift is that I may have opened a bit too heavy. My opener on meet day for deadlift was a big 285 lbs. Maybe I should have opened a lot lighter than that, ya know?  If I opened a lot lighter then I definitely would have smashed the 300 lb. deadlift with no problem.

So lessons learned, y’all. Next time I do a powerlifting meet, I won’t stop deadlifting heavy too early. Usually what a lot of powerlifters would do is that they’ll practice their openers one-week out of the meet and that’s it. Sounds like a good idea. Opening attempts should be real easy, something you could do for a triple.

I picked 285 as my opening attempt ’cause it always felt easy to me but when it came to meet day, it felt freakin’ heavy, WOW. That’s when I began to think I may have lost a little bit of deadlift strength ’cause I stopped deadlifting heavy too early. Well, never again. That’s what powerlifting is all about, ya know? It’s a learning experience. You’re going to make a lot of mistakes in powerlifting so you just have to learn from them and never make them again.

I didn’t lose a lot of deadlifting strength, just a little bit but I’ll get it back, though. Sometime in the future, I hope to start doing 300 lbs. for reps but I’ll get there the more I stay consistent with this and I will.

At Albany Strength gym, there’s gonna be another powerlifting meet in August which is just gonna be push & pull. It’s just gonna be bench and deadlift and no squat. I have plenty of time to really bring up my bench and deadlift numbers before the push & pull meet in August. For this meet, I’m hoping to be up to 200 lbs. bench and hope to be past 300 lbs. deadlift before then. I really want to bring my numbers up for the next one. That’s what powerlifting is all about, ya know? You always want to bring your numbers up for every meet you do.

I want to become a great powerlifter someday. Become great where you get recognized for it. I feel I already am doing pretty damn good but it’s only the beginning. Someday I would love to sign up for the USAPL so I can start doing the bigger meets. My dream one day is hopefully compete at the Arnold Festival and maybe compete at the Animal Cage. The Animal Cage  is way cool but I’m going to wait to hit the really huge weights first before I think about that. 

I really love powerlifting. It’s become a huge obsession and a new passion of mine.

Kev