I’ve been a part of the powerlifting community for a long while now and I’ve been watching powerlifting meets online and live in person. One thing I’ve noticed that a lot of powerliftters miss a lot of lifts on competition day and even worse, some powerlifters “bomb out”. Why is it that they miss lifts? A lot of them make excuses like “I wasn’t feeling it” and no it’s not that at all. I think one of the big reasons that powerlifters miss lifts is ’cause they don’t choose their attempts wisely.

Why is it that a lot of powerlifters lift a successful 1st attempt on a lift on meet day but they miss their 2nd and third attempts? I think it’s because their 1st attempt was way too heavy. They start off too heavy. The same reason they miss their third attempt when they got a successful 1st and second ’cause their 1st and 2nd attempts were a bit heavy. They don’t choose their attempts wisely at all.

Many powerlifters egos are so huge and they won’t admit that. Many think they’re gonna go into meet day smashing new PR’s when they ended up missing lifts whether they plan to smash new pr’s on either their 2nd or 3rd. They end up missing either one.

Yeah, powerlifting maybe all about lifting the most weight as possible but it doesn’t have to be. There is absolutely nothing wrong with going into a powerlifting competition and lifting the weights that you feel most comfortable and know you’re going to hit successfully. It should be all about building up the score total and winning awards. I would rather go for a full 9 for 9… get 3 white lights on everything. That’s the kind of powerlifter I prefer to be. Be more worried about building up my score instead of hitting new PR’s on the platform hoping to make either 3rd, 2nd and even 1st place in my weight class. I’m hoping to make 1st place in my weight class someday at a powerlifting meet and I haven’t achieved that goal yet but I want to. That’s why I can’t miss any lifting attempts at a meet and I don’t like missing lifts on a meet.

I’ve done only three powerlifting meets so far, just small local meets and out of those three meets I’ve done… I’ve only missed one lift which was the 300 lb. deadlift. That’s because I blame it on myself and went too heavy on my 1st and 2nd attempts which I shouldn’t have done that. If you want to do a successful 3rd attempt lift, saving some in the tank is key. Leaving some gas in for the lift, ya know?

Another problem why powerlifters miss lifts at meets is that I see many powerlifters rushing their setups. Ya know, just walking up to the bar and rushing to pick it up. Many powerlifters would just walk to the bar quickly doing their usual rituals and act like tough guys before they make the lift. You know when you see powerlifters act like tough guys, squeezing their hands into fists, clenching their teeth… growling or screaming before they lift…. blah blah blah, ya get the deal ya know??? In my opinion, I think doing all that is bad. Just a waste of energy and that’s why they miss lifts ’cause they get too excited and too fired up. I understand it’s their way of “attacking” the bar and part of getting “aroused” but I think they need to take their time and slow down. On competition day, they give you one minute for you to get ready before you make your attempt… that’s plenty of time even if it may not seem like it so don’t rush your setup. I like to take my time with my setups during big three lifts ’cause I need to focus and get in the zone.

I also have a problem of “missing lifts” at the gym during training sessions and I read an interesting article about that the other day. It’s not even good to miss lifts during training either. I remember the article saying treat every rep as if it’s your 1 rep max which is a good idea and the article said if you don’t want to miss lifts, train ’til “technical failure” which is also a cool idea.

Powerlifting doesn’t always have to be about lifting the most weight possible… just lift the ones you can do. I think it’s better to do it that way so my scores can count and my total can build up. It’s completely okay to leave your ego at the door. I am into this to get strong and be the best that I can be.

Will I use upcoming powerlifting meets to set new PR’s as my third attempt? Probably not, I don’t know. I would rather set new pr’s in the gym during training ’cause I need to know my 1 rep maxes so I can decide what my 3 attempts are gonna be for the big three lifts. I would much rather have all my scores count instead of missing 1 or 2.

I’m about to start doing meets for the USAPL very soon and I want to do them smart and be careful. One day I’ll become a world record breaking champ and if I want to get there, I got to train smart and I will.

Kev