Suggested goals for friendly comp

[Lordmuppet]

Hi Guys,

was hoping people could be so kind as to take a second to give me some suggested goals for a friendly powerlifting meet I'm having with some friends (non vegan unfortunately, i don't have enough vegan lifting friends here for something like MVS ).

Anyway the meet is in 8 weeks. We will be using basically the same rules as the vegan strength table (most important qual is that bench is touch and go).

Here are my stats in kilos

Bodyweight 65.9
ORM dead 130 set about a month ago after full work sets of squat and deads (lips turned blue apparently)
ORM bench 74.8 set about three months ago on a dedicated Bench ORM day
ORM Normal squat 106.5 set about three months ago on a dedicated ORM squat day

while those were set three months ago i should emphasis that I've been on holiday for a month and while i was training properly at Edinburgh Uni, I wasn't on my usual diet.

Current Work Set

Box Squat 3x5 84.9
Deadlift: 106.8 1x5
Bench almost 3x5 at 59.09 with crappy form (failed three times so going to do a big deload now)

thanks!

hopefully i will bring back bragging rights, at least on the wilks deadlift anyway where I think I'm quite ahead of the other guys there.

[Lordmuppet]

correction bench and squat were set about 6 weeks ago not three months ago

[JP]

will you have powerlifting style three attempts?

That makes the strategies a bit more interesting than just thinking about the maximum lift you can hope for for the day

With three attempts you have to start thinking about confident and easy openers, high enough second attempts so you get a better total, and even better third attempts, possibly PB attempts and so on. But its all about the total.

[Lordmuppet]

None of us have been to a powerlifting event before so we aren't familiar with the set up (i was about to look it up in the next few days). I was thinking of mimicking the basic structure of one but with very permissible rules (like i said like the vegan strength table rules).

So yeah we'll probably do what you are talking about if that's how they are normally done. So your saying each person gets three lifts per event which you can use on three different weights or the same weight (if you fail twice on it) right?

[JP]

yeah you basically first choose your opening lift, thats the first lift on the platform after finishing your warm ups.

Then after that lift you would go to the official to tell them what your next attempt will be, and so on.

You can only go upwards. If you fail you can take the weight again but cant go down on the weight.

Round robin style, so each lifter takes the turn, in the order of the amount lifted, then back down again to the smallest etc.

its a different thing how much you want to mimic this in a friendly meetup though

Like usually it would be better to just do the lifts in order of squat, deadlift, bench so you dont have to warm up again for the deadlift move as much as you would after benching.

[Lordmuppet]

okay i think i understand, so in other words you are only allowed three fails on the one weight before you have to stop, right?

I can look it up anyway

so suggested goals?

edited to add: yeah squat, deadlift, bench sounds like a good order

[baldy]

This hasn't happened yet hey?

I would suggest these for your three lifts. Or at least a rough plan, with nice confident first lift then checky pb for 3rd lift.
Squat: 90kg, 100kg, 110kg
Bench: 60kg, 67.5kg, 75kg
DL: 110kg, 122.5kg, 135kg

[Talyn]

In my very limited PL comp experience, the only thing I would suggest to you is to make the opening squat something very, very, comfortable. Even too light. That first squat is when you will be the most nervous so doing something really light that you can make easy is good for your confidence, after that you should be totally fine.

[baldy]

In my very limited PL comp experience, the only thing I would suggest to you is to make the opening squat something very, very, comfortable. Even too light. That first squat is when you will be the most nervous so doing something really light that you can make easy is good for your confidence, after that you should be totally fine.

You should listen to Talyn, because he has actually done a comp.

[Talyn]

okay i think i understand, so in other words you are only allowed three fails on the one weight before you have to stop, right?

No, generally if it is a properly run comp you will get three attempts, period. So it pays to hit a number that is not overly optimistic in your first/second lifts, so at least you have some runs on the board. Then you can play around / push barriers on the third attempt, and if you fail, who cares. I have seen guys choose an opening lift that is beyond them, and bomb three lifts in a row (in IPF comps you can't decrease the weight if you fail).

[baldy]

In my very limited PL comp experience, the only thing I would suggest to you is to make the opening squat something very, very, comfortable. Even too light. That first squat is when you will be the most nervous so doing something really light that you can make easy is good for your confidence, after that you should be totally fine.

If you cant beat your friends in the comp, you can just recalculate the scores using wilks.

[Talyn]

If you cant beat your friends in the comp, you can just recalculate the scores using wilks.

[Lordmuppet]

Thanks guys! Yeah that all makes sense to have the third lift be the only cheeky one. I might readjust numbers based on how training numbers are just before it, given how well training has been going on squat and deadlift.

Recently got 111kg on the deadlift for one set of five reps and that will probably go up so I figure i should be able to smash past the old ORM of 130kg

As for the squat. Got in three sets of five at 90.9kg on the box squat before I realized the sheer idiocy of box squatting with what is (for me) a very heavy load. If I lose control on the way down with that, my spine is gone. Just switching back to regular squats now. With the old ORM at 106 i figure i should be able to smash that too.

Of course there isn't really any rule for translating sets into ORMs is there. In any case, though, the sets are significantly heavier than they were when the ORMs were originally set.

So yeah i'll probably base the goals on two/three things

1) base numbers on last week of training before meet and 2) use either baldy's numbers for third or a bit higher if training has gone really well.
2) will have the first two be comfortable as suggested. Probably just use the first two numbers baldy suggests.

Someone recently introduced me to the ideal of needle goals or something. The idea is your goals are three numbers not one. Bare minimum, good, excellent.

Oh and Baldy it's not on till the 11th of December

Also, funny you ask but the organiser (which *ahem* might be me) insisted on also having a table ranked by wilks numbers

[Lordmuppet]

okay machine just ate a bunch of my last attempt at posting here but probably for the best. Just a lot of complaining about how it was a fiasco (albeit a fun one). In case anyone were to stumble upon this, it's probably best for an easy life to keep my opinions to myself anyway. Short version: serious lessons learned about how to run a friendly comp.

Took the advice of starting off light (we all did)

I was very happy with my performance given it was very sleep deprived one (not the plan but just couldn't sleep)

Squat 106.5kg (pass), 120.2kg (pass), 124.7kg (failed to get out of the super deep hole i dug for myself) only a few kilos under personal record so i was super happy.

Deadlift 102kg (pass), 138.3kg (pass), 147.4kg (pass), 151.9kg (pass and then PR by 9 kilos!). Fell just 5 kilos or so short of the overall deadlift crown (which i matched in training a week or two later) which is as much an embarrassment to the heavier guys as it is a good thing for me. Hopefully they can get it together for next year and put me in my place!

Bench: my bench sucks so the less said the better. 70kg (pass), 74.8kg (pass) and then 79.3 (failed). Like squat just a few kilos below my bench PR so i was happy especially since it was super late in the day at this point.

thanks for all your advice!

edited to add: sleep deprived AND food deprived given the state of the kitchen in question (not mine)

[JP]

sounds like a solid day mate