powerlifting expectations (lil help)

[BillLumbergRKC]

Had been training deadlift, but I just started training the other two for a raw meet in August.

My current numbers:

Squat 305
Bench 240
Deadlift 405

I am at about 170lbs right now, but planning on allowing some bodyweight gain and lifting in the 181 class (or is it 183 now?)

[BillLumbergRKC]

!!!! left out the question! what would be reasonable goals to reach by the first week in august?

[Steve B.]

Hard to say Bill.
Were all individuals and progress at different rates and some lifts will progress faster than others.
Traditionally the DL and squat will increase faster than the BP.
You have about eight weeks,no doubt your lifts will increase by then.
Some advice is study the rules of the org.your competing in,or better yet find some experienced competitive powerlifters in your area that may be able to look at you and check your lifts.
Also posting a video here of your lifts could help with some RKC's being powerlifters also.
Nothing worse than getting red lighted for a small technicality when the lift was easy.
The weight class is 181 in the major PL orgs.A small weight gain will certainly help maybe 6-8 pounds in your case.Good luck to you.

[bwwm]

If PL'ing is what you want to do, then keep your expectations reasonable for your abilities. Don't worry about what you think others might expect of you to be able to accomplish in August. Look at your training logs, and figure out how much per month you've been able to add in recent months. That will be your best guide. Look at your first meet as an educational experience, do your best, and go from there. For a 170lb individual, you already have some pretty good numbers.

[Boris Bachmann]

Like Steve said, it really is hard to say Bill. Depending on when in August the meet is, you can string together 2-4 three week solid pushes with a nice week back-off between each and a taper. Should be time to be strong and ready as long as you don't get greedy.

[faizalenu]

Any reason for not competing in the 165lb class?

[KB/KM]

Bill--

Dr. Hartle will be out here in June. Remember he was a nationally ranked PL. He is teaching his workshop on Sunday. I can check and see if he would have time to meet n Friday late afternoon or evening if your interested.

[GoTuNk]

I just wanna say that you should focus on your long term picture. Don't make the mistake I did of bulking 8 pounds in a month on a powerlifting routine (low volume) and getting a ton of fat which is a pain somewhere to get rid off. I've been doing powerlifting for a year now, weight almost the same (168,5 pounds) as you but will be cutting weight to 163 (which is quite easy once you do it a few times). I shouldn't have to go trough that and could focus on building more muscle if I hadn't done that mistake almost 10 months ago.

Guess my point is focus on your technique and dont do anything you might regret for a few pounds now on your lifts now. Also get PTTP Professional, tons of useful information. Smolov and Bench Press technique are must reads. I'm having my 3rd meeting this weekend, will post the results here, since DD and pavel helped me find (and love) powerlifting.

[BillLumbergRKC]

I would be more competitive at 165 NOW. However, i'm not looking to win my first meet, just to get one under my belt. I'll win a couple years down the road So, i'm thinking that long term, i'll be a be a better lifter at 181 or even 198 cause i'm 5'10"-11". In fact when I met Pavel, I was more into the O lifts and he gave me this advice, (pf) "you have crappy levers for the o-lifts, but you'd be a good PLer at about 240lbs." There's some truth to Charlie Francis' "if it looks right, it flies right."

[BillLumbergRKC]

thank you very much for the advice. I'll keep the board posted on my progress. Right now I probably need less typing and more squatting.