Adjusting Expectations for Meet Day: A Comprehensive Guide

The sport of powerlifting = who has the highest aggregate total after three attempts each on the squat, the bench press, and the deadlift.

Seems simple, yes, but in practice I have seen people mess this up time and time again at powerlifting meets, almost at a highly predictable rate.

You see, most people going into a meet wanting to hit massive personal records on all lifts and this is a good goal but the total falls to the wayside in favor of each individual lift. You may be thinking, but Erik, if I set a personal record on every lift, won’t that increase my total tenfold? Yes, but take a step back and objectively look at how possible that is for you.

Much like any other sport, your performance is dependent on variables. These variables range from tangible things such as equipment but also branch off into things such as mindset and confidence level. I am willing to wager most people are not checking off the variables that are in their control. Those include nutrition, rest/sleep/recovery, mindset into training, staying “in the pocket” and following the program, and a host of other things that are quite literally in our control as athletes.

For some, it may be entirely possible that you can and will set personal records on every lift, but if it isn’t, why are we forcing what is not there?

Enter: adjusting expectations for the day.

The following will be a case study on 2 lifters, Lifter A and Lifter B, who are in the same weight class with the same training total. You will see how Lifter A comes out with a better performance than Lifter B despite being the same strength level on paper.

Lifter A trains at home and does not have access to many accessory movements such as dumbbells, pull up bars, leg presses, etc… but he/she does have a full set of competition standard calibrated plates, a competition standard bar, a combo rack that is competition grade, and is aligning his/her heaviest session of the week with the day he/she competes to get accurate data on how his/her session should go on competition day with quantifiable data. Lifter A’s training has been going okay, he/she has been lagging on the bench press but the squat and deadlift are going phenomenal. 10 days out from the meet, Lifter A pulls a 7.5kg personal record on deadlift weighing 1kg above their weight class and on full competition equipment. Although he/she was happy with it, he/she realizes that is was very difficult and may be something that they are not confident in attempting for their goals of going 9/9 and maximizing their meet total.

Lifter B trains at a commercial gym that is not suited for powerlifting. Meaning, you can train each individual lift no problem but some things arise that are out of their control. The gym is outfitted with thick bumper plates, non-competition standard bars, and this lifter does not train to competition standard. Many benches are touch and go, the deadlifts are with straps, and the squats are barely parallel. This lifter also trains each lift on a separate day of the week in their prep and does not lift at all on their planned day of competition. Lifter B’s training is going insane, they are PRing every week and are feeling good. 10 days out, Lifter B pulls a 15kg PR on deadlift with straps, bumper plates, and 5kg over their class. Although it was difficult, Lifter B plans to attempt 5kg more than this at the competition and will not be told otherwise.

The meet plays out between the two, Lifter A weighs in comfortably below the class while Lifter B is just barely scraping under after water cutting, manipulating food volume, using a hot bath, and cutting carbohydrates 4 days out.

Lifter A decides they want the highest total they can achieve while going 9/9, they undershoot a bit on their 3rd attempt squat but they are fresh for bench and more importantly deadlift.

Lifter B grinds out an all time PR squat by the skin of their teeth, it was a truly maximal effort and if an extra feather was on the bar, they would have missed it. Lifter B is in the lead.

Lifter A has momentum and cruises through bench press with a 2.5kg PR because the pauses were longer than what they trained with so they just wanted to secure a PR.

Lifter B does not see this as an issue. They open up very heavy for them, 92.5kg (204lbs), make the attempt, then jump to an arbitrary milestone weight on their 2nd, 102.5kg (close to 225lbs) that is over their best in training. They miss it very close at lockout, retake it, and miss again not-even close. Lifter B has now lost out on a potential 10kg (22lbs) to their total.

Despite all of this, Lifter A and Lifter B are tied due to the difference in 3rd attempt squats. Remember, Lifter A hit a third that was pretty easy and Lifter B hit a third that was a true maximum effort lift. Lifter A has momentum from going 3/3 on squat, 3/3 on bench. Lifter B has no momentum after going 1/3 on bench press.

Lifter A opens up conservative because they feel a bit gassed but their opener is very easy. They jump to a meet PR on their second, but they have hit more than this in training and it goes smooth. On their third, they have the dilemma of going for an all-time PR, higher than they hit in training 10 days out, or they secure a 9/9 day and go 2.5kg lighter.

Lifter A decides for the latter and nails their 3rd attempt deadlift easily with 2.5kg-5kg to spare, effectively taking 2.5-5kg off their total because, in theory, they could have gone up and made it. You will see why this is not as big a penalty as you may think.

Lifter B, who has not taken a heavy single without straps in months, opens up aggressive, 5kg higher than Lifter A’s opener, and they get it although their grip is already slipping at the top. On their second attempt, Lifter B jumps to the weight they hit in training 10 days prior with straps and bumper plates, which happens to be 10kg heavier than their opener. Lifter B fails this attempt on grip. On their third, they are hit with the dilemma of re-taking the weight OR going up to possibly beat Lifter A.

Lifter B opts for the latter jumps an extra 7.5kg and misses the deadlift off the floor and can only break the bar 1 inch off the ground. Although Lifter B opened up 5kg heavier on the opening attempt than Lifter A, they effectively lost 17.5kg on their total + the extra 10kg from bench press, accumulating to a whopping 27.5kg (61lbs) potential total loss. Lifter B goes 5/9 on the day, does not leave with a PR total, which also means losing out on beating Lifter A despite being equal strength on paper.

Lifter A leaves going 9/9 with a PR bench press, deadlift, and total. They left 2.5-5kg on the table for squat, 2.5-5kg on the table for bench, and the same for deadlift. Although they went rather conservative, they only lost out on 7.5-15kg on their top end total (15-33lbs).

Lifter A prioritized going 9/9 and thinking total first and was realistic with their training numbers and had accurate data going into the meet.

Lifter B did not prioritize going 9/9, only cared about PRs, and did not take into account the weight cut, the bumper plates with whippy bars, and did not listen to their body on the day. They did not have accurate data on comp standard equipment and therefore everything at the meet itself felt significantly harder than it did in training.

So with all this laid out, you can see why it is CRUCIAL to be realistic with yourself and why it’s so important to scale expectations accordingly to your situation.

Someone reading this might be in Lifter B’s scenario and due to money, life, and other commitments, it is the best they can do. Does that mean they have to suffer the scenario Lifter B did? No and here’s how you can mitigate that:

• 1. Take as many variables as you can control and optimize them to the best you can. Training with comp bars and plates is out of the question, so why get worked up about that? You can still squat to depth, pause your bench presses, and deadlift your heavy sets strapless. This is an easy fix.

• 2. Organize your training so you are taking heavier lifts on the day you compete. If you establish a recovery curve that yields the best strength outcome on the day you compete, at worst, you will have consecutive weeks of data supporting day X is strong. Most meets are on Saturday, if that is usually your rest day, then that means on meet day you are now going very heavy on a day your body is primed to do nothing. Sounds rudimentary but in practice I have seen this is a game changer.

• 3. Realize that the bigger the cut, the bigger the risk for performance loss. If you choose to be heavy and perform a weight cut, you need to realize that if proper steps are not taken to re-hydrate and replenish, especially if you are a 2-hour weigh in athlete, it WILL effect your performance. Rehydrating and cutting is a very specific and meticulous process, it is very finicky especially when it comes to the execution process, something I can get into in future blog posts. If you are making a cut for a 2 hour weigh in that is over 5% bodyweight, simply adjust your attempts slightly lighter in accordance to how you feel UNLESS you have data supporting you will be fine.

• 4. Prioritize your performance and everything else will come to you organically. Here is a real-life scenario for you. My 4th meet, I felt as if I had a very good chance to win Best Overall Lifter at the competition. I was 8/8 going into my final deadlift and instead of taking a number I definitely had, I went for an arbitrary milestone weight (at the time) of 501lbs and missed it at the knee. I placed 2nd for Best Overall Lifter and did the math after that if I would have just gone with my planned number of 491lbs, I would have won. That was me focusing on others and not on me. Coincidentally, one year later I competed in my 5th meet and had no expectations on the day aside from leaving with as close to a 9/9 day as possible which I knew would blow away my meet PR total. After missing my 2nd attempt deadlift (which was 12lbs under my best in training) I could have gone up and pushed for my original planned heavy 3rd or, I could retake the weight and ensure an 8/9 day. Sure enough, I re-took it, it was very, very hard and I would have failed anything heavier, and I actually won Best Overall Lifter at this meet and I did not pay attention to anything other than what was in my control, which was making lifts. We as lifters can only control what we can control, we can’t control how others do and therefore in terms of what we need to prioritize on the day, making each individual lift needs to be at the forefront.

• 5. Do not be attached to training numbers if they are not accurate to comp standards. If you can pull 200kg with straps and bumper plates, that is fine but do not compare that to what you can do while being judged at a meet without straps and without bumper plates. If you ever get into a scenario where you can train consistently with comp equipment, then we can pull from training to accurately see where strength is really at. If you are naive and think that you can replicate training numbers from non-comp standard equipment (to a degree there are always exceptions) in a meet, I challenge you to try it and get back to me.

• 6. Lastly, have a goal, and keep the goal, the goal. A bit of a tongue-twister here, but it really reigns true. If your goal is to go 9/9 and maximize your total, keep that as the goal. Do not get into the meet and be like, “well I would like a 10lb PR squat too”, when you know there is a 20-30% chance you make the weight, which when you fail, disrupts what the original goal was. This one is the most egregious that I see at the local level, too many times people doing their first meet say they are just trying to get meet experience then in the throes of the competition get overzealous and go 6/9 because they overreached every 3rd attempt because they were all time PR attempts. IF YOU HAVE NEVER DONE A MEET, HITTING AN ALL TIME PR SHOULD BE THE LOWEST PRIORITY ON YOUR LIST FOR YOUR FIRST MEET. To me, this is the equivalent of never playing a basketball game and going out and expecting to score 60 points. Could it happen, sure, is it likely, I would say with 95% confidence most players do not score 60 points in their first ever game.

So in essence, the main takeaways I want people to get from this is to above all else, do not lie to yourself because you will be exposed when it’s time to perform. If you have a coach, take their input and and realize they are telling you things from an objective perspective and that’s it. They want you to succeed, you want you to succeed, so just scale your expectations for the day based on the variables YOU personally have to deal with, and that is all you can do.

As a disclaimer, this changes for higher level meets but more to come in future blog posts.

Take care,

Erik