went to a powerlift meet..........

[luke.w]

on saturday, I had talked to Dan over the phone friday, and he told me about a meet being held at the gym that he had just discovered a few months ago, this gym is only 20mins from my house.

We arrived in the middle of the squats, this was a raw and geared meet AAU?????......AAsomething, so we saw some raw squats and some full geared squats, a chick was gunning for world records, saw some 600+ squats that were high, some were whites, some were reds.......seemed like some luck of the judging for some.
I think I see the reasons for some who do the geared lifting, however I still don't feel any differant about it, and I didn't see any justice for the whole protection argument, from what I saw, the blood circulation being cut off at the joints, the imediate purple color turning of the skin, and the unevenness of the skin plopping out from where this gear is heavily tight, looks like it crushes tendons or whatever inside you............these lifters looked beat-up more from the gear, than lifting...........I don't know what to call it, ballsy, gutsy, for foolish........I'm looking towards the ladder, I just looked at Dan said "not cool".

Dan had to leave before the benching so it was just me, I saw some nice raw benching, upper 300's, and mid-400's (no wrist wraps) only saw one attempt at 500 "geared" "bombed" (he got off the bench and said "it's this damn shirt").

the best lifts of the day was a "geezer" (looked to be 60) nail a 415lb conventinal deadlift.......raw, no belt (just to see what can be done) and a 9-10year kid lift raw also, hopefully that kid won't get caught up in some of that other stuff, this is why I am the way I am about this crap, this kid sees it all around him, it's the influence, strength is strength thats all the protection one needs.

didn't see anyone go for a 600lb dead, the highest was I believe 575 or something.

they had a curl contest after that, but I didn't stick around for that.

[Firehawk]

Thanks for your opinions on the meet.

I am not too familiar with the Amateur Athletic Union. I just know of the AWPC, the WPO, the APF/AAPF...etc.

Sometimes the judges nobody can tell what they are looking at. At the WPO, there were 3 guys who attempted a 1212lb squat. 2 of the 3 were deep so it looked like, but they were called for depth. Someone had a snapshot of the guy in the hole which clearely looked good...but oh well. The judging was extremely strict(and off). The benching judging was also very strict. Judging is part of it though, just like in any sport.

The guy's shirt could have torn, could have not been on evenly, maybe not given enough shirt or even too much...there's technique involved and knowledge of using the equipment.

The meet was probably a drug tested one.

A girl from my gym is going for a world record this coming weekend in the AWPC worlds...she's opening with a 430 squat at 148 lbs. Drug free. This past weekend also, one of the guys from my gym hit an 830 bench to take the gym record over (it was 821).

[luke.w]

the judges seemed to be pretty damn strict on the motions of the lifts, they explained very well what would be red, we missed the squat rules though, just the depth seemed fishy.

Can't remeber but I think the chick did nail some records I think squat, and I dont't recall the weight? 400-500ish? atempted a bench record in the mid-high 200's, and deadlift near the 400mark, missed.

[Firehawk]

What was her weight?