“The bar is loaded, Kedric Kwan please make your way to the platform.”

Those were the words that filled the air as I made my way and stood right in front of the squat rack. I placed my hands on the bar, wrapping my fingers around it firmly followed by setting it on upper back. The rest is history.

That was a short excerpt from my first Powerlifting meet. Right now, I might just be able to tell everyone I’m a Powerlifting after competing in my first meet.

Speaking about competitions, I’ve been away from the competitive scene for a very long time. Being a high school athlete who played multiple sports, shying away from competition might just have caused a decline in my testosterone levels. However this meet helped restored and amplified my testosterone to new heights so I can be rest assured that my manhood will last through generations.

The meet took place on the 6th Of July in the neighbouring country, Singapore. So I took a flight, all the way just for the competition. Flying in from another country to compete? Now tell me how that doesn’t make you feel like a star athlete and increases your T- levels by 100%.

You might already be bored with all the details I’m sharing, after all you are not here to read the writings from my pink diary. You are here to find out how much I lifted and to see videos of me in a crotch magnifying suit. If you are, you are in luck, because this is the purpose of this post. But before I go into the juicy details, let me first share with you my personal targets for this meet.

Prior to this meet, I wasn’t in any way a freakishly strong creature; neither am I one right now. However, I knew that Powerlifting definitely was something I wanted to experience therefore I signed up when I heard of this opportunity.

Here are my before best numbers on my 3 lifts before the meet.

Bench: 95kg

Squat: 128kg

Deadlift: 165kg

Looking to increase my numbers on my lifts, I sought out the help of my brother from another mother, Jordan Syatt. Jordan is not only an extremely smart and strong dude, but is also a competitive Powerlifter, so when I needed a coach, he fit the description perfectly well.

P/S:  Jordan was phenomenal in guiding me for my first meet. Not only was the programming outstanding, the skype session we had prior to the meet really helped me. If you are looking for a good coach, I highly suggest Jordan. Tell him that I sent you and I’m sure you will be taken care of.

To cut the long story short, I went through immense training and torture that helped me become stronger, and prepared me to lift some heavy weights.

So now let the videos do the talking.

Squat

1st Attempt of 128kg.

No lift because I stood too close to the rack and the bar scrapped the rack on the way up. However, I didn’t know that the fault was because of the bar touching the rack and thought it was because I failed to hit the appropriate depth. I decided to stick with the same weight for the 2nd attempt.

2nd attempt of 128kg

Easy.

3rd attempt of 137kg.

A personal best of 9kg, I felt that I had more in me and could have hit at least an easy 140kg.

Bench Press

1st attempt of 95kg.

No lift because I didn’t wait for the command to start before lowering the bar. Felt stupid after that.

2nd attempt of 97kg.

The pause at the bottom really smoked me. No lift as you shown in the video.

3rd attempt of 97kg.

Was crazy happy after I made this lift, took awhile to grind and lock out. If I failed this lift, I would have been disqualified (didn’t know that when I was benching).

Deadlift

1st attempt of 165kg

Easy like taking candy from a baby.

2nd attempt of 173kg.

Took a second or two to break from the floor, lock out was easy.

3rd attempt of 190kg.

Took longer to break the weight from the floor, despite managing to lock out, the lift didn’t count as the bar dipped down instead of moving up one smooth motion.

Felt a pull in my neck when the bar dipped down( 21 seconds into the video), but still managed a lock out. I was pretty bummed, but I must a 25kg PR is pretty damn high target.

Wrapping up and take away lessons.

 

1. The beautiful sport.

Prior to this meet, I had no idea what to expect. No doubt that I was as nervous as a pubescent boy going on his first date, but upon arriving at the competition ground I felt all that go away.

It was amazing to see a good number of Malaysians competing in a foreign country. We all psyched each other up and cheer each other on.

The reason why I find Powerlifting an extremely beautiful sport is because of the atmosphere it carries. It’s very different from any sport I’ve seen or participated in.

In any given sport, everyone wants to be better than their competitors. However, in Powerlifting the competitors are not actually competing against others but it’s more of a competition against themselves.

It’s about breaking your own personal best and setting new records and goals for yourself.

Moreover, it’s extremely hard to find a sport where your competitors are screaming at the top of their lungs for you to make the lift, for you to succeed. And this beauty was displayed throughout the entire meet.

2. Get familiar with rules/regulations/protocols.

My first attempts for the squat and the bench was given a red flag not because I couldn’t lift it up, but because I broke some technical rules.

This was my first meet and I am unfamiliar with the exact rules,you could say it’s common to break some of these rules. However, because of the technical faults, I wasted an attempt in my squat. If I would have made the first lift, I would probably have squatted 140kg instead of137kg on my last attempt.

In every new situation, there will be things that you are unfamiliar with. It’s important to first make the unknown not so unknown before proceeding with your next course of action.

Learn the environment and situation well because it’s hard to excel in something if you are running on unclear ground.

3. Consistency is king.

I’m pretty glad with my results. In just 3 short weeks, I’ve set a new 8kg PR on the squat and 8kg PR (could have been 25kg) on the deadlift.

If people ask me how I did it, the answer is simply consistency.

Train when you are suppose to and rest when you are suppose to. That’s consistency. That’s the “secret” to my new PR’s.

Train when you are suppose to and rest when you are suppose to. That’s consistency. <——- Click To Tweet!!

 

That’s my experience from my first meet. I will definitely be competing again and hoping to shatter some new PR’s. I hope all of you enjoyed this write up as much I did writing it.

If you are ever thinking of competing, stop thinking and freaking sign up! Also a huge thanks to Darren Low who gave me a lift off and helped me in the meet. And the big guy Zarol who killed his lift and was an awesome buddy throughout the entire meet. Lastly, to everyone I’ve met there and those that have given me your support, I am truly thankful. You guys are awesome.

 

 

What do you think of my numbers? Think I’m a beast or a weakling? Leave them in the comments below and don’t forget to share this post because the beauty of Powerlifting deserves to be known.

 

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