Killed the PL Meet!

sammpedd88

Well-known member
Ok guys, I very rarely start threads on here but I never hesitate to PM @Hyde or @Smont for advice on various things. So my point of making this post is to share with you a huge accomplishment of mine. I’ve done body building workouts most of my life and decided to switch to powerlifting last year when I retired after 30 years in law enforcement. A younger friend of mine at my gym has done several powerlifting meets and told me I should compete. I promised him once I retired, I would do it. So October of last year the training began for my first USPA meet that would be held in May 2025. I looked as this as a way to focus on something since I didn’t have my stressful job. For 22 of my 30 years I was on SWAT and was the team commander for the last two. Lots of stress and lots of death investigations, along with some military time has lead to PTSD and powerlifting has been very therapeutic for me. No meds. Just self-awareness, a little counseling, an awesome wife and hard training!

The meet ended in disaster. Four weeks prior to the meet, I was hospitalized for an allergic reaction to duck eggs. Yes, I can hear the quack quack jokes now lol! In all seriousness, it kicked my ass bad. I was so dehydrated from puking that I was in acute renal failure by the time I got to the ER. BP and HR were through the roof also. So after a four days stay during Easter weekend, an NG tube up my nose and down to my stomach pumping its contents due to a possible bowel obstruction, nothing by mouth for nearly 48 hours, and going home on Monday, I picked training back up on Wednesday. Yeah I know, stupid move on my part, especially at 52 years old. So at the meet I don’t think my body was quite recovered and I ended up with a grade 2 quad tear. Hyde gave me great advice on beginning rehab until I could get to PT and that was a huge help.

I continued rehab and the Wolverine stack and was under some weight in 16 days. I continued to train with eyes on another USPA meet that was today. Well my hard work and determination paid off and I walked away with three gold medals and state records in all three lifts in the 110 kilo 50-54 masters non-tested division. But here’s some icing on the cake. I was 9 for 9 on my lifts and received ZERO red lights! Also, my wife decided to begin training in May and competed today as well. She walked away with state records in all three lifts and a national record in deadlift, along with two gold medals. Here’s my lifts and total:

Squat - 442
Bench - 374
Deadlift - 524
Total - 1340

I should have went higher on squats. I really feel I could have hit 475-480 with no trouble, but I was playing it safe with my quad. To Hyde, thanks again for your help and the advice on the cycle leading up to meet day. Tren ace treated me well!
 
Really happy to hear you were able to persevere and go on to do awesome things! And I’m glad you had a great experience. Better that you did play it safe; now you are still healthy to keep living and training on your own terms - you can even choose to do another meet next year! Nothing quite like returning to the platform and PR’ing your total.

Congratulations both to you & your wife. I hope she had a blast, and I encourage you both to do it again some time.
 
Hyde said:
Really happy to hear you were able to persevere and go on to do awesome things! And I’m glad you had a great experience. Better that you did play it safe; now you are still healthy to keep living and training on your own terms - you can even choose to do another meet next year! Nothing quite like returning to the platform and PR’ing your total.

Congratulations both to you & your wife. I hope she had a blast, and I encourage you both to do it again some time.
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Oh we definitely plan on another meet. We’re both hooked. I plan on focusing on strengthening my hips and quads along with
mobility to safely get my squat numbers up. Bench and deads will get some focus too. I have a degenerative labrum tear in my left shoulder so as long as I can continue some PT on it when needed, it should be good to go.

For anyone that has thought about doing a PL meet, just do it! I wish I had stated this 30 years ago.
 
sammpedd88 said:
Oh we definitely plan on another meet. We’re both hooked. I plan on focusing on strengthening my hips and quads along with
mobility to safely get my squat numbers up. Bench and deads will get some focus too. I have a degenerative labrum tear in my left shoulder so as long as I can continue some PT on it when needed, it should be good to go.

For anyone that has thought about doing a PL meet, just do it! I wish I had stated this 30 years ago.
Click to expand...
Something you may hear in powerlifting, that I believe, is to support the meet directors you love, not the fed. Just go wherever you believe you will have the most fun, and realize you can compete in more than one organization (or even style of equipment).
 
Hyde said:
Something you may hear in powerlifting, that I believe, is to support the meet directors you love, not the fed. Just go wherever you believe you will have the most fun, and realize you can compete in more than one organization (or even style of equipment).
Click to expand...
Funny you say that. Both of my meets were USPA but had a different meet director. Although both of them were great, the ones at this meet, from the loaders and spotters to the judges were absolutely awesome.

I’m also still going to experiment with single ply lifts. I have a custom Super Katana on the way. Just waiting for them to finish making it. I know it’s one of the hardest shirts to learn but hey, I’m retired and have nothing but time! If the shirt goes well I may do a full power single ply meet.

My wife and I both qualified for a national meet so we’re going to think about that one. On one hand I say wait and get stronger but on the other hand why wait and just go do it for the experience. Of course we both would want a good showing, but we’re both in our 50’s so why not just do it.
 
sammpedd88 said:
Funny you say that. Both of my meets were USPA but had a different meet director. Although both of them were great, the ones at this meet, from the loaders and spotters to the judges were absolutely awesome.

I’m also still going to experiment with single ply lifts. I have a custom Super Katana on the way. Just waiting for them to finish making it. I know it’s one of the hardest shirts to learn but hey, I’m retired and have nothing but time! If the shirt goes well I may do a full power single ply meet.

My wife and I both qualified for a national meet so we’re going to think about that one. On one hand I say wait and get stronger but on the other hand why wait and just go do it for the experience. Of course we both would want a good showing, but we’re both in our 50’s so why not just do it.
Click to expand...
Geared lifting is a hoot! Only tried unlimited bench shirts myself but it’s a blast. Be sure you break the shirt in properly being it is a single ply.
 
SkRaw85 said:
Geared lifting is a hoot! Only tried unlimited bench shirts myself but it’s a blast. Be sure you break the shirt in properly being it is a single ply.
Click to expand...
Yeah I’ve heard you have to finesse the break in process. I know I’ll need to be patient with it. I’m excited about using it.
 
sammpedd88 said:
Yeah I’ve heard you have to finesse the break in process. I know I’ll need to be patient with it. I’m excited about using it.
Click to expand...
I’ve never done it, but I believe a common practice for breaking in poly is to work up in the new shirt to a high board, then keep taking a board off each session to progressively stretch the material out (and learn the groove). But single needs less breaking in and wears out much faster than multiply.

Read this free Ebook - Gear by Dave Kirschen:

EliteFTS

EliteFTS
www.elitefts.com www.elitefts.com
 
sammpedd88 said:
Ok guys, I very rarely start threads on here but I never hesitate to PM @Hyde or @Smont for advice on various things. So my point of making this post is to share with you a huge accomplishment of mine. I’ve done body building workouts most of my life and decided to switch to powerlifting last year when I retired after 30 years in law enforcement. A younger friend of mine at my gym has done several powerlifting meets and told me I should compete. I promised him once I retired, I would do it. So October of last year the training began for my first USPA meet that would be held in May 2025. I looked as this as a way to focus on something since I didn’t have my stressful job. For 22 of my 30 years I was on SWAT and was the team commander for the last two. Lots of stress and lots of death investigations, along with some military time has lead to PTSD and powerlifting has been very therapeutic for me. No meds. Just self-awareness, a little counseling, an awesome wife and hard training!

The meet ended in disaster. Four weeks prior to the meet, I was hospitalized for an allergic reaction to duck eggs. Yes, I can hear the quack quack jokes now lol! In all seriousness, it kicked my ass bad. I was so dehydrated from puking that I was in acute renal failure by the time I got to the ER. BP and HR were through the roof also. So after a four days stay during Easter weekend, an NG tube up my nose and down to my stomach pumping its contents due to a possible bowel obstruction, nothing by mouth for nearly 48 hours, and going home on Monday, I picked training back up on Wednesday. Yeah I know, stupid move on my part, especially at 52 years old. So at the meet I don’t think my body was quite recovered and I ended up with a grade 2 quad tear. Hyde gave me great advice on beginning rehab until I could get to PT and that was a huge help.

I continued rehab and the Wolverine stack and was under some weight in 16 days. I continued to train with eyes on another USPA meet that was today. Well my hard work and determination paid off and I walked away with three gold medals and state records in all three lifts in the 110 kilo 50-54 masters non-tested division. But here’s some icing on the cake. I was 9 for 9 on my lifts and received ZERO red lights! Also, my wife decided to begin training in May and competed today as well. She walked away with state records in all three lifts and a national record in deadlift, along with two gold medals. Here’s my lifts and total:

Squat - 442
Bench - 374
Deadlift - 524
Total - 1340

I should have went higher on squats. I really feel I could have hit 475-480 with no trouble, but I was playing it safe with my quad. To Hyde, thanks again for your help and the advice on the cycle leading up to meet day. Tren ace treated me well!
Click to expand...
Congrats on the meet. Nice numbers there for 1st time and age.
 
Hyde said:
I’ve never done it, but I believe a common practice for breaking in poly is to work up in the new shirt to a high board, then keep taking a board off each session to progressively stretch the material out (and learn the groove). But single needs less breaking in and wears out much faster than multiply.

Read this free Ebook - Gear by Dave Kirschen:

EliteFTS

EliteFTS
www.elitefts.com www.elitefts.com
Click to expand...
Thanks for the Ebook!
 
sammpedd88 said:
Thanks for the Ebook!
Click to expand...
Kirschen was a great masters bencher in multiply. He was a good powerlifter too I believe, but that book explains in great detail a practical roadmap for using poly shirts, with commentary from very experienced lifters. It was a very good read.
 
Hyde said:
Kirschen was a great masters bencher in multiply. He was a good powerlifter too I believe, but that book explains in great detail a practical roadmap for using poly shirts, with commentary from very experienced lifters. It was a very good read.
Click to expand...
Yeah there’s not a lot out there on how to break in and train in a shirt. What you do find takes forever to find. I’ve googled so much I can’t believe I didn’t run across this ebook myself.
 
sammpedd88 said:
Yeah I’ve heard you have to finesse the break in process. I know I’ll need to be patient with it. I’m excited about using it.
Click to expand...
The earliest Kolbstrong Power podcasts will be very helpful as well if you go that route. Jimmy Kolb is a single ply master and the early episodes (before he switched to unlimited) offer a wealth of knowledge for breaking them in and everything else you will need to know. He hasn’t benched single ply in about 5 years or so and his record still stands at #1 by over 100 lbs lol.
 
Hyde said:
I’ve never done it, but I believe a common practice for breaking in poly is to work up in the new shirt to a high board, then keep taking a board off each session to progressively stretch the material out (and learn the groove). But single needs less breaking in and wears out much faster than multiply.

Read this free Ebook - Gear by Dave Kirschen:

EliteFTS

EliteFTS
www.elitefts.com www.elitefts.com
Click to expand...
^^^and this^^^
 
SkRaw85 said:
The earliest Kolbstrong Power podcasts will be very helpful as well if you go that route. Jimmy Kolb is a single ply master and the early episodes (before he switched to unlimited) offer a wealth of knowledge for breaking them in and everything else you will need to know. He hasn’t benched single ply in about 5 years or so and his record still stands at #1 by over 100 lbs lol.
Click to expand...
Yeah Jimmy is a beast. I appreciate the reminder he has a podcast. I caught the one where he was a guest with Dave Tate’s Table Talk. That was a good episode.
 
sammpedd88 said:
Yeah Jimmy is a beast. I appreciate the reminder he has a podcast. I caught the one where he was a guest with Dave Tate’s Table Talk. That was a good episode.
Click to expand...
Definitely. Yeah it’s about the first 10-15 episodes that involve single ply. It will be very evident as he absolutely despised unlimited band shirts until he started playing with them. The rest is insane history in the making.
 
SkRaw85 said:
Definitely. Yeah it’s about the first 10-15 episodes that involve single ply. It will be very evident as he absolutely despised unlimited band shirts until he started playing with them. The rest is insane history in the making.
Click to expand...
Yeah he’s a beast in a shirt, but strong on the raw side as well, which you have to be. He had a video of him pressing 405 for 20!
 
sammpedd88 said:
Yeah he’s a beast in a shirt, but strong on the raw side as well, which you have to be. He had a video of him pressing 405 for 20!
Click to expand...
People don’t understand that Jimmy has to work up to ~600 raw every single week! Just to get up heavy enough to start working in his gear. You have to have a base under all that rubber to actually try to handle those weights even with all the radical assistance.
 
Hyde said:
People don’t understand that Jimmy has to work up to ~600 raw every single week! Just to get up heavy enough to start working in his gear. You have to have a base under all that rubber to actually try to handle those weights even with all the radical assistance.
Click to expand...
Yeah it cracks me up to see people’s comments on his YouTube videos absolutely bashing him for wearing a shirt and how it’s cheating. People are so stupid. To think a shirt will allow anyone to bench 1400 + just because they wear the shirt. Damn I hate people! 😂😂😂😂
 
sammpedd88 said:
Yeah it cracks me up to see people’s comments on his YouTube videos absolutely bashing him for wearing a shirt and how it’s cheating. People are so stupid. To think a shirt will allow anyone to bench 1400 + just because they wear the shirt. Damn I hate people! 😂😂😂😂
Click to expand...
I see that, and the drugs comments. Told my wife there has been a shitload of it lately "oh drugs must be nice", or "yeah its amazing what steroids will do for you". drives me absolutely insane because for one thing half the physiques they're commenting on are pretty obviously either natty, or achievable natty, but in addition to that I dont' know a single drug user who doesn't f'ing kill him self in the gym and the kitchen to build what he's built. Sure drugs help, but you gotta put in the work either way natty or not!
 
Dustin07 said:
I see that, and the drugs comments. Told my wife there has been a shitload of it lately "oh drugs must be nice", or "yeah its amazing what steroids will do for you". drives me absolutely insane because for one thing half the physiques they're commenting on are pretty obviously either natty, or achievable natty, but in addition to that I dont' know a single drug user who doesn't f'ing kill him self in the gym and the kitchen to build what he's built. Sure drugs help, but you gotta put in the work either way natty or not!
Click to expand...
Oh I know. People think you can pin some gear and I’m 16 weeks look like CBum and barely lift any weights while eating fast food 24/7. People really show their ignorance and when you try to educate them, you become the idiot. Then that’s where their stupidly begins to shine and they don’t even realize it!
 
sammpedd88 said:
Yeah it cracks me up to see people’s comments on his YouTube videos absolutely bashing him for wearing a shirt and how it’s cheating. People are so stupid. To think a shirt will allow anyone to bench 1400 + just because they wear the shirt. Damn I hate people! 😂😂😂😂
Click to expand...
Right!? I’d love to see these naysayers just unrack and hold those weights lol.
Shirted benching is so much fun. Anyone who says otherwise has never put on a shirt.
 
Hyde said:
People don’t understand that Jimmy has to work up to ~600 raw every single week! Just to get up heavy enough to start working in his gear. You have to have a base under all that rubber to actually try to handle those weights even with all the radical assistance.
Click to expand...
Reverse grip too. It’s funny his openpowerlifting raw bench says like sub 500 iirc. He loves trolling these kids lol
 
SkRaw85 said:
Right!? I’d love to see these naysayers just unrack and hold those weights lol.
Shirted benching is so much fun. Anyone who says otherwise has never put on a shirt.
Click to expand...
Yeah I’m pretty excited about getting into it. I’m going to take my time with it and not rush anything so I can get comfortable.
 
Dustin07 said:
I see that, and the drugs comments. Told my wife there has been a shitload of it lately "oh drugs must be nice", or "yeah its amazing what steroids will do for you". drives me absolutely insane because for one thing half the physiques they're commenting on are pretty obviously either natty, or achievable natty, but in addition to that I dont' know a single drug user who doesn't f'ing kill him self in the gym and the kitchen to build what he's built. Sure drugs help, but you gotta put in the work either way natty or not!
Click to expand...
“If they don’t understand, they never will.”
- Stan Efferding
 
Unsure how I missed this until now, but congratulations man! Awesome showing for a first meet - and way to stick with it even after the medical issue.
 
Just saw this thread, so a little late…..but congratulations and very impressive, both you and your wife. I think it’s really awesome that both of you caught the Powerlifting bug. Of course setting records has a way of really starting that fire.🔥 🏆
 
gphagan1 said:
Just saw this thread, so a little late…..but congratulations and very impressive, both you and your wife. I think it’s really awesome that both of you caught the Powerlifting bug. Of course setting records has a way of really starting that fire.🔥 🏆
Click to expand...
Having my wife train with me has been the icing on the cake. She’s got a lot of drive and has put in a lot of work too. So proud of her!
 
sammpedd88 said:
Ok guys, I very rarely start threads on here but I never hesitate to PM @Hyde or @Smont for advice on various things. So my point of making this post is to share with you a huge accomplishment of mine. I’ve done body building workouts most of my life and decided to switch to powerlifting last year when I retired after 30 years in law enforcement. A younger friend of mine at my gym has done several powerlifting meets and told me I should compete. I promised him once I retired, I would do it. So October of last year the training began for my first USPA meet that would be held in May 2025. I looked as this as a way to focus on something since I didn’t have my stressful job. For 22 of my 30 years I was on SWAT and was the team commander for the last two. Lots of stress and lots of death investigations, along with some military time has lead to PTSD and powerlifting has been very therapeutic for me. No meds. Just self-awareness, a little counseling, an awesome wife and hard training!

The meet ended in disaster. Four weeks prior to the meet, I was hospitalized for an allergic reaction to duck eggs. Yes, I can hear the quack quack jokes now lol! In all seriousness, it kicked my ass bad. I was so dehydrated from puking that I was in acute renal failure by the time I got to the ER. BP and HR were through the roof also. So after a four days stay during Easter weekend, an NG tube up my nose and down to my stomach pumping its contents due to a possible bowel obstruction, nothing by mouth for nearly 48 hours, and going home on Monday, I picked training back up on Wednesday. Yeah I know, stupid move on my part, especially at 52 years old. So at the meet I don’t think my body was quite recovered and I ended up with a grade 2 quad tear. Hyde gave me great advice on beginning rehab until I could get to PT and that was a huge help.

I continued rehab and the Wolverine stack and was under some weight in 16 days. I continued to train with eyes on another USPA meet that was today. Well my hard work and determination paid off and I walked away with three gold medals and state records in all three lifts in the 110 kilo 50-54 masters non-tested division. But here’s some icing on the cake. I was 9 for 9 on my lifts and received ZERO red lights! Also, my wife decided to begin training in May and competed today as well. She walked away with state records in all three lifts and a national record in deadlift, along with two gold medals. Here’s my lifts and total:

Squat - 442
Bench - 374
Deadlift - 524
Total - 1340

I should have went higher on squats. I really feel I could have hit 475-480 with no trouble, but I was playing it safe with my quad. To Hyde, thanks again for your help and the advice on the cycle leading up to meet day. Tren ace treated me well!
Click to expand...
What is the Wolverine stack?

And nice lifts!
 
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