TweetShortcuts Do NOT Equal American Records

By Scott YardPublished: June 20, 2013Posted in: Powerlifting, TrainingTags: competition, goals, making weight, MEET, scott yard, shortcuts, Shortcuts Don’t Equal American Records!, USAPL PA States, weight fluctuation
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USAPL PA States was held on March 23rd and 24th, and it really did a number on me. My body felt more wrecked than it has in years, even the week after a meet.
I went into this meet with high expectations after lots of preparation. I started this meet cycle coming off of a solid raw meet in December of 2012. I went 645 pounds, 474 pounds, and 683 pounds—my best USAPL raw meet to date. The only problem was that I was also my heaviest at 271 pounds.

Therefore, after this meet I decided to go back to 242 pounds. I began my diet on January 1st, weighing 274 pounds. I trained hard and managed to PR almost every week in all of my lifts. I also dieted hard and managed to lose two pounds per week over the course of 12 weeks. So, four days out from the meet, I was down to 251 pounds. I then water loaded and cut out all carbs and made it down to 246.5 pounds on meet day.
However, instead of throwing in the towel, I decided to make weight at any cost and do what I said I would do. Go 242! The facility had a sauna, so in I went. After five 10-minute sessions, I made it to a hot and crisp nude weight of 242.5 pounds, and I finally made weight with an hour to spare before the start time at 2:00 p.m. I then quickly ate some food, slammed some fluids, and started warming up.YardMeet-Report061313a.jpg
I will spare all of the details as I don’t have to much to report. My goal for this meet was to break the USAPL American total record for the 242-pound class. The previous record was 1,735 pounds, so I planned to go 611 pounds, 474 pounds, and 655 pounds on all second attempts for a new record. I even had a delusional thought of pulling a big PR deadlift on a third attempt to put the new total a good bit above the previous mark. Of course this didn’t happen at all, haha! I was tired, drained, and miserable just starting the meet. I was happy that I made weight, but I knew that my shot at any records was busted. Knowing that, I dropped my openers and just tried not to bomb and maybe learn something.

Squat
I skipped any mobility and did some mild rolling. Come meet time, I was still sweating from the sauna and didn’t want to waste energy. I warmed up to 500 pounds and felt like I was going to fall over walking the weight out. I ended up going 550 pounds, 575 pounds, and 590 pounds in the squat. I messed with my stance the last rep and it felt surprising good. I figured out that at 242 pounds, I need to move my feet in a hair. This lets me push off my smaller gut a hair more.

Bench
With my squat down, I knew my bench would follow. I changed my whole pre-meet plan and decided to open up light then go for a five-pound PR. I hit 430 pounds and then followed that with two misses at 468 pounds. Like my squat, I tinkered with a slightly closer grip. I usually go ring finger on the ring, and I did this with my first shot at 468 pounds, but my arms felt so wide at my chest. I moved to pinky on the ring for my third, and while I still missed my third shot at 468 pounds, I was much closer than my second attempt.meetreportscottyardbench061813.jpg

Deadlift
Since switching to sumo, I have actually begun to enjoy pulling again. After pulling 755 pounds raw in 2010, my pull has done nothing but drop. I managed a 700-pound pull at 275 pounds in mid 2011 in the USAPL, but I have been nowhere close since. I switched to sumo in early to mid 2012 and have had steady progress since then. I pulled my first 700-pound raw sumo this meet cycle and was hoping to best my recent 683-pound meet best from December. I warmed up to 500 pounds and thought, “Wow! I hope I don’t miss 600! Haha!”

I opened with 600 pounds and that went up…but not easy. Niko Huslander happened to be at the table when I was staring at the weight chart. He whispered 633 pounds to me and I wrote it down. I pulled 633 pounds, and it took me a solid 10 seconds to finish the lift. I was hell-bent on not missing that and just wouldn’t put it down until I heard, “Down!” After battling with 633 pounds like it was 900 pounds, I finally heard the down call and decided to pass on my third. If a fly shit on that bar I would have missed, and a third attempt would just have been a waste of time for the loaders to load!

So that’s it. I pissed away an amazing training cycle by choosing to make weight over doing my best. In hindsight, I could have just said screw it and gone as a very light 275 without sweating out those four pounds. That thought never crossed my mind though. What’s the point in making goals if you don’t hold yourself accountable? I was a bear this meet prep, and sometimes I wasn’t the nicest person to my wife and kids. When I’m hungry and tired, I’m just not myself. I didn’t want to quit and be an ass for no reason. But it’s never OK to be an ass to your family, and it’s especially not cool to be one and then not even make weight!

I have had some time to think about my future lifting plans as well as reflect on the past two years I have spent competing in the USAPL. I started lifting in the USAPL with three goals: 1) to win raw nationals, 2) to break an American bench record, and 3) to break an Open total record. I won Raw Nationals that year in the 242-pound class and broke the American bench record that meet. However, I have yet to reach my third goal.
Today, I thought about how much my weight has fluctuated since March of 2011 in pursuit of that goal. In March of 2011, I did my first USAPL meet at 265 pounds. I then dropped down to 242 pounds for Nationals in August, only to go back up to 255 pounds before I cut to 242 pounds in November of 2012. Then, in March of 2012, I went up again to 231 pounds for the Arnold and up yet again to 242 pounds in April of 2012. I then went back up to the 275-pound class and was 272 pounds for North East regionals in December.ScottYard061313c.jpgThen, of course, I cut back to 242 pounds for this meet. I have failed at meeting my third goal four times now. However, I have learned a few things in the process. For instance, I do a great job of losing a lot of weight really fast. I’m also really great at gaining a lot of weight really fast. What I fail to do, though, is maintain a weight or find a happy medium that isn’t one extreme or another.
This brings me to the title of this article: Shortcuts Don’t Equal American Records! Since I’m always going from one extreme to the other with my dieting, I always had to rely on some shortcut during the week of the meet in order to make weight. It’s either carb manipulation, water loading, or using a sauna on meet day. These things may get me to 242.5 pounds with a two hour weigh-in, but they don’t get me much more than that, especially not an America Open total record. I need to quit being lazy and focus on my diet year-round. If I do this, I think I can eventually reach my goal of holding a USAPL Open total record.

I have also learned that I can be in the low 250s and still be strong and hit PRs. I don’t need to be 260 to 270 pounds. (I found that I could match the bench PRs I did at 280 pounds at only 255 pounds).
The 2013 Raw Nationals in July will be my first test of this new thought process. The new classes will be used, and I’m in between 231 pounds and 265 pounds. I am deciding right now that I am not going to spend the next four months trying to fit myself into a weight class or focus on a “record” for my training. Instead, I’m deciding to eat responsibly and indulge only when I should, train hard (but also play hard when it’s needed), and always be in-shape to play with my wife and kids. Then, I will compete wherever my weight sits on that particular day. (Hopefully I will fall in the 248- to 252-pound range).

It might not get me another record this year, and it may cost me the difference between a first place or a third place finish, but it will be the best place for me.