Hello all,
In July 2025 I had my first meet:
I used the beginner program and meet prep to train (rather suboptimally, not finishing the workouts and skipping workouts) and I totalled 315 kg.
My last meet was on Saturday, and I was away for about 6 weeks travelling during the 4 months in between. I brought my belt and squat shoes with me, I trained on vacation when I could, I followed strength 2.0, I was vacation eating so I clearly built a surplus getting up to 141.5 lbs.. and then I dropped it down to 128.4 lbs checked in the hotel on meet day morning (official weigh-in 58.09 kg). I did this in four weeks. I consider this the second greatest success of my meet prep.
I used strength 2.0 (not sure exactly what it’s called, let me know if there’s a particular name for it) and meet prep template, and rested 6 days before the comp to accumulate as much in recovery or “dirtbag” gains as I like to call them, and
I added 32.5 kg (71.5 lbs) to my total, and I qualified for the Ontario central championships. If I stay at 59 kg and lift 375 kg at Central’s in the summer, I will go to Nationals in 2027 for a shot at team Canada.
What I’ve learned:
- The program works and it would work a lot better if I could just finish every workout that I start, accessories and all. Will make that a goal during this cycle.
- I am probably going to end up in the 66 kilo category at some point next year, and will probably have to shoot for the 415 kg qualifying total instead of the 59 kg total. I have thus far managed to drop weight down to the class cutoff while still improving my lifts, but I know this isn’t going to be reasonable once I build enough muscle.
- There is some intangible set of circumstances that allows me to lift weights on meet day that I have failed during meet prep. Maybe my home platform isn’t ideal, maybe the deadlifts I’m doing are really slight deficit deadlifts because the plywood is worn under the mats, maybe my bench not being as wide as a competition bench somehow makes a difference , meet day adrenaline and crowds, idk what it is but it’s there and it helped me rip 142.5 kg off the ground to qualify.
- A team Canada coach volunteered to handle me on meet day and changed all my warm ups and modified my attempt targets. I don’t know if I would have performed the same without a pro handler there with my strength so close to what the targets were for qualifying.
Wanted to share. My elbow is almost healed from the squat I just did, I caught some burning lateral arm pain after the set because I folded over too much on the way down and my hips went up before my torso on the way up. I’m going to be more mindful of back angle and chest rise during low bar, and I’m going to get back to training now.
