Not Strong Enough (yet).

I love to compete, but I also like to compare myself to standards.  That’s what appeals to me about ranking with kettlebells.  I have a box full of gold and silver medals in Taekwondo, track and field, and kettlebell lifting.  There is a story behind each medal.  Some represent hard fought matches in the ring against a determined opponent, and others remind me of the pain of torn calluses and gritting determination.  Others, I got because I was the only person to show up.  Competing is great, but unless you are at a very high level competition, the medal may or may not mean much.  It just means that you beat the other guy (if there is another guy), but it says nothing about who the other guy is.

That’s what is so great about ranking standards.  They provide a demonstrable, comparable level of skill to which strength athletes can aspire.  For kettlebell lifting, I use the rank tables provided by USA Kettlebell Lifting.  But for the past month, I’ve also been practicing the powerlifts.  I would like to compete in a powerlifting meet in June, so I decided to test myself today and see where I am.  My results are below, along with some lessons learned.

I lifted a total of 780.  In Iron Boy Powerlifting, the sanctioning body for most meets in North and South Carolina, the requirement for class IV (the lowest class) in the 181 division is 776, so had this been a real meet, I would be class IV.  Just strong enough to be considered an entry level competitor. 

Strength standards are listed at: http://www.exrx.net/Testing/WeightLifting/StrengthStandards.htm, and are generally accepted in the lifting community.  According to these numbers, my squat is at the high end of novice, and my bench press and deadlift are intermediate.   Stronger than most casual weight trainers, but certainly no threat at a powerlifting meet. Among real lifters, I’m still a boy among men.

What can I learn from this?  First, watching the video, it is clear that the squat is my weakest link.  Each time, I was pulled forward, out of my groove, and twice, I could not recover.  I expect my strength and technique to catch up with a few more months of training.  Likewise with the bench press.  My deadlift technique is much better than in these lifts because I’ve trained it before. 

The second thing that strikes me is that I have not done barbell work for quite a while, until the last month.  I’ve used mostly kettlebells and bodyweight training, lifting no more than 70 pounds of iron at a time.  I've never seriously trained the back squat or the bench press. With a month of basic barbell work, I’m at the level of an entry level powerlifter.  Can you get strong with kettlebells?  Sure.  Can you get stronger with barbells?  Certainly. 

I also learned that I selected very difficult (for me) opening lifts.  In each case, my opening attempt turned out to be my max.  My openers were too heavy, and if this had been a real meet, I might well have bombed out.  I’ll keep this in mind in June. 

The main reason for this test was to have a reference point from which to judge the effectiveness of my powerlifting training.  When I ask myself: “how strong am I?”, now I have an answer.  Not strong enough!