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Competition Prep for Novice Powerlifters: What to Expect in Your First Meet | PRS Podcast Ep. 1, Season 2
When people get into barbell training as their form of exercise, they’ll at some point ask the question, “should I do a powerlifting meet?” After just over a year hiatus from the PRS Podcast, Drs Rori Alter and Alyssa Haveson are back with the first in a series of five podcast episodes on all elements of powerlifting competitions.
In these five episodes they will cover exactly what you need to know to do well in your first powerlifting competition all the way to the international powerlifting platform.
In this episode of the PRS Podcast we cover:
Where we’ve been and what we’ve been up to over the last year
Introduce Dr. Alyssa Haveson’s background as a competitor and elite competitive powerlifting coach and the three elements she brings to the table for game day powerlifting coaching
How a person gets into recreational or competitive powerlifting for the first time
What it means to do a competition and how do we choose it at the right time?
The two ways the topic of doing a powerlifting competition comes up with a novice lifter
The Questions: “How strong should I be to do my first competition?” - and does it matter?
One of the most intimidating parts of competition for new powerlifters
Why the question, “What goals do you have for me?” isn’t the best question for a powerlifter to ask their coach
Who you are actually competing against in powerlifting competitions
The 7 goals for the novice powerlifting competitor
Three types of Novice Powerlifting Competitors
Important things for the higher level powerlifting athlete to consider when choosing competitions
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Free Resources!
Be sure to check out our FREE, brand-spankin’-new Powerlifting Meet Day Guide and Meet Day Checklist!
Our PRS Powerlifting Meet Guide is a comprehensive guide that walks you through every aspect of your meet day from start to finish so you feel confident, knowledgeable, and supported throughout your meet.
This guide covers federation rules, packing the perfect meet bag, and navigating weigh-ins, equipment checks, and the warm-up area.
Detailed tips on timing warm-ups, managing flights and lifting order, and commands will ensure you are prepared for every phase of the competition. Additional insights include nutrition timing, strategies for staying focused, and how handlers can best support you if you’re using one.
Our practical, step-by-step checklist is the ultimate powerlifting meet preparation tool. From packing your meet bag to tracking warm-up and attempt timing, this printable checklist ensures you don’t forget any of the details. Simply check off each task to reduce stress so you can focus on lifting your best. Our Meet Day Checklist is the perfect way to ensure you stay organized and confident without forgetting anything.
Whether you're a beginner or an experienced competitor, these resources provide everything you need for a smooth and successful meet day. Download them here to take the guess work out of meet-day logistics!
Need help with an injury or programming? Book a free consultation call with one of the PRS Clinical Coaches here!
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GET IN TOUCH WITH THE SHOW!
Email: podcast@progressiverehabandstrength.com
Rori IG: @rorimegan_prs
Alyssa IG: @alyssahope_prs
Bre IG: @breannejulia_prs
[00:00:00] Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC: How exciting is this?
[00:00:01] Dr. Alyssa Haveson, PT, PRSCC: We're both here.
[00:00:03] Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC: We are both here. Well, welcome back to the Progressive Rehab & Strength podcast. I am your host, Dr. Rori Alter, here with one of the clinical coaches at Progressive Rehab & Strength, Dr. Alyssa Haveson. It has been a very, very long time since we have recorded a podcast episode. Just a quick reintroduction, or I don't know if we need reintroductions, we're both physical therapists, competitive powerlifters, and coaches who have had some life changes over the last year. We have not recorded a podcast episode in over a year, maybe a year, because I got pregnant again and had a baby again. But I was extremely sick, just like the first time I was pregnant, so I just couldn't get off the couch. I was bed bound, basically. Pregnancy, uggh. Here we are, six months after having my daughter, my lovely daughter, Maddy. She's very cute. She's in daycare full time now, and I feel great and ready to pick this up. But in other news, Alyssa, I don't know, maybe I'm sharing too much of your personal information, which is like, totally me, but Alyssa you have some life updates, so why don't you share?
[00:01:33] Dr. Alyssa Haveson, PT, PRSCC: Oh, I was engaged. That must be what? That's your big life update. I was like, I think that's it.
[00:01:42] Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC: Yeah. Congratulations.
[00:01:43] Dr. Alyssa Haveson, PT, PRSCC: Unless there's anything that you can think of.
[00:01:46] Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC: No, I mean, you've continued to do your amazing work with rescuing cats. Alyssa, you have a cat rescue with your family. Alyssa with her medical background, you know, obviously as physical therapists, we have a medical background, you tend to handle the extreme cases. The very sick cats, the cats who really need true rehab and medical attention. So a lot of amputees, infections, pregnancies. So you've had a lot of cats coming in and out of your life over the last year. I love it.
[00:02:24] Dr. Alyssa Haveson, PT, PRSCC: Maybe too many.
[00:02:25] Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC: No, honestly, I'm not a cat person at all. And, really, I just strongly dislike cats. Sorry to anyone who loves cats. But I love all of Alyssa's cats. I love all your cats, just because of the connection that I have to knowing your journey with them and how much you care about them and all the good work that you do with them. Even obviously dogs, you know.
[00:02:55] Dr. Alyssa Haveson, PT, PRSCC: Yeah. Our rescue helped a dog actually the other day who seems like it was probably a breeder dump in a neighborhood near me. So she's currently on a hold with the SPCA, but yeah.
[00:03:09] Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC: Oh, and you've even had some issues with frogs in your backyard and fish stocks.
[00:03:15] Dr. Alyssa Haveson, PT, PRSCC: Birds? Yeah. Usually cats. Unfortunately, there's a lot of homeless and stray or feral cats that need help.
[00:03:22] Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC: And even, I feel like every time you go to Nationals, you're rescuing.
[00:03:26] Dr. Alyssa Haveson, PT, PRSCC: I can't go anywhere now.
[00:03:28] Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC: Alyssa cannot go anywhere without, finding a cat or a mama cat and her kittens in need. So anyway, that is like Alyssa's, I don't even want to say side job. I want to say your second job is this amazing thing that you do. So I don't like cats, but I like every cat that you have, and I like getting updates on all of them, which are interesting.
[00:03:53] Dr. Alyssa Haveson, PT, PRSCC: Anyway, disclaimer. Anybody listening? Please get your cats fixed.
[00:03:57] Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC: Yes, please. We don't need more feral cats running around.
[00:04:01] Dr. Alyssa Haveson, PT, PRSCC: They're outside. If they're inside, please. Yeah.
[00:04:04] Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC: Yeah. So you're not like an old cat lady. You are a true cat hero. You should probably call yourself cat woman. It's true. So, anyway, I love it. Love your cats. We just have had a lot of things going on, and it just hasn't been in the cards to do podcasts until now. So with that all said, I'm a retired, semi-retired, or on sabbatical from competitive powerlifting. But that's all because of the pandemic and being pregnant at that time and having another kid. My focus has been more on business growth and family growth than competitive powerlifting. But Alyssa, which ironically, is so funny because I feel like I was competing and I was like, Alyssa, you need to compete, you need to compete, you need to compete. And then once I basically got pregnant and stopped competing, you started competing again, which is kind of funny. I didn't even realize that until now. But we're going to do a series on powerlifting competitions, and I'm going to do this series of podcasts with Alyssa, because Alyssa is a very strong, competitive athlete, and you just in and out know the rules of the competition, the aspects of competition, from a competitive standpoint, from a ref standpoint, because you are a referee. You're an official to the highest to the highest level, are you?
[00:05:49] Dr. Alyssa Haveson, PT, PRSCC: I'm an international referee, but I'm a cat two. So there's cat one and then cat two. So those are the two highest. Yeah.
[00:05:57] Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC: So you're a very high level international referee. So you know the the game and the sport from that aspect, from the athlete aspect and from the coaching aspect. If there's anyone that you want to handle you in a competition, Alyssa is the one. She's fantastic because of the three elements that she brings into competition. Not to say that I'm bad, not to say that John's bad, but Alyssa, you just have this extraordinary mix of things that go into a game day coach. So with that being said, competition is something that a lot of strength athletes or barbell athletes are into. Whether they're a novice lifter and they're just starting their strength journey or they've been on their strength journey for a really long time and they've developed their skill and their strength, at some point in someone's strength lifting journey they get a little bit of an itch to try a competition, and then that itch might turn into something competitive on a larger scale. Or someone thinks about right from the bat from their first competition, they'll think about, I want to be this really high level power lifter, so even before they do their first competition, they know their numbers. They're like, I'm really strong. I've seen competitions at a local and national level and I think I can be competitive at a regional, state, national level, whatever. So they go into their first competition with the idea that I want to be competitive, not just recreational. So what we're going to do with this podcast today is really talk about these different groups and what it means to do a competition and how we choose it at the right time. So with that said, how does this topic of conversation usually come up with, let's say, a newer lifter? So someone who's been barbell training for maybe six months to a year or two. How does this conversation usually come up with your athletes?