USAWA

By Christopher Lestan

Since there haven’t been any in-person competitions I think it would be fun to reflect on when the time comes when in-person competition becomes normal again.

The preparation for competition is what stimulates the regular strength athlete and soon becomes all they can think about for the next couple of months. The training schedule, reps, and sets are all determined 8-12 weeks out from the day of the competition. The journey from the beginning of prep when you write down goals you want to achieve. Then at the end of the competition prep you recall on what you have written down to see if you achieved your goal or goals.

That is the beauty of competition. The journey! Everyone has as prep that they remember like the back of their hand. The prep that pushed that individual to the brink, or maybe have to overcome some sort of adversity during prep. Those are the  memories that stick with us the most. The moments that we recall as defining us or redefining us as people. It’s what makes competition prep almost seem like magic.

My personal competition prep that sticks out to me to this day was my first Heavy Lifts Nationals back in 2018. I had just finished competing at College Raw Powerlifting Nationals and as soon as I got home I went to Frank Ciavatone to start training. Now normally I give myself a decent 8-10 weeks before a major competition. This allows myself to peak for the day of completion with phases of hypertrophy, strength, and power. However, during this time Heavy Lift Nationals was only 4-5 weeks away. Thank goodness I have one of the greatest Heavy Lifters of all time Frank Ciavatone. I remember we talked for hours on end deciding what to do for the prep and how to get ready. Finally, he made the decision (because he’s the coach and I am the athlete) to do 1-2 workouts a week of the Neck, Hand and Thigh, and Hip lift.

During that time I learned so much about timing of training, and how to control intensity. I learned how to be a listener whenever Frank gave some advice or technique tips. I learned how to recovery from the lifts, for the style of recovery is vastly different from recovering from powerlifting workouts. I loved every minute of it. It was one of the best 4-5 weeks of training of my life because Frank taught me so much about how to get ready for these lifts. I guess it worked in the end because I achieved all of my goals by the end of 5 weeks and found a new love for the Heavy Lifts. This time of my life sticks out to me because of how much I learned from Frank about the lifts, and also I was allowed to push myself in a different discipline of strength sports.

As I said before… Everyone has these types of memories. Maybe it was your first Powerlifting competition? Or the time you deiced to do a strongman competition? Or the first All-Around Weightlifting Competition. All different stories that come with different memories!