Longhorn Open 2017
Try asking anyone who trains, ‘how long have you been lifting?’ and I guarantee you, there will always be two numbers: how long since they ‘started’, and how long since they got serious about it.
I’m no exception. While I suppose I could claim I ‘started’ as early as middle school, when they taught us in PE class, it wasn’t until I took a Conditioning class in 11th grade when I actually starting lifting, and it wasn’t until college that I got serious about powerlifting: eating right, programming, and competing.
The first powerlifting competition I ever competed in was the Longhorn Open at UT Austin, during my sophomore year.
My friend Tyler told me about it, and got me all excited to compete. It’d been something I’d always wanted to do. We trained hard and got a crew ready to go. Booked a hotel in Austin, piled into a car, and drove off to the competition.
Keeping with Rice Powerlifting tradition, we arrived the night before the meet and went to In-N-Out, something we didn’t have in Houston. I got a couple of cheeseburgers, and with some encouragement from friends (‘You have to try it bro’), a strawberry milkshake.
Big mistake. I woke up in the hotel room at 6 AM with bloating, stomach cramps, and diarrhea. (I didn’t know at the time, but I’m lactose intolerant).
The hotel A/C may have played a factor too. Spent the next hour in the bathroom feeling absolutely miserable, thinking I’d ruined my chances of competing. I lost a ton of water in the toilet and was achey all over.
We moseyed on off to weigh-in, where I weighed in at 157.6 lb, almost 6 pounds under the 74 kg weight class limit! Probably all that water lost.
We warmed up, with me feeling shaky and weird. I remember stretching my shoulders with a PVC pipe and feeling extremely tight and achey, and I thought this competition would be a bust. Sometimes I can be too much of a defeatist, but my friends kept me positive and looking up.
For those unaware, the squat is the first event in a powerlifting meet. Since it was my first meet, I set my opener (1st attempt) really conservatively, at 345 lb. I got it up pretty easily, but my second attempt (355 lb) felt harder than it should have been. This made me scared for my final attempt of 365, which I had only ever hit once, in training.
355 - More difficult than it should have been
Missing 365
I ended up missing 365, which sucked, especially in the mindset I was in then. I sat in a chair, discouraged for a bit, but cheering on my friends who were going after (lighter weight classes go first) helped me to forget.
Next up, bench! What can I say? It was a complete massacre. I hadn’t realized, having been training and hanging around 84/94 kg friends, just how disproportionately high my bench was for 74 kg. I think my attempts were 265, 275, and 285 lb, and I hit them all. My short arms and wide grip certainly helped. I distinctly remember my 3rd bench attempt being 130 kg (286 lb) and seeing my closest competitor at 80 kg (176 lb) on the scoreboard. That’s a 110-pound difference!
I know it totally sounds like bragging, but in truth, that helped me to come back mentally, to get some confidence back and realize I still had a shot at this. My squat was around middle-of-the pack, but my bench had given me a huge advantage. It was all up to how I did in deadlift now.
For deadlift, I ended up topping out at my second attempt of 455 lb. I tried for 463, and actually did pull it, but got redlighted for hitching on my way up. I ended up totaling 1103 lb, comfortably in the 1000-pound club, so I was fairly sure I placed and pretty happy overall.
Also, not gonna lie, I totally planned my gear to look like Vegito and Vegeta from DBZ, with the blue singlet, white shoes + socks, and orange shirt. One of the announcers even commented on it!
Finally came the awards ceremony. We stood around waiting as the announcer read off 3rd, 2nd, and 1st place for each division. I got really nervous at not hearing my name as 3rd or 2nd, thought I had somehow miscalculated my standings and hadn’t placed. I hardly dared to hope for the alternative, but then…
“1st place, Men’s 74 kg Teen, Brian Chen.”
— announcer, probably
I walked up and got my celebratory beer mug, grinning stupidly the whole way. I did it!!
We went home the same night to make school the next day But for real, the confidence boost from this carried through my entire next week. I’d been struggling with some personal issues beforehand, and this helped me move on from them. I worked hard and it was really nice to see it pay off. I made a ton of friends and had a great time. I also got to eat gummy worms and drink Monster throughout the meet so there’s no way I wouldn’t be stoked about that too.
I fucking love these dudes. Thanks for everything!