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How to Organise Community Events in Times of Lockdowns – My First Online Powerlifting Competition in My Lifetime

by | Nov 30, 2020

deadlft, powerlifting,strength training, starting strength, barbell training

 

Usually, I use my Saturdays for writing an article.

But this is what I have done today, Saturday 28 November 2020: I took part in a Powerlifting competition.

Powerlifting is how I stay fit. I try to take part in at least one powerlifting competition per year. That tells me where I am with my strength training.

As of today, I am on world rank list #4 position, see here:

 

powerlifting, squat, bench press, deadlift

 

The list above is from the last IPF World Championship that was in Helsingborg/Sweden, in 2019. There was no World Championship in 2020. You can look up my national records here http://powerliftingsingapore.com/records/, select “Master 2”, “male”, “120+kg”.

This year was very different. Covid-19 made it impossible to have those large crowds that come with a powerlifting event.

 

Organizing an Online Powerlifting Event

So my friends and I came up with the idea of organizing an online event on Facebook (click here). The regulations are on Eventbrite where we sold the tickets (click here). The Meet Rules were those of the US Strengthlifting Federation (click here).

In order to reduce fraud, we required the participants to video themselves during the online meet. The videos should be taken from the rear (for squats) or from the front (for bench press and deadlifts), and there should be a video of the participants weighing themselves out. That was a lesser concern for me because I am competing in the Kings´ class anyway: my competition weight is about 130kg.

The videos are to be taken in landscape mode, and one must make sure that the whole body and barbell remains in the frame at all times. The face of the competitor should be visible at one point in time of each video for each lift.

We originally planned to require one single video for each lift and for the weighing out, but that is too much hassle. Participants should use a free online video creation software such as screencast-o-matic.com for compiling their best lifts in each exercise into one single video and upload that to Youtube.

It is my firm belief that one should not overdo it when it comes to fraud protection. An online powerlifting event is an event that is held between friends, and there is no real value when it comes to the results obtained there. Maybe except for your personal record, but the results cannot count as official records.

Lifting at a real competition with real judges and with the stress of having a fixed time slot with only one single minute for completing a lift still adds an extra difficulty that makes taking part in a real competition so much harder, although also more comparable.

 

My Results of Today

This was the first online Powerlifting competition in my lifetime.

I smashed 4 national records in Singapore. And yes, I know that these results are not counting as official national records.

Squat 206kg/454lbs, bench press 150kg/330lbs, and deadlift with 216kg/476lbs, combined 572kg/1,261lbs.

My lifts of today are on Youtube, see below.

 

Conclusion

Here is what I think: I like online meets.

An online meet gives me a goal to train towards and to test what I am capable of. It also shows me how I match up to other athletes. And I can do all that in my own environment that I am familiar with – a perfect low-stress event.

It is my firm belief that one should not overdo it when it comes to fraud protection. And there is no real value when it comes to the results obtained there, except for your personal records.

Lifting at a real competition is so much harder, although also more comparable. Determining official records will therefore still be limited to these types of events, and we will find ways to have these real events again. Although I do not see myself flying around for competing at an international sports event in the future.

Martin “Strong by Choice” Schweiger

Hygieia Strength & Conditioning

34 Haig Road
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Bio

My interest in fitness started when I was around 19 years old. Being overweight for most of my growing up years, I decided to do something about it. After months of not being able to achieve the desired results, I began poring through books and articles about training and nutrition. The more I read, the more interested I became in this field, and got better results when the the newly discovered knowledge was applied. After 1 year of persistence and hard work, I lost 24kg and felt fantastic. The sense of achievement motivated me to pursue a career in working with people to help them achieve their own fitness goals.

After achieving my weight loss goal, I tried a variety of training programs for a few years, looking for a new goal to train towards. After aimlessly moving around from program to program, I chanced upon a book called Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training, written by renowned strength and conditioning expert, Mark Rippetoe. Little did I know that this book was about to change my life and coaching career.

At that point, I had experience training with barbells and was relatively familiar with it but never have I come across any material that gave such explicitly detailed explanations of how to perform the barbell lifts. I devoured the book and modified my lifting technique and program. In just a few months, I was pleasantly surprised by how much stronger he had become. I now had a new goal to work towards – getting strong.

With full confidence in the efficacy of the Starting Strength methodology, I began coaching my clients using this program and got them stronger than they ever thought was possible. The consistent success my clients achieved through the program cemented my confidence in Mark Rippetoe’s teachings. I then decided to pursue the credential of being a Starting Strength Coach and I’m currently the first and only certified coach in Singapore and South-East Asia

In my 9 years of experience, I have given talks and ran programs at numerous companies and worked with a diverse group clientele of all ages with a variety of goals. Today, I specialise in coaching people in their 40s, 50s and beyond because it brings me a great sense of satisfaction to be part of the process of improving this demographics’ health and quality of life by getting them stronger.

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