Well after coming off my worst meet performance of my career at APF Nationals, I can say that without a doubt I did the exact opposite at the 2016 WPC World Championships in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The training cycle itself was great, and I felt really good about the work I had put in, but we all know that many times a good training cycle doesn’t mean a damn thing when it comes to meet day performance. There are just way too many variables at play to consider. With me competing on a Monday, I ended up leaving town on Saturday morning with my training partner, Trey, a little after 9am. We had a good 12-hour drive down to Baton Rouge, and I was in no rush since I was well overweight when we left. We actually set things up to where we would stop halfway in Memphis to stop by NBS Fitness and catch up with David Allen, Christian Anto, and the other awesome NBS family I’ve gotten to know well over the past few years. Trey got some training in while I checked weight, and then we made our last leg of the trip to Baton Rouge, arriving a little after 11:30pm. I was pretty damn tired and depleted, but arrived just barely overweight and knew that I would float the rest of the weight off overnight.
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Sunday morning I woke up (I say this loosely as I sleep like crap when cutting) a hair underweight and just chilled out until weigh-ins. I made weight, and then immediately started my rehydration protocol and getting things right for Monday. Lots of fluid and food, rest, and football. Not a bad day, really. That afternoon though we ran into teammate Sheri Whetham as she was weighing in at the later session. We would be sharing the platform together, but unfortunately on different sides. Big bummer, but at least I knew I would be seeing her and Ken all day Monday. After a good dinner at Texas Roadhouse, we made our way back to the hotel and called it a night. 
Monday morning I woke up plenty early to head downstairs to hit the breakfast buffet and get some good quality carbs in me before squatting. I never tend to eat a huge breakfast, but just enough quality food to ensure I make it through my flight, and then I’ll eat a little bigger after squats are over. Just some toast and biscuits with jelly, fruit, and a few eggs and I was good. I then made my way to the warm-up room for the rules meeting, and we were ready to rock and roll. I was in the first flight of platform 2, so I knew when they said a 9am start time, we would be starting sharp.
Squat
Warm-ups 65x10 155x5 245x3 335x1 385x1 455x1- add Metal Mystical Knee Wraps Opener — 490, Good Unfortunately, my warm-ups were all over the place. The warm-up room was a cluster. I can’t blame anyone but myself, but the sheer amount of weight changing was eating up time, and as a result my warm-ups. I was nearly closing out the flight and needed to get the heaviest, but was just having a hard time managing my warm-ups with others warming up at the last minute. I can only blame myself, so having taken a big final just on my warm-ups I was worried a bit about the 490, but I opened light on purpose. Judging was TIGHT, and this was a perfect opener to build some momentum. Second — 529, Good The way my opener moved, I stuck with my planned second attempt. Trey wrapped me up in the Metal All-Blacks for this attempt and it was a smoke show. Right on pace where I wanted to be so far. Third — 545, Good After some discussions with Trey, we opted to make a small jump on a third to something that would build my total and that I felt was a done deal lift. I felt that 545 was a good weight to take, and it would put me in a good position to build my total. I wanted to take 567 to break my all-time record, but we figured let’s see how 545 moves and if it’s good, then go to break the record on the 4th. Fourth — 567, Good I finally got the damn monkey off my back. After over 18 months of breaking the all-time world record squat at XPC’s, I got my redemption of setting the bar a little higher. The bar part was I had to take this lift about 7 minutes after hitting my 545. I felt I was good for 572 based on my 545, but with such a short turn-around between lifts, I just opted to take the smallest jump I could to break it. The bar rolled on me a little bit about a third of the way up, but I managed to save it and keep the bar moving.
Bench Press
Warm-ups 55x10 105x5 145x3 195x2 235x1 265x1 285x1 Opener — 303, Good Bench warm-ups felt awesome. I was a bit exhausted from the squatting and the pace at which the meet was moving, but weights felt good and light. My opener was good and easy like I had expected. Second — 319, Good After all the changes I made to my bench press after Nationals, this was a weight I was a bit worried about. At Nationals this weight stapled me twice, but I knew that I needed this weight to help get a PR total in the bag. It moved pretty damn well. Still on pace. Third — 330, Good Again talking things over with Trey, I was having a hard time deciding if I wanted to take 330 or 336. I really wanted to give a bench PR a run, but I just felt that I was within reach of a 1400 pound total, and that I needed to get every pound I could going into deadlifts if I wanted to do that. This was the perfect call in weight, and was technically a half pound PR. I’m not counting it for my records, but hell, I’ll take it.
Deadlift
Warm-ups 135x5 225x3 315x1 365x1 405x1 445x1 Opener — 479, Good I took my planned opener, and I finally didn’t mess shit up and drop it! I was in the meet with a 1355 total. Second — 501, Good I was having a bit of a hard time deciding what to do here. I only needed 490 to secure a 1-pound PR total, but I felt that such a small jump was a waste. I wanted 1400 and so I decided to split the difference. Find a weight that would give me a total PR, challenge me, but also be a stepping stone to 1400, and 501 fit the bill nicely. Not hard, but enough to make me stay focused. Sitting at 1377 now. Third - 529, Miss Well with the kilo conversions to pounds, I would need to pull 529 to break 1400. The 523 would put me at a 1399.5 total, and in my book that was no good…and it would have drove me nuts until I compete next. Plus the 529 would have gave me a four times bodyweight deadlift, another bucket list item. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t in the cards for the day. The weight started to swing away from me, and then it ended up just getting stuck and I couldn’t save it. After the day I had, I could live with it.
Wrap Up
The meet was super quick and efficient and I can’t thank all the fine people of the WPC and APF for their hard work all weekend. It was hands down the best meet I’ve done, and a really cool experience. I was done lifting shortly after 2pm and was up in the room by about 4:30pm hanging out until dinner. I ended up having one hell of a meet, and I could not be happier with my performance and ability to bounce back the way that I did after Nationals. I knew I was capable of so much more, but for whatever reason was just having a hard time putting things together. However, WPC World’s was a different tail. I walked away with a two-pound squat PR and breaking my all-time world record, a fraction of a pound PR on bench, and a 12 pound PR total. Soon enough, 1400 will be mine. With no one in my weight class I won the 60kg weight class, and ended up taking best overall male lifter in the open division. A pretty stellar day with a world championship to my credit. I would like to sincerely thank my man, Trey, for the awesome job of handling me all meet and helping me all weekend. The dude sacrificed college classes, his weekend, his training, and who knows what else just to let me lift some weights. I could not have had the meet I did without him. I’d also like to thank Dave and Traci for the continued support and allowing me to represent EliteFTS. It’s always an honor and a privilege. And finally, thank you to my training partners, Team EliteFTS and Team NutraBio, friends, family, and everyone else that reached out to me all day long. I really appreciate all the support.
So what’s next? While I posted this in one of my training logs, I have decided to compete in some bodybuilding shows over the course of the spring of 2017. Training for that will start in December after Thanksgiving and some time off. My next powerlifting meet will likely be AAPF Nationals in the Chicago area in May of 2017. I’ll have more details over in my training log as things move forward. 