Say What???

How do we schedule a day so full of activities? The best way you can. That's how! My oldest daughter had a soccer game at 10:00 am and my husband and I had a bench press competition at the same time that was to last all day. Yes, I said bench press competition. I'll get to that later....

So planning to get grandparents to get our daughters to the soccer game and back to a sitter's house can be challenging. I can't figure out if it is a lack of hearing, understanding, or plain hardheadedness. Grandpapa never seems to want to follow directions. He seems to always complicate any situation and add stress to a non stressful one. Anyway, our girls got to the game and to the sitter's even though it wasn't as smoothly as we had planned it.

Okay, I mentioned a few blogs ago that I had started working out. My husband and I have been working out together and had decided back in April to compete in the American Powerlifting Committee competition this past weekend. I don't know if we are crazy or bored and just need something to do.

With the girls safe at home with grandparents, my husband and I headed to Athens, Georgia for my first bench press competition ever. My husband competed a little in college so it wasn't new for him. It might as well have been. I think 20 years between competitions qualifies for new or first time.

The drive there was filled with questions of what if and statements of I wonder. I had a thousand questions all at once trying to make it from my brain to my mouth. I am sure my husband is grateful for the few hundred that didn't make it to my mouth. He was very supportive and always has been of anything that I do.

So, we get to the competition and had to get dressed in our required competition gear and start warming up right away. We didn't have a lot of time to be nervous. As a first timer, it was a bigger deal for me to be nervous than for my husband.

I felt a little out of my element. I was warming up with men who bench pressed 800 pounds! What was I thinking? Do these men think I am an idiot for trying this? Were they thinking, "Look at this scrawny little girl?" Even the other women there didn't quite look like women (if you get the meaning). I plan on doing this with my natural brute strength. Anyway, all the competitors there, seemed genuinely nice and supportive.

The bench press flight starts and I am the first one on the list. I was so nervous, I could have peed my pants or wrestling singlet as it were. I tightened my weight belt and cinched up my wrist wraps. Here we go. I jumped on the platform and straight onto the the bench. I leaned back, grabbed the bar, lie down under it, and was completely intimidated by my task ahead. My spotter husband hands down the bar and weight to me and after a slight hesitation for the judges, I start to descend. Down to my chest with complete control and I hear the "PRESS" command. I pushed it up with relative ease. I had done it! It was my first public bench press competitively. I am now a power lifter. My whopping 66 pounds was my first attempt.

A failed second attempt and a successful third attempt of 71.5 pounds during the next two rounds were enough to win my weight and age division and "Best Women Lifter in Bench Press". I was happy to bring home my medal and trophy for my very first competition.

My husband, with ease, threw up all three attempts successfully. He won his weight and age division and set a World Record in the process. He also came home with a medal and will receive his World Record certificate in a couple of weeks.

In the end, we both competed with our raw strength. We didn't use any special bench press shirts that enhance strength or any illegal substances that enhance muscle and strength. We were completely natural and plan to stay that way. My husband may venture in to the world of bench press shirts but that in itself requires a whole different type of weight training.

We both qualified to enter the Global Powerlifting Alliance (World Competition) coming in December. We will keep training and hopefully represent the APC with some wins.

Yesterday, we both walked in the door winners of something we had been working on together. You can't ask for a better combination! What a day!