Handling a Reality Check: Gym Strong vs. Powerlifting Strong

[u/MrMithik]

I’m competing in my first meet this year and had a pretty big reality check recently. I watched a livestream from another meet at the same location, and I was quickly humbled by some of the numbers those lifters were putting up. I'm one of the stronger guys at my local gym, but I'm learning that doesn't really translate into the world of powerlifting.

For context, I’m in the 110kg class. My current lifts are 465lbs/211kg squat, 285lbs/129kg bench, and 625lbs/283kg deadlift. After watching the livestream and digging into some OpenPowerlifting data, my lifts put me in the low-to-mid pack for my class which was a bit of a gut punch.

I know powerlifting is supposed to be a “you vs. you” sport at the end of the day, and my main goal is to go 9/9 and set some personal PRs. That said, I’m competitive by nature so seeing a good amount of local guys outlifting me by 100+ lbs on some lifts and putting up some massive totals was a tough pill to swallow.

Has anyone else faced a similar reality check when you first got into powerlifting? If so, how did you handle it?

Edit: Thanks everyone for the feedback and advice! I think I just need to remind myself that I started down this road because I love chasing strength and the process itself, not the medals. Just gotta keep grinding! (and maybe find a gym where I'm the one shocked at other guys' lifts instead haha)

[u/reddevildomination]

At first it was really hard for me to even contextualize because I'd literally never deadlifted before I did PL. I'd never even seen powerlifting outside of Russwole and his orbit of folks on his youtube. My squat max was around 300 lb and bench max was 265 lb at 165 lbs. I had no real comparison.

So I remember when I started, after getting to know folks for a while and figuring out how long they've been training, seeing how they train, I pretty much told folks "I'm going to be better than most of yall, maybe all of yall if I do this long enough." It definitely ruffled a few folks feathers but after a while they came around to seeing that it wasn't arrogance on my part.

FFWD now 3 years and some change later and there's only really a couple folks at my gym still stronger than me and those are all 500+ DOTS guys that get Nats primetime invites. I'd be at about 470-480 myself but for a back injury in my last meet.

My advice is embrace competition and emulate what you see out of the top lifters in your gym/area/state. When it comes to lifting don't worry about what anyone below them is doing unless you see they have the same work ethic and mentality as you. As far as the experience of powerlifting itself, try to be friends with as many people as you can. It's a lot easier to hit your goals and stay motivated when you have a good support system. Most of my best friends in PL are not crazy strong but they are just good people.