Before I go into my spiel, I would like to thank you to all of you who have shown interest in our club and the sport of powerlifting. It is my sincere hope that all of you will remain interested and have a good time with us.
Anyway, I would like to touch on, and expound upon, a few things I believe are of great importance to all of our members, but especially to those of you who are new to the club and to training for powerlifting in general, and even more so to those still on the fence about all this.
First, I noticed that there have been quite a few of you who have stated that you are new to weight training in any fashion whatsoever, or that you have just recently began training, but have no real goals or aim in your training. I will say that powerlifting is one of the absolute best ways to establish such aim and set concrete goals for yourself.
After all, powerlifting is a very qualitative competition--you are simply chasing after bigger, heavier lifts, and you either make the lift or not. This makes it rather simple to set both long- and short-term goals for yourself. Even if you aren't sure what a "good" goal for yourself is, the bottom line is this: your goal is to put more weight on the bar and complete the lift successfully. There is almost zero subjectivity to this.
Another topic I would like to mention is that there were a few of you that put forth an immediate and definite interest in competing. This is absolutely awesome. Competition in a real powerlifting setting will give you further and clearer insight to where you stand as a lifter, and will likely be the single best thing you do for yourself in terms of setting (and ultimately reaching) those aforementioned goals. Powerlifting meets are constantly being ran by the multitude of federations out there, and are all over the country, and even the world. While the financial investment can be somewhat daunting--especially at first--you will find that it is most definitely worth the cost, and you will get back much more than you put in.
To reaffirm a point I, and others, have made several times before, I HIGHLY encourage you all to attend our team training sessions. The environment we set up is like none other here at the University, and being around like-minded people will do wonders for your training. Again, this goes back to setting and working towards those goals. If you have questions about training, setting goals, or powerlifting in general, PLEASE come up to one of us and ask them. We are almost always willing to answer your inquiries, as we want as many of you as possible to become active in our club and sport, and to have the best experience possible for all involved.
If you are unable to make these training sessions (every Friday and Sunday, 4-6pm at the CRWC), just come up to us at any time--within reason--and ask. We were all new to this at one point, too. Otherwise, send one of us an email, post a thread on our team forum, or contact one of is in any way that works for you.
Again, thank you all for your interest in University of Iowa Powerlifting.
NOTE: Kyle, is there any way we can get this sent out as an email to everybody on our roster? I think this would be a great idea, as not everybody is going to be on the forum.