Strength Intel - Issue 7

How to Pick Your Openers

Powerlifting competitions are about more than just strength—they're about judgment. I've watched countless strong lifters lose to competitors simply because they picked the wrong openers. The difference between walking away satisfied versus frustrated often comes down to those first attempts that set the tone for your entire day.

Step 1: Leave Your Ego at the Door

Here's the hard truth: your opener has absolutely nothing to do with what you lifted at your last competition, your all-time personal best, or that amazing single from six weeks ago. It definitely has nothing to do with what your Instagram followers expect to see.

No one has a divine right to lift more at every competition—that's not how strength works. Some days you're stronger, some days you're not. When you fight this reality, you end up with missed openers, bomb outs, and competitions that haunt you for months. Your new mindset needs to be simple: today's opener is about today's strength. If your recent training doesn't indicate a PB is realistic, don't chase it. Your training tells the truth while your ego tells lies.

Step 2: Maintain Perspective

Ask yourself what you're really trying to achieve. Are you aiming to go 3 for 9 with three glory attempts, or would you rather go 8 for 9, building momentum throughout the day? The maths is simple—more successful attempts equal a higher total and a better result.

Your opening lift will usually be the most stressful. It's your first time under the lights with judges watching closely, and the fear of bombing out can weigh heavily. Your entire day rides on this single lift. Understanding this stress, why would you take any risks on opening attempts? Think of your competition like building a house: openers lay the foundation, second attempts build the walls, and third attempts add the roof, where you reach for glory. You can't build that roof without a solid foundation.

Step 3: Anchor Your Decision

Your opener should meet one of two criteria. Either it's a weight you could triple, or it's something you'd consider your final warm-up before a heavy single in training.

Here's my disaster-proof test: imagine you need to squat deeper because your training depth has been borderline, you're fighting a cold that started 48 hours before the competition, and the equipment feels completely different from what you're used to at your gym. Could you still make your opener if all three happened at once? If the answer isn't an immediate "yes", your opener is too heavy.

Critical Safety Valves

Remember, you can change your opener up until three minutes before you lift. This isn't weakness—it's wisdom. If warm-ups feel heavier than usual, your timing is off, or that "easy" weight felt hard, drop your opener immediately.

Experienced lifters adjust openers down more often than they adjust them up. They understand that a made opener at 100kg beats a missed opener at 105kg, that momentum builds from success, and that you can always take bigger jumps on your second. No one remembers your opening weight—they remember your total.

The Common Traps

I see the same mistakes repeatedly:

• The ego opener: "I opened with 140kg last time, so I'll open 145kg today." Your last competition has zero relevance to today's strength.

• The Instagram opener: "Everyone expects me to open big." Trust me, no one cares about your opener if you bomb out.

• The gym PR opener: "I hit this easily two weeks ago." Competition strength rarely equals gym strength.

• The round number obsession: opening at 100kg because it sounds better than 95kg. Made lifts at 95kg sound infinitely better than missed lifts at 100kg.

The Bottom Line

Your opener has just three jobs: 

1. Get you on the board

2. Build confidence

3. Warm you up for your real attempts 

That's it. Nothing more. The difference between a great day and a disaster can be as little as 5-10kg on your opener.

Pick smart. Lift confident. Total big.

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