
26 Nov Paul Oneid – EPC Finals Meet Write-Up
On Saturday, I competed in my first meet in a year – the EPC Finals in Guelph, ON. Â This was an IPL sanctioned meet and I competed in wraps at 220lbs. Â It was at this meet 1 year ago where I tore my quad and I specifically chose it for that reason. Â I ended up with an up and down day going 3/3 on the squat with 777lbs, then only hitting my openers on bench and deadlift. Â My final results were 777 – 396 – 666 – 1839 @215.4lbs.
Now, as you can see from the video, there was a lot of emotion after this lift. Â Let me provide some context…
In Feb, 2015 I had my best lifting performance to date. Â I was planning to compete at RUM 7 (I think?), but due to a change in career, I could not afford the travel and opted to compete 5hrs from home in Vermont instead. Â I competed against Carlos Reyes, who was in a similar situation. Â I ended up going 800-430-700 – 1930 @218.5, losing to Carlos by only 15lbs. Â He has since gone on to total well over 2k and lift against many of the best in the world. Â After that meet, which if you’re good at math was almost 4 years ago, I was determined to be one of the best in the world.
In the months that followed, I pushed myself as hard as I could taking some liberties with my body that I would soon regret. Â I had been dealing with IT band pain for as long as I could remember at this point and I did very little to resolve it. Â Some treatments here and there, some SMR, some correctives, but never addressing the issue. Â I hired a very notable coach to prep me for my next meet and training was going incredible. Â Hitting 20-30lbs PRs on every exercise, every week. Â Yes, I was still in pain and moving poorly, but I was strong, so fukit. Â This continued until 12 weeks out when my body finally decided to fight back. Â I tore my lateral meniscus in my left knee while squatting my 3rd set at 665×4. Â I tried my best to rehab it, but it was futile and I eventually had surgery in Dec 2015. Â Typically, menisectomies (cleavage of the meniscus) are simple procedures, but because of the severity of the tear and the damage I had done to my IT band, mine was not simple. Â The surgeon had to perform a partial lateral release, where they shave down the IT band to release tension. Â My patella had actually been tracking laterally by over a centimetre – hence the chronic pain and tendonitis in my knee.
Lesson 1 Ignored – Take care of your issues and listen to your body. Â It always wins!
In keeping with the theme here, I rehabbed as fast as I could and got back on the platform before I should have. Â Because of the quick rehab and the lateral release surgery, I had developed a very significant hip shift preventing me from deadlifting sumo, or squatting in my normal stance. Â Instead of slowing down and addressing the issue, I just said fukit and switched to conventional and squatted more narrow. Â 6 months after my surgery, I went 5/9 via 780-400-670 -1850 Â @220lbs. Â After this, I should have been happy to be back competing, but I wasn’t. Â Not only that, but I had to relearn how to pull conventional and try to squat more narrow. Â This time, I semi adjusted the plan. Â I started working Jon Byrd as my coach and worked hard to resolve the hip shift. Â I managed to improve my squatting, but not entirely, and I remained pulling conventional. Â I also decided to go up a weight class to 242lbs.
Lesson 2 Ignored – Slow down!
My body took to the new weight well, and I think that bought me some time physically. Â Working with Byrd, I was healthier and ended up having a solid meet in October 2016. Â I competed in wraps at 242 in an attempt to qualify for the Arnold in 2017. Â I put together a solid meet, going 8/9 via 805-420-725 – 1960, easily qualifying me for the Arnold. Â The issue was that it was actually 5 wilks points worse than my 1930 @220, so I was not even remotely happy. Â At this point, my mindset immediately returned to that of Feb, 2015 – I was going to be one of the best in the world. Â I had it in my mind that I was going to go 850-450-750 4 months later and assert myself among the top lifters. Â I was going to do whatever I had to do to get there. Just as I did in Feb 2015, I continued to make bad decisions with my body and ended up tearing my pec 6 weeks out from the meet. Â I competed anyway, having my worst lifting performance to date going 3/9 via 765- 410 – 660 – 1835 @242.
BOTH Lessons 1 and 2 ignored again!
Now, you might think I had learned my lesson at this point, but I didn’t. Â After the Arnold, I was more determined than ever to “show the world” what I could do. Â I rehabbed the pec faster than I should have and kept pushing the training. Â Remember that hip shift? still not resolved. Â Remember that chronic knee pain? Still not resolved. Â Remember that torn pec? Still not totally resolved. Â I took a longer off-season after the Arnold and decided to compete at the end of the year in sleeves and return to 220lbs. Â I thought if I put sleeves on instead of wraps, I wouldn’t be pressured to push the limits in training. Â Well, needless to say, that was not the case. Â I kept my bodyweight up at about 240lbs throughout the prep and pushed everything as hard as I could. Â At about 4 weeks out, the hip shift reared its head again and my body told me to go fuck myself. Â I tore my right lateral quad while squatting 722 in training. Â Initially, it was not that bad and I could actually squat relatively pain free, but there was a bunch of bruising and a visible dent in my quad. Â If you’ve followed my training, you know what decision I made… I competed anyway! Â I made the HUGE cut to 220 (which was dumb with a torn muscle) and on my second attempt on the squat, I tore the quad again while successfully squatting 705 in sleeves. Â I finished the meet going 705-418-666 – 1789 @220lbs. Â I pulled the deadlift stiff leg and kept my 666 opener for the irony.
Let’s take an inventory…
- Feb 2015 – Total 1930@220lbs, good for top10 all-time squat and top20 all-time total
- Dec 2015 – Knee/IT band surgery
- June 2016 – Total 1850 @220
- Oct 2016 – Total 1960 @242
- Feb 2017 – Tear Pec, total 1835 @242
- Nov 2017 – Tear Quad
- Dec 2017 – Tear Quad again, total 1789 @220 in sleeves
Basically, regardless of the amount of effort, energy, or sacrifices I have made in the pursuit of a bigger total, I have not had a PR since Feb 2015. Â Depressing isn’t it? yea, kinda… but, do you know what’s worse? Aside from the Oct 2016 meet day, I had not had fun lifting since 2015 either.
Time to change!
After last year’s EPC Finals, I decided to take some time away from powerlifting, get healthy and re-think my approach and mindset. Â I had a lot of issues that needed to be addressed if I was going to be able to compete again. Â My knees were in chronic pain, and I could not stabilize my hips in any loaded lower body movement. Â By tearing the quad a second time in the meet, it was actually almost a 10″ vertical tear on my lateral quad, all the way up to my TFL/ Rec Fem. Â So, now on my left side I had issues stabilizing laterally because of the knee surgery and on the right side I had trouble stabilizing laterally because I was missing part of my quad. Â All of this because I did not listen to my body and address issues before they became serious.
First goal for the time away – get healthy. Â Not just address my injuries, but get healthy physically AND mentally. Â I got an appointment with my GP and started working with Tucker to lose some weight. Â The weight loss process lasted until May, but the get healthy process is ongoing for life. Â I am never letting lifting interfere with my physical and mental health ever again. Â NOT WORTH IT!
With the weight loss, I ended up losing 25lbs and looking the best I have in my entire life. Â My blood work was perfect and I had resolved my injuries and was pain free. Â It only took me 5 months away from powerlifting and A LOT of strategic corrective exercise. Â The problem – I was very weak! Â I decided to work with Derek Wilcox to help me rebuild and get back to the platform, but guess what happened? Â I started having pain in my knees and hips. Â In the past, it would have gone ignored, but not this time. Â I contacted Derek and said I needed to back off. Â He understood and I did just that. Â I backed right off until I was pain free again.
By this time, it was about July/Aug and I decided to take another try to rebuild my strength. Â I kept a lot of variety in my training, stayed on top of the correctives that got me to my pain free status and I played it very slowly. Â I also stayed very active and did cardio daily. Â I did this all the way until the meet this weekend. Â A nice slow approach and backing off as soon as things didn’t feel right. I took what my body was willing to give me and never forced the issue. Â Was I as strong as I once was? Nope, but I was having a great time training and many of my training partners pointed this out. Â One of them, Craig had not seen me laughing in the gym before and he had been lifting at Dynamo for 3 years!!!
Now, don’t take what I said above to mean that I did not train hard. Â I easily trained harder than ever, but I did it in a calculated and methodical fashion. Â No dumb jumps and no unnecessary risks. Â So, what made the squat at the meet so meaningful? One word – FEAR. Â While I wasn’t in pain during training, my right leg was still not back to 100% strength. Â If you watch some of my training videos leading up to the meet, you can see a lot of lateral movement in my knees on my heavy sets. Â It did improve, but it was not resolved. Â Not only that, but I had become so accustomed to pain and discomfort that overtime I bent my knees I was waiting for it to hit me. Â Although I was pain free, I was scared to get up on that platform and hurt myself again. Â I had worked too hard to leave like that. Â I wrote it at the beginning of all my training logs:
“I have 2 goals:
- Get to the meet healthy
- Build momentum for the future
If there is a PR there, I will take it, but I am playing the long game from here on out.”
I stayed true to this in my approach. Â I was going to the meet to take what the day gave me and walk away with a starting point to build from. Â That didn’t do anything the quell the fear, though. Â To do that, I was going to have to squat. Â In the days leading up to the meet, I like to take time to visualize my lifts. Â Every single time I did that, I cried. Â I couldn’t stop myself. Â I knew it wasn’t even going to be a PR, but it didn’t matter because the tears were coming lol.
Based on the training, I knew I was good for close to 800lbs again, but I did not want to chase numbers. Â I set a range of 771-783lbs for my third attempt based on how my opener moved. Â Both lifts felt really good, but I was having trouble with my feet getting stuck to the carpet on my walk outs, so I opted for the middle of the range. Â The walk out was trash, my feet were too close together, I was off balance, Mercury was in retrograde, but I knew I had to bend my knees. Â I maintained as much control as I could on the eccentric and drove up as hard as I could. Â When I racked the bar and heard Jordie yell “good lift,” I tried as hard as I could not to cry. Â Then he hugged me and it was over, I was balling. Â He knew about all the struggles and the work it took to get back onto the platform. Â For me, this 777lbs squat put all the negativity of the last 4 years behind me and was the beginning of me having fun with training again for no one other than me and my own personal development. Â No all-time lists, no proving anything to anyone, no sacrificing my body and my health for something I don’t even have fun doing. Â I am going to be lifting weights for the reason I did when I started – as a vehicle for self-improvement in all aspects of life. I’m proud that through all this I got back to being able to use my drive under the bar to further myself outside the gym by getting married, starting a business, expanding my existing business and furthering my day-job career.
I know this was long winded and probably over the top, but it’s my story. Â Basically a story about how I lost and found the real reason why I lift weights. Â I hope that someone finds some worth while lessons in this and is able to avoid some of the pit falls that I fell victim to. Â I find that those who compete in a sport like powerlifting often have some demons buried deep down. Â Don’t let yours rule you and drag you down. Â Use the barbell to overcome them, not feed them.
Oh the rest of the meet… I’ll expand on that in a later log, but I ran out of gas physically and emotionally and only managed to hit my openers. Â That being said – I got through the meet healthy and I have a ton of momentum to build on, which was the plan all along!

Paul Oneid

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