The 2018 US Strengthlifting Federation (USSF) Challenge will take place on Sunday, April 22nd at CrossFit Oakland and I’ve got details for you. This meet will take place in two sessions, with Open lifters competing in the morning and women in the afternoon.

Please be aware that after the 8:30 AM start of the Open session, the schedule might slip slightly. However, the times below are reasonable estimates:

06:30 – Doors Open, Check In, Get Rack Heights, etc…
07:30 – Check In Complete
07:45 – Rules Briefing
08:00 – Warm Ups Begin, Judges and Spotters Meeting
08:30 – Open Lifting Commences
12:30 – Open Lifting Complete (Hopefully)
12:50 – Open Awards Complete

12:00 – Women’s Check In Begins
12:50 – Check In Complete
13:10 – Rules Briefing Part Deux
13:25 – Women’s Warm Ups Begin
13:55 – Women’s Lifting Commences
17:25 – Women’s Lifting Complete (Hopefully)
17:45 – Women’s Awards Complete

Generalities

When you register at the door,  you will receive your t-shirt or tank top. Please tell the check in officials what your opening attempts in kilograms will be. Go to the platform and get your rack heights for the squat and press. For the women’s session, the squat rack will be near the check in table, not the platform. Once you have your rack heights, return to the check in table to let our staff know those numbers. It takes a moment to adjust the rack and make sure it is the right height for you. I recommend arriving early enough to do all of this comfortably. If you don’t check in by the deadline for your session, you won’t be able to lift. We do not have a weigh in for this meet. Instead, there will be a weigh out. More on that below.

There will be two flights in each session. The flight into which you will be placed and the order in which you lift within your flight will be determined by your opening weights. Flight assignments will be provided after the rules briefing. Everyone in a given session will complete all their squats before moving to presses and deadlifts.

Please read the rules in their entirety. I know that no one likes to read the rules, but these rules are actually riveting. Trust me. They are Hemmingway-esque in their compact and powerful prose. If you want to see me provide a summary of the rules on video, well, here’s the one from last year. It is probably mostly correct.

This meet will be conducted in kilograms and the minimum increment for increases will be 1 kg. It is not a bad idea to have a calculator, or a conversion app for your phone handy if you are not fluent in metric. I will also have a handy conversion chart for you at the meet. It is yours to keep and cherish for as long as you like.

After your last deadlift, a meet official will guide you from the platform to the scale where you will weigh out. A sex appropriate official will be present in the event you need or want to disrobe to make weight. The weigh outs are being done to make it very difficult to cut weight for the meet. It also keeps people who are squatting on the platform at 104 kg from being part of the 100 kg class.

Attire and Equipment

This meet requires that you wear a singlet. I do this to make you suffer. An unintended benefit is that the judges can easily see whether you are squatting to depth and whether your joints are in extension at appropriate times in the lifts.

You need to have a t-shirt on for both the squat and the press. T-shirts need to worn underneath your singlet. If you selected a t-shirt instead of a tank top, you get one upon checking in. It even has a dinosaur on it. For the deadlift, you do not need a t-shirt.

Long socks are required for the deadlift. They must fully cover the calf to immediately below the knee. Soccer, baseball, rugby, etc… socks all fit the bill. We will not let you deadlift if your shins are not covered. This is for the protection of the other lifters as well as for your shins.

Shoes of some sort are required for all of the lifts. Deadlift slippers qualify as shoes, but you cannot just lift in your socks. All deadlifts will need to be pulled from a conventional stance with the legs inside the arms.

Awards

We have some cool prizes for the winners. As with last meet, the best Open and Women’s winners walk away with a stuffed Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Heavyweight, lightweight, and masters winners get smaller stuffed Triceratops. They are pretty cool, too.

Best Women and Open lifters will be determined via the Wilks equation. Same for best heavy, light, and masters lifters. Masters lifters are calculated via a combination of the Wilks and McCulloch coefficients. So much math! Weight class winners will be determined via total within the weight class and will be announced at the meet. Unfortunately, the only prize for winning your weight class is pride. You won’t necessarily get to take home any dinos, unless you also win your division. Hey, if everyone gets a dino, then no one may as well get a dino. That stuffed T. Rex did not become the most coveted award in all of strength sports because I gave them away with abandon.

Extra special bonus: Making a total in this meet qualifies you for USSF Nationals in January 2019.

Closing Details

The competition will take place using a calibrated Rogue Stainless Steel Power Bar. This is a 29mm, 20 kilogram, bare steel bar that has a center knurl in addition to the knurl on the sides. No special squat or deadlift bars will be used. The weights used will be from a calibrated Eleiko competition kilogram set.

Spectators are welcome and admittance for them is free of charge.

Lastly, bring food and a bottle for water. The meet will not be catered, nor will there be food for sale. There are some restaurants and the Berkeley Bowl grocery store within about two or three blocks north of the gym, so you have plenty of options for food. None of them, unfortunately, are in the building. CrossFit Oakland has water for you, but will likely not have any cups, so bring something in which to hold and drink water. The map below shows the gym along with places to obtain sustenance.