UNDERDOG POWER MEET 2024
Saturday 12th of October
@ The Club Edinburgh
Intro * Rules * Sign-up *Accessibility
Join the Underdog Power meet 2024!
🏋️ Do you like lifting the heavy thing and also putting it back down? 🏋🏾♀️
Are you a big ol’ queer? Do you want to get together with a bunch of other powerful queers to lift heavy things?
💪🏾 Well, have I got GOOD NEWS for you! 🏳️🌈
On Saturday the 12th of October at 1:30 PM, just in time for Spooky Season, queers who wanna lift and their friends and fans of queers who lift will get together at The Club Edinburgh in Leith for the Underdog Power Meet! You’ll be competing in Deadlifts, Bench Press and Squats with other fans of heavy things designed for lifting.
If you’re someone who doesn’t lift but you like people who lift heavy, you’re welcome to spectate!
🏆 Do you like prizes? 🏆
MORE GOOD NEWS! There will be prizes both silly and serious for those competing. Most improved lift? Yes! Best Lift Face? Why not?! Coolest costume? It’s October; Absolutely!
🏳️⚧️ Do you like supporting trans people’s fundraisers? 🏳️⚧️
THE BEST NEWS OF ALL! This entire event is put on to support Coach Huld’s (that’s me!) transition fundraiser, as I am fundraising for facial feminisation surgery. Anyone who wants to enter the competition will have the option to fundraise for their entry up until the day of the competition or pay for entry via a personal minimum donation of £20. And you better believe there will be a prize for most money raised! :D
For every £1 that is donated to my own fundraiser, I will be paying forward 25 pence of that money to other people’s transition fundraisers with a focus on Black, Indigenous and People of Colour and disabled trans folks. So the support you give me will in turn support other people’s fundraisers you might otherwise have missed. 🏳️⚧️
Get HYPE and get LIFTING!
Stay updated by following @UnderdogHealth on Instagram!
Rules of the Game
This is a Powerlifting Meetup and a friendly competition for fun, so don’t expect the usual rules if you’ve been to powerlifting competitions in the past. Please see rules and guidelines below.
These rules are a living document for now, as I’m still working out all the details, so some rules and prizes might change in the months leading up to the competition, but most likely only to help clarify current rules, increase safety for participants, or to make it more fun.
The lifts in competition will be Deadlift, Bench Press and Squat. You can choose to compete in any or all of these, and neither one of them is required.
Entry:
All queer-identifying people can enter this competition, and anyone can come to spectate and support the lifters! We do not police identity and will not question your “right” to join.
This is a fundraising competition. To enter, you agree to either fundraise among your own circles to Coach Huld’s Transition Fundraiser., or make a minimum personal donation of £20.
When entering the competition, you have until the end of June to submit a One Rep Max entry test of each of your chosen lifts.
If you are still fresh in the game and don’t trust yourself to safely lift a true 1RM, that’s fine. Lift the heaviest you can safely do for one rep.
In most powerlifting competitions, you’d enter by estimating your competition lift. Not the case here. You will enter with your current lift in order to try to improve it on competition day.
Please submit a video of your lifts with your numbers. Directions for this will be provided upon entry.
Ask us upon entry if you’d like to organise having your test observed in person at The Club.
There are no weight classes.
The classes competed in will be Beginner (6-12 months experience), Intermediate (1-3 years) and Experienced (3+ years). Please provide this information as you enter, using the time of the competition as the marker, namely October. If you’ve lifted since September in 2023, that would put you in the Intermediate category.
If you’d like to compete for strongest proportional lift, you need to be weighed at the start of the competition in order to measure the proportional lift.
Clothing/ Kit:
Absolutely anything you feel comfortable moving in. If you want to deadlift in dungarees, we’re not going to stop you!
If wearing shoes, they need to be clean (not as in sparkling, just not trailing dirt/ sand everywhere)
Costumes are heavily encouraged!
You can use lifting straps/ belts or any other accessories that help you, as long as you also use those in your entry test.
Lift Specific rules:
Bench Press
Butt and Shoulders must be touching the bench at all times.
You can use a height booster for your feet if the bench is too tall to comfortably reach the floor.
Bar must touch your chest but must not bounce off the chest.
Squat
Your hips must come down to the height of your knees or below.
No bounce at the bottom!
Deadlift
Lift the heavy thing.
Wide or narrow leg positions are both fine, but use the same style you used in your entry test.
Attempts:
For each lift, you get three (3) attempts on the weights of your choice. You can increase the weight after the first and second try if you like.
Each attempt is one minute (60 seconds) long, so if you fail to get the weight off the ground, you can still take a step back, reset and try again without losing your attempt.
A whistle will sound when you are ready to lift to mark the start of your attempt and then again to mark the end of the minute at which point that attempted is forfeited if you have not lifted the weight yet.
You can also forfeit an attempt ahead of time if you know you can’t lift it.
Prize Categories:
Biggest Increase
One for each lift.
Measured in a percentage increase in weight lifted between the entry test and your biggest competition lift.
Strongest Proportional lift
One for each lift
Based on what percentage of your body weight you lifted in your heaviest successful attempt.
Best costume
This is not necessarily an award for the most elaborate or fancy costume. It’s about being creative and fun.
Most Money Raised for the Fundraiser
Plus some SURPRIZES! 👀
Safety
In order for your entry to be complete, you will need to attest that you are physically able to safely engage in physical activity. Most lifters will be familiar with this basic form known as a PAR-Q. The PAR-Q will be provided to fill in after you have entered.
You are responsible for your own lifting safety. You make your own choices and we don’t police safe lifting technique. If you throw your back our trying to lift a weight that is too heavy for you, that is your own responsibility though obviously we’ll support you if anything happens.
For bench press and deadlift, a minimum of two spotters will be present to aid in moving the weights into position and help out if the competitor has to bail mid-lift.
There will be at least one first-aid trained person present at the event in case of an injury.
When a lift is occurring, the designated lifting area must be clear of anyone who is not the competitor and their spotters.
Spectators are to stay out of the lifting areas at all times.
Behaviour (spectator/ competitor alike!)
Should be obvious: Absolutely no bigotry allowed.
This is a body neutral space. No anti-fatness allowed.
Don’t police gender or sexuality.
Generally, just be respectful. Give people space to be themselves.
If you are told by the organisers or lifters to move, please move. This is for safety more than anything.
Do not photograph anyone you don’t personally know and have consent to take photos of.
If you are told your behaviour is borderline or unacceptable, correct it or leave.
No uniforms allowed at the competition, of any kind, including as costumes.
Sign Up To Lift
Accessibility Information
Accessibility info:
Entry at street level. Entrance has ramp, but threshhold is not flush with ground so wheelchair users might need support getting in.
Binary Gendered Changing rooms with toilets (at Ground Floor). I will confirm with gym owner if it’s doable to make them gender free for the duration of the competition. (this depends on whether there are classes in the studio next door at the time of the competition)
Accessible & Gender neutral toilet/ changing space at Ground Floor
Spectator spaces will be mostly on mezzanine level, stair access only, but there will be some spectator space on floor level.
Music will be mostly set at a lowish volume.
We do not currently have specific lifting accessories for access needs of competitors but will endeavour to acquire what we can based on competitor needs.