After the deadlifts were over I started feel sick to my stomach and actually lost my breakfast, that was a horrible event (LOL) I ran to the car and got my bag so I could brush my teeth and then I tried eating a banana and drinking some water, that did not go too well either as I was back in the bathroom AGAIN! WOW this was horrible, my event had not started yet the guys were deadlifting 405 for reps and there were at least 15 in the event. I had a chance to recover and because I won the first event I was the last competitor of the day. I never managed to hold anything down so I was running on an empty tank, once again the two that were giving me tough competition was the guy that did 100 reps in deads and Ashlee Harris the guy did 100reps with half his body-weight Ashlee did 90 or 91 reps with 40% of her body-weight so this was gonna be tough. FYI I NEVER DO CURLS IN TRAINING, that's righ NEVER, I do like the way my arms look and the bicep is not a muscle used in my sport of Powerlifting, in fact training them and building large biceps in my sport can lead to a bicep tear and that I do not want. Well I was still feeling sick to my stomach but my competitive spirit was taking over for me and I just blocked it all out of my mind. Once again I used the straps and I covered my hands and the straps in chalk to improve my grip even better. After it was over I dropped the bar (50lbs) exhausted! I had to run to the bathroom and lost everything in my stomach including the water I drank, in fact I think the water I drank right after I finish triggered my stomach again. The great news was I did 100 reps and finished with the win of the Bros' VS. Pros 9 and $1,000.00 first place check! After the event we went back to our hotel I took a shower and rested for about an hour and then we went to dinner. I felt much better and was able to hold food down (thank god). The next day we headed into Chicago and met with one of my dads old friends John St Augustine he is a talk show host for WGN Radio and he had it set-up for me to be on the air with him too talk about the event and the release of my book that is about the release. It was a great time and I had a blast! Dave Palumbo and RXMuscle.com put on a great show and, "I'LL BE BACK" for Pros VS. Bros in the future. Sunday after the radio show around 2PM we got in the car and DROVE home, non-stop back to Houston arriving home around 9AM Monday morning (yesterday) and slept most of the day. Today back in the gym training clients and myself.

November 4, 2011 in Reno NV Amanda Harris competed in the WABDL World Championships in the Women's Junior Division 60KG weight class and in the Women's Open Class 60KG division. There were a total of 6 ladies in her weight class including the former world champion of the 60KG class. This looked to be one of the toughest meets ever for Amanda.  Amanda weighed in the evening of the November 3 the same day she arrived into Reno. As she stepped on the scales several of the women in her weight class were there to see if in fact Barbie Barbell was in their class.  The top of the weight class is 132lbs and Amanda came in at 131.6lbs, this is exactly where she wanted to be. She has been eating like a horse in an attempt to gain some weight and to our surprise this was the heaviest she has ever weighed. Not fat at all, her body fat is still under 15% which is very lean for a female. Amanda was scheduled to lift around 12:30PM the next day so after the weigh-in we were off to the resort buffet and Amanda loaded up with carbs. We went back to the room and got to bed early that night, around 8:30PM. The next morning we were up around 5:30AM and got ready quickly and headed down for breakfast. After we finished with our morning meal we headed over to the meet. As she walked into the Grand Ballroom at Pepper Mill Resort she saw allot of old friends in the business. Of course the first question out of every ones mouth was, "How much ya gonna bench today Barbie?" Amanda smiled and said, "enough to win I hope."  She sat around for about an hour and watched the lifters in the morning perform. It's always good to see how the lifters are doing with the judges. What I mean is, watching the lifters before you is always a good indication of how strict they will be judging later in the day. Amanda liked what she saw and felt comfortable with the way the lifters were being scored. Around 11:00 AM Amanda went to the dressing room and put on her lifting singlet on so she could start her warm-ups backstage. There were four benches set up backstage for the athletes to warm-up and get ready for their opportunity on the competition platform. She went all the way to the back of the room and started warming up. A few of the other women also started showing up shortly after Amanda began her warm-up. She always take much longer than the others and here's why. Most athletes just get back there and get warmed up as quickly as possible and most wait until 30 minutes before they lift onstage. She has a different approach. "I like to warm-up the same way I train for a meet, SLOWLY. I do a few light sets to get blood flow going but as I go up in weight I take more time between sets. I like to mimic what I will be doing on stage". Here's why, in this meet there were 18 other women in my flight of lifters. Each lifter gets 1 minute to begin their lifts once the judge calls the bar loaded (meaning the weight is correct on the bar) for the lifter. Once the lift is complete the loaders have to change the weight for the next lifter and that can take 10-30 seconds depending on how long it takes the announcer to call out the weight and introduce the next lifter. So I have no less than 20 minutes between lifts while I am competing. So while I am back stage warming-up I will wait 10-20 minutes between sets and I typically only do 1 reps sets. When I started warming up several of the women in my class came over to where I was and started their warm-ups too. As I got heavier and heavier they all slowly starting moving to other benches to finish their warm-ups. By the time I got to my opening lift I had the bench all to myself. Many of the lifters never go up to their opening lifts backstage.  I think its because they are in fear of doing too much back stage and not being able too do it again on the competition platform. I do things differently there too as I sometimes will go up to my second attempt on the platform. Here's why, number one, getting my opening number back stage takes all the pressure off me as I know I will blow it up when I am in front of the judges, number two it also shows the women backstage what they are up against. Many women can be beaten backstage before we even step out on the platform by intimidation. They see me lifting what they think is warm-up weight for me and in fact it may be the amount I am planning to lift on my second attempt in competition. When they see what I am doing often times their coaches will be forced to change their athletes opening attempt in order to stay close to me. Many times that will cause a lifter to bomb-out of a meet. They lose focus on what they came there for and that is to compete and do THEIR best. They get caught-up in trying to beat someone else and takes them out of their game plan. There's much more to my sport than just picking the weight up (LOL).  We were about 20 minutes away from my first lift so I ran to the restroom quickly and got back and sat down in the staging area(where the lifters sit before they compete) and waited my turn on the platform. My opening lift was the second heaviest in my class with the former world champion lifting 2 kilos (about 5lbs heavier) above me. Not sure if she had changed her opener or not. My opening lift was 214.6lbs and I blew that up easy. Backstage while I was warming up I had already gone up to 225lbs so my opener was easy. As I was walking off stage the next lifter the former world champion walked by me and smiled at me, I smiled and wished her good luck. She opened with 220lbs and took the lead from me. I stayed focused on my task and my dad was figuring out our game plan now that we saw what I was up against. My dad has been in this sport a LONG time so he knows exactly what to look for. As soon as I stepped off stage he walked around to watch what my competition was doing with her first lift. More importantly he timed her lift. Meaning he put a stop watch up and timed how long it took her to push the weight off her chest into a lockout position. That is good info to know after the next lift, I will tell you why in a minute. Once she completed her lift dad went to the score table and gave them my next attempt of 221,9lbs just one kilogram above the lift my competition had just done and here's why. I was not actually competing with her at this point in the meet. I was focused on my gaol of setting the new Junior World Record I was not concerned about out lifting the competition until I had successfully reached my goal of the Junior World Record. What she forgot was I was a Junior lifter not just a women's open class lifter. Once she saw my second lift she figured she had me beat. My second lift went up easy but I purposely pressed the weight slowly so if her coach was timing my lift it would throw them off. You see, when you time the lifts and  each time you see how fast the weight comes up, a good coach can tell you what they think they can lift on a third attempt based on the timing of the first two lifts. So by me only focusing on my goal of a world record in the junior division and not worrying about what my competition was doing and by pushing the weight up slowly on my second attempt my competition had no idea what I was going to do on my third lift. Her second attempt was 225.4lbs and she pushed it up but it was much slower than her first attempt. Now I had already used the small plates to break the World Record on my second attempt so the option of using the small plates again was gone. She actually was 2 lbs lighter than me at weigh-ins so I could not lift the same weight as her and beat her because I was heavier than her, so my third attempt was 231.48lbs. an almost 10 jump over my last lift and 20lbs over the former world record in the junior division. I knew it was all or nothing on this lift. I had never gone this high in weight in competition before but I had done it in the gym and more many times. I felt like I was moving in slow motion as my name was called for my final lift in the competition. All the other women in my flight were standing off to the side of the stage to see if I would be successful in my third and final lift. I head butted my dad and he told me to go get it, I set-up under the bar and I nodded to my dad and he picked the bar up and put it out over me and he stepped off the bench. I paused for just a second to feel the weight in my hands, I know the adrenaline was pumping because 231lbs never felt so light before. I began the lift and took the bar down slow to my chest, as soon as I touched the judge yelled "PRESS"!!! I began to push the weight up and I felt my right arm begin to push a little better than my left so I slowed down and balanced the weight and very slowly fought up the weight to an even lockout. You see if the bar is not level as you lock it out and one arm locks out before the other then lift in then NO GOOD. So I took my time a pressed it out evenly and as I sat up on the bench I looked over to watch the lights come on wondering if I got it or not and then the judges hit the lights all three white lights meaning the lift was good. As I walked off stage with a big smile the champ was walking on. Now all she had to do was lift what I had just done for the win. I'm not sure if she knew that or not but she went for 236lbs, dad said based on her first two lifts that he did not think she was capable of lifting the weight and as usual he was right she got the bar about half way up and then it dipped back down meaning a no lift. I was the 2011-2012 Women's Open Class WABDL World Champion and a new World Record in the Junior Division. The next day the Junior lifters competed but my numbers from the day before carried over so I was not required to lift again and I won the Junior division and was awarded best junior lifter of the competition. This makes my 17th World Championship and my 95th win in as many meets. Can't wait til next year!!!! 

The three lifts are on youtube here are the links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lStF9gr3NGE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYLok9W9jGs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHCJ9ruBeck