Powerlifting Beginnings

I lift things up. 

I started training as a power lifter sometime in 2011. I say "training as a power lifter", but what I really mean is that I started lifting with a purpose. Rather than just do whatever I felt like at the gym, I started following a program. Starting Strength to be specific.

I was in doing Squat/Bench/Deadlift 3x a week, following that linear progression until it would run out on me. I kept chasing that dragon until I stopped seeing that progression follow the straight line, which took about a year. Then I switched to a Texas Method cycle for about 4 months. 

In the course of about a year and a half, I worked from weights something like:
Squats : 225 x5 -> 345 x5
Bench : 155 x5 -> 225 x5
Deadlift : 225 x5 -> 385 x5

I topped out as a power lifter at my last "meet" with friends at a bodyweight of 202 pounds with a 385 squat, 255 bench, and a 455 deadlift. A 1095 total was about as far as I was going to get. I just missed my 405 squat at that meet, I wanted it but it didn't come to me. That would have put me over 1100, but it wasn't meant to be.