Road to Nationals starts Here
Five regions. One standard. Regional Championships bring together the strongest athletes across the country to compete for qualification, records, and Pro status.
Your Regional Championship Guide
Find answers to the most common questions about USA Powerlifting Regional Championships, including qualifying totals, eligibility, meet requirements, competition policies, and more. Still have a questions, or concern? Reach out!
Participating in Regionals
Only USA Powerlifting State members competing within their designated region will be eligible for awards and Pro Cards. Guest lifters (i.e., lifters from a state outside of their designated region) are allowed to compete at ANY regional competition, and they may set state and American records and may earn a qualifying total for a national meet. Guest lifters are subject to all normal rules of competition and must meet the same qualifying criteria to enter the meet.
Dates of competition must fall between September 1, 2026, and October 31, 2026
The QT must have been achieved at a USA Powerlifting sanctioned 3-lift meet since January 1 of the previous year. This includes any Regionals or Nationals from 2025.
Since State meets and Regionals meets are the only meets to qualify for Raw Nationals, the QT achieved in the entered division at a Regional meet will qualify the athlete for that division’s 2027 National meet. American Records can be set at Regionals.
Only full meet, 3-lift competition is allowed, including EmpowerID, adaptive athletes, and the MX division.
Pro Cards will be awarded to the best lifter in each of the following divisions if they meet the minimum dots (or age-adjusted dots).
- Open Female Raw
- Open Female Equipped
- Open Male Raw
- Open Male Equipped
- Masters Female Raw
- Masters Female Equipped
- Masters Male Raw
- Masters Male Equipped
Because Regionals is a direct qualifier for Nationals, the rules/policies for Regional meets are identical in all ways to those of national meets.
All lifting equipment/apparel is allowed as long as it meets USA Powerlifting technical standards.
All Regional meets must use the current regional-specific logo for banners behind the platform and must have custom regional-specific logo medals that use the logo. Custom regional-specific logos will be designed and provided by USA Powerlifting.
Access to the warmup area and the coaching area at all USA Powerlifting sanctioned Regional and National events is restricted to USA Powerlifting members in good standing. This applies to athletes, officials, referees, and coaches.
The entry deadline is 4 weeks out from the start of each Regional.
Hosting a Regional Event
Meet directors who are planning on bidding for Regionals must communicate with the state chair in which the event is planned to be held. State chairs may not deny the sanction, but for planning purposes, must be notified to help them establish their own local calendar.
All 2026 regional meet directors will stay in regular contact with the Regional Chair and Committee. The form of contact will be established by the latter.
The event may take place over two or three days of competition, and weekends may include Friday and/or Monday.
ALL registration must be done through USA Powerlifting National Office’s registration portal.
Venues for Regionals must be in a hotel ballroom and/or convention space.
The venue does not need to be attached to the hotel, but there must be at least one hotel that is offered to all participants for the event.
The venue must be large enough to accommodate two platforms for the competition area. Preferred minimums: 4000 sq ft+ for the main competition room and 1500 sq ft+ for the warm-up space.
The warm-up room must consist of a minimum of three combo racks per competition platform. Each platform must have a 20kg power bar and calibrated kilogram plates at a minimum of 300 kg plates available per warm-up platform.
Platforms must be a minimum of 6×6 sq. ft. and two layers of ¾” material.
Chalk and containers must be supplied for the warm-up rooms.
There must be a display of lifting order for all those in the warm-up room to see. A video feed of the platform is preferred also, but not required.
Behind each platform, there must be at least a 10’ x 8’ (or close to manufactured size) banner that has the current Regionals logo. A fabric banner is preferred, but a vinyl material is acceptable as long as it is not a glossy material. The banner may either be attached by using a hidden stretch material banner stand or on a truss system.
Each platform must have a scoring display that is mounted a minimum of 6 feet off the ground.
A video wall may be used to replace the banner and/or scoring.
Behind the banner and platform, there must be a uniform look for either banners or pipe and drape. There should be no public view of the on lifting staging area other than the lifter(s) on deck.
It is preferred, but not required, that the competition area have lighting that creates a clear “stage” for those lifting. This can be accomplished by introducing lighting and/or dimming lighting that is not over the competition area.
There must be stanchions or some barrier separating the competition area from the audience.
There must be a display of the lifting order for all those in the waiting area to see. A video feed of the platform is preferred, but not required.
All media personnel must follow USA Powerlifting guidelines and have approval to be there.
It is preferred that the livestream be presented on the USA Powerlifting YouTube channel. There can not be a paywall on the livestream. Livestream must be a minimum of one camera per platform. The platforms may run on one or more streams.