10 Overlooked Components Of Powerlifitng Preparation.

Powerlifting preparation. Other things to consider besides the program

 

Since powerlifting is heavily on the rise in Australia I thought id would cool to share this. Everyone who decides to compete will inevitably get bit by the iron bug and the long road ahead begins to continually post bigger numbers here a few thins to consider when you believe you have hit your strength ceiling.

 

As a natural lifer competing in a non-tested federation sometimes can be deflating but personally I only ever compete against myself and the fact of the matter is the federation I prefer is full of my mates from all over Australia. The comradely runs deep and I have developed friendships all over the country.

 

The last 2 years my total has floated from 620kg-660kg between the 82.5kg at the lower end and the 90kg class towards the upper end of my totals. I believe there is a point where your powerlifting total will equate to roughly the same but the ratios can change e.g.: you may find your squat goes up at the expense of some bench numbers or any combination of the 3. I am speaking from a drug free point of view and personal experience of my own. Throughout the years I have managed to figure out that I can train my squat with a lot of intensity, frequency and intensiveness, my bench has to either be frequent and moderate or once a week and intense. Finally my deadlift can only be trained once every 10 days moderate or high intensiveness.

 

Here are some terminologies I use with my lifters

 

Intensity: fairly wide spread among coaches that intensity is the load used during training normally identified as a percentage of 1rm. I mean lifting 50% of your 1 rep max with a force that just overcomes the load is not very intense at all.

 

Intensiveness: training methods that facilitate a lot of fatigue either in the nervous system or in the contractile tissues egg: working till failure, drop sets, low range cluster sets.

 

Intense: the feeling or mind set going into the training session.

 

I am writing this article coming of the back the best meet I have competed in. I had a goal for over 3 years of a total of 700kg at 90kg body weight. This comp I weighed 93 but the weight class was 95 and under. I achieved this total with a 285/142.5/272.5 Squat, bench and deadlift and while I was warming up my one of my heavier athletes and I pulled a personal best deadlift of 280 after the comp in the warm up room haha.

 

I try to approach competitions with a different lead each time to get a gauge of what worked and what didn’t so I can better help my lifters and athletes .So finally here are some factors to consider outside of program

 

1. Out of a 13-week preparation I did no powerlifts for the first 5 weeks, and had a general hypertrophy approach all with the goal of increasing the storage of glycogen. I also used this time to fix a strength imbalance between my back squat and front squat. I packed a crazy 40kg on my front squat from 140-180kg which I believe carry’s over greatly to a sumo deadlift
2. After the 5 week prep block I had a deload 9 days in the middle of the 13 weeks to increase my adaptive reserve for the strength cycle.
3. I swapped my chicken, rice, oats, protein powder, avocado for steak, chicken thighs, coconut milk, cheese, ice cream…. higher calorie foods with good amounts of saturated fats will work wonders in a strength cycle…did I put on fat? Yep, did I get stronger? Yep. What was the goal of the program? Get stronger and not embarrass myself against the best in Aus.
4. This should be number 1 but I ran the numbers in my head exactly what I needed to total 700 every time I trained
5. I saved the “psych up” for only big attempts in the gym out of the 13 weeks I really only completely switched on about 3 times
6. The 2 weeks leading into the meet I spent roughly 20 minutes thinking about the comp haha I had a heap of external things going on but this was a blessing. I also took an extra 4 days off on top of the normal 7 days.

 

ON THE DAY

 

7. Once again after not obsessing over the meet I was a heap more relaxed and only completely fired up for the 3^rd attempts, slaps, ammonia the lot. This left far more in the tank for bench and deads
8. I made a conscious effort to keep the food high on the day even though I never feel like eating, I had a good combination of carbs protein and fats all the way into the dead’s 7 hours after my first squat
9. This is absolute luxury but because it was a large Australian event all the lifters had access to an active release therapist in between lifts. After my back cramped on my 3^rd bench this was a huge help for my deads.
10. Finally as cliché as this sounds prioritise the fun and the environment. In all seriousness when your having fun your head is clearer, when you cheer your competition it drives you and puts in a peak state all while removing the “ pressure”

 

I think peak performance is heavily impacted by general personality but this list could help you hit an all time meet in your own books.

 

Nat