This is one of the best and most popular articles to ever be posted on the site. After you read this you will understand what it means to Live, Learn, and Pass On.
Consider where YOU lack focus. These things are widespread knowledge, nothing ground-breaking but surprisingly not prioritized correctly.
An excerpt from The Intermediate and Advanced Lifters Peaking Squat Cycle, don’t leave pounds on the platform due to improper planning.
Everything you need to know to enter the world of powerlifting is right here.
You never know who is looking up to you, and wouldn’t it be a damn shame if you turned out just to be another asshole with a singlet and a status.
Absolutely nothing. That may not be the best question to ask if we’re looking to improve this wonderful sport.
There is no beginning and end, no start or finish, just a boundless chasm of opportunity here. Oh, and the door still sticks.
Here’s what I’ve learned to become an elite lifter at 220: accumulate faults and then fix them over the course of an off-season. You’ll be surprised how it all aligns if you just stop, reflect, work, and listen.
There are countless reasons for the disorganization in the warm-up room, and hopefully, some of this information will help those new or newer to the competition scene to survive in the warm-up area and benefit from it.
The IPA, one of my favorite federations, held the Tennessee State Championships in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, on March 14th. I went.
I was very fortunate at this meet to have had excellent help at this meet. Dear friends helped manage the meet, wrapped my knees, called my depth, and gave me coaching advice and lifting cues.
When it comes to selecting meet attempts, there are a lot of things to take into account. The big one is your goal, but the strategy for getting that goal varies depending on lots of factors. You wouldn’t use the same process for selecting your opener and for winning — at least, I hope you don’t.
Even Doctor Deadlift has bombed out, and for him, it was at his first meet as a 15-year-old in high school. Cailer Woolam was ready to quit, but he kept on pushing, and look at him now: one of the youngest people to make the deadlift world record.
I found the most success when I box squatted, and I applied what I learned box squatting to my raw squat. On meet day, I felt the most dialed in, the most explosive, and the strongest that I ever have on a raw squat. Here’s how.
2018 was not a good year for my powerlifting career. 2019 has been better. My training’s gotten better, I’ve gotten better at caring for myself, and I competed better. I want to do better next time around, though….
My training was more organized than it was for the IPA meet. But I decided to experiment before this meet: I trained using my squat suit without the briefs. It actually improved my speed, depth, and how much weight I could handle.
You’ve spent months preparing and training, and you’ve made a significant financial investment in entry fees, lodging, food, and so on. All this of stress for just 9 lifts sucks up a lot of your energy. You can’t afford to waste your energy, so manage it instead.
Powerlifting is bigger and better than it was when I started in 2004. But there’s is one major exception to the positives regarding the sport’s growth: The death of the powerlifting crew.
Dave answers this question barely even a second after hearing it aloud: “Marc Bartley.” This one isn’t for those with weak constitutions… or stomachs…
In this episode of Table Talk Podcast, Dave Tate puts on a one-man show and answers listeners’ questions about his worst powerlifting meet, his high school football and wrestling career, and more.
Packing the basics is just half the battle. Meet sites can be cold, uncomfortable, and might be far from easy access to good food. All variables need to be taken into consideration while packing for meet day… and these 44 items will help you cover your bases.
The meet prep beast is going to rear its ugly heads at you sometimes, and its mugs come in many forms: injuries, stress, or a lousy no-show training partner. When one of them tries to bite, it’s best to have a flexible plan of action that helps you nimbly dodge from the monster’s jaws.
For those of you who’ve never done a meet, save this, and read it again before your first. And for those of you who just can’t finesse attempt selection, here’s a formula I developed to make attempt selection as close to fool-proof as it’ll get.
The phrase “when in doubt, test it out” applies to a lot of things, including bench pads that may or may not be at regulation height. Although technically, “when in doubt, throw it out” also works, except you’re repurposing a yoga mat — not tossing a protein shake that might have been sitting in the back of your fridge for too long.
2018, you were a great new chapter. You’ve put me in a good place with my training, my clients’ training, and the team’s training. 2019, see you soon.
As a former 150-pound marathon runner–turned–powerlifter, here’s how I increased my squat 1RM from 500 pounds to 600 pounds in a single year.
The 825 opener flew, and I told JP to call 881 on my second. This is when I knew I would “earn my regrets” because I actively prepared myself to become injured due to this decision.
His answer — revolving around canvas gear, Westside, and Louie — may surprise you.
A lot of powerlifters have trouble with this. They can’t get out of the way of their own ego in order to call proper attempts.
The key to stepping on the platform at maximum strength after cutting weight is to spend as little time as possible with your body weight at less than you intend to weigh when you lift — this process is difficult and requires a great deal of desire, discipline, and pain tolerance.
Your future in this sport deserves to be worked on not only at the gym and with your physical strength and power, but outside of the weight room as well, with your mental focus and contemplation.
Two meets in less than a month? I know I’m 76—not 26— but when Joey Smith told me to get in the meet, I got in the meet.
I am, as I am after every meet, hurting in places I didn’t even know I had — this time in my head as well as my body, as I shall explain.
If you wait for the perfect training cycle before doing a meet, you aren’t a powerlifter. You should stop calling yourself one and instead start saying you like training the squat, bench press, and deadlift.
Now that this series has covered the insight of a powerlifting judge for the squat and the bench press, we move to discuss the knowledge we can gain regarding the final lift of the meet: the deadlift.
Team Nebobarbell and I went to Murfeesboro, Tennessee, where I took a crack at one of my competition bucket list lifts.
There may be some powerlifters out there that train by themselves and go to meets alone, but I would bet dollars to donuts that any successful powerlifter comes from a team of supporters.
In the first article of this series, I explained the value of the judge’s perspective in relation to the squat. Now let’s look at the bench press and see what lifters can learn from considering the judge’s role.
Nothing trumps experience — specifically the sheer number of lifts you watch and analyze. Who sees the largest number of lifts? That’s right: the judge.
This was my first experience with 365 STRONG, and my goals were to squat more on the platform than I previously had while continuing to rehab my hand.
A lot of lifters think you have to train over 90% week after week to get stronger. Adjusting to a program like 5thSet may challenge you mentally to trust the process, but it won’t be long before you experience the benefits.
From 1990 to 2000, there wasn’t a single person who came to Westside and stayed who didn’t get significantly stronger. Everyone got stronger, wearing gear or not.
With multiple Goggins Force lifters competing, Steve attended the meet — and now he has some thoughts to share.
This weekend would be more of that testing, coaching twenty-one lifters over the course of a single day. People say I am crazy for working with the number of lifters I do.
I’ve had a taste for where I’m meant to be, and now I will be training with an unmatched ferocity. I may not have been strong enough to beat the colossus on this day, but I faced him prepared to die.
I recently made a transition from someone who had a decent amount of experience and was relatively advanced in one sport, to someone who is a true beginner in another sport. It’s taught me a lot about training and shooting.
At least, not at this point. As it stands, we are left with adding up our heaviest successful attempt for each of the three lifts and the sum of those is how a powerlifting total is born.
Powerlifting is a sport of continual evolution. In understanding federations today, it is important to note not only the evolution of powerlifting athlete, but also the history of why most powerlifting federations came into existence.
If the social theory holds true, then in order for powerlifting itself to make progress, individuals within the group will have to give up a little something of themselves to push the sport further.
Your numbers will be subject to so many external variables, but your character is forged by intentionality.
When the long-term goal is a 1000-pound squat at 220, and the ultimate goal is a 2400-pound total, you need two things: patience and a lot of hard work.
We often find ourselves swimming in a sea of excellence, chasing the purple dragon of someone else’s achievements. That’s not how to become a champion.
