A big part of what I do all day now, aside from ruling over my gym empire, is deprogram potential new powerlifters from the total shit they have learned from the internet and this new phenomenon of  so-called online powerlifting coaches. I've stated before, other than facebook and Instagram I really never look at any other websites, I just have zero interest. It's not that I'm against learning NEW things, it's just that I'm against looking at a bunch of assholes that are overlooking OLD things. Old things that were basic, easy to understand and were and still are very effective.

 

All I ever see now is videos of lifters hitting a four rep PR, with some goofy shaped bar, some chains hanging off of it, a rubber band pulling it back up, onto a box with a sofa cushion on top of it, with two Slingshots on their ass Etc. That's all well and good and may actually have its place in the realm of training for powerlifting (which hasn't totally been proven to me) but it is utterly and totally NOT what a beginner/intermediate lifter needs. Not some, but ALL of the new lifters that come to me as well as the people that will contact me over the phone and email always have the exact same problem, they are confused.

 

Not one of these coaches they have hired has ever taught them the basics of the actual lifts to them and by the word "taught" I mean HAMMER the basics to them. I have had lifters with three months experience that came to me from other gyms that had their head spinning with advanced Westside method stuff that they didn't understand, every time they squat, bench or dead they have used a different bar, from a different height and could not even perform a proper squat, bench or deadlift.

 

Then I get some people that hire JoeBlow.com and pay them a lot of money to get them ready for a meet and the day of the meet comes and they don't even know how a meet is run, what an 'opener' is let alone what their's will be, the actual rules of the sport, what they can and cannot wear etc. In other words they paid a lot to be ill-prepared. I know I talk and have written about this a lot but until you have seriously mastered the competition lifts themselves you have no earthly reason to be venturing into the world of specialty bars, and other variations of the lifts.

 

Establish a firm understanding of your particular groove and really fortify proper technique before you start changing that groove with other variations. Be a master technician of the lifts. You wont see a shot putter throwing a fire hydrant, a traffic cone, a rolled up ball of newspaper and a can of beer in practice and then throw a shot in competition.

 

As a matter of fact powerlifting is the only sport I have seen where people are now doing much less practice of what the actual events of the sport are and more other bullshit. I was and always will be a believer in the notion that you will get stronger in the lifts you are actually performing. That is where you will always get the most bang for your buck. Assistance work is ok, but it is merely the very thin icing on the cake.

 

Powerlifting is really a far more simple sport than a lot of these new coaches make it out to be. Maybe they are trying to over-complicate things for you so that you think that you need to hire them as your online coach or else you'll never figure it out. In summery, find a coach who was around lifting and competing before the invention of the god damned internet, beg him or her to help you get your head out of your ass and learn the basics.