Learn from My Mistakes

Here are several mistakes I have made along the way while competing in the sport of powerlifting since 2002.  We have all made mistakes and hopefully learned from them.  This is an effort to save you from making the same mistakes I made.  These are not ranked in any particular order.

  1. Being afraid to gain weight

    This held me back for the first 3 years.  This is when I should have been concentrating on gaining as much solid weight as possible.  I see this severely hindering the progress for a lot of young lifters today.  I am not advocating ditching all health concerns and shoving junk food down your gullet.  Gain the weight slowly, aim for 10 good pounds per year.  After 3 years you will be up two weight classes with significantly better leverages.  Now everyone is different and from here you need to determine where your leverages are best and where you are strongest.  I have heard all the excuses of why one is not able to gain weight and I most likely have used it myself.  Pick up the fork, put more food in, this is the way.

  2. Going too heavy too often

    This worked very well for a short time so it is an easy trap to fall into especially if training in gear and things are starting to come together leading to dramatic increases.  For myself personally this was almost exclusive to the squat.  This along with some injuries and some bad decisions sent my squat from 755 to 551 in a few short years.  The bench and deadlift training was already rotated decently at that time but squat training was heavy every week.  It ranged from 1-5 reps per set, but always working up as heavy as possible for that day.  We didn’t know what unload weeks were and my body is paying for that now.  From this I have learned from some of the best in the sport how to program for myself but most importantly for other lifters.  Find someone who knows more than you do and train with them, learn how to program and/or pay someone (who knows what they are doing) to program for you.  The work up to 97% every session high school mentality will not last very long.

  3. Neglect of raw training (for geared lifters)

    This will vary greatly from individual to individual.  I personally neglected all raw training for a long time and I feel that has created several disadvantages and injuries for myself.  I would say most probably will not need to go above the 80-85% range raw.  Some may thrive over 90% and some may never go above 60% so find what works best for you but please don't neglect it completely.  Let us say on average a geared lifter will be in full gear for the last 8-16 weeks of training and take that number of 12 weeks.  Two meets per year means 24 weeks of the year in full gear so this half the year is gone.  With the other half year it does not need to be 6 months of nothing but raw training but some should certainly be included.  Some may like every week, every other week, dedicated 4-6 week blocks, there are a lot of options.

  4. Warmup/Stretch/Mobility/Prehab

    There is a boatload of information out there on all these topics.  My main point is do not ignore these things.  I did and learned the hard way even before I began competing.  This taught me to do these things at a fairly early age but damage had already been done.  I know when you are young you feel bulletproof, trust me that you aren’t.  There is nothing cool about walking into the gym, throwing 45 pound plates on a bench bar and cranking out some fugly ass “warm up” reps.  Yeah we are all really impressed. There are plenty of 800-900+ benchers who do plenty of warm ups with just the bar and 25 pound plates.  They might know what they are doing.  You will not need to turn your warm up into an entire workout, but please do something.  General movement warming up the entire body.  Specific lift movement, find the best 10-15 minute little routine that works for you.  Do this stuff on off days too, little 10-20 minute sessions here and there pay a lot of dividends down the road.  Do not wait until something hurts, then you are constantly playing catch up.

  5. Not paying proper attention to nutrition

    This is another thing where everyone reacts differently.  In general if 90% of your meals contain what they are supposed to, you will be doing alright.  One key is also to not let this contradict with Number 1.  Powerlifting is not bodybuilding or physique.  Gaining some fat will happen and that is OK.  Now that isn't an excuse to eat ring dings all day.  When moving up weight classes, some fat gain will occur, this is inevitable and must be embraced.  Combine that with this Number 5 and more of your weight gain will be muscle than if you ignore this item.  Eat for performance, remember that powerlifting is about lifting the most weight possible on a given day, your nutrition habits should follow suit.

Mental Aspect of Powerlifting Competition

 

 

If this is your first meet then the initial step will be to enter a meet.  Find a meet in your area and sign up.  It does not matter if it is 8 weeks away or 15 weeks away, cranberry vodka, do it, do it.  There will never be a perfect time to do the first meet and right now your PR’s are literally zero.  So, if you lift 100 pounds or 1000 pounds all the lifts will be PR’s.  Sign up and do it, go get your first Total.

 

If this is your first meet or one of your first few meets, DO NOT cut weight.  Unless you somehow have a legitimate chance of hitting an Elite Total or World Record then do not add this variable to the competition.  There will be plenty of things to spend energy on, this should not be one of them.

 

Something that I feel is very overlooked on meet day is having fun.  You are going to put in many days, weeks, months, years of hard work to attain your goals.  Meet day is what we do for fun, remember that.  The joy and exhilaration of hitting a PR on the platform is not something I can even describe in words.  There is no other feeling like it and you know what I am talking about.  This does not mean you will not be dialed in and taking it seriously, as you need to be 100% focused on the task at hand.

 

The week leading up to a meet can throw a lot of lifters for a loop mentally.  Depending upon which program or training style you follow you will have between 2-6 days off from training prior to the meet.  Do not allow your mind to play tricks on you.  You are not going to get weaker in this very short amount of time.  This time is going to allow your body to rest and have peak performance on meet day when it counts.

 

Instead of worrying about cutting weight, getting weaker or anything else that is not going to help, you want to focus on destroying your lifts with perfect technique.  Visualize each lift in your head over and over again so when you step on to the platform you have already seen the success and you know in your mind you are going to get the lift.  Always approach every attempt in a meet with the attitude of I will smash this weight.  You need to believe with absolutely zero doubt that you are going to make the lift. If and when you do miss a lift due to technique, a rules infraction or a weight that is simply too heavy for that day do not let this discourage you.  After the meet you can use this as motivation and/or a learning experience on how to get better.  On meet day you roll with it, move on and put it out of your head.  Anything can happen on meet day for the good or the bad.  You need to be prepared for this and work with what you got, not what you hoped for.  If you didn't get the squat you were hoping for do not sulk and throw in the towel.  Attack the bench and deadlift and put up the best total possible for that day.  Also do not let a few sub-par training days affect your approach to the meet.  No training cycle is going to be absolutely perfect.  These days are going to happen.  Remember the training is preparing us for Meet Day so even the days that feel like shit are included in all of the work that goes into making your biggest lifts on one specific day.  Adjust from these days and do not let them diminish your confidence about the meet.  One or two bad training days will not destroy your meet performance.  Sometimes a great training cycle results in a sub-par meet performance and sometimes a crappy training cycle results in a stellar meet performance.  Outside of an injury if you have planned/signed up for a meet go through with it and compete.  This is not easy but there is a zero percent chance of hitting a PR if you do not compete.

 

Be happy but never satisfied. One of the great things about powerlifting is there are no limits.  There is always 5 more pounds.  It may take months or even years to achieve these 5 pounds but when you do, there is no greater feeling.

 

After the meet can be a tricky ride.  You will want to implement the new things you have learned and start working towards your next meet but your body is going to be totally shot.  Resting after a meet is paramount.  This is totally individual and different lifters will require different amounts of down time after a meet.  This can range from 3-14 days depending on training age, injuries and a lot of other factors.  Powerlifting is an addiction.  We are addicted to competing, getting stronger, hitting PR’s so when the high of the meet is over a low can creep in.  Handling this will be individual as well.  For some it may simply mean to focus more on work since you were most likely slacking off at work the 2 weeks leading up to the meet. It could mean to start a project at home that you have been putting off.  Taking a vacation or simply enjoying the down time.  Whatever ends up working best for you. Please be aware that going into this period you may not feel great but it will be very short lived and you will be back in the gym training for your next meet very soon.  I believe knowing what to expect will be extremely helpful.