I just completed my last competition in powerlifting, and realized that it’s been 5 years since I started.
I’m a lot stronger now than I was 5 years ago, and along the way, I learned a few lessons.
In this article, we’re going to cover:
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Why I got into powerlifting in the first place
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Lessons learned in 5 years
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Surprises in my training
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Interesting personalities in powerlifting, and the friends I’ve made
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What I would do if I was starting powerlifting all over again
Original source: here.
Why I Got Into Powerlifting
I was in martial arts for 12 years, and enjoyed it. But it wasn’t until I started competing that I felt the need for constant progression. Unfortunately, as my martial arts instructors left Toronto, I had to stop doing it, as there wasn’t another club of equal caliber within a reasonable distance. So I was left with a competitive itch.
I considered various different sports to take up, but at that point, being the owner of a startup, my personal training business took priority over my athletics, so I couldn’t necessarily commit to the time schedule of other sports.
That’s where powerlifting was appealing – it’s a solo sport, and you could train on your own time. Perfect.
Although I’d been lifting weights for about 6.5 years before I started powerlifting officially, and was already pretty strong (at a bodyweight of about 140-145 pounds, I could bench press 235 or so, squat about 265, and deadlift around 290), I decided to take my strength to the next level, and start powerlifting officially.
Plus, because progress is measured strictly in numbers (amount of weight lifted), it appealed to both my competitive and analytical side, so I was in.
In September 2012, I started training, as part of the Seneca College Strength Athletics Team. In February 2013, I did my first competition, and my numbers were:
Squat: 314 pounds
Bench press: 242 pounds
Deadlift: 352 pounds
By my last competition that I took seriously (my last 2 competitions weren’t serious, due to injuries), my numbers were:
Squat: 396 pounds officially (407 unofficially)
Deadlift: 424 pounds – that was more than triple my bodyweight
Throughout all the competitions, my own bodyweight was within the 140-145 pounds range.
Lessons Learned
Because I was already a personal trainer for 7 years before I started powerlifting, I already knew a lot of the basics, and more advanced things, so I came into it with a very good knowledge base. However, certain things I learned experientially. Here are a few of the most important lessons I learned.
Lesson #1: The Heavier You Deadlift, the More Rest You Need
Deadlifts are in general the most neurologically demanding movement I did, because they use so much muscle at the same time, they’re uncomfortable, and you need time to “psych up” to do them. However, in the beginning of a training cycle, when I was working with lighter weights (65-75% of my max), it wasn’t that big of a deal. I could just walk up to the bar and lift it for the required number of reps.
As the training cycle progressed, and the weights got heavier (75-85% of my max), I now needed to take some time to “psych up” to lift, because it became daunting. But I still completed the required number of reps.
Eventually, as the weights progressed even more (85%+ of my max), psyching up took a good 1-2 minutes before I touched the bar. I would pace back and forth around the room thinking “I wanna do it, but I don’t wanna do it. But I wanna do it. But I don’t wanna do it.” And that lasted until I had a bunch of “I wanna do it” in a row. And again, that took 1-2 minutes. That’s very hard on the nervous system, and does release a lot of cortisol.
For 1-2 weeks, that’s not bad, but if I did that for 3 or more weeks, what would happen is after I completed the required number of reps, and put the bar down, everything would go black in front of my eyes for a few seconds, and I’d get lightheaded. That feeling would go away after about 10-15 seconds.
I’d stick with this for about 3-6 weeks, until I could no longer complete the required number of reps. Then, I’d be banging my head against the wall, for another 3 weeks, trying to get the same weight to go up, but now it was too daunting, and I would start getting weaker.
So the lesson learned is that with lighter weights (65-75% of my max), 7-day rest periods between deadlift sessions are sufficient. The heavier the weights get, the longer I should be resting between deadlift sessions (to the tune of 9-11 days).
Lesson #2: The 3-Workout Rule
Building on the previous lesson with the deadlifts, I saw that if for 3 consecutive workouts, I either stagnated or regressed in an exercise, it was time to change the program. One bad workout could just be a fluke. Nobody has perfect workouts every time for years or decades. Two bad workouts could just be a bad week. Three bad workouts means fairly conclusively that the “shelf life” of that program is over.
It’s interesting that exercises actually start to not only stagnate, but even regress. Yet, those were my observations in my own training.
Lesson #3: The Importance of a Variety of Rep Ranges
Since in competitions, we only lift the weight once, and that’s it, I thought it made the most sense to train in the 3-5 rep range. For the first 3 years that I was powerlifting, I rarely went above 5 reps in the 3 key lifts.
Then, I started to incorporate higher reps (up to 10) for up to 3 months of my training cycle, and I found the training to be less daunting, and more comfortable, without losing progress. So the last couple of years, I’ve trained at 8-10 reps for 2-3 months, followed by 4-6 for another 2-3 months, followed by 2-4 for another 1-2 months.
Lesson #4: The Importance of Speed Work
One thing that surprised me a great deal was when I deadlifted 424 pounds in a competition. The reason that it surprised me is that for about 2 weeks before the competition I didn’t deadlift at all. And for 8 weeks before the competition, I didn’t deadlift heavy.
What I did was something called “Compensatory Acceleration Technique” (CAT). That is, I take a relatively light weight, and do several sets (4-7) of 3-5 reps. So I would use light weights of only 185-225 pounds, and do very quick reps (when you can lift over 400 pounds, 200 moves quickly).
To be honest, when I started doing this, I wasn’t expecting much progress. I just wanted a break from the daunting work of lifting over 350 every single deadlift workout.
So for about 2 months before lifting 424 in competition, I never even went above 250. Yet, the results speak for themselves.
Lesson #5: Isometrics
I’ve written about isometrics in the past, which are exercises where you just hold a position. The theory is that in different exercises, there are different “sticking points.” That is, the 2-4 inches in the range where you have the least tension.
But if you do exercises with a regular tempo, you only spend maybe 1-3 seconds total in this weakest position. And since a chain is as strong as its weakest link, it makes sense to strengthen the weakest link.
In the squat, my weakest position was when I was parallel to the ground. So I held that position for 10 sets of 6 seconds, with 245 pounds (there was a 1-minute break between sets). I learned that structure from Christopher Sommer, the author of Building the Gymnastic Body, and used that method to be able to do crazy stuff like this. I was wondering what would happen if I applied it to powerlifting.
After 8 weeks of using this, I was able to add 30 pounds to my squat. I expected progress, but not this much progress.
A few years later, I tried using the same method with my bench press. After using it for nearly 6 months with the bench press, I made a grand total improvement of… 0 pounds. That seriously sucked.
So it was interesting to see a method that worked in the squat didn’t work in the bench press. Interesting. But disappointing.
Great Personalities in Powerlifting
Along the way, going to lots of competitions, both as a competitor, handler, and spectator, I met some great people. Special shout-outs go to (in no particular order):
Chris Sousa
Chris is the sport coordinator at Seneca college, and a crazy good athlete in his own right. He was the reason that I started lifting at Seneca, specifically, as opposed to anywhere else.
Chris has done it all – rugby, ran a half marathon, powerlifting, Olympic weightlifting, and strongman competitions (there might be even more that I’m missing).
One day, when we were competing together, he competed in 2 different sports in the same day. As they were awarding him for first place, and he didn’t come to receive his medal, we looked around the event to see where Chris is, and we see him a few meters away, competing at another event.
What a beast.
Oh, and sometimes, he makes protein brownies, and pancakes, and brings them to competitions. Delicious.
Adrian Nichol
Adrian has come to be known, as my “Jewmaican brodda.” “Jewmaican” is a mix of Jewish and Jamaican (I’m Jewish, and he’s Jamaican). He taught me slang in Jamaican, and I taught him words (mostly holiday names) in Hebrew.
Besides being a very good lifter (at a bodyweight of 160-165, he can bench press 280, squat around 450, and deadlift about 550), he’s also the best hype man. He can get an audience very excited.
One time, after pulling a personal record at the end of a competition, he looks at the stands, and yells to everyone “follow me on Twitter.” To which, I respond “you don’t have Twitter.”
Loc Nguyen
I also met Loc at Seneca. He is the most connected guy in the GTA powerlifting community. He knows everyone (hundreds of lifters) by name, their personal records, weight classes, you name it. Besides that, he’s a pretty good lifter himself, with a bench press of around 365 pounds, at a bodyweight of about 160.
Professionally, he’s a chef, and his cooking is heavenly. So 2-3 times per year, he hosts “bulking sessions.” That is, he cooks up a storm, and invites 15-25 lifters. And the dishes are mouth watering. From steaks, to seafood, to great desserts.
Chris Aviado
I met Chris Aviado at a large competition in 2015. I’d never seen or met him before, but in that competition, he bench pressed around 350 pounds. At a bodyweight of about 140-142.
Now, he is 42 years old, and just a couple of weeks ago, broke a world record in the bench press, by lifting 369 pounds. And he made it look easy. It looked like he probably had 10-20 more pounds in him.
After my first competition with him, Loc, Chris and I went for dinner, and we were chatting about the training methods each of us uses. Chris stunned me. He said “I’ll have 4-5 beers on Sunday, and then, on Monday, I have a good workout.” So that’s his secret 😉
Maria Taccone
We call Maria the “little Italian.” She’s in the 63 kg weight class, and yet, she’s the strongest woman in Canada in her weight class. She can deadlift over 400 pounds, and squat around 330.
It’s funny to think that this girl can out-lift most big guys in commercial gyms.
If I Had to Do It All Over Again
They say that “hindsight is 20/20.” So after powerlifting for 5 years, if I was to go back to 5 years ago, and do it all over again, I’d do a few things differently. Like what, you ask?
Change Programs More Often
Early on, I would stick with the same program for as long as 5 months. I saw that it was working, so I hated to cut progress short. But usually, progress stopped after about 2-3 months. This was with almost every program. Knowing that now, I would just switch programs every 2-3 months. I would basically follow the “3 workout rule.”
And what I noticed is that the more intense the program, the shorter the “shelf life.” In programs where I was lifting over 85% of my max, I would plateau way earlier (3-4 weeks) than if I was lifting lighter.
Include More De-Loads
A de-load is a period of time (typically a week) where you’re either using lighter weights, or lower reps at the same weights. This is just to give the nervous system a break.
Up until 2 years ago, I never incorporated de-loads. Once I started to incorporate de-loads, I started to not get as burned out, and make progress for longer. If I was to do it all over again, I would do a de-load once every 4 weeks. Three steps forward, one step back.
Keep a Journal
As you know, I meticulously track the progress of my clients. But I didn’t do that for myself over my time powerlifting. Mostly because it was a hobby, and I didn’t take it as seriously as I took martial arts, beforehand.
But if I was to take my lifting seriously, I would keep a log of my training, and analyze it on a monthly basis, to see what I could learn about my body’s responses to exercise.
Hire a Coach
Yes, I’m a personal trainer myself, bu there’s a saying that “even coaches need coaches.” The reason I’d hire a coach is because it’s hard to be objective about your own training. You fall into the trap of “client physiology.” You know it’s stupid and incorrect, but you think there’s “client physiology”, and you think there’s “me physiology.” Obviously, physiology is the same for everyone, but as the one managing your own training, you fall into that trap.
If I had a coach, I wouldn’t have to be objective about my own training – I’d just have to follow directions, and shut my brain off. If I had to do it again, I’d hire a coach.
Do More Corrective Training and Stretching
Corrective training is when you identify whatever muscular imbalances you have, and include specialized exercises to correct those.
I frequently use them with clients, but going back to the previous point of “client physiology”, when I personally do corrective exercises. I find them boring. Really, really boring. They’re not difficult, they’re not movements where you can brag about how much weight you do in that exercise. They’re just movements that may be of short range of motion, light weight, and limited progression.
They’re boring, but unfortunately necessary. Like brushing your teeth.
If I had to do it all over again, I’d get a coach who’d say “don’t like corrective training? Too bad. Do it anyway.”
Get Regular Body Work
Most sports, at a high level beat up the body pretty bad. I had my share of injuries with martial arts, and I had my share of injuries with powerlifting, and no question, I’m going to have more injuries with whatever I do next.
However, if I was getting some kind of body work (massage, chiropractic, Bowen, Trigenics, etc.) on a regular basis, I could probably prevent a few injuries, and those that I couldn’t prevent, I could probably shorten the duration of those injuries.
My mistake was in thinking that if I just rest that injury long enough, it will go away on its own. Sometimes it did, but it took months, and other times, it never went away on its own, so I ended up going to get body work anyway, and then it would go away.
It I was to do it all over again, I’d see some kind of manual therapist on a regular basis, even when I wasn’t injured, and everything was feeling great.
