How to Begin Powerlifting: Practical Recommendations
A powerlifting coach putting knee wraps on a powerlifter preparing to squat
introduction
Powerlifting is growing in popularity and is an excellent competitive outlet. You can start quickly with a few essential pieces of equipment, and the events are fun and supportive. Here are some tips to get you started with your training process.
POWERLIFTING BACKGROUND
Powerlifting is a prominent strength sport, sharing the spotlight with bodybuilding, strongman competitions, and Olympic weightlifting. It’s a test of raw strength in the squat, the bench press, and the deadlift.
Training with the powerlifts is an excellent way to gain muscle and strength efficiently. The squat, bench press, and deadlift are all compound movements, meaning they work multiple joints and muscles simultaneously. The result is shorter, more productive workouts.
This article focuses on the steps for eventually entering a powerlifting meet, which are the official competitions.
Overview of Powerlifting Meets
Various lifting federations sanction powerlifting meets. Meet directors within these federations usually run the event logistics.
Directors oversee a variety of staff that manage many duties. These include weigh-ins, check-ins, and equipment checks to ensure lifters use approved gear such as knee sleeves.
Perhaps most important are the judges. They watch every lift throughout the day to determine if a given attempt meets the federation’s requirements. That means, for example, deciding if a lifter squatted below parallel.
Powerlifting meets test raw strength by providing each lifter three attempts at each lift for a single repetition. Lifters take one turn at a time, beginning with the squat, then the bench press, and finally the deadlift.
Flights and groups determine the order of the event. That is a larger topic, but the main takeaway is that each lifter takes their attempts one at a time. For example, after your first squat, you will wait while the other lifters in your flight or group take their attempt. Eventually, the order will return to you for your second attempt.
Lifters repeat this process for all three lifts, with some strategy involved after each attempt. Lifters have a short period after a lift to determine their next weight. You can maintain or increase the weight but never go down. That means your first attempt must be reasonable, but that’s an entire article.
Now that we understand how powerlifting competitions work, let’s focus on practical advice.
Recommendations
A sample RPE table
Read Up on Programming
For most lifters, it’s enough to have a general idea of lifting schemes. However, powerlifting is a specialized type of training that requires more detailed knowledge.
A good starting point is the Scientific Principles of Strength Training. Click here for the Amazon link.
Many excellent coaches also put out valuable content for free. Some of my favorites are Mike Tuscherer at RTS, Bryce Lewis at The Strength Athlete, and Stronger by Science.
An example of a training app for athletes to log workouts, track preparedness and recovery, and organize the programming. Notice the training phases on the left. This an example of periodized training.
You can dial in your training by understanding some of the bigger principles and concepts. These include:
Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) and corresponding percentages
Periodization, including undulation, macrocycles, mesocycles, and training blocks
Deloads and pivot blocks
Stages of training including general physical preparedness (GPP), hypertrophic training, peaking, and tapering
Work capacity
Even if you hire a powerlifting coach, knowing this information will improve communication with them and ensure you’re on the same page.
Find a Reliable Tracking System
Once you have a good understanding of the primary training principles, you can start measuring your progress. Numerous apps provide training logs and measurement functions. This includes ratings of your sessions and recovery, along with total training time. You can also use a written log.
You have a few primary objectives:
Track improvements to your estimated 1RM
Track overall volume and intensity
Track the correlation between progress and movement types
Observe any overall patterns, such as the most productive training days or movements that cause more joint pain.
The purpose of gathering this data is that people respond differently to the same variables. Some folks lift more with a sumo deadlift, while others are stronger with a conventional deadlift. Some will find that their shoulders feel great benching 15 sets per week but get beat up when pushing to 18-20.
Even if you purchase an excellent training program online, you must still learn what works best for you.
Choose a Weight Class Carefully
Powerlifting weight classes vary by federation. These set lower and upper weight limits for each class.
Don’t worry too much about these as a beginner. Just focus on your training while fueling yourself accordingly. Do a few meets before making any decisions about a weight class. Weight cutting isn’t an effective strategy, since you’re primary goal is to learn about to navigate meet day. You need to experience with making selections, pacing yourself, and so on.
In the long run, increased muscle mass does correlate with stronger lifts. Depending on many factors - including health goals - you may decide to add bodyweight in order to move up a weight class.
If you do this, make sure to proceed slowly and deliberately. Small caloric surpluses over an extended period will generate more lean body mass. Large caloric surpluses in less time will likely increase your body fat percentage relative to muscle gain.
Check out this article for an excellent deep dive into weight classes. It also includes weight classes from USPA powerlifting for reference.
Learn Basic Nutrition
For a long time, classic powerlifting tended to advise eating as much food as possible. Nutrient quality was a lesser concern.
But strength sports are still sports, and strength athletes benefit from balanced, high-quality meals. As with general nutrition, eating a whole food diet will provide sufficient macro and micronutrients for good health. To maximize your training, also consider the following:
Every day, target 1.6-2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. For a 220 lb person, that comes out to 160-220 grams daily.
It’s worthwhile to see if you can perform with less protein. That leaves more room for carbs and fat, which are generally tastier.
Consume lots of fruits and veggies, but choose easily digestible ones before and after training.
Within 1-2 hours before and after your training sessions, eat about 50% of your total daily carbs. These can be from simple sources that give you readily available fuel, such as juice, bread, pasta, and white rice.
Keep Training for Training
A lot of lifters enjoy intense training. Pushing yourself in the gym is fun, particularly if you have training partners. But when you choose to compete, you must be more intentional about how often and how hard you exercise.
When you’re a powerlifting, training becomes more deliberate and disciplined. Instead of chasing PRs, you want to build your base, refine technical skills, increase muscle size, and improve motor learning patterns to produce greater muscle force. These tend to happen between 70-85% of your max.
When you do lift closer to failure, focus on remaining efficient in your movements. You’ll end up producing way more fatigue, and experience form breakdown that robs you of the power you’ll need on meet day. It makes no sense to gas yourself two days a week and then spend your remaining three workouts just getting by.
Develop a Competition Mindset
Competition is a different story. You need to draw on some additional motivation to execute the lifts. Technique will inevitably break down as you exceed 100% of your normal max strength levels. Fortitude will matter in these events.
Meets are long days with significant gaps between attempts, so develop strategies for ramping up and down. Have your favorite psych-out songs ready, but also master breathing techniques so that you calm yourself and lower cortisol levels.
Conclusion
Powerlifting is an awesome sport that provides unique physical and mental strength development opportunities. Learning to handle max load barbells provides a different experience from regular strength training. There is just something truly powerful that you can’t get with other free weights or weight machines.
If you’re a beginner powerlifter interested in coaching, please send me a note. I offer online powerlifting coaching and personal training in the Evanston, IL, area.
