So You Wanna Powerlift?

[Future]

First off let me say that you are crazy! And I love it! Powerlifting in it's purest form is phenomenal. It is the strongest sport in the world. It takes a rare breed to want to push yourself to those limits of strength. Second, start slow. Learn good technique. Study training protocols. Don't make things complicated. Finally, set goals. Whether in a meet or just in the gym, you need those goals so you can reach for that intrinsic success via progression.

When deciding your training try to not overdue the basic and powerful concept of just "lifting." There are alot of great ideas and theories of strength but do not get so frantic looking for that one concept that you flounder and do nothing. A nice split to start out is M-W-F where each day is focused on a core lift with several assistance exercises. A nice rule is to never do more than 40 total reps including warm ups for your lifts. Deciding what assistance lifts to add is not hard. You can't do them all so just pick 3-4 each session. Rotate new ones in from week to week if you like. It is important to note that for now all assitance work should not be done to failure.

Monday:
Squat
Leg Press
Ham Curls
Good mornings
Hypers

Wednesday:
Bench Press
Narrow Grips
Dumbell Shoulder Press
Seated Rows
Pushdonws

Friday:
Deadlifts
Good mornings
Shrugs
Pulldowns
Spider Curls

This is a base routine. Now setting up your sets and reps for the core lifts should be progressional.

Example:
Squat
135 x 12 warm up
225 x 6 warm up
315x 3 warm up
405 x 1 warm up
545 x ??? **goal for this week 5 reps
545 x ??? **goal for this week 5 reps

Note that my warm ups were pretty much cut in half as the sets increased. If I reach my goal of 5 reps for each set then I will add more weight or a couple of reps. This depends on where you are in your training cycle. If you were getting geared up for a meet you would want to increase the weight while decreasing the reps. In the offseason you could increase the weight to a degree while focusing more on hypertrophy while keeping the reps in a cycle of 6-12 from week to week.

I would suggest again keeping the assistance exercises 1-2 reps shy of failure. It doesn't mean the exercises are not challenging but we want to be considerate of your recovery as well. Many times once you realize you are getting run down it's too late. Progressional sets of 8-12 rep is fine for now. The higher rep scheme will be a welcomed sight to your joints as well.

 

[MAINEVENT]

Nice post Future. I would like to start including a little bit more powerlifting into my training, and am pretty oblivious to the training. This would fit perfectly into my schedule right now. I may have to give this a try.

 

[oldfella]

Good post future. Before I moved on to BBing I was a powerlifter. My training was pretty much along what you have outlined above. I did get a real buzz out of lifting the big numbers and it built a rock solid foundation for the muscularity I have today. I highly recommend anyone getting started in BBing to do powerlifting for a few years first. It will set you up with a dense physique later. Again, very good post Future. I love the pics of Scorpio at the bottom of your posts.

 

[Turbomaster]

I've seen you lift future ........I only have one thing to say ......Yes sir !