The Building Blocks of Powerlifting Performance
First off, what is base building? It's a term I like to use to describe the rudimentary steps a beginner or intermediate strength athlete has to take in order to become successful 1, 3, or even 10 years down the road.
A few of the powerlifters I coach have just finished competing this month at BCPA Provincials and many are entering their so-called "off-season", so I thought I would take this time to talk about base building in powerlifting. First off, what is base building? It's a term I like to use to describe the rudimentary steps a beginner or intermediate strength athlete has to take in order to become successful 1, 3, or even 10 years down the road. Think of it as a pyramid, widening the base to support a much higher peak. It can also be applicable for lifters that may have not had the best competition cycle and need to go back to the drawing board to improve their training.
So in practice, what does it mean to build or widen your base?
It means putting conscious effort into investing in proper technique acquisition and developing the right habits and mindset for you to excel in your athletic career. In my mind, there are 3 things that must be addressed to create an environment where you reap in the most benefits from your training. Technical mastery, habits and consistency, and mindset.
Technical Mastery In Powerlifting
“Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.”
In a closed-skill sport like powerlifting that does not depend on anyone else except for yourself and the bar, technical perfection is more in-reach than many other sports. Unfortunately, the ego often gets in the way, causing some people to lift with brutally poor form until they get injured or hit a plateau. If injury or a high risk of plateauing doesn't scare you off, I don't know what will!
I used to be an advocate of performing the competition lifts (Squat, Pause Bench Press, Deadlift) once a week if you were a beginner. My train of thought was, save the higher frequency competition lifts for when you become stronger and enter your intermediate/advanced stages. Performing the competition lifts 1x a week was a common recommendation, but it seemed to always come from experienced, drug-enhanced lifters, who were able to fit in much more training volume within any given session and recover much faster than natural athletes.
Fast forward to today, I'm a big believer that training the competition lifts more frequently makes more sense because it is in line with the principle of specificity, and can be done when fatigue is managed.
Competition lift frequency - more is better
Exposing a beginner to the competition lifts 1x a week is just not enough practice. With my athletes, I prescribe a minimum 2x a week squatting, 2x a week benching and 1x a week deadlifting with an additional hip hinge movement on another day - preferably another barbell deadlift variation like a Romanian deadlift. While this may seem overwhelming for a beginner, it can be done if intensity and effort is controlled.
The first session will be focused on high effort work, where sets are in the 8-9 RPE range. The second competition lift session must be dialed back to a 5-7 RPE range depending on the experience level of the athlete. Any of the programming variables (sets, reps, intensity) can be rearranged, but the theme is to reduce the effort - essentially making it an "easy" day.
A higher frequency of exposure and performing more reps per week will benefit motor learning.
Technical improvements can be made in the absence of high intensity and effort, simply exposing the athlete to the competition lifts 1 more time a week, can do wonders. Squatting, benching and deadlifting once a week can still be beneficial for general strength training. However, if you're an aspiring powerlifter, consider increasing the frequency for faster learning.
Even intermediate or more experienced lifters aren't necessarily exempt from base building. If you're struggling to make technical improvements, read this write up I did on improving technique and the idea of using a technical breakdown threshold (TBT), which is more geared towards experienced lifters.
Consistency
“First we make our habits, and then our habits make us.”
You'll often hear adherence and consistency is everything. The most complex training programs will yield no results if you're not consistent with your training. Showing up to training sessions, completing training within a certain time frame, maintaining focus, good form and technique throughout the session, consistently consuming enough protein and calories.
In order to build successful lifting habits, you must create an environment where you can be consistent.
Consistency in regards to training frequency is one thing I want to talk about in particular. When deciding a training frequency (3 lifting sessions a week vs. 4x, 5x..), be conservative and pick the lowest one you're 100% sure you can maintain for the training cycle.
If you're on the edge about whether you should train 4x a week or 5x a week, pick 4x a week. Programs are designed to spread out training volume given a set training frequency. If you know your work schedule or other life commitments might get in the way of your training, missing a training session every week or other week can add up. You would be essentially missing a chunk of training load that could have been better distributed had you picked a training frequency of 4x a week. While a coach can modify training volume on the week-to-week basis, not all lifters have this luxury or access to a competent coach.
Mindset & persistence
What brings programming variables, technical mastery and consistency together? Mindset and persistence.
Elite-level strength acquisition takes a long time.
There will likely be someone stronger than you.
Training is not life.
Injuries are inevitable.
That's I would tell myself 3-4 years ago If I could time-travel. As an ex-powerlifting fanatic, I completely understand what it feels like to want to get as strong as possible in the shortest time frame possible, thinking "squat bench deadlift or die".
Elite level strength takes years and years to develop naturally (even when enhanced, actually). If you have good limb and spatial awareness or previous experience with weight training, you might be able to pick up the technique fairly fast. But being able to induce the physiological changes to your nervous system and muscles to tackle 2, 3, 4x of your bodyweight on your back or in your hands, takes time and patience. The earlier you come to terms with that, the better off you'll be when it comes to making decisions about jumping on a high-frequency program when you're not ready, or trying to peak and go heavy too often in your beginner and intermediate stages.
Mental persistence also plays a big role in athletic performance and success. Great athletes are able to face adversity, come back from injury, destroy their egos and doubts in order break through plateaus and have excellent performances. Try to see the positives in each situation, but be self-aware enough to know when you're overreaching when you shouldn't be.
Coming Back From Injury
The best tip I can give you is regarding injury, specifically coming back from an injury.
Many lifters feel the need to play "catch-up" after coming off an injury, doing more than they can handle and putting themselves in a downward spiral. I'm not an advocate of training through injuries, it does not develop mental strength nor improve your likelihood of strength success in the future. The best course of action is to wait for the pain to subside, identify how the injury came to be (accumulation of volume - overuse?, poor technique?, freak accident?), address the weakness, and allow several weeks of training before returning back to pre-injury training volumes and intensities.
This is what I like to call athletic maturity. Being able to keep your eyes on the prize, on the long term goal, and realize every injury is an opportunity to fix a missing link, or improve a weakness.
Just like strength itself, mental strength and persistence can have an innate or "natural" component, but of course can also be developed through repetition and hard work.
Better Long Term Athletic Development In Powerlifting
Powerlifting is unique in that it revolves around performing lifts that would be otherwise used as a form of physical preparation in other sports. The squat, bench press and deadlift are all lifts that are commonly used in sports like football and hockey to increase upper body and lower body strength. As a powerlifter though, your success depends on your strength on these big 3 exercises.
If you're going to powerlift, treat it like a sport. You need to be fit enough to play a sport, powerlifiting is no different. However...
Powerlifting is unique in that it revolves around performing lifts that would be otherwise used as a form of physical preparation in other sports. The squat, bench press and deadlift are all lifts that are commonly used in sports like football and hockey to increase upper body and lower body strength. As a powerlifter though, your success depends on your strength on these big 3 exercises.
Training Variation
Ask yourself: Are you in a position to practice the powerlifts with a high frequency? Or can you perform other exercises and round out your athletic abilities while still achieving similar progress?
Just like how athletes must be fit and strong enough to play their sport, powerlifters must be fit and mobile enough to perform the powerlifts. Many times, I see beginner powerlifters neglect all forms of general physical preparation - cardio, intervals, core work, improving overall movement quality, etc. Only until the novices have run Sheiko or Smolov, do they realize they're not cut out for highly-specific work just yet.
While I'm aware that trainees must practice the powerlifts frequently to become a better powerlifter, I'm a big believer in cross-training and including training variation when needed. The skill requirements for raw powerlifting are relatively low, compared to other strength sports such as Strongman events or Olympic weightlifting. Paired with the fact that there are many exercises that can mimic the powerlifting movement patterns, training variation can be very useful.
My clients who have had a history of playing multiple sports or clients who perform a wider variety of training (cardio, unilateral training, core training) in the off-season have been able to become more resilient to injuries, as well as be more successful when it comes to physical performance and mental health on the powerlifting platform.
Mental health and training monotony are big concerns in powerlifting as doing the same exercise over and over again can mentally bog down a trainee. If training isn't fun, why train?
In the last couple of months, I've seen powerlifters wanting to branch out and try different training modalities like Olympic weightlifting and calisthenics, its a great thing to see. Athletes almost always gain some perspective and learn a few things to apply to their own powerlifting training.
Offering some solutions
For novices and intermediate lifters: I urge you to do your fair share of general physical preparation. This means picking exercises that widen your athletic base, while keeping a degree of specificity as you want your physical attributes to transfer over to the sport of powerlifting.
These are my favorite exercises to include for overall athleticism (in no particular order):
Occasional long-slow steady state cardio workouts - FOR RECOVERY
Anaerobic cardio intervals on the assault bike or row ergo machine (60-90 seconds hard, 60-90 seconds easy, alternate) - FOR GENERAL WORK CAPACITY AND HIGH EFFORT TOLERANCE
Isometric core exercises to build core stability and strength, practice bracing and breathing techniques (RKC plank, pallof press variations) - FOR CORE STRENGTH AND STABILITY
Unilateral training (split squats, 1 legged RDLs, alternating dumbbell presses, 1 arm presses, etc) - FOR SYMMETRICAL STRENGTH AND IMBALANCES
For more advanced powerlifters: you've probably addressed general physical preparation properly, that's how you've progressed to become an experienced, advanced lifter. Variation can still be included. Aside from the powerlifting-specific variations, exercises that mimic the movement patterns of the powerlifters can still be used:
Squats - Quad dominant squat pattern
Bench Press - Horizontal Push
Deadlift - Posterior chain hip hinge pattern
Possible variations to use as accessories, during deloads, or in place of the big 3 when training around injuries.
Squats and deadlift alternatives (Front loaded squats, trap bar deadlift, prowler pushes, squat jumps, olympic lift variations)
Bench Press alternatives (weighted pushups, neutral grip presses).
Occasionally including these into your program can reduce the chance of over-use injuries and can be used as alternative exercises to perform around nagging hip and shoulder injuries. Exercises like the neutral grip presses can relieve shoulder stress, while trap bar deadlifts can still provide a high-intensity stimulus without taxing the lower back to the same degree as competition-style deadlifts.
Know when to specialize
Pre-competition is the best time to reduce the amount of variation you're doing, and ramp up the intensity and specificity of lifts. During this stage, the frequency of the competition lifts increase and unnecessary stressors that have already contributed to our athletic base are removed. Things like cardio, isolation exercises and most "bodybuilding" accessories start to decrease in volume in preparation for the higher intensity squats, bench presses and deadlifts.
Understanding training residuals are particularly important when it comes to peaking for a meet. We know that high volume training is required for hypertrophy, however, when it comes to maintaining that muscle mass, lower volume works - as long as intensity and effort is kept high.
This means that as you spend more time with the intensities 85% and above, performing 5 reps or less, you'll still be able to maintain that muscle mass. As a result, it is not necessary to implement "hypertrophy" days in hopes of building muscle, especially if a hypertrophy-focused phase has already been performed in the preparatory period.