Richard demonstrates his warm up

Today’s blog is from Richard, competitive powerlifter and the latest addition to The Foundry training team. Having competed in his first division-level Powerlifting competition this weekend (videos and photos coming later this week!), Richard has taken his training programme and put together a set of principles which can be applied to any strength and fitness programme.

If you want to learn more about competitive powerlifting, strength conditioning and fitness programmes from Richard, please feel free to contact him at richard@foundryfit.com.

And now, over to the man himself……

_______

This is an article about how I prepared in the four weeks leading up to my first division-level (Greater London) Powerlifting competition.  I’ve been following a (fairly) strict regime to make sure I’m at an optimal weight and as strong as I can be.  While you may not be preparing yourself for anything like that, I’ve outlined a set of general principles you can use to achieve your strength and fitness goals.

So, here it is… My one month lead-in to a competitive powerlifting meet!

Key Goals

As always, I start with the end in mind.  I want to achieve at least my previous best lifts, and weigh-in to be in the 83kg category as opposed to being slightly over and competing with others who will weigh up to 93kg.  That means I need to drop only fat and maintain muscle mass.

That means a squat of 130kg, a bench of 102.5kg and a deadlift of 180kg – all weights I have successfully completed in training.  At this point I should be able to lift more than these, but if I achieve all three in the same day in competition, I’ll be happy and I’ll have an official total to build upon for subsequent competitions.

Training

Have a Coach

I believe that to be the best you can be, you need a coach.   Thus my coach, Martin, at Bethnal Green Weightlifting Club has set me a 4-week program leading up to the competition.  I’ve begun training specifically for powerlifting three times a week, whereas until now I’d been doing 2 powerlifting days, one Olympic weightlifting day and an overall conditioning day.

Train Hard

Each time I go to the gym I train as hard as I can for that day.  The other day I struggled to get 3 reps on 90kg on the bench.  I was surprised, but I hadn’t slept that well the previous night.  So I did a few extra sets of 2 reps at 90kg.  That was fine.  You win some, you lose some.  As long as you show up and work hard, and do that extra set whenever you can, you’ll succeed in the long run.

Have a Structure

Overall my training structure is: Monday, max squat / deadlift.  Thursday, dynamic full body.  Saturday, max bench.  I start with one or two heavy exercises.  Let’s say either 5 sets of 3 @ 80% of my max, or 3 sets of 3 @ 90% of my max.  At this point it will always be a complete lift – a squat, deadlift or bench rather than something like a box squat, a rack pull or a board press.  Then I follow with assistance work, higher reps for the supporting muscle groups – triceps, delts, back, hams, glutes and abs.

Stretch to Maintain Muscular Balance

I need to make sure I stretch anything which tightens up, or have it massaged.  At this point I can’t afford to have tight muscles causing pain in a knee, a hip, the back, a shoulder, etc.  So I force myself to stretch every muscle I’ve used after every workout.  I also use the foam roller on days off on anything that feels like it needs it.  I also have a weekly sports massage to maintain muscle quality and iron out any latent issues.

Nutrition

Eat enough protein.  I ensure that every day I eat at least 180 grams of protein.  That’s 2 x kg bodyweight in grams plus a little extra to make sure.  If I can, I eat more.

Carb cycling.  I start four weeks out weighing in at 87kg.  I need to drop 4 kg.  So I use a very effective fat-loss technique which also allows you to maintain and even keep building muscle while dropping fat.  I start cycling my carbs.

Essentially, I eat carbs on the three days I work out, and drop them to different degrees on other days.  3 days a week I eat no carbs, and increase my fat and protein intake slightly to account for this.

NB: I dropped the 4 kg in 2 weeks eating this way and keeping a healthy lifestyle. So for the last 2 weeks all I need to do is maintain my weight.

Use Creatine.  I use creatine pre- and post-workout.  This helps increase maximal strength.  The first type of energy muscles expend is “creatine phosphate.”  So supplementing with this ensures I train more intensely and heavier.

Use Coffee only as a Pre-Workout Supplement.  I cut coffee except pre-workout.  This prevents excess cortisol production (a stress hormone stimulated by caffeine) outside of training sessions, and helps ramp up the quality of training.

Keep Healthy

Loads of greens.  3-4 litres of water per day.  Good lean protein.  A multivitamin every day.  Fish oils.

Mindset

Create and Use a High Performance State

As I haven’t competed before, I don’t know what to expect from the environment or from spectators, judges and other competitors.  What I do know is that there will be squatting, benching and deadlifting involved.  So I build a high performance state around these three activities, to ensure that I am focused, driven and psyched up when I need to be.

I use a psychological technique known as the ‘circle of excellence,’ a tool taken from neuro-linguistic programming.  It helps you to design what we call a high performance state so that mentally and physically you are 100% prepared for what you’re about to do.  High performers enter a state like this automatically, but there are ways of refining and enhancing this basic state which otherwise would take years of high quality performance to achieve.

I create a state of mind which associates me to memories of previous successes, a state of white-hot focus and concentration, and I put just a touch of rage in there too.  If you want to succeed, you need to direct your ‘negative’ energies into ‘positive’ activities.  Rage helps lifting heavy weights.  It gets the adrenaline and the blood pumping.

Change Bad Habits and Maintain Discipline

I need to maintain the lifestyle parameters I have set for this period.  For this I use a set of visualization tools to determine what behaviours are acceptable and which ones aren’t leading up to the competition.  For example, I need to stick to my nutritional guidelines, get at least 8 hours sleep every night, attend every training session, etc.  I also negotiate with myself if I need to change anything.  E.g. If I can only sleep 7.5 hours tonight, I have a half-hour nap some time tomorrow.

Lifestyle

Sleep 8 Hours a Night

Does what it says on the tin.  Rest = recovery.

Give Yourself a Break

One day week I let myself do what I want.  I can eat or drink whatever I choose (within reason!) and I don’t stick to any set plan.  I do this on a Sunday.  I can chill and mentally prepare for the coming week by not worrying about following any rules.

Chill Out

I try my best to remain stress free.  I use any of my collection of psychological tools to change my state when necessary so I am as relaxed as possible as consistently as possible.

Summary

I hope this explanation of my 4 week prep period is useful, and whether you’re preparing for a competition yourself, wanting to step up your game, or simply wanting to maintain and increase your physical and mental wellbeing, I hope you’ll apply some of these methods and get fantastic results from them.

Look after the basics and the basics will look after you.

Til’ next time, your friend and trainer,

Richard