With so much information about powerlifting available, it can be hard to know what to focus on, especially if you're newer to the sport. My goal with this article is to cut through all the noise and distill down the key concepts that will help you take off and thrive while your counterparts struggle to make much progress.
Obviously you will need to follow a good training plan, be consistent for a long time, and develop good technique in order to be successful in powerlifting - everyone knows that. However, these five concepts will help accelerate that process for you, and learning them early on in your career will help you achieve more in this sport than you could otherwise.
Number 1: Intent
The first thing you need to understand when you are training for powerlifting is that lifting is no longer just a means to an end.
Most people are lifting weights to build muscle, be healthier, and look better. However, as a powerlifter, it's no longer about just these things. Lifting is now a skill that you are trying to master, and skills require practice.
To improve upon the skills of squat, bench press, and deadlift, the first step is to make your technique repeatable. Imagine you are a basketball player and want to get better at shooting free throws. You'd do the same routine every time - something like two dribbles, line the ball up in your hand, then shoot. We want that same approach to lifting. You should approach the bar, set up, and execute your lift the same way every time.
Where many people go wrong with this is they don't focus or actually try unless the weight is heavy. On their warmups or lighter days, they just get under the bar and pick it up - they're not focused on using this as an opportunity to improve and engrain that skill.
I have been told that I lift very robotically. On all of my sets, I take the same steps for my walkout. I breath the same way. I move with a fairly consistent level of speed and control. It looks the exact same every time, regardless of the weight. I've also had people make jokes about how I'm turning red and having veins popping out even though it is just 135 pounds, my first warmup weight. The thing is, though, how much tension you create and how much force you put into the bar is independent of what weight is loaded on it. You can still get TIGHT and push with 500 pounds of force even when there's only 135 pounds on the bar. Don't wait till it's heavy to start trying - you should focus and try hard every time you get under the bar. Give every weight the same level of respect; that is how you should be warming up and training.
Additionally, since these are skills we're trying to master, realize that you can't train your squat, bench, and deadlift heavy all the time. At max loads and during really hard sets, technique starts to break down. Therefore, if you are training very heavy too often, it will be hard for you to practice and engrain performing the lifts well. That's why submaximal work is very important, and why the majority of your main lifts should be done at more moderate intensities.
Number 2: Learn to Gauge Intensity
Many people don't know how hard they should be pushing or what weights to be using.
It's not that people are soft and don't want to push hard. Instead, they just don't have a well calibrated scale of what they're capable of, and that tends to result in the main lifts being too heavy/hard and the accessories being too easy/underloaded. For example, on their main lift, which was supposed to be a moderate single at RPE 8 (2 reps in reserve), they end up failing. Meanwhile on their accessory exercise, a set of leg extensions to failure, they end up stopping when it gets uncomfortable, even though they could've squeezed out 8 more reps if they just kept going and tried really hard.
So how do we fix this?
The single most important thing for improving this is reflection. After each set, take a second to think about how many more reps you think you could've done. This is your opportunity to check how accurate your weight choice was for hitting your planned difficulty and to learn for next time.
Another tool is filming your sets and watching them back afterwards. This can be helpful in that sometimes lifts feel heavy but when you watch them back you realize it was moving really well and you probably could've done more than you thought. Or, sometimes it's the opposite. Maybe you were really hyped up for the set and after you finished it you thought to yourself that you could've kept going for another rep or two. Then you watch the video and realize the last rep was really slow and ugly so you definitely wouldn't have gotten another. Sometimes videos can help ground you and combat any emotional influence on your assessment of the intensity.
From a programming standpoint, one thing that can help lifters learn to gauge intensity better is to do some sets to failure, AMRAPs (as many reps as possible), or lower RIR sets. Seeing and feeling what you're capable of can be helpful in learning how close to that point of failure you are on the submaximal work.
Number 3: Muscle Mass
Some old school powerlifters like Greg Panora and Louie Simmons would say stuff like "If you want to get strong, the first step is to actually look like you lift" or "You should look like a god of war in your singlet on meet day," and there's a lot of validity to that.
This isn't just bro science either - it's physiology. Muscular strength has two components: how big your muscle is, and how well your nervous system can recruit and utilize it all at once.
So sure, you can get stronger without building more muscle by improving the neurological component and getting more efficient. However, your maximum strength potential - the ceiling - only goes up by getting bigger muscles.
When it comes to building muscle, you need well chosen accessory exercises that are pushed hard. Unlike the main lifts, we are just using these as a means to an end - a way to get jacked - so they should be treated differently. We want movements that require less skill, that are more stable, that have a big range of motion, and where the target muscle is the limiting factor. For example, a hack squat machine will let you work the quads way better than a barbell back squat will, because it is stable and lower skill. The hack squat isn't going to be limited by your bracing or back strength, like the squat likely would be. Also, being in the perfect position isn't as challenging or necessary, so you can push the hack squat harder.
Exercises that train muscles in the lengthened position are also good because they typically cause more growth. For example, Maeo et al. (2021) found that the seated hamstring curl resulted in +14% hamstring growth compared to +9% from the lying hamstring curl. So for biarticular muscles (those that cross multiple joints), this should be a factor in choosing the best accessory exercises.
If you are interested in learning more about accessory exercises, I presented a live seminar on the topic a few months ago, and there is a recording available here. It includes an hour and a half video presentation on how to choose the best exercises for your needs, as well as a list of recommended exercises. The list has a few suggested movements for all the major muscle groups, plus a short description of what makes each exercise effective and/or tips for how to perform it. Check it out!
In addition to accessory exercises, the other key thing for building muscle is eating enough. You will struggle to put on size if you aren't eating a sufficient quantity of calories to fuel growth!
Number 4: Learn to Create Tension
The three competition lifts are just as much about keeping the rest of the body static as they are about moving the weight with the working body parts. A great analogy I got from Seth Albersworth is, "Would you rather hit something with a baseball bat or a pool noodle?" We need to make sure that our body is the baseball bat - that is, stiff and transfers all that force from the swing well - rather than getting loose and floppy like the pool noodle.
Creating tension is the key to keeping tight and transferring force effectively into the bar. However, many newer lifters struggle to create this tension, ESPECIALLY when they don't have heavy weights on the bar that force them to get tight. Ultimately we want to get to a point where you can create lots of tension independently of what weight is on the bar.
There are a few commonalities in how/where we need to create tension in the competition lifts:
1) Bracing
You want to expand your abdomen outwards into your belt as you breath in, while limiting any upward shrugging of the shoulders or ribcage. Then, further lock this in by actively pressing out into the belt in all directions.
What's described above is the action you should be trying for when you brace, but realize that the position you're in is also important. Your best brace will happen when your ribcage is directly stacked over your pelvis (like a neutral spine position, or even in a little bit of flexion). If you are arched or excessively rounded, you will not be able brace well. This is because muscles are strongest in more moderate lengths, so in either extreme, then one side (abdominals vs low back) is too short and the other is too long to be strong.
Realize that breathing and bracing may look slightly different on the bench press than the squat and deadlift. That's because the weight is never being transferred through the spine - it just goes straight down from the bar to hands to shoulders to bench. So, bracing can be different for this lift. On the bench press, I would focus more on using your breathing to expand the ribcage as big as you can, so you can have a higher touch point and the bar doesn't have to travel as far.
2) Scapular Retraction and Depression
The scapula are your shoulder blades. Retraction is pinching them together/backwards, and depression is pulling them downwards, towards your butt.
In the squat, regardless of if it's high bar or low bar, you want to do both of these things as hard as you can to create a tight upper back. Then lock that in by pulling the bar down into your back. Similarly, on bench press, we need both of these two actions to set the shoulders in place, get a big arch, and be in a strong position to press from.
The deadlift is different though - we only want depression and not any retraction. Pinching the shoulders back would make the arms shorter and increase the range of motion the bar has to travel. Also, you probably aren't strong enough to maintain that retraction at maximal loads. So instead, the goal is just to pull the shoulders straight down towards your hips. This gets the lats tight, which will help stabilize the spine and keep you from getting rounded over, as well as keeping the bar from drifting away from your body.
3) Head Packing
This is probably the most overlooked of the three. Head packing is pulling your head backwards, like making a double chin. This helps create more stiffness and tension through the upper back. Plus, your head is heavy - if it is hanging out way out in front of your body, it can shift you forwards in a way we don't want. I like to cue "head back" or "double chin" on both squat and deadlift.
On bench press it looks a little different, but still applies. If you're watching the bar with your eyes and you lift your head up, you will flatten out and lose some of your arch. Head pressure back into the bench not only helps prevent this, but also helps to keep the shoulders pulled down and together. You don't need to press your head back into the bench as hard as you can, just enough that it is staying down and tight.
The other big thing to understand is that these elements of creating tension are not just skills; there's also a strength component to these motions. If you are getting rounded over and losing your brace during heavy deadlifts, it's not that you just aren't good at the skill of bracing - you're probably also too weak to hold the position. If you are losing your upper back tension on squat and getting rounded over, you likely aren't strong enough to maintain that position under heavy loads. So, the fix to these issues isn't just drills, like some light banded movement in your warmup. The fix is to train these motions. Exercises like chest supported rows will improve your retraction. Lat pulldowns will strengthen your depression. Copenhagen side planks and sit-ups will build your bracing strength.
Choose exercises over drills. Worry less about some sexy warmup drill from Instagram and more about building strength in these motions.
In addition to creating tension at the body parts we want to remain static, another important thing for newer lifters is to get better at staying tight throughout the lift and controlling the bar. Variations of the main lift that emphasize this can be really helpful! Examples include:
Squat: tempo squat, pause squat, and front squat
Bench: tempo bench, Spoto press, and long pause bench
Deadlift: pause deadlift (just off the floor) and controlled eccentric/soft touch deadlifts
Number 5: Understand Pain
You will inevitably experience pain. However, how you respond to this can either derail your training and leave you making no progress or can make it a fairly insignificant bump in the road.
Pain does not always mean there is an injury or damage. That is a misunderstanding of what the cause of pain is. Learning more about pain will help you be able to better analyze it when it occurs and handle the situation more appropriately.
I wrote an article on this topic, so I will link that here rather than rehashing all the points.
Conclusion
If you train with intent, learn to gauge intensity, build muscle mass, create lots of tension, and develop a greater understanding of pain, you'll be able to go further in this sport and achieve great things.
Please reach out if I can ever help you on your powerlifting journey!
If you're looking for a training plan, I just released my Powerlifting Fundamentals Program. It has all the key elements we discussed in this article built into it to help you become a better lifter. Or if you want something tailored to you, to best suit your goals and needs, I also offer online coaching and custom training plans.
Best,
Michael Elrod-Erickson
Founder and Head Coach, Premier Power & Performance
