Powerlifting, Year One, Part I

[stef]

by Gary Gibson

I recently competed in my third powerlifting meet, exactly one year to the day after my very first meet. I thought the one year mark of my nascent competitive career would be a grand time to look back and give serious thought to what I’d been doing. The great thing about powerlifting is that it is so easy to measure progress. You can’t lie to yourself because the numbers are right there to keep you honest. Do I weigh more this year than last? Is my total higher in the same amount and kind of gear? Simple.

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[TomV]

Great article, Gary. I've been holding off using a belt as I'm only squatting 253x5x3 @ 230lbs BW but after reading this article I think I'm going to start using the belt on my work sets and just warm up beltless.

[FatButWeak]

I am wracking my brain trying to think of a logical, smart way to respond to the anti belt crowd, but am not smart enough. This is a task for a mathematician or physicist.

Can someone who is algebraically or algorhythmically inclined explain how/why getting many, many pounds stronger using a belt, then taking it off and displaying the newly earned "raw" -i.e. unbelted - strength, which is x% less than the geared max allows for greater gains because x% of an exponentially larger number is better?

Even though taking off the belt means one loses X% of one's strength, it is x% of a much larger number than it would have been had you not been training with a belt.

This may be a logical fallacy, but it illustrates my point: squatting on a doucheball causes one to squat y% less than squatting on stable land. But who the hell would argue that squatting on a doucheball for 6 months (and, let's say, imporving your doucheball squat by 75 pounds) will cause a 75 times y% increase in your stable land squat? At a minimum, your skin has not adapted to such a weight, and that argument carries throught all the systems of the body (except, perhaps, one's sense of balance, which is an insignifcant componenet of the stable land squat). Conversely, lifting heavier weights with a belt causes an increase in the strnegth of all the body's components (skin, tendon, bone, muscle) except, arguably, the gut muscles.

I dont think this is true, however, since all the strongest lifters I have ever seen wear belts, and they all have powerful midsections.

This is exhaustng. Just wear the belt.

[PVC]

It's about fucking time. Gary's been hyping this article for the past month.

[simonsky]

sad. i remember reading your first article and desperately wanting a belt, now i still dont have one

[MAD9692]

sad. i remember reading your first article and desperately wanting a belt, now i still dont have one

Gary was also right about knee sleeves, I suggest you procure these as well.

[GripAU]

Good article. Now all we need is Inzer belts to arrive in Australia at under $80 shipping and under 6 weeks delivery time. Going to go with a titan toro belt.

Good effort, Gaz

[Kincain]

gary, very good article! I think these kind of texts are invaluable, we all undergo a path of learning and it is good to read about some ones else his experience, this will only make yourself a better athlete. Thanks!

[leocreilly]

First, great article, and well done on your strength gains. I am still in my early stages of startingstrength, but as I look towards means for increasing my squat going fwd I was wondering if someone could flesh out the following:

"Pavel Tsatsouline was once asked what the best formula for mass and strength was. His answer: Pins Into Pillars followed by the daily practice of the Power To The People protocol of a couple sets of five with a heavy-ish weight, five days per week. The idea is to get bigger and stronger with the volume and then really focus on perfecting and refining the strength in the competition lifts by dropping the volume and upping the frequency."

Does this imply PIP and PTTP on the same days? Doing PIP and PTTP in conjunction (with PTTP on rest days)? Or finally, doing the PIP program, then following it with the PTTP program? For the record, I am not familiar with the PTTP program, and this could be the root of my misunderstanding...

[Gary Gibson]

Mass focus, then strength focus. The sort of volume you have to do during a volume specialization like PiP is not going to lend itself to strength performance. A more blended approach would require a reduction in volume. This is exactly what Texas Method does with its x5x5 day followed at the end of the work week by a max five, triple or single day. When doing x5x10 thrice weekly with escalating loads, dedicated strength days just aren't going to be that productive.