Powerlifting: Choosing Openers

  As many of you may know, I HATE social media and the internet except for some Instagrams. I hate Facebook. Did I say I hate Facebook? I’ll get to choosing openers in a minute. This is my time to force you to listen to me whine. The internet is the haven of the troll. It’s the world where everyone squats 5000 pounds has 400 one punch knockouts to their credit, everyone is an expert and you can say anything you want about anyone, true or not with very little chance of consequences. Back throughout most of the world’s history, even going back to when I was just a few years younger, you watched what you said or else you may actually get knocked out. I was recently advised about a guy talking major shit about me online. OK, not the first time, not the last time right? I didn’t reply back online and I am not going to. I am not going to say who he is. I am not going to give him the satisfaction. This guy is talking as if he knows me, as if I have actually had conversations with him. He’s saying that well, Murph says this and that, while what I say and write about is actually the 100% opposite. Nope, Murph actually doesn’t. If you had ever even met me and had a conversation you would know. Since you area a spineless internet coward who likes to make things up about people you have never even been in the same room as never mind had the chance to speak to, I doubt the actual truth matter to you at all. What does matter is that you are a huge pussy and probably live in your mother’s basement while taking a crap on people’s reputations to make yourself feel better about your pathetic life. The point here: don’t believe everything you read and don’t give trolls the satisfaction of replying to them. Now, which one of you spineless cowardly trolls am I talking about? Maybe you should all get together in one of your mom’s basements, have her make you up some Tang and Tostinos Pizza Rolls and figure it out. Me, I’ll be busy actually working in this field, not pretending to be. Choosing Openers



Let me begin the real point of this article by pointing out a few things. Most of which have been written about ad nauseum.

• No one cares what you open at but you.
• Your opener is a lift to get you in the meet.
• Your opener should/could be considered your last warmup.
• Opening too heavy will cause you to bomb out of the meet.
• My opinion is that your opener should be something you can smash for at least a double, maybe a triple. I mean smash.

OK, with all that out of the way, I’d like to point out something I am pretty sure I wrote about around this time last year: we had some issues with the girls on the team last year when we chose their openers for them. There were a few upset ladies when we told them they were opening at “x” weight. They got upset because that was too easy. It did not matter that me and Russ pointed out all the point listed above. They wanted to open heavier. Since we were the coaches, that argument was lost. Suffice it to say that when we got to the actual meet and they saw a crapload of people bomb because they all missed their openers on the squat, they settled in and realized we might be on to something. There is not one way to choose openers. Remember, your opener is to get you in the meet and you must hit it. You also want to choose a weight that will prepare you to smash a PR on your third attempt. It should never be something you have to grind or fight to get. This will drain energy and confidence. That is exactly the opposite of what we are looking to achieve. We want to build confidence on your opener and on your second attempt so you crush your third. This is most important on your squat as it sets the tone for the meet. If you have a good squat, you will feel confident on your next lift and so forth. In our group, the Total Performance Method for Powerlifting, our ladies have all done between 2 and 5 meets. We have been choosing openers as follows. If they already have a total, we know that we would like to see a PR on the third attempt so we have a number in mind. A PR is a PR even if it is 5 pounds. So…… Four weeks out we have them hit a strong triple at an RPE 8/9. Not too intense but just enough. Three weeks out we hit a strong double at a 9/10. Two weeks out we take openers for singles, and one week out we ramp it down to a few set of 5 at 60%. The last part is something new. We are trying it out and seeing how it goes. Now before you groan and say we are gambling with our lifters results, we are not. Everything you do when programming training is an experiment. This is a tweak we are trying and I am pretty sure it will deload them just enough to keep them training without burning them out. Time will tell. I used to make 10% jumps from openers to seconds and 5% jumps for thirds. That worked pretty good but as you age you learn more and we are doing it a little different. Every lifter is unique. Some can handle big jumps, some can’t. Now we work off knowing the lifter and how they respond. [caption id="attachment_115145" align="alignnone" width="700"]



Swede[/caption] We will be making jumps around 7% from lift to lift. Swede does this with great success and we will see how it works. To give you an example, here is some 4th grade arithmetic. Lifer A hit a 200 pound squat at her last meet and should be good for 225 this time. If we open at 195 and make a 7% jump to 210 and then a 7% jump we are at 225. Of course these are rounded as you can never go exactly “x” percent. 195 is about 85% of 225 right? She should be able to smash 185 for a triple. If she does on the triple week, we run it. If she smashes more weight, we can go a little heavier on the opener. If she doesn’t, we may have to lower the opener and save energy for the bench and pull. Now, let’s review at the old way of 5% and 10% jumps. We expect a 225 squat, so it would have looked like this: Open 195, second 215, third 225. It does not look too different but the first jump is 20 pounds the old way, and only 15 the new way. Sure it’s not much, but it may affect a lifter adversely. Why take the chance? We end up in the same place a little easier the new way. Now, your third is not always decided ahead of time. That can be a game day decision. That is up to you and your coach. We like to have a plan going in. If your second is an absolute smokeshow, maybe a slightly bigger jump is in order, maybe not. Remember, a PR is a PR. That’s all I have this week and please remember, this is not the only way to do it, but this way works well as we have proven with our team. Give it a shot.

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