A few months back, I put pen to paper and wrote about getting my strength and wits back to begin competitive powerlifting again. I had to take a two-year hiatus from competing, thankfully not from injury but from being fortunate enough to land a police job—a lifelong goal of mine.
Progress
Using the 5/3/1 program, I got back into respectable shape, up from 202 lbs to 225 lbs. My raw bench went back to 400 and my squat and deadlift went to over 500. This was definitely where I wanted to be to begin competing again. I made absolutely awesome gains from April 2009 through January 2010. Jim Wendler said it best. The 5/3/1 program isn’t meant to be a program for competitive powerlifting but rather one to reach raw strength potential while putting quality size on. For me and a number of training partners, it worked out beautifully, but just like all good things in life, they must come to an end.
Moving forward
With my job, I work a rotating schedule with different days off every week. Many EliteFTS readers can relate to this type of work. Some firefighters I know work 24 hours on and 24 hours off, and some people work steady overnight shifts. This year I work the afternoon shift from 3:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., so getting to train with the crew at Skibas Barbell Club in Carteret, New Jersey, has become very difficult for me. A majority of my training is done in the morning alone because that is the only time I can make it happen. It has been trial and error so far, especially trying to get in gear work. But this is the recipe I’ve cooked up that has brought me success thus far.
Working with the standard template
We all know how to put together our training—dynamic effort, max effort, rep effort, GPP, etc. But how do you structure it when you need someone to work the rack or someone to hand off the weight? Now it gets tricky. Through trial and error, I’ve realized that I need to use a 10-day split, training Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Mondays in order for my body to heal properly. I just can’t take four weight workouts a week and be able to recover enough for the next week, especially with a sometimes questionable diet and lack of sleep. But it isn’t just four workouts a week. When will you do your prehabilitation, conditioning, and mini workouts? With all of this being considered, I can’t spend a three-hour marathon in the gym either. I need to be in and out in a timely manner to drive 40 minutes to work, shower, and eat before I get on shift. Sounds like a lot of variables on the table, right? Everyone has a juggling act in their lives similar to this, and here is how I’ve been making it work.
Dynamic lower body
You really don’t have to deviate too much from the plan here. The only hard part is going to be getting used to walking out in the rack with band tension. Being the piss poor squatter that I am, I don’t have that much tension on the bar, and I try to stick to higher straight weight so I don’t blow my knees out getting into position. Just set your box up in the rack. Always have safety bars set up in case you lose your footing or have to ditch for any other reason. You don’t have to cry because you don’t have somebody to work the monolift for you. Just take your time getting set up and be fast off the box. This method probably won’t work if you’re a 1000-lb squatter and use 500 lbs of band tension during your dynamic workouts. When I reach that point, I’ll let you know.
Dynamic upper body
I don’t like the idea of setting a bar up under band tension and being in the gym by myself. It just doesn’t sit comfortably with me that if I were to blow out a pec or shoulder, I would have weight rocketing under stress toward my head/neck/chest. I ditched the whole benching with bands idea and swapped it out with chains. To do this in the safest way, I set up a bench in a power rack with safety bars below chest level so I can touch without hitting the rack. But if I have to ditch, the bars will catch it when I flatten my back. Doing it this way just feels safer, but I can also get in the work I need.
Max effort lower body
Now is where the tricky part starts. There isn’t any way in hell you’re going to be able to lift more by yourself walking out in a power rack than you would having side and rear spotters and somebody working the monolift. You need to find exercises that can work for you but at the same time not put you in a dangerous position. Now some anti-spotter lobbyists are reading this saying, “What a wimp? Just get under the bar and squat.” OK pal, but when I blow my knee out, my paycheck stops coming in, so I need to be fully cognizant of what types of stress I’m putting on my body when I’m by myself.
The exercises I’ve found to be most successful for training solo are Zercher squats, high and low box squats, safety bar squats, cambered and Buffalo bar squats, and any and all deadlifts. One thing I will advise against and this is all a personal opinion is using band tension on any max effort squat work. The reason I don’t like max effort band work by myself is that there are too many variables that come into play when walking out max loads under tension. One step the wrong way and it could send you rocketing to the floor with a paralyzing load on your back. Squatting in a suit by yourself isn’t out of the question. You probably won’t be able to do an advanced squat cycle with band and chain tension in full gear though. I’ve squatted in briefs and a suit with the straps down to a box by myself with success, so getting in gear work isn’t impossible.
Max effort upper body
All work needs to be done in a power rack unless you’re doing a rep effort with dumbbells. I’ve been rotating these staple exercises with great success—floor presses, thick bar benches, 1/2/3/4-board work, reverse band benches, and the football bar. Some exercises I haven’t had success with training solo are incline barbells, decline barbells, and foam bench work (into the big foam blocks). I attribute the failure of those exercises to the fact that I can’t properly get the bar into position from the start without a partner handing it off. The last time I tried to decline in the rack I lost the weight backward toward my face. Thankfully, the safety bars caught it. Your body just isn’t meant to handle stress from certain angles and will tell you when you’re doing something wrong by a shoulder or pec tweak. Along the same lines as speed work, I advise strongly against using bands by yourself for max effort work. Chains could work here also. I’m going to have to try using them in solo max bench work. Shirted work is difficult and damned near impossible by yourself. If anybody has found a way to successfully do this, please let me know.
GPP and extra workouts
Now this is an area where you need to do much trial and error around your work schedule. GPP is a must. The lean iron athlete model is here to stay, so by skipping your GPP work, you’re only hurting yourself in the long run. I currently do two extra mini workouts a week—one upper and one lower focusing on lagging areas. These workouts are done the day after max effort work to get the blood flowing.
Putting it all together
The days that I’m off from work, I get to the gym and have the encouragement and support of my team behind me. Whatever workout I have that day, I can use all the bells and whistles like the monolift and I can go to failure without having to worry. The good thing about working shifts is that you know what your schedule will look like months ahead of time, so you’re able to structure your life around it. I try my best to make off days max effort days, and when it gets closer to competition time, I swap shifts around to get my suit and shirt work in when it counts the most.
To put it all in perspective, this is a basic outline of what last week looked like:
Sunday: Worked, off day at gym
Monday: No work, max effort bench, shirt work
Tuesday: No work, upper body mini workout plus 15 minutes Prowler work
Wednesday: Worked, dynamic lower body
Thursday: Worked, lower body mini workout (30 minutes sled work)
Friday: Worked, dynamic upper body work
Saturday: Worked, off day at gym
Making the template work for you is the only way you’re going to be successful in competitive powerlifting. Skipping workouts, avoiding conditioning, and not working hard because you’re training alone and at odd hours are excuses. Right now I’m training for two full meets—one in June and another proudly representing my department at the Canada America Police and Fire Games in August. Seize the opportunity and play the hand you’re dealt. Embrace your relationship with the iron because aren’t all relationships in life a compromise?