This past weekend, the NBS Fitness powerlifting team competed in its first competition together. All of us traveled to Blytheville, Arkansas, to compete in the SPF Tri-State Powerlifting and Bench Press Championship. We are a fairly new team (we formed the team back in January) consisting of 13 lifters— half with experience, the other half having never competed before. Overall, the meet went really well. Everyone placed and several people won their division. Myself and another lifter on the team hit elite totals, and we had a few people who just barely missed hitting elite themselves.
I have been to many powerlifting meets as a coach and/or lifter, but this was my first time being in charge of so many lifters. It was also my first time programming and organizing the training for such a large and dynamic group of lifters. As with all lifting experiences, I learned a lot about what worked and what didn’t work this past weekend. I am going to share with you some of the mistakes we made and the steps we will take to correct these in order to have even more successful meets in the future.
To start off, the programming we used going into this meet was a very simple conjugated block. Basically, in the first block we used a multitude of different bars and different movements. We chose lifts that would carry over to the main lifts but used different bars, different angles, or different ranges of motion. During this phase, we did our max effort work for heavy fives. In the second block, we did reverse band buffalo bar squats and close-grip bench presses for heavy triples. We then did the main lifts with reverse bands for heavy doubles. During the final block, we did the main lifts with added chain weight for heavy singles before working up to a heavy single two weeks out. The max effort exercises were rotated every two weeks, and the dynamic effort work was done with bands, chains, or both. All accessory work was done based on the individual’s weak points.
Training Fixes
The biggest challenge we faced during our training was time and space management. We had originally designated the 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. time slot to be our training time. NBS has plenty of power racks, benches, and a monolift; however, with 13 people all needing a few pieces of equipment and the rest of the members needing to get their workouts in as well, time and space were hard to deal with. What ended up happening was that people would only be able to get their main lift in. They would then have to cut their accessory work short or do it the next day. Also, not everyone got to use the monolift or competition bench, so many lifters didn’t get enough experience on actual meet-type setups. In the future, we are going to break everyone up into smaller groups and train at multiple times throughout the day. Also, we are going to stagger training days for groups that may overlap (one group will squat on Monday while another group will bench on Monday).
The accessory work that was done could have been much better. Also, there were a lot of technique issues that didn’t get addressed or worked on as much as they should have. The main reason for this was that the more advanced lifters usually lifted together on a rack. The original idea was to have them help the less advanced lifters in between sets, but this didn’t happen as much as it should have. Also, the advanced lifters need to be much more upfront with each other on what technical issues need to be addressed. A lot of the lifters didn’t fully understand how accessory work should have been implemented, either. If someone needed to improve his triceps strength, he really needed to be told what exercises to do and exactly what set and rep schemes needed to be implemented, not just “train your triceps.” To fix these issues, I have assigned coaches for each of the different lifting groups. These coaches will meet with me often to discuss how the programming is working and how the lifters are doing. This will allow me to stay on top of everyone without having to try and watch everyone while also training myself at the same time. It will also help lifters get more direct advice. Finally, the speed work will be done in groups of two or three, with the other lifters running the monolift and exchanging weights for those who are lifting. Once the assigned sets are finished, the lifters will switch.
As far as the actual programming goes, we will still utilize the block method. However, in these next two blocks we will be focusing a lot more on technique work and some different explosive exercises. Also, we will be doing much more core and hip work in the preparatory block, as I felt this was a major weak point for many of the lifters on the team. Some of our lifters are also starting to learn gear, so that will be another challenge that we will face. Many people used briefs for their speed squats and some of their sumo pulls, but the challenge of learning suits and shirts is another animal in and of itself.
Meet Day Fixes
While we had a good meet, we could’ve had a much better meet. We have six people who are capable of hitting elite totals and had actually hit the numbers needed in the gym, but who couldn’t pull it off on meet day. Most of the missed lifts were caused by a breakdown in technique, not lack of strength. To me, it seemed like a lot of guys psyched themselves out of good form and ended up trying to muscle up lifts. Once they missed a squat or bench, their minds were not right. Consequently, their technique got worse as they were trying to hit bigger numbers than what they were necessarily comfortable with. Yet, the biggest issue I saw on meet day was the fact that energy was wasted on other lifters. There is nothing wrong with helping a fellow lifter out, but we had guys who were standing up and cheering for all 13 lifters instead of taking the down time to eat and recover. We had other members from our gym there to spot, wrap, and help out, so there was no need for our lifters to be slapping each other on the back for eight hours straight.
As expected, the lifters competing in their first meet were very nervous and were having trouble sitting down and relaxing. They spent the majority of the meet watching people lift, pacing, or talking to the more experienced lifters. I tried to combat this by putting people into different meet groups, but I think it will be much better for people to just partner with one person and only worry about their own lifts and their meet partner’s. We have also considered splitting up meets and having only part of the team go to certain meets. The only issue with this is that we usually have to drive a bit to meets, and it can be tough to get helpers when you have to drive six or more hours away.
We have discussed all of these issues, and everyone understands what we did well and what we need to work on for the next meet. Everyone agreed that they wasted too much energy early on in the meet and were smoked by the end of the day. But everyone did have a great time and all the guys who did their first meet are hooked and ready to start training for the next one, which I think is a testament to the sport of powerlifting. I learned a whole lot as a coach from this meet and am excited to see what the future holds for all of my lifters.
