It isn't every day that you get the opportunity to coach alongside a legend of the sport. When Swede Burns (author of the soon-to-be-released eBook 5th Set) came as an honored coaching guest to The elitefts Powerlifting Experience II, he was placed into a group with a lifter and coach who anyone involved with powerlifting knows very well: Steve Goggins.
Steve and Swede spent the day coaching in the same group, helping lifters to new PRs, and explaining to these lifters why they hit those new PRs. The coaching they provided on this given day was about more than adding 15 pounds to the bench press in one day, or 40 pounds to a lifter's total. It was about understanding what mistakes need to be corrected to turn a 40-pound increase into a larger increase over time.
At the end of the day, we decided to get these two coaches together to talk about the event. In this video, Goggins and Burns share their biggest coaching adjustments of the weekend, explain their personal training methodologies, and discuss what it was like to coach alongside one another.
In addition to discussing the primary factors of coaching the squat, bench, and deadlift, Goggins and Burns also explained how they handle two key factors of powerlifiting: balancing the training of the squat and the deadlift, and gauging appropriate volume in the bench press.
Swede's eBook, 5th Set, will be available exclusively on elitefts this Friday. More information on his training philosophy can be found in his articles on elitefts.com.