Drug use is hard to ignore in any strength sport but it's also vastly overrated. In powerlifting, a lot of people think that 95% of lifters take performance enhancing substances. The truth? 80% is a good estimate for how many natural lifters there are. That means 20% or less of the competitive powerlifting population uses drugs.

This is the topic of this week's Table Talk. Today Dave answers the following question from Instagram user yakuzaempier:

"What is your advice for mental preparation for competing in a USAPL meet when you know it is tested but some fucking dickhead has been juicing, cleans his system, then competes. That's why I haven't competed."

Dude, seriously? sums up Dave's response very well.

You didn't start powerlifting because of other people. You started powerlifting because you wanted to get stronger and break your records. Don't lose sight of that. Don't worry about someone else. Go to the meet, compete, break your own PRs, and keep getting stronger, no matter what other lifters are doing. You can't control it, so don't let it bother you.

This means your mental preparation depends entirely on one thing: you. Dave explains how.

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