Achievements, Success, and Fulfillment
Most powerlifters chase success and fulfillment through PRs and competition, but there is success to be had in the process. Don’t forget that.
7 Tips for Your Next Meet Prep
An excerpt from The Intermediate and Advanced Lifters Peaking Squat Cycle, don’t leave pounds on the platform due to improper planning.
#80 - Mitigating Injury and Peaking for the Meet
Learn how to mitigate injury while under the bar and get the inside scoop on how Sam is peaking for his meet.
Mental Preparation and Imagery for Peak Performance
There’s a big misconception that to conquer the weights you need passion and anger. Research and personal experience disagree. If you’re prepping for a powerlifting meet, it’s time to train your mind.
Technique Over Aggression
Here’s what I’ve learned to become an elite lifter at 220: accumulate faults and then fix them over the course of an off-season. You’ll be surprised how it all aligns if you just stop, reflect, work, and listen.
The Dogg Shitt Method 2
Add these six weeks to the DSM 12-week template, and you have yourself an awesome 18 weeks of training!
Do the Minimum for Meet Day Success
Don’t be the lifter with headphones on all day in the warm-up room, super-hyped to the gills. Save your energy for the platform.
5 Things You Can Still Believe In
Aside from Santa’s elves personalizing your hand-made gifts. Oh, and Santa traveling from the North Pole to your residence to deliver your gifts with Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer.
Resist the Urge to Compete
I’m betting that in the 6-8 weeks after the quarantine ends, a lot of contests are going to happen. My advice: Resist the urge!
4 Ways to Mentally Master Your Meet Performance
I’ve learned how to frame my meets so they are a positive and successful experience— no longer do I drink and cry (afterward). From goal setting to learning from mistakes to gaining some perspective, I hope a few of these tips help you.
How I'm Prepping for My Next Meet
How do you prepare for your next week? When do you start preparing? Jeff Guller likes to get started with conjugate powerlifting nine weeks before meet time.
Peaking Technically
Peaking technically is reeling in your training from general to specific as a meet approaches while changing and removing variations and setting yourself up to be at your best technically. This is important when transitioning to a conjugate approach.
Phases of Performance Nutrition
Looking at dieting as one big picture can be incredibly stressful. Let’s break that big picture up into three more manageable pieces. We’ll call them phases: the post-show phase, the reverse dieting phase, and the meet prep phase.
Managing Meet Day Stress
You’ve spent months preparing and training, and you’ve made a significant financial investment in entry fees, lodging, food, and so on. All this of stress for just 9 lifts sucks up a lot of your energy. You can’t afford to waste your energy, so manage it instead.
When Did Everyone Become Allergic to the Eccentric?
Nobody wants to watch their favorite athletes practice what they do best. But if you want to be the Michael Jordan or Reggie Jackson of powerlifting, you’ve got to work on the eccentric.
Going on the Record with ATWR Holder Heidi Howar
I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing and training with Heidi, and I can say with absolute certainty that she is the real deal, an ATWR-holding meathead who’s willing to do what it takes to become, and in her case, stay the best.
44 Things to Pack for Your Next Meet
Packing the basics is just half the battle. Meet sites can be cold, uncomfortable, and might be far from easy access to good food. All variables need to be taken into consideration while packing for meet day… and these 44 items will help you cover your bases.
How to Tame the Meet Prep Beast
The meet prep beast is going to rear its ugly heads at you sometimes, and its mugs come in many forms: injuries, stress, or a lousy no-show training partner. When one of them tries to bite, it’s best to have a flexible plan of action that helps you nimbly dodge from the monster’s jaws.
2018 IPL Midwest Open — 2131-Pound Total at 242 Pounds
The 825 opener flew, and I told JP to call 881 on my second. This is when I knew I would “earn my regrets” because I actively prepared myself to become injured due to this decision.
The Art of Being an Emotionally Detached Strength Athlete
Can you take a deep breath and remember that each set and rep in training is part of the greater year and not just that individual session?
Meet Report: Earning My Regrets at the USPA Tribute
Four weeks out is when I suffered a quad tear—I should have dropped out at that point. In fact, I talked to Dave Tate, and that’s exactly what he told me to do.
The Biggest Mistakes First-Time Competitors Make in Training and at the ...
These seven mistakes are by far the most prevalent I see for powerlifters in their first meet. They’re also very easy to avoid if you know how.
Stay the Course
Think about all the things you sucked at the first time you tried them: walking, talking, reading, writing. What if you’d given up on them after a failure or two?
RANT: Stick with the Program
You paid a coach for a program and don’t like what they gave you? There’s a right way to handle this situation — and it’s not by deviating from the plan just because you want to.
Meet Report: Winning the 198s But Falling Short on Best Overall at the K...
This is the first meet I’ve done in three years that I didn’t win best overall lifter, and it was a huge—and much needed—kick in the ass.
The 5thSet Black Meet and Women's Pro Am Weekend: Back-to-Back Wins
After the inaugural 5th Set Black Meet on Saturday, I drove all night to Cincinnati for the Women’s Pro Am. My motivation for a weekend short on rest and long on PRs can be summed up in a single sentence: I love powerlifting.
Take the Emotion out of the Bar
Motivation doesn’t mean a thing if you haven’t done the work. Relying on the psych up didn’t work for me and this is why.
Why Your Meet Prep Sucks
It can be hugely discouraging to feel that all the work you did in the offseason and during your meet prep was wasted because you had one bad day, Unfortunately, all that really counts is what you put up on the platform. Or is it?
WATCH: Table Talk — Training for Your First Powerlifting Meet in 2018
Dave has responded to this question many times but, like the sport of powerlifting, the answer evolves. Based on the sport today, here are guidelines for expectations, performance, and how to design a program.
Injury — The Real Measure of What Kind of Lifter You Are
Something doesn’t feel right as the bar descends, like your left pec is cramping or something. You touch, hear “press,” and then POP! It all goes black.
WATCH: Table Talk — How to Run a Three-Day Conjugate Training Split
Due to time constraints or an inability to recover optimally, many lifters seek an alternative to the traditional template. The question isn’t whether or not you can use a modified split, but whether or not your results will be optimal.
WATCH: Table Talk — Overcoming the Fear of Injury After Rehabilitation
If you’re scared of a weight, you’re not going to be able to lift it, even if your body is strong enough. This can be a serious problem if you’re coming back from injury.
5 Training Staples for Your Off-Season
When the time rolls around to start prepping for your next competition, you’ll wish you’d used your off-season wisely. Here are the five things you should focus on to provide the most improvement, longevity, and resilience.
Killer Mentality
Killer mentality means doing whatever it takes to be your very best and being willing to put it all on the line when the time comes. You have to be able to block out all negativity and draw in all positivity.
Genetically Mental
Mental toughness and strength are no different than physical traits. They can be trained and improved, if you’re ready.
MEET REPORT: 2017 IPA Flex Lewis Classic
Team Nebobarbell and I went to Murfeesboro, Tennessee, where I took a crack at one of my competition bucket list lifts.
Conundrums of My Meet Prep
Raw classic or single-ply? 181 or 198? And what about my hand? There are still a lot of questions to be answered.
Team Outlaw — There's No 'I' In Team
There may be some powerlifters out there that train by themselves and go to meets alone, but I would bet dollars to donuts that any successful powerlifter comes from a team of supporters.
WATCH: Table Talk — Tapering for a Meet Using Conjugate
The appeal of conjugate is the ability to build multiple performance traits at once, but this confuses a lot of lifters as they get closer to a meet. It doesn’t have to be so complicated.
WATCH: Table Talk — Feeder and Recovery Workouts
You can’t just throw in extra workouts or recovery protocols and expect to get the most out of them. Like everything else in training, they need to be programmed strategically and used at the right times.
Top Training Tips For Advanced Lifters — The Last Two Weeks, Coaching, a...
You would think this is all common sense, right?
WATCH: Table Talk — Run the Monolift or Walk Out?
This really shouldn’t be a debate. Mimic how you compete.
How To Approach Warm-Up Weights
From the bar to 95 pounds, 135, and so on, you should get under the bar and treat it like it’s 400 pounds. How will you unrack that weight? How will you set it up? How will you pull air? How will you sit down?
2017 IPA Battle of the Beast 2 with Tank's Training Facility Powerl...
Our powerlifting squad had six lifters compete in a meet that posed some specific challenges. Here’s how they did and a sample of the training that led to the meet.
A Brand New Perspective for Meet Prep
I greatly enjoy training and competing in powerlifting. I plan to compete, train, and train others for as long as I am able — not, however, without having a life.
Training Advice Worth Repeating
If I could go back in time to when I first started in this industry, I’d force myself to follow these five rules of training. Those of you starting now should listen.
Excuses Don't Count Towards Your Total
At least, not at this point. As it stands, we are left with adding up our heaviest successful attempt for each of the three lifts and the sum of those is how a powerlifting total is born.
How I Dropped 17 Pounds Over 9 Days and Gained It Back in 12 Hours
I don’t recommend this big of a cut for anyone. It is detrimental to many bodily processes and overall health. To be clear, this is not a how-to guide; it is a documentation of my process.
WATCH: Table Talk with Dan Green — Building a Base as a New Lifter
If you don’t start on the right path, you might spend years training hard and making no progress.
WATCH: Mental Preparation Tips for Powerlifting
To be your best on the platform, you need your mind to be just as prepared as your body.
Impostor Syndrome — Identifying the Less Admirable
Training was so important to me. It covered my insecurity and kept me distracted from the ugliness that was brewing underneath.
The Only Thing You Can Control
There’s a very short list of things you can control and a very long list of things you can’t control. Choose to focus on the right one.
WATCH: Table Talk — Flaws of Percentage-Based Programming and Training
In this video, Maliek and Dave discuss the problems with percentage-based training and share alternative methods for strength programming.
WATCH: How Christian Anto Became a Powerlifter
From nursing student and collegiate soccer player to one of the 10 best 181-pound powerlifters in the world.
5 Keys to Fixing Your Hip
Three days before my heaviest deadlift of the meet training program and I couldn’t even bend down to grab the bar. Here are the techniques I used to mitigate my issues and make it to Boss of Bosses 3.
WATCH: How to Fight Friction in the Deadlift
Here is one tip I use in the gym and on the platform to make the entire movement smooth as possible.
The Week Before the Meet — Unstructured or Accounted For?
This is a time when your mind will start to play tricks on you. Are you mentally committing to the time off?
How To Build A Bench Press with Trashy Triceps
If you train smart and put in the work, your nagging pains will not stop you from hitting a PR.
WATCH: Knee Wrapping Technique for PR Attempts
If I don’t want to punch you in the face during my wrap, it’s not tight enough. Here’s how to do it right.
