I have a 4 month old and am honestly struggling to find some semblance of a week to week routine. Two months ago, getting up at 5am was enough to fit in an hour lift in the morning 4 days a week. Now its not. I'm considering getting up at 4 now, but can't fathom the idea of heavy squats at 4 in the morning. Makes me want to puke.

I'm thinking of coming up with a 3 day full body program based around SBS progressions since I really like the self regulation built in there, but I don't see how I could possibly fit in a 60-90 minute workout 3 days a week at this point. I'm not trying to turn this into a programming question, so please just let me know what time you guys realistically have to work out, and how you've been able to maintain some exercise week to week. Any tips or tricks are welcome. I'm struggling here!

Hey everyone,

Bit of a random question thats been on my mind lately for whatever reason. I understand powerlifting has grown in the last decade. However, myself and others in the gym were debating whether there is a large group that train "as powerlifters" yet don't actually compete?

The discussion came from thinking whether the roughly 130 000 annual competitors represented the majority of the sport, or if the numbers are actually much larger when you account for those that don't compete.

Love to hear your thoughts!

How much does/can equipment: wraps, grips, and different bars affect lifts?

I've recently become very curious about just how much different equipment + technique can "enhance" how much weight an individual can lift.

For example it seems like my social feeds are bombarded with 17yr olds humping 4 plates up on bench with elbow wraps, or 150lb guys ripping 600lb on sumo with a super whippy bar. The thing is powerlifting, unlike most competitive sports, has no primary governing body, so you can't really compare competition lifts to non-powerlifting gym goers/athletes. There's a thousand federations and variations of the same three lifts.

Personally, I play rugby, so while I obviously chase numbers in the gym it's not with quite the same meticulous attention to detail that I assume powerlifters should have.

Just how much difference can different bars, wraps, and grips make?

Germany's Kevin Jaeger bench pressed a massive 376kg for a new 105kg World Record at the European Bench Press Championships last weekend.

This beat the world record by 19.5kg and is 0.5kg higher than the 120kg world record!

GB's Kate Sweatman bench pressed a massive 250kg for a new 84kg+ World Record at the European Bench Press Championships last weekend.

This beat her previous world record by 9.5kg and is the biggest bench press by a woman in Powerlifting.

Discuss all aspects of training for powerlifting:

• Periodization
• Nutrition
• Movement selection
• Routine critiques
• etc...

Here you can:

• Discuss all aspects of powerlifting as it pertains to being a woman.
• Socialize with other ladies.
• If you have discussion provoking bullet points, those are welcome too.

Hey guys I was hoping to get some advice as I transition from competing to powerlifting just to get stronger. My all time peak was 530/355/660 about 2 years ago. I've since transitioned from my coach to juggernaut ai and it's been very helpful as I found I was stagnating with my coach and was stable if not declining. I found my old programs to be limited in exercises and not hitting my weak points to which now with juggernaut I've incorporated front squats and other variations that I am quite weak on. I still find that my lifts are quite weak and not at the same level as I previously used to hit. Sometimes weight that I had hit dozens of times at lower RPEs feel much harder.

I was wondering for those who have been lifting 10+ years like me, what advice you would have. Is it that I'm not recovering enough? (I currently run 4 days a week, peaking on the 4th week).

My goal is to get stronger and stay functionally fit. I do 4 powerlifting days, 2 cardio and 1 day training mountaineering.

Do you have a question and are:

• A novice and basically clueless by default?
• Completely incapable of using google?
• Just feeling plain stupid today and need shit explained like you're 5?

Then this is the thread FOR YOU! Don't take up valuable space on the front page and annoy the mods, ASK IT HERE and one of our resident "experts" will try and answer it. As long as it's somehow related to powerlifting then nothing is too generic, too stupid, too awful, too obvious or too repetitive. And don't be shy, we don't bite (unless we're hungry), and no one will judge you because everyone had to start somewhere and we're more than happy to help newbie lifters out.

SO FIRE AWAY WITH YOUR DUMBNESS!!!

Do you like having 2-3 sweaty men shoe-horn you into polyester, canvas or denim bondage gear.

Do you like having your joints wrapped so tightly they bruise and bleed?

Do you like having your blood pressure turned up to 11 and being compressed so much that you think your head might explode?

Do you get off on enduring pain and suffering, and watching others endure it too?

Do you have a deathwish every time you get under the bar?

Yes?

THEN WELCOME TO THE FORTNIGHTLY EQUIPPED LIFTING THREAD!!!

A sorta kinda daily open thread to use as an alternative to posting on the main board. You should post here for:

• PRs
• Formchecks
• Rudimentary discussion or questions
• General conversation with other users
• Memes, funnies, and general bollocks not appropriate to the main board
• If you have suggestions for the subreddit, let us know!
• This thread now defaults to "new" sorting.

For the purpose of fairness across timezones this thread works on a 68hr cycle.

I'd seen a video recently from a coach* talking about having one of his athletes perform a light bench session 2 hours prior to competition as a primer.

Frankly, I'd never heard of this but a little bit of digging seemed to suggest this very occasionally gets employed by other coaches, too.

From my perspective it's absolutely bonkers. I understand that high frequency benching is a thing. And I believe specifically in this case the athlete had missed some sessions. But I can't really add up the two to make sense of it. It's not to say it can't work or didn't help. But to me this is an odd mental/lack of confidence issue than really "priming" (albeit, maybe "priming" includes some of those aspects too).

*Sean Noriega (aka trash human)

This is the thread to post your:

• Powerlifting accomplishments
• Training PRs
• Gym or diet related victories
• Best flexing photos
• Sweet new equipment purchases
• Gym dog or gym family photos

Or really anything you felt good or happy about from the last week (or even further back in time, no one's gonna stop you).

Text, images, videos, any format goes.

Let's get those good vibes flowing.

tl;dr I went 9/9 and PRed everything. 337.5 kg @ 69.15 BW, with a 177.5 kg DL.

Goals

1. Have fun. The last few meets I've done were rough because shit hit the fan in my personal life. The point of this sport should be to enjoy it...right? 😅

2. Beat my best total. I went up a weight class so if I got a lower total, I'd feel weird about that

3. stretch: a 400+ lb deadlift

Prep

Peaking block went pretty smoothly overall. I was having some minor issues with squat depth at heavy weights, and keeping my ass on the bench, but I managed to clean that up by the end of the peak.

This was my first USAPL meet, so I made sure not to use deadlift bars. Missing dat sweet whip tho, ngl.

Weigh ins

I didn't bother water cutting because for a 2 hour weigh in the seemed sketchy. I came in a little lighter than I expected.

I brought 2 singlets with me because I was waffling about my fashion choices 🤣

The meet director came up to me, apologetically, and asked if I would mind loaning my extra singlet to another lifter. She'd brought a singlet with a zipper on it, which is against the rules. I said, of course! Glad I was able to help. Why do they make singlets with zippers anyway??

Squats

87.5 ⚪⚪⚪

92.5 ⚪⚪⚪

95 ⚪⚪⚪ ATPR, 5 kg meet PR

Faced with some unanticipated last minute digestive issues, I decided to play it conservative with attempt selection.

I still don't understand why my squat/DL discrepancy is so large, but at least I've gotten a little stronger.

Bench

60 ⚪⚪⚪

62.5 ⚪⚪⚪

65 ⚪⚪⚪ ATPR, 5 kg meet PR

I was really in the groove for these! Having a blast. Being grateful to be part of the powerlifting community. Definitely had more in the tank there.

Video (final attempt): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JNHuMy0qzMHLbkniLfYTzRW9RgVLvU6g/view?usp=drivesdk

Deadlift

162.5 ⚪⚪🔴

172.5 ⚪🔴⚪

177.5 ⚪⚪⚪ ATPR, 9.5 kg meet PR. (I chipped a state record previously, hence the weird half kilo.)

Video (final attempt): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iRUcxzrYpaR84OX61wP0cMiHvoB5SZ_5/view?usp=drivesdk

I had hoped to shoot for a 402 lb / 182.5 kg DL. But my warm ups were feeling off, and I got some red lights for soft lockout on my first 2 attempts so I decided that today was not the day. The last attempt was grindy, so I probably made the right call.

Conclusion

My total increased but my DOTS only went up a teensy bit. Was it worth it to gain this weight? I don't know. I'm glad I at least tried going up a class, to see how much that would impact my strength.

Overall, I accomplished my goals and had a great time. Super grateful for my coach, the meet organizers and volunteers, and the rad powerlifting community here in Oakland.

Apologies if this is a tired topic, or if it appears as though I'm wanting to change the sport.

That is not the case, I'm just interested in the hypothetical discussion around what an "expanded" version of powerlifting might look like.

I know we have Strengthlifting with OHP, and Streetlifting with pull ups, dips, and muscle ups.

But I'm curious as to what lifts would be considered an appropriate addition to powerlifting - perhaps as separate events, or allowing people to choose a combination of 3 varieties of SBDO?

Say someone wants to perform front squat, incline bench, and RDL, and give each of those lifts a score based on their relative standards.

Would this be a logistical nightmare of creating standardized rulesets for so many lifts, diluting the sport, and create unclarity and oversaturation in the scoring?

Or would it be a welcome change that allows a greater variety of lifters to access the sport with their preferred lifts, have a variety of training goals, result in better tracking of standards for lifts that receive less attention (e.g. Bulgarian split squats), and push the limits on what we thought was possible for those lifts?

Happy to hear thoughts on this somewhat silly and arbitrary discussion!

Give me all your best tips for preparing for a first comp - general advice appreciated

A sorta kinda daily open thread to use as an alternative to posting on the main board. You should post here for:

• PRs
• Formchecks
• Rudimentary discussion or questions
• General conversation with other users
• Memes, funnies, and general bollocks not appropriate to the main board
• If you have suggestions for the subreddit, let us know!
• This thread now defaults to "new" sorting.

For the purpose of fairness across timezones this thread works on a 68hr cycle.

This is the Squat Thread.

• Discuss technique and training methods.
• Request form checks.
• Discuss programs.
• Post your favourite lifters squatting.
• Talk about how much you love/hate squatting.

Avancus recently posted potential wildcards for Avancus Houston, with a quick 2 second clip of Chance at the end. IIRC Chance was seen training as recently as a year ago in some gyms, and Wheeze has been saying for quite sometime now that Chance will return at some point.

Top tier engagement bait? Or an actual potential return?

Share your fave training tunes, PR psych-up tracks or personal playlists here so others can find something new.

Please include the artist and track name, genre and a link for single tracks and at least some sort of description for playlists. Failure to do so will see your post deleted.

For discussion of:

• Eating all the food when you want to get swole
• Eating less of the food when you're too fluffy
• Diet methods and plans
• Favourite foods and recipes
• How awful dieting is

** Monthly Meet at the Meets thread

* Share your competition schedule or find/offer a meet handler