Whatever sport or activity you are training for, you should be putting together a training template or program that gives you a path to achieving what you are after. The way you train will determine the results you get. If you need endurance, then you must include elements that will develop endurance and if you need explosive power, then you need elements that will build that attribute. I have come across a lot of people who simply train the way they do because someone else did or because they have been told that’s the way to train. I have no problem with people seeking advice. But if you are wondering about how to put together a training plan that will give you specific types of results, you should put some thought into what you are trying to achieve and how you are trying to achieve it. Every single thing you are doing should to there for a reason. You become the type of athlete you train to be.

For strength training, the exercises you do with result in specific adaptations. If you squat you not only develop a specific group of muscles, but also a movement, a motor pattern and a set of skills. Different loading, set and rep configurations will produce different results. Squatting with 200kg will develop slightly different skills to 100kg, just as 20 reps will develop different attributes to 2 reps. The time and intensity under the bar will determine how the movement develops strength-endurance, conditioning, hypertrophy, speed, explosiveness and maximal strength. Back squatting will also develop different skills and attributes to front squatting.

If you are training for a sport with a diverse range of skills and attributes, then it makes sense that your training approach should also develop this diverse range of attributes. You will obviously have a different approach to someone who is a powerlifter or olympic lifter, where both the range of movements you train for and the loading range you train with perform with is limited. I personally believe that any athlete should aim to be balanced, athletic, flexible and fit. But exactly how this is best achieved will differ from sport to sport.

For the powerlifter I will offer the following recommendations:

  • Improved work capacity will improve the quality of your sessions, your recovery and your general well-being;
  • Mobility work will help you stay balanced in a physiological and muscular sense. If you struggle with flexibility in any of the lifting movements, you will probably develop issues. Mobility and general conditioning work can also help you address ‘imbalances’ in muscular development;
  • If you struggle to grind out weight you can develop this attribute by slowing the bar down or working with increased time under tension. You can do this my adding reps, adding band tension or chains;
  • If you lack speed through a movement you can normally develop this best by using lower reps, but band tension can also help here, as it helps develop an ability to generate force through a movement;
  • The more specific the movements you train for are, the greater the value for specific movements in training. It has been said again and again: if you want to get better at squatting, then you must squat. Loading is also a form of specificity. If you train for a 1rm load, then the more reps you get close to this loading range the better. Obviously, fatigue is the limiting factor there.

By Stephen Pritchard

Tags: weightlifting Stephen Pritchard powerlifting