I’m a fan of Powerlifting to Win’s mastermind, Izzy Narvaez. He’s well read, well versed, articulate, passionate about powerlifting, and a very strong young man. I’ve learned much from him, and particularly improved my technique on the power lifts under his virtual tutelage. However, his program has been unsustainable for me. I am beat to hell and got to the point where I was tentatively approaching each workout, and being tentative is not a good way to approach a heavily loaded barbell. Perhaps it’s my age, but I am unable to hang with the high frequency and high intensity of the programming, and I haven’t even gotten into the Intermediate phase yet.
I got an email as a subscriber that his PTW 2.0 is out for purchase, and I was glad to see him charging for it as he has given away a lot of content over the years, including the first version of the program. Even though I knew I’d likely be unable, or more precisely unwilling to use his program, I bought the book anyway to give the kid some cash and thank him for all he’s provided me. As I expected, the revamped PTW programs, from Novice to Advanced, are improved versions of his original, but in my view, even more gruelling. I honestly don’t even feel compelled to try them as I know where that road will lead.
As is my nature, I went through the anxiety filled days of uncertainty as I toyed with how to proceed. I fixed myself on one program, only to find another, then another. I finally stepped back from the trees to take in the forest.
- I do want to compete in powerlifting.
- I am 54 years old.
- I am undersized for my height.
- I have a beard.
With these things considered, I started to assemble what I thought was the best way forward. I will keep the training practices I find most useful:
- RPE
- Fatigue Percents
And stick to what the research is showing us:
- Volume is the main driver of hypertrophy.
- Training muscles twice per week seems to be the sweet spot for frequency.
So how to organize my training to allow me to take the things I know, with the things I’ve learned, and the evidence we have to create a plan to proceed?
I will train 4 days per week on an upper body/lower body split. I will train the competition lifts using RPE and use my estimated 1RM to set my attempts for each training day to try to keep pushing my 1RM northwards. I will increase volume to push hypertrophy but I won’t use the competition lifts to do it. I will take a cue from Greg Nuckols, along with information from Dr. Brad Schoenfeld, Dr. Eric Helms and Dr. Bret Contreras and use a variety of less taxing means to accumulate this volume. My weakest areas are triceps and glutes, so I will hammer away at those muscle groups to force them to cooperate in my strength goals. I don’t know if I can actually do Hip Thrusts in the gym… the lift is entirely sexual in appearance, and public fornication is not a thing I’m keen on, but dammit if it isn’t the single best glute strengthening exercise in existence.
As I penciled this plan into my spreadsheet, I’ll be damned if it didn’t look a lot like the “standard” Westside Barbell template. This has led to a serious conundrum as I am highly skeptical of speed work, or Dynamic Effort lifting as it’s commonly called, but if I’m doing my heavy lifting with the competition lifts on one day, what, pray tell, should my second day be composed of? As it stands today, my second day is a hypertrophy oriented day with a good variety of targeted lifts that best train the specific muscles I’m trying to hit, but in the back of my mind spins the idea of giving a little speed work a try again.
I’ve done it before, in my first foray into powerlifting. However that was equipped lifting and I think the speed work, if it’s useful at all, is most apropos for geared lifting. However as I keep thinking about it, my triceps would get more work from the Dynamic Effort benching if there were bands attached, as the lift would get heavier at the top, which is my weak point. The bands would also make the Squat harder at the top and give my quads a little extra work, and who doesn’t want stronger quads?
I fear the elbow and shoulder pain of speed benching, so it’s definitely not a given yet that I will do it once a week, but I will probably do it tomorrow, albeit with straight weight, to see how it feels before I wrap rubber bands around the barbell.
I have to admit to myself that training in the Westside style–although it would be a very simplistic version, without the extensive rotation of Max Efforts lifts they use–is appealing simply from the coolness factor. Maxing out one day, doing odd looking speed work another, and then doing tons of volume for triceps, lats, hamstrings, glutes and back sounds like tons of fun.
I know Izzy isn’t a fan, and he’s got legitimate points for his position, but there’s more than one way to skin an apple (why would anyone want to skin a cat?), and I’ve tried his way and it wrecked me. Let’s try another.
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