I happened to come across a YouTube video from Reactive Training Systems discussing their current philosophy for Powerlifting training which they call Emerging Strategies. It’s a fascinating strategy as it’s essentially an ongoing science experiment to determine what works best for each athlete they coach. They start with a training block which they call a Developmental Block and have the athlete perform the training and log the results, week after week. No change in the program until the program stops working. They deem it to have stopped working when the estimated 1RM declines. It may take 4 weeks, 6 weeks, even longer depending on the lifter, but 6 weeks seems to be about average. They then create a Pivot Block, which is a week or two of non-Powerlifting specific lifting, then create a new Developmental Block and try again.
Over time they can develop a Time To Peak, which lets the coaches know how long it takes each athlete to reach their peak performance before it starts to decline, which allows them to target their Meet plans to have the lifter peak on the platform. They can also determine which lifts, and at what intensities, volume and frequency seem to produce the best results. Mike Tuscherer is basically a Powerlifting Scientist. He’s not just an evidence-based practitioner which is all the rage now, but he’s actually using the Scientific Method in practice; creating a hypothesis, running experiments, reviewing the data and determining if he was on the right path or not.
As I watched the video, and then watched related videos, I started missing Powerlifting training. My long time readers, of which there are likely none, will know I competed once upon a time and always planned on doing it again. I trained for strength for a long time, but switched to hypertrophy training a while ago, not because I wanted to become a bodybuilder, but because more muscle size creates the potential for more strength, as more muscle fibers have the potential to be trained to increase force production. Here’s the thing though: my ability to add additional muscle at this stage of my life and lifting career is slow. Two things I came across got me thinking maybe I don’t have to miss Powerlifting anymore. In fact, maybe I should be training for Powerlifting.
One was a Q&A from Greg Nukols on his Stronger by Science podcast. The question was from a lifter who was fairly new and was focusing on strength. He wanted to know if he should switch to a hypertrophy oriented training plan when he couldn’t increase his strength anymore. Greg’s take was that he should be doing the exact opposite. He should be focusing on hypertrophy training until he maxes out the easy gains. He should try to grow until growing becomes so slow that it doesn’t make sense to spend a year of hypertrophy training to add 1 or 2 pounds of new muscle (sound familiar?).
The second thing I came across was in Chris Beardsely’s book on Strength. He discusses how as an intermediate or advanced lifter, you are unable to gain much muscle from one month to the next. Monthly improvements might be “just about” able to be measured with an actual scale. However, the neuromuscular system remains highly adaptable. Ultimately, for an intermediate or advanced lifter, aiming for specific strength gains is the fastest route to improving force production in specific movements. Much more so than trying to add half a pound of new muscle, which is spread across the whole body.
I know I’ve added muscle over the last few dedicated years of hypertrophy training. Coincidentally, after my recent diet, I weigh right at the top of the the 163-lb IPF weight class. No matter how hard I tried, there is no way I am going to be able to make it to the top of the next weight class, which is 181 lbs, unless I just want to add 20 lbs of fat. Fat doesn’t produce force. So the reality is, I’m best served by taking the lean, muscled body I have now and start training specifically for strength improvement in the power lifts. I’m still studying all the ways in which heavy training improves strength, but the basics are increased tendon stiffness, increased muscular coordination, improved lateral force transfer, and increased muscle activation.
The COVID-19 Pandemic rages on, so there’s no telling if I can safely compete in 2021, however the USAPL has several South Carolina meets planned, and I emailed the state chairman who stated that unless the Governor imposes some restrictions, the meets will go on. That doesn’t mean I’ll feel safe doing them, but maybe we’ll be far along in the vaccination of the nation by then and it will be safe to compete. Maybe it will take until later in the year, but either way, I’ll be ready! I have a plethora of Powerlifting training programs to choose from, and I’d love to experiment the way Mike T does with his RTS athletes. Hell, I’d like to hire them to coach me, but I don’t have the discretionary cash for such an indulgence. I will use the RTS tracking tool, run my own experiments, and see which methods or programs get me the best results. I’m starting with the most specific Powerlifting program I own, and the one I used to prep for my mock meet last year in which I set all time PR’s: Izzy’s Powerlifting to Win program. I’m starting with the base Intermediate program and will run it until is stops working, if I can figure out when that is.
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