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My Return to Powerlifting
From T-Nation 4/04/2011

Leaving Bodybuilding
Id lef t bodybuilding disenchanted with the whole competitive scene. To me, it was the ultimate let down. You bust your ass f or 16 weeks, have no social lif e, and f ollow a diet that would drive a normal person insane, and f or what? A 60-second dance in your underwear in f ront of a room f ull of mouth-breathing dudes? No thanks. But I loved the training. It was f un, there was variety, and I got great results. I grew like a weed during my time at Hard Bodys, in all the areas Id targeted. I now had quads, back width, decent pecs, and a big set of guns. And the scale backed up what I was seeing. I was 265 pounds, a f ull 20 pounds heavier than when I started bodybuilding. Mission accomplished. One reason I was so keen to return to powerlif ting was that I was also getting really strong. I was killing my bodybuilding workouts and leaving my training partners in the dust, benching 405 f or 10 and 315 f or 32; squatting 700 f or 8 and 405 f or sets of 20. I could deadlif t 600 f or 12, no sweat. I remember pulling out the old rep conversion charts and getting excited. If I could bench 405 f or 10, then with the gear Id be able to max at 540 or 550, no problem. I could do some serious damage. (Boy, was I right.) I f ound a meet about three months away and using the conversion charts, set up a 12-week progressive overload program. It was a disaster. I started missing everything almost f rom day one and every rep was a grinder. T he workout would call f or two sets of f ive and Id barely gut out the f irst set, and then give everything I had to eke out 3-4 reps on the second set. T hen Id get pissed about missing the set, rest longer, get super jacked up and push out another set of 3-4 reps. I couldve adjusted to spare myself down the road but instead I stayed the course, telling myself that according to the conversion chart, I should be stronger. I was also bigger so I had to be stronger; all I had to do was ball up! Big mistake. I went into the meet weighing 275 and totaled 200 pounds less than my previous total weighing 242. My bench opened at 425 and I got stapled with 455.

I was way bigger but weaker.

I couldnt believe what had happened. It mustve just been nerves I thought, so I de-loaded and repeated the whole process. Same result. Frustrated and conf used, I started just doing meets, expecting that eventually Id get a dif f erent result. Whats the def inition of insanity again? Someone shouldve just had me committed, cause it wouldve saved me much wear and tear.

T hen I started getting hurt. Not injured; being injured began early in the f irst cycle and never went away. I was now getting hurt. T his is worse because when youre injured you can work through the issue, but when hurt you have to f ind ways to work around it. Soon my back was a disaster and my shoulders were shot and I couldnt pull f or shit. Something had to change. Since I was in university, I pulled every journal I could f ind related to strength and biomechanics: NSCA journals, the Soviet Sports Review, and about a hundred others. I was responsible f or clear-cutting an entire rainf orest with all the photocopying I did. I was like a sponge. I came across names and expressions that Id never heard bef ore like Spassov and dynamic ef f ort, and I began playing with plyometrics, even joining a boxing gym so I could do plyo push-ups to work on exploding of f my chest. I started doing every and I mean every new program that I happened upon, no matter how crazy they were. Case in point, the Bulgarian program below.

Sample Bulgarian program

Week 1 70% x 3 80% x 3 90% x 1 80% x 3 sets 3 70% x 10 Week 2 70% x 3 80% x 3 90% x 2 100% x 1 f or 3 sets 90% x 2 f or 3 sets 80% x 5 f or 3 sets Week 3 70% x 3 80% x 3 90% x 2 100% x 1 f or 3 sets 90% x 2 f or 3 sets 95% x 1 100% x 1 f or 2 sets 85% x 3 f or 2 sets 90% x 1 95% x 1 100% x 1 f or 2 sets Week 4 70% x 2 80% x 1 85% x 1 80% x 2 70% x 2 f or 3 sets Id repeat those f our weeks three times, f or a total of 12 weeks. Holy shit, those were long workouts. Needless to say, there was very little assistance work in there. And intense? Look at week three, you work up to a 1RM, then do doubles at 90% and thats a real 90%, not an estimated 90%. T hen, youd work up to a 1RM two more times in a single workout! So Im gearing up and wrapping up, Im snorting ammonia caps and going bat shit crazy trying to crush these three-hour workouts. My hips were killing me, my back was a mess. As f or my total? It barely moved. Frustrated and burned out, I switched (again) to a nonlinear system, thinking that it would be a smoother ride. It was a longer build up, with drops in intensity in the middle phases. It would be easier on the body, right?

Sample Nonlinear
Week 1: 55% x 15 f or 3 sets Week 2: 58% x 10 f or 3 sets Week 3: 60% x 10 f or 3 sets Week 4: 62% x 7 f or 3 sets Week 5: 65% x 7 f or 3 sets Week 6: 50% x 10 f or 2 sets Week 7: 70% x 5 f or 2 sets Week 8: 73% x 5 f or 3 sets Week 9: 75% x 5 f or 2 sets Week 10: 78% x 5 f or 1 set Week 11: 80% x 5 f or 2 sets Week 12: 50% x 10 f or 2 sets Week 13: 83% x 5 f or 1 set Week 14: 85% x 3 f or 2 sets

Week 15: 88% x 3 f or Week 16: 90% x 3 f or Week 17: 92% x 2 f or Week 18: 95% x 2 f or Week 19: 98% x 1 f or Week 20: pre meet Week 21: meet

2 1 1 1 1

sets set set set or 2 sets

It destroyed me. Pec strains became a constant battle. My knees started acting up and my once sore hips were now shot. Week 12 would always be when the wheels f ell of f . Wed be up at 80%, and then drop back to 50% to give the body a break. But that one week of light training was enough to get my body used to light loads, so the return to real poundages would pulverize me. I sustained many injuries during this phase and many of the injuries werent even muscular but in the joints and tendons. My back, in particular, was a mess. T he programs I kept coming up with were destroying me and I wasnt getting stronger.

Go With The Flow Gear Ho

I was out of control. With each new program Id hop onto Id just get more disappointed and more injured. I eventually hooked up with a new group of hardcore powerlif ters. T hese guys told me that I was overcomplicating things and while I was test-driving all these f ancy programs, their approach was to work up to a heavy weight, and if you f elt good, go f or a single every workout! For example, wed work up to a f airly easy set of f ive, and if that f elt good, work up to a triple. If you killed the triple, well, then it was on wed work right up to a heavy single. And if you hit the single? Make it a triple.

Every workout. Adding to the craziness f actor, these guys believed in using f ull gear every time you got under the bar. T his was completely f oreign to me, as I always saved my gear f or the last f ew weeks. Not these guys. With them, every workout should be like your last workout. I loved it. As crazy as it was, in hindsight it was my f irst taste of Maximum ef f ort training and it taught me to adjust things if I f elt like a bull one day or a lamb the next. Despite the ridiculous programming (or lack thereof ), I actually got pretty strong, bringing my squat to 800 f or 5, bench pressing 540 f or 5, and 700 f or 2 in the deadlif t. Too bad it didnt transf er to the meet. I struggled and I mean struggled to hit a 780-pound single in the squat and realized that I lef t my best training back in the weight room. T he balls to the wall f inally caught up to me and again I wasnt much f urther ahead.

1993

Heres the scene: my body is a complete mess, but I decide out of desperation to do yet another meet. T he week bef ore the meet, Id tweaked my pec in training but decide to compete anyway. Its not like I havent done the same thing many times bef ore. I open with 455 and it f eels hard. Really hard, like the hardest 1RM of my lif e. I keep going and f or my second attempt call f or 500 on the bar. I know all I have to do is pull back into myself , ball up, and do whatever it takes to get the weight up. I get the bar about 3/4 of the way up and my pec blows right out f rom the humerus. T heres no bruising, no blood, but the whole pec has rolled up like a window blind under my nipple. Ive torn muscles and tweaked pecs bef ore but this is dif f erent. It doesnt hurt, theres no discoloration, but I can barely move my arm and theres a huge gap where my pec used to be.

Sitting in the corner, I realize what my lousy training and countless injuries had been trying to tell me all along. T hat despite all that I read, I dont know shit. I question if Ive taken my body as f ar as it would go. Im stronger mentally than physically and regardless of what Ive done, my lif ts are barely moving. I question if Ive come as f ar as my genetics will allow. Is this the end and if so, what next? A guy Ive seen at the meets comes over. He looks at my arm in a sling supporting my busted up pec, then looks me dead in the eyes and says, If you dont start changing what you do youre going to be out of this sport in a year. Its Louie Simmons.

One Door Closes

T he f irst thing I told Louie was that I thought I was already done with powerlif ting. I truly was at rock bottom and ready to move onto the next chapter of my lif e, whatever the hell that was. I told him how Id tried everything to move f orward and f ailed. I told him the extensive list of injuries Id accumulated. Louie would have none of it. You have no idea what your potential is, he said. Come to Westside and let me show you. I was skeptical. And when Id said I thought I was done, I meant it. But my wif e wanted to move to Columbus and I certainly didnt have any other options, so I headed to Westside. T here was also something in Louies words that never lef t me. Unlike so many others in my lif e whod provided guidance or suggestions, I could tell Louie was serious and meant every word. Very f ew people in my lif e have ever really believed in me and there I was standing f ace to f ace with someone who did.

Lessons
T hey say that when lif e kicks you in the balls is when you learn the most important lessons. For all the beating I took those years, at least I learned a lot: T he value of a perceived max. In the Bulgarian system f or example, youre always going balls to the wall, working of f an actual max. T hat just destroys you, especially if you have other commitments outside of training. A better way is to establish a perceived rep max. Work up to a decent weight and then have a conversation with your partner (or yourself ) about how strong you really are, today. Do you think you can hit 315? No? Maybe just 300? T hen bam, work of f 90% of that 300. It spares the joints and sets up long-term success as opposed to f rustration and f ailure.

Use real-time perceived maxes, not what some equation tells you to lif t. T he value of the maximum effort method. T he best gains I made out of all the programs was when I trained with the two guys that just worked up and used how I f eel versus how the weights f eel as the guide to the number of reps to be done. T his inf luence carried over to how I used the max ef f ort method in later years. Bodybuilding training and powerlifting need to be mutually exclusive. T hat is, at least to excel at either of them. A big mistake I made was that I never really lef t bodybuilding training behind. Despite being a powerlif ter, I was benching like a bodybuilder: elbows f lared, no leg drive, and wondering why I couldnt bench f or shit and blew a pec in the process. Strength is a high-level skill. Like any skill, to get good at it, you have to practice. T hat means perf orming the same lif ts, the same way, repeatedly until you develop some degree of mastery. Ask any high-skill athlete and hell agree, that kind of repetition is a grind. Its beyond boring and it burns many people out, but those who stick it out are rewarded at the end. If youre a competitive powerlif ter you know what I mean. T he training essentially is doing the same things day in and day out, week in and week out, f or years. How many times have you been cued, head up, or back, back, back? T housands. T hose who become successf ul learn to love and embrace the boredom. Bodybuilding is way less boring. T heres variety; hell, variety is encouraged, and once I got a taste of that I didnt want to let it go. So when I shouldve been squatting, deadlif ting, and benching I was throwing in meaningless stuf f that had no business being in my program, like leg presses and hack squats. But I enjoyed them and they were f un at least until I started to get overtrained and injured. Bigger muscles do not necessarily mean stronger muscles. When I returned to powerlif ting I was way bigger and could do walking lunges with 315 on my back but couldnt squat 700! Powerlif ting is all about coordination, getting the entire system to f ire as a unit. Bodybuilding, once you reach a certain level of development, requires the exact opposite. You can either accept this and change your approach, or just bulldog your way through it and destroy your body in the process. Conversion charts are bullshit. Not only is every lif ter dif f erent, but also bodybuilding produces a much dif f erent type of strength than powerlif ting. Bodybuilding conditions you to perf orm 8 rep sets but does jack shit f or your limit strength or your explosiveness. You have to give yourself time to relearn that type of training bef ore jumping into what you should be lif ting. I never did, and I paid f or it. Jumping from program to program is a mistake.

T he more I read and the more I learned, the more I changed programs. As a result, rather than f ine tuning or tweaking my progress, I made no progress. In hindsight, I wouldve been better of f just picking a decent program and sticking with it until mastering it. I see people making this mistake all the time, especially the young guys coming up in the inf ormation era, where every lif ter and his mother have their log posted online. T hese guys leap f rom program to program like f rogs leaping f rom lily pad to lily pad. T heyre f ollowing a solid program until some other f rog croaks about a new Conjugate Eastern Bloc hybrid that theyre making great gains of f of , so they ditch what theyre doing and leap to the next lily pad. Jumping f rom lily pad to lily pad is okay until you miss. When you do, you better know how to swim. I tell guys that the smart f rog ignores all the other f rogs and just swims underneath the lily pads to the other side. Pick a good program and f ollow it to the letter until you master it. So when youre on the other side of the pond happily eating bugs, the rest of the f rogs will still be jumping f rom lily pad to lily pad. Sure, some of the pad jumpers will make it over to eat bugs beside you, but most will just keep missing, and all youll hear is the ribbit ribbit ribbit of a pond f ull of f rogs blaming everything but themselves f or still being stuck on the pads. T his guy had better gear, that guy had better drugs, that f ederation had messed up rules, ribbit, ribbit, ribbit. During my f irst phase of training I used the same program f or basically f ive years and it was tremendously successf ul. When I f inally got to Westside, I did that program f or 12 years and learned it f rom a guy who was using it f or 20 years bef ore I got there. T hats an important lesson, and it leads into my f inal point. Strength training is a massive learning circle. T heres a massive learning curve to strength training, but its more like a learning circle. At the bottom, when youre new, you know nothing. Youre this giant idiot and you just do what bigger guys tell you to do, and as long as those guys arent retarded youll make gains and progress up the circle.

T his wide middle part of the circle is where a lot of guys are. T heyre kind of strong and theyve got some scars, but the main thing they have is an education. T heyve read everything. T hey have degrees. T hey have a stack of journals on their desk and a dozen f orums they help moderate. T hey can talk the pros and cons of every periodization modality and jaw about the old Soviet coach they met at a conf erence. T hey think theyre masters. What they dont realize is that theyre not all that. T heyre not masters in f act, theyre still idiots, cause they havent done anything or lif ted anything. But good luck telling them that. Af ter all, theyve got degrees and certif ications and a lot of Facebook f riends. T hey need to be humbled bef ore they can move on. T hey need to have their asses handed to them, their pride beaten like an unwanted dog. T hey need to wake up one day and look in the mirror and realize that this craf t theyve devoted their lif e to has gotten the best of them. T hey have to realize that they really dont know shit. Its when theyre at rock bottom and ready to quit; thats when theyre ready to move up. T hat bottom is really the beginning. T hats when the real understanding begins to take shape when you realize you know nothing is when you begin to learn and move f orward. When I headed to Westside, it wasnt like I graduated to that system. I didnt hit some amazing total and Louie Simmons swept in and gave me a diploma. I was a broken down mess with a torn pec and wrecked back and was done with the whole f rickin sport. But thats what I needed. My body had to be broken bef ore my mind could move on. Jazz legend Charlie Parker said, Master the instrument, master the music. T hen, f orget all that shit and play. Youve read the books. Now learn the trade. It took me years of training and journal reading to realize that I didnt know a damn thing.

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