As a scrawny kid I got into exercising to build muscle and look better. Growing up I always looked as if I skipped 2 meals a day, which made me pretty self-conscious about the way I looked.
I wanted to look like I ate cheeseburgers!
Building muscle was hard so I changed gears to trying to get stronger. Doing this is a great idea because it takes attention away from “looks” and moves it to performance.
Although this is a great idea I did it because I wanted to look like Jay Cutler in a month and that wasn’t happening.
In college I started taking exercise and my time at the gym more serious than I had in the past while maintaining the goal of strength.
This pushed me to enter a powerlifting competition junior year of college.
Don’t you worry; I entered into a local beginners meet where I was welcome. There was no way in hell my SpongeBob bench press could compete in a qualifiers meet.
I was put 5th on the waitlist and was told that it was more probable than not that I will be added to the competition list. Even though I didn’t have an actual spot on the list I still had to train just in case they called and said I was good to go.
During the next six months I followed Jim Wendler’s 5-3-1 program and did my damn best to get my numbers up.
Bench has always been my worst lift. It aggravates my shoulder making it hard to really push the weight up to higher percentages. Knowing this I pushed through and tried to get stronger just by benching (bad idea).
The program laid out what I needed to do for the main three lifts. It then relied on the individual to figure out what else needed to be done for supplemental/accessory exercises.
After finishing up the main lift for that day it would call for “supplemental work”. To me that meant okay let’s go do some things that will make me look better. Supplemental work, in reality, is meant to address weak points to increase your main lifts.
Of course, not wanting to do boring things, I gravitated towards all the things that were fun. Lat pulldown, machine row, dumbbell fly, leg extensions. All things that have merit but weren’t helping me reach my full potential.
I wasn’t doing the extra hinge work, focusing on my weak points, strengthening my upper back, using different pressing variations. All things that would have progressed me even further, were not in my program.
I got a call five days before the event saying that the last spot opened up and I was in. A vacation had already been planned for the weekend and I was unable to go. So I finished up my de-load week and did a “mock meet” at the gym just to test myself.
My numbers were:
Squat: 395
Deadlift: 485
Bench: 255
There were no judges there telling me I paused my bench long enough or got deep enough on my squat so not real official numbers.
At the end of the training block I was beat the hell up!
Ignoring my weak points and other areas that needed to be addressed, I was finding it hard to progress past a certain point.
Why were my hips tight, why did my low back hurt, why could I only squat heavy with a belt on?
All things I ignored for six months were coming back to bite me in the ass. It wasn’t until I took a step back and realized I wasn’t doing myself any good by avoiding these areas.
I took my program and re-made my goal: get stronger at squat, bench, and deadlift. From there I laid out my limiting factors on each movement.
Hip mobility was garbage, ankle mobility didn’t exist, I don’t think I ever did a hamstring exercise, I couldn’t remember the last time a plank was done, and my glutes weren’t doing anything at all.
On top of that my left shoulder had a nagging injury and I never addressed thoracic mobility, shoulder stability, or strength of the upper back. All things that could have made this shoulder feel a million times better.
It took me six months (well more like 3 years) to realize the damage I was causing my body. Granted powerlifting is never easy on the body BUT there are ways to mitigate the negative effects and keep you in the gym longer and stronger.
The reason it took so long to take a step back and figure this stuff out was because I was still making progress towards my goal of getting stronger on the three main lifts.
It wasn’t until I hit a wall and tried to push through it that I was able to take a step back and be objective about what was going on.
Don’t let it get to that point. It is much easier to address these areas early on than it is to try to reverse yourself out of a shitty situation.
If you don’t have a coach to take a step back and be objective about what you need and the things that are going to give you the best sustained progress, then you have to do it on your own.
It is much harder to be objective with yourself than it is with someone else, but it is something you should do a few times a year to keep yourself on track.
This is how I do it for myself:
1. Find Your WHY
I always talk about having a goal and working towards it. What is the thing driving you?
They don’t have to be crazy or lofty goals but make sure to have some direction you are heading. That direction will guide everything else you do moving forward. Make a plan, stick to the plan, reach your goal.
2. Ask Yourself “WHY”
Creating the program is the hard part. If you have a general idea of how to make a program geared toward your goal then step one is done!
When you are figuring out what exercises to plug in, ask yourself “why” you put that exercise there. Why did you put core work before squats, why did you have a dynamic warm-up that day? This will keep you honest with your programming. Maybe you put leg extensions in as your supplemental exercise for that day because you enjoy them. When you ask yourself why, you know deep down you should be doing some glute ham raises instead because they will give you a better carry-over to your goal your squat.
This doesn’t just go for a goal in powerlifting. It can be done for really any goal in any aspect of life.
3. What Do You “NEED”
This area will have some tie in to the “why” section.
Finding out the things you need, will take some practice but for the most part, people have a general idea what they really need to get better. Whether it is some nagging pain or weakness in a certain area that’s holding you back, you know there will be benefits from addressing it.
Once again, take a step back, look at your goal, look at what you can improve upon, and act on it! Taking action is the hardest part.
For me, hamstrings and low back are weak points. If I didn’t take a step back to realize these things I would have never in a million years programmed goodmornings into my routine. Nor would I have switched to dumbbell benching to focus on clearing up my shoulder pain.
After doing these things for a lengthened period of time now, I enjoy seeing improvements in both areas which keeps me doing them on a consistent basis. W find enjoyment in the things we are good at. So get good at your weak points!
4. How Do I Get To My Goal
Knowing where I want to be and what I NEED to get there shows me a general idea of what my program should include. Now it is time to sit down and put it all together.
It is still a good idea to incorporate the things you like into your program to keep things enjoyable. Just know that doing the things you NEED,will have great impact on the effectiveness of your program. Sitting down and mapping out your plan from start to finish will force some accountability to complete your goal.
One thing I like to do is work backwards from my goal. So in my case I would use the powerlifting meet as my end point. From there I will work backwards from that exact date all the way until the day you begin.
So on July 11th I know I will be competing. This means that 2-3 weeks before I want to work in some sort of test day so I know what I can expect from myself. Also I will want to de-load a week beforehand so I am fresh and ready to go. Now these are only small pieces to the puzzle, all the work leading up to that point will be the main course of the program.
This will include your exercise selections, rates of progressions, how often you plan on changing variables within your program, and times where you may need to back off and take a few rest days. This is not set and stone but know it will guide you to your end result.
Being able to step back and be objective in regards to yourself is never easy. In fact I fought the idea for almost a year because I thought that I was doing everything so well. In reality I was not helping my own case and left a bunch of room for improvement over the course of that time. I still wouldn’t go as far to say that I am good at this yet but I sure am trying.
So why not give it a shot with your own training and see the benefits you can derive from it.
Jeffrey Nagle
Coach || OPEX South Shore
