Introduction
I’m Tavis Royer, a competitive Powerlifter for Team GB with the GPC in the u90 Men's open category.
For those of you that don’t know, Powerlifting is a strength sport centred exclusively around a barbell Back Squat, Bench Press and Deadlift. On the day of the competition, you have 3 attempts of 1 repetition with each lift and your best attempt determines your ‘Total’.
Key Phases of Training for the u90’s GPC Europena Championships:
Early Stages of Prep:
The further out you are from competition, the less specific the movements tend to be. This is usually >12 weeks out. Some people call this the ‘building phase’ or ‘building the base’. Working with 4 sets of around 6-8 reps on average.
At this point in training, we were trying to increase work capacity and iron out any weaknesses. In my case, we had to strengthen my posterior chain, and increase lean mass in my upper body.
To do this, we used conventional deadlifts, hyper extensions, various row variations and a lot of bodybuilding upper body accessories.
Conventional Deadlifts made a massive impact. My entire posterior chain felt a lot stronger and as soon as I made the change back to sumo 2x per week at around 12 weeks out the effects were blatant.
Mid Stages of Prep:
At around the 8 week mark I started to get my head down and really dial in my training. This was the point when the volume decreased and the intensity increased, following a linear model of periodisation.
Strength training isn’t always as linear. Therefore, absolute intensity levels did not flow in a linear pattern, but the perceived exertion did. So, we predominantly measured my effort levels in training, which were rising as we began to drop the reps and sets and increase the weight, building to that maximal strength for 1 rep.
Late Stages of Prep:
The deload/taper commenced around 2 weeks out from the meet. This is where we were looking to realise the potential strength gains from the accumulated work done over the earlier phases of training.
The penultimate week consisted of the last ‘heavy’ training sessions.
Training on the Week of the meet went as follows: Monday was a very light, low intensity session of Squat Bench and Deadlift or SBD and my final session was a light bench day on the Wednesday before competing at the European Championships on the Friday.
Competition Results:
We left with a 242.5kg Squat, 147.5kg Bench and 280kg Deadlift, a 670kg Total and a 35kg Competition PB, placing 3rd and taking home the bronze in my category. Narrowly missing out on the elusive 300kg deadlift. We go again and aim to hit it later this year at the GPC World Championships (October 20th, 2022) before transitioning the British IPF Federation (GBPF).
Conclusion:
If you’re considering competing, get in contact with a coach! Powerlifting involves a lot of patience; you may not see numbers go up for weeks due to a number of factors but remember all that matters are the numbers you leave the platform with. Trust the process! May all your lights be white!
Prep Coach: Erik Mata (@gainsdalf on Instagram)
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