Strength and Conditioning for Powerlifting

By Joshua Miller Written 05/16/2020, Edited and Published 12/13/2022 

When it comes to powerlifting, training is no different than the training for another sport on a macro level. By that I mean that the training process includes both practice at the competitive skillset and general development of skills required in the sport. These are your practices and your strength and conditioning sessions, respectively. In Powerlifting, there is great overlap between the strength and conditioning process and the skills practice, however one should still approach programming with the proper balance of general development and skill development required for long-term success. In this article I would like to address some of the fundamental flaws I observe in balancing specificity with general development in powerlifting, and how this stems from a misconceptualization of the BIG PICTURE training process. Strength and Conditioning for Powerlifting takes aim at the dogmatic thought processes and approaches that often keep people from seeing the forest for the trees.

Too often we see novice powerlifters make the mistake of overspecification. This flawed logic has plagued team sports for too long, and the mindset leeches into many people’s general approach to athletics. The idea that leads to this if you want to get better at something, you must practice it, and you should practice like you play. Both of these concepts absolutely have truth to them; however the whole truth is not so absolute. There is an ideal balance of skill specific training and general training in any sport, and even within skill work there is more involved in developing a player’s skill than having them go play the sport. If you are going to develop a basketball player’s skill, then you are going to have them do more than scrimmage during practice. You will break the sport down into drills. Ideally this is the same in all sports, including strength athletics. I would highly encourage powerlifters and strength athletes to take a page from the S&C community at large here.

If basketball coaches find it valuable to break movements on the court down from full speed games to simple drills to teach boxing out for rebounds, why would you as a lifter not break down deadlifts into 2-pause deadlifts? Why not break squats down to one and a quarter, bottom half, or pause variations to reinforce proper positioning? As with any sport, only doing the competitive movements will only take you so far. Even with proper manipulation of volume and intensity, for all but true outliers, more will be needed to reach world class levels. Even with comprehensive skill development, you will not reach your full potential without comprehensive overall development for the demands of your sport. In comes strength and conditioning.  This will vary athlete to athlete in powerlifting in terms of movement selection, volume, intensity, etc, however the concept of addressing the overall demands of the sport should remain.

When programming for a powerlifter, I encourage coaches and lifters alike to conceptualize it as strength and conditioning for powerlifting. Just like planning strength and conditioning for any other sport, when you are really far out from competition you focus on improving general development and maintaining or improving you overall skillset. As you get closer to competition you begin focusing more on skill development.

For example, if I were to have a client who was 16 weeks out from a meet, it would be highly unlikely they are being prescribed heavy singles on competition variations. While this is the skill required by the sport, I may select a specific drill to focus on developing the skillset instead. It may be building general strength on a weak link with a specialty bar, or it may be a squat complex focusing on a technical issue. Far out from a meet there would likely be more focus on assistance work as well, in terms of both volume and intensity. Likewise, as a meet approaches, it would be unlikely to see a specialty bar variation replacing the competition bar for heavy movements two weeks out from a meet.

Why? It is the difference between building and displaying strength. 

Just like in any other sport, as competition time grows nearer specification must increase. This does not mean that exercises that cue a needed movement focus and serve as a drill will not be included, as they definitely should be to improve the skill and execution of the movement. It does mean that secondary movements and drills should not have the priority they may have in other blocks of training though, as this should have already been handled in that manner prior to entering a competition prep. This over-variation and/or haphazard variation is one of the problems we often see from other groups on the other end of the specification spectrum—those who undervalue it. Namely, people new to conjugate who are excited to use every bar known to man. The point of conjugate is to constantly apply incoming data and adjust course to get the best outcome possible compared to having something set in stone based off an educated guess at the start of a program. The point of the variation within conjugate programming is to allow you to analyze your competition movement and select movements which will help you improve your skill and strength at a given competition lift. There is nothing in that philosophy that implies that specificity and generalization are not variables that should be manipulated as well.

So, whether you tend to be trapped inside the box of only the big 3, or whether you have been bouncing off the walls between variations, finding the right balance of specialization and variation is key to maximizing your results on the platform. Don’t think about powerlifting as that different than any other sport on a macro level!

It helps to stay grounded by conceptualizing whatever you are doing as “strength and conditioning for X”. I hope this helps you stay focused, and effectively balance specificity and variation in your programming!