Recent Strength Training

My power lifting training has been going extremely well recently and seems to have taken a step forward since I have started using a slightly less conventional approach to my squatting and deadlifting.

Many sources on the Internet suggest that squats and deadlifts, due to their extremely demanding nature, should be performed infrequently at around once per week.

Personally, my squat has always been my weakest lift thus in an attempt to bring it up to scratch I have been squatting twice weekly using weights of around 80 - 85% of my one rep max.

By using lighter percentages and squatting for between 2 and 4 work sets of 3 and 5 reps with good form I have found that my strength has continued to increase alongside improvements in my technique which now allows me to squat much deeper while maintaining an upright torso position.

One very welcome side effect of this twice weekly squatting has been the improvement in my deadlifting.

4 weeks ago I struggled to hit 170kg for 5 reps but yesterday I managed to get a new personal best of 170kg * 7 reps @ 76.6kg body weight.

My weekly plan in respect of squats and deadlifts has consisted of:-

Session 1
Squat - working up to 4 triples at 80 - 85% max.
Deadlift - 4 warm up sets up to 140kg with 3 work sets of 150, 160 and 170kg.
Sumo Deadlift - 5 singles up to 190kg.
Kettlebell swings - 100 reps with a 20kg bell broken down to 3-5 sets.


Session 2
Squat - working up to a top set of 5 reps with 80 - 85% max.
Stiff Leg Deadlift standing on a 5" block - 5 sets up to 130kg
Heavy Kettlebell Side Bends - 3 sets each side
Weighted Decline Crunches - 4 sets.

I also think that regular Kettlebell training (using swings and snatches) has also played a significant role in the conditioning and recovery of my posterior chain (hamstrings, glutes, spinal erectors)which has made my recovery from one squat session to the next that much faster.

Notably I cycle for 4 weeks of training before taking an easier back down week to allow for deloading of the spinal column, extra stretching and recovery of the central nervous system.

Here is a video of yesterdays personal best.
Note: -
I re-set between each rep as in competition I only ever perform 1 rep.
By training my rep sets this way, each rep, is in effect a new single rep and is more specific to the nature of powerlifting. The reach up technique is used to help get a larger breath before the descent which assists with a stronger valsalva technique helping to keep the abdomen and torso tighter with less chance of back rounding and injury. (Please excuse the bellow on the last rep!)