Articles

For us as athletes we are always striving to drive our performance to new heights, we obsess over the smallest details that will allow us to get most out of our training and to maximise our results. For many individuals, they believe the way to achieve this is by finding the next product or a new secret technique but, sometimes less is more! The belief that all improvement takes is a little more work along with some extra blood and tears is a frame of mind that is prevalent within the lifting community but, just because some is good DOES NOT mean more is better. Sometimes it is not a lack of work that holds back progress but a lack of structured recovery, that is why today I wish to explore the importance of deloading and the place it should hold within your programming.

First things first, what classifies a deload and how should they be structured? A deload is defined as a pre-determined or self-regulated period (usually a week), in which your volume or intensity is titrated to...

Competition, for many lifters it is the highpoint of their training experience, having the opportunity to compete against groups of like-minded individuals who push us to showcases our strength and want to see us succeed is something that makes the powerlifting community one of a kind.

Although, regardless of all the amazing aspects and opportunities that competition brings, it is very easy to get swept up in the hype and excitement and compete so frequently it hinders your progress in the long term. This means we not only have to structure our training intelligently but consider the physical, financial and psychological stress that competition brings and organise our competition calendars accordingly.

With that in mind, today I would like to explore the importance of foresight when planning out our training and competitions throughout a training year. As with anything, there is a point where you can have too much of a good thing and...