Why Training Should be Harder Than Competing.

Recently, A story came up on my feed of my old squadron training for deployment and it reminded me of all the bullshit we did ahead of deploying at that time and how in reality, the training was usually worse than the actual tour.

 This got me thinking about sports and why your training should be harder and smarter than meet day. 

Social media has been a massive plus for the sport of powerlifting in the last 4-5 years showcasing it to a wider audience as well as making it more appealing to sponsors.

Overall it has been a massive positive in the growth of the sport, however one downside is people are becoming more concerned about showing off on the “gram”,  than actually getting platform ready.

 How many times have we seen lifters overshoot their RPE or cut depth so they can show off online and get a few more likes and some smoke blown up their asses. 

It’s all too frequent that we see lifters hit bigger numbers in training then come comp day always fall short. This can happen to the best of lifters sometimes the lift just isn’t there, but realistically you never want to fail a lift on things you can control for example depth, soft knees, soft elbows, short pauses or you glutes coming up. 

Your training should make you bulletproof and prepare you as best as possible for the day rather than hoping you get a soft ref or my favourite one  “it will be there on the day”. Being strict and honest with yourself is one thing, but you need to instill this in your training partners as well. If your training partners aren’t honest and you don’t want to punch them every now and again then they’re not training partners they’re just people you hang out with at the gym. 

“Your training partners are not your buddies if they let you squat high” – GOAT

Here is a brief list on things you can hammer yourself on – 

Squat 

• Depth – (Don’t leave it to the ref to decide leave no doubt) 

• Walk Out – (Master the walk out this is critical for big squats. Don’t use a mono or be lazy with lighter weights) 

• Soft knees  –  This one catches people out a lot in competition.

• Long start command – Practice holding it there longer than usual, it’s better to be trained to hold it longer and not need it vs the opposite 

Bench 

• Pauses – (Train with longer pauses not the opposite)

• Start Command –  Get used to holding the weight longer than needed and staying tight

• Long start command – Practice holding it there longer than usual, it’s better to be trained to hold it longer and not need it vs the opposite 

Deadlift 

• Shoulders ( Ensure your shoulder are back ) 

• Down Command-  Hold the bar at the top for longer this doubles as extra grip training also.

• Soft knees  –  Ensure they’re locked out not still flexed 

Failing to prepare is preparing to fail as they say. Don’t get caught out in competition because you weren’t honest in training.