The Ultimate Powerlifting Guide For Beginners

If you’ve been thinking about getting into powerlifting, you’ve come to the right place.

Before you can begin your journey and start smashing some PB’s, it is imperative that you have an understanding of the sport of powerlifting.

Therefore, this article will provide you with all of the information that will help you understand the demands of the sport and allow you to make the best start possible.

What Is Powerlifting?

Powerlifting is a strength sport that tests your maximal strength capacity. It does this by assessing your performance with the three powerlifts: squat, bench press, and deadlift.

With each of these movements, you will be granted three attempts to lift as much weight as you possibly can.

All of your best lifts will be recorded. Once you have performed all three lifts, the maximum amount of weight you lifted will be calculated to give your final result and placing.

For example, if a lifter squats 300 lbs, presses 200 lbs, and deadlifts 350 lbs, their accumulative total will be 850 lbs.

The individual who has lifted the most total weight will win the event.

What Are The Benefits of Powerlifting?

The primary benefit of engaging in powerlifting is the impact that it will have on your total body strength.

Due to the fact that powerlifting events assess your strength with the deadlift, squat, and bench press, practically all powerlifting training programs revolve around these three exercises.

The deadlift is commonly seen as a back exercise, the squat as a leg exercise, and the bench press as a chest exercise.

However, it’s important to recognize that each exercise works several muscles throughout the body, and therefore, regularly performing them will efficiently improve full-body strength.

Additionally, when considering strength training, the research clearly shows that heavy lifting has the most substantial impact on strength development (1).

The muscles involved and the mechanics of each exercise means that you can lift a substantial amount with these three exercises. 

In fact, there are few free weight exercises that will allow you to lift as heavy as the deadlift, squat, and bench press.

Engaging in strength training has been associated with a number of health and fitness benefits including: 

• Better Movement
• Enhanced Mood
• Improved Balance, Coordination, and Stability
• Reduced Injury Risk
• Reduced Risk of Chronic Disease
• Stronger Bones and Soft Tissues (2) 

What Are The Limitations of Powerlifting?

The most evident risk associated with powerlifting is experiencing an injury. Because you will often lift maximal weights, the risk of injury is much increased.

When the weight is light, it is much easier to maintain good exercise technique. However, when the load increases, your technique can suffer and begin to break down.

Combining poor technique with heavy weight will lead to injury. 

For this reason, as a beginner, you must ensure that you spend plenty of time perfecting your technique. Doing so will significantly reduce the risk of technique breakdown when lifting heavy weight.

Powerlifting has also been criticized for its one-dimensional approach. 

Because all of the focus is on strength development, it can be easy to neglect other important fitness components such as mobility and conditioning.

Powerlifting Considerations

Before diving into powerlifting or signing up for your first-ever competition, there are a number of considerations that you must make.

The Three Powerlifts

As highlighted, powerlifting focuses on the squat, deadlift, and bench press. These lifts will be assessed in competition with the goal being to lift as much weight as possible. 

You should be aware that there are different exercise variations that are permitted in powerlifting.

With the deadlift, you can either use the conventional deadlift stance or the sumo deadlift which uses a wide stance.

Ultimately, you should use the deadlift variation that allows you to lift the greatest amount of weight possible.

For most people, this will be the sumo deadlift as the wide stance shortens the range of motion and typically allows for more weight to be lifted.

In a similar fashion, you can choose to squat high or low bar. These variations refer to the position of the bar on the back.

With the high bar squat, the bar sits just above the shoulder blades whereas, with the low bar, the bar sits directly on top of the shoulder blades.

While this may seem like an insignificant difference, the bar position will influence your trunk position as you squat.

The high bar squat will keep the trunk more upright while the low bar squat will cause the trunk to tip forward to a greater degree.

Not only does this give you a mechanical advantage, it also activates powerful posterior muscles, such as the glutes and hamstrings, to a greater degree allowing you to generate more force.

For this reason, it tends to be the case that you can lift heavier with the low bar squat and, therefore, it should take precedence over high bar.

Powerlifting Federation

While the most popular powerlifting federation is the International Powerlifting Federation (IPF), there are a vast number of other federations in existence.

The majority of these federations have come about due to differences regarding drug use and drug testing.

You should be aware that there is not a set of universal powerlifting rules. While there may be some similarities, rules and regulations tend to vary between federations.

For example, some federations have a very strict drug-use policy while others permit the use of performance-enhancing drugs.

There is also variance between federations in regards to competitions, weigh-in protocols, and weight classes.

Therefore, it’s crucial that you familiarize yourself with the rules and regulations to help you choose the powerlifting federation that best suits your preferences.

Raw or Equipped?

Once you have selected the federation that suits you and your powerlifting preferences, you must then determine whether you are to compete in raw or equipped competitions.

As the names suggest, you are not allowed to use any training aids in raw competitions (with the exception of a lifting belt and wrist wraps).

However, in equipped competitions, you are permitted to use additional equipment such as squat suits and bench shirts.

These pieces of kit allow the athletes to lift heavier through the use of elastic energy (3).

Ultimately, neither category is superior to the other. Whether you lift raw or equipped is up to you. That said, if your main goal is to lift as much weight as humanly possible, you should consider equipped lifting.

Selecting A Weight Class

If you were not already aware, strength sports such as powerlifting and bodybuilding, are classified by weight. This ensures that the playing field is leveled.

If it weren’t for weight classes, lighter athletes would be at a significant disadvantage in comparison to heavier athletes (4).

Before a competition, you will complete a weigh-in which will place you in a particular weight category. This means that you will compete against lifters of a similar size to you.

Lifters can only compete in one weight class and cannot enter a class above or below.

You should determine the weight class that you want to compete in well in advance of the competition.

You can find the different weight classes in the table below. As you will see, the IPF uses a weight class system that differs from the majority of other powerlifting federations.

Powerlifting Meets

Before you enter a competition, you need to understand how they run, the rules, and how to best prepare for your event.

As highlighted, powerlifting competitions assess your strength through the squat, bench press, and deadlift.

With each exercise, you will be given three attempts to lift the most amount of weight that you can.

Powerlifting competitions begin with the squat first, before moving onto the bench and concluding with the deadlift.

Before the event, you should already have an idea of your goal weight for each lift. This will be based on your performance in the gym in the lead up to the event.

With their first attempt, most athletes will begin with a weight that they know they can lift relatively comfortably. They will then use their following two attempts to attain their goal weight or more.

Be aware that you must lift in a particular manner and abide by the criteria outlined by the federation.

For the squat, once you have unracked the bar, you must wait for a command to be given before commencing the squat. This command won’t be given until you are in a stable position with the knees locked. 

Having completed the squat, again, you must wait for a command before reracking the bar. 

With the bench press, once the bar has been unracked with the elbows locked, you will be told to drop the bar to the chest. 

You must hold the bar in contact with the chest until you are commanded to press the bar up. Once again, you will need to wait for a command before reracking the bar.

Similarly for the deadlift, once you have pulled the bar to the hips and locked the hips and knees, you will be given a command to lower the bar back to the floor.

If you fail to follow commands or do not lift in accordance with the lifting criteria, you will fail and the lift will not count towards your total.

If you’ve never attended a powerlifting event before, it is highly recommended that you do so before your event.

Observing an event will allow you to become accustomed to the procedures of a powerlifting event. This should help you feel much more confident and less anxious when it finally comes to competing.

Training For Powerlifting

Evidently, the most important aspect of preparing for a competition is your training. If your training is not well thought through or consistent enough, your performance will suffer.

It is recommended to hire a coach who has a background in powerlifting. However, this may not be an option for some.

In this instance, there are a number of first-rate powerlifting programs that can be used to effectively prepare you for your first ever competition.

Powerlifting Programs

Probably the most popular beginner plan of all is the 5/3/1 program created by ex-powerlifter and coach Jim Wendler.

As the name may suggest, this program focuses on performing sets of five reps, three reps, and one rep for all “big” lifts including the deadlift, squat, and bench press. 

This program is brilliant for aspiring powerlifters as it allows you to make rapid progressions with your strength, as well as help you become accustomed to shifting heavy weight.

There are many other excellent beginner strength training programs that beginner powerlifters can benefit greatly from. These include:

• The Cube Method
• Candito LP
• Greyskull LP
• GZCLP
• Madcow 5×5
• nSuns LP

As you become more highly conditioned, you may notice that a particular lift requires more attention than the others.

In this instance, you should consider running a more advanced training program that will help develop your performance with either your deadlift, squat, or bench.

Some examples of intermediate/advanced powerlifting programs include:

• The Bulgarian Squat Method
• Candito Advanced Bench Press Program
• Coan & Phillipi Deadlift Program
• Greg Nuckols 28 Programs
• The Smolov Method

Example Powerlifting Workouts

In this final section, you will find three example powerlifting workouts. Each session focuses on developing one of the three powerlifts (either deadlift, squat, or bench press).

Workout 1: Squat

Workout 2: Deadlift

Workout 3: Bench Press

Final Word

Powerlifting is both a simple and a complicated sport. 

As highlighted, there are a number of areas that you need to consider before starting your powerlifting journey. These include your powerlifting federation, weight class, exercise selection, and strength training program.

References:

1- Schoenfeld, Brad J.; Contreras, Bret; Vigotsky, Andrew D.; Peterson, Mark (2016-12-01). “Differential Effects of Heavy Versus Moderate Loads on Measures of Strength and Hypertrophy in Resistance-Trained Men”. Journal of Sports Science & Medicine. 15 (4): 715–722. ISSN 1303-2968. PMC 5131226. PMID 27928218. [source]

2- Westcott, Wayne L. (2012-07). “Resistance training is medicine: effects of strength training on health”. Current Sports Medicine Reports. 11 (4): 209–216. doi:10.1249/JSR.0b013e31825dabb8. ISSN 1537-8918. PMID 22777332. [source]

3- Blatnik, Justin A.; Skinner, Jared W.; McBride, Jeffrey M. (2012-12). “Effect of supportive equipment on force, velocity, and power in the squat”. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 26 (12): 3204–3208. doi:10.1519/JSC.0b013e3182736641. ISSN 1533-4287. PMID 22996018. [source]

4- Ten Hoor, Gill A.; Plasqui, Guy; Schols, Annemie M. W. J.; Kok, Gerjo (2018-03-01). “A Benefit of Being Heavier Is Being Strong: a Cross-Sectional Study in Young Adults”. Sports Medicine – Open. 4. doi:10.1186/s40798-018-0125-4. ISSN 2199-1170. PMC 5833324. PMID 29492711. [source]

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