Making the switch to power-lifting for a while (soon)

[John Daley]

Meso brothers!

So I will be trying power lifting for the 1st time soon. I have been focused on hypertrophy since day 1. By no means am I a big/powerful individual or anywhere near what I want to be. Stats are as follows:
- 25 years old
- Weight 198 lbs
- Height 6ft
- Training properly for 2 years now

Maxes were recently tested at
Bench - 253.5lbs
Deadlift - 418.8 lbs
Squat - 264lbs (This is not my true max, I had to stop short due to abdominal pains) Testing this again soon, maybe tonight.
Overhead press and Barbell Row are still to be tested.

My goals over the next 6 months are to be able to max out at
Bench - 330lbs
Deadlift - 500lbs
Squat - 440lbs

Now I know I will be flamed, but I do not calorie or macro count, I eat every 3 hours near enough, large portions, normal clean food, with the occasional junk also. My snacks mostly consist of nut butters, bananas etc. Basically common sense.

I am not so focused on aesthetics at the moment, my main target is to grow, I will worry about cutting at a later date, and yes, I have considered clean bulking, but would rather just go all out and enjoy my food. I simply do not want to make every single sacrifice that some do, this is not to say I am not serious about my training/nutrition.

Thought I would post up the thread as an introduction to my new phase, any critique is welcome.

Thanks for reading guys.

 

[Ironlord]

Welcome to the PL thread. Aggressive goals for 6 months but sometimes aggressive is the only way to go .

Assuming you didn't do "true" max tests... You just calculated based off 3 or 5RM?
How else do you get a max of 418.8?

Are you running gear during this training cycle or natty? If you are running, what are you running?

Good luck, we're here to help

 

[Johnny442]

Welcome to our home

 

[RodgerThat]

Welcome to the PL thread. Aggressive goals for 6 months but sometimes aggressive is the only way to go .

Assuming you didn't do "true" max tests... You just calculated based off 3 or 5RM?
How else do you get a max of 418.8?

Are you running gear during this training cycle or natty? If you are running, what are you running?

Good luck, we're here to help

He used KG plates I'm assuming then converted it to LB because most people here are American and don't know have reference to what 190kg feels like

 

[Ironlord]

He used KG plates I'm assuming then converted it to LB because most people here are American and don't know have reference to what 190kg feels like

Makes sense. Didn't really consider that. I hate trying to convert.

 

[John Daley]

Welcome to the PL thread. Aggressive goals for 6 months but sometimes aggressive is the only way to go .

Assuming you didn't do "true" max tests... You just calculated based off 3 or 5RM?
How else do you get a max of 418.8?

Are you running gear during this training cycle or natty? If you are running, what are you running?

Good luck, we're here to help

Hi mate, I lift in KG, therefore the 418 i mentioned was 190kg. I am in the UK, just converted the weight for the ease of you guys as the vast majority of you appear to be American and use Lbs over Kg (correct me if I'm wrong).

I am currently running, NPP at 500mg and Test 600mg, 2 shots weekly.
Got about 7 weeks left, so I might start power lifting soon and towards the end of my cycle finish with a Tren blast, never tried it before, I hear its great for power lifting.

Thanks for the welcome guys.

 

[John Daley]

Forgot to add, update from yesterday, tested my squat and its up to 286lbs (130kg) without the belt, no abdominal pain, so I am yet to experiment with increasing that, I know my legs have more in them!!

Just to clarify, my initial stats above were true 1 rep max tests.

Gym was hella busy so I was only in there for half an hour, deadlifts and squats, good sweat session regardless.

Cheers!

 

[Gobuckeyes0122]

Forgot to add, update from yesterday, tested my squat and its up to 286lbs (130kg) without the belt, no abdominal pain, so I am yet to experiment with increasing that, I know my legs have more in them!!

Just to clarify, my initial stats above were true 1 rep max tests.

Gym was hella busy so I was only in there for half an hour, deadlifts and squats, good sweat session regardless.

Cheers!

Welcome to the club!! Powerlifting is way better than bodybuilding. You will soon fall in love. And those goals are a bit aggressive in a 6 month time frame but anything is possible as long as you put your mind to it. Before you start deadlifting and squating make sure you got the right shoes for it. I see so many people in my gym trying to use running sneakers for it. Definitely get a good belt and some chalk, it helps with deadlifts.

 

[Perrin Aybara]

Welcome to powerlifting. Good goals, just gonna have to really kill it on squats.

 

[John Daley]

Welcome to the club!! Powerlifting is way better than bodybuilding. You will soon fall in love. And those goals are a bit aggressive in a 6 month time frame but anything is possible as long as you put your mind to it. Before you start deadlifting and squating make sure you got the right shoes for it. I see so many people in my gym trying to use running sneakers for it. Definitely get a good belt and some chalk, it helps with deadlifts.

Thanks for the advice there, I didn't consider specific shoes, what type do you tend to go with?

And when I start my actual 5x5 It'll be starting light, so at least I have some time to get chalk, a guy gave me some when I was testing heavy, I was quite surprised at the difference actually (Maybe its partially mental too)

 

[Perrin Aybara]

I wear Chucks for everything. Some high bar squatters prefer oly shoes with a raised heel though.

 

[John Daley]

I wear Chucks for everything. Some high bar squatters prefer oly shoes with a raised heel though.

I can't say I have ever noticed that, I own plenty, I'll give that a go.

If I'm honest, I have avoided the big compounds (DL and Sq) for a few months, so only getting back into it.

I have just drafted up a quick split off the top of my head to get full body training going again, would you mind critiquing? (If I should post elsewhere just let me know) Bare in mind this is still Hypertrophy focused for now:

Mon - Chest/Tri
Tue - Legs (Squats & Adductors)
Wed - Back/Full Arms (Deadlift and Bi/Tri supersetting)
Thurs - Chest/Legs (Full body workout)
Fri - Full arm workout (Supersetting, pullups etc)
Sat - Barbell circuit workout for cardio.

Thanks

 

[Docd187123]

I can't say I have ever noticed that, I own plenty, I'll give that a go.

If I'm honest, I have avoided the big compounds (DL and Sq) for a few months, so only getting back into it.

I have just drafted up a quick split off the top of my head to get full body training going again, would you mind critiquing? (If I should post elsewhere just let me know) Bare in mind this is still Hypertrophy focused for now:

Mon - Chest/Tri
Tue - Legs (Squats & Adductors)
Wed - Back/Full Arms (Deadlift and Bi/Tri supersetting)
Thurs - Chest/Legs (Full body workout)
Fri - Full arm workout (Supersetting, pullups etc)
Sat - Barbell circuit workout for cardio.

Thanks

If you plan on doing powerlifting then you want to train the lifts and not body parts.

 

[Gobuckeyes0122]

Thanks for the advice there, I didn't consider specific shoes, what type do you tend to go with?

And when I start my actual 5x5 It'll be starting light, so at least I have some time to get chalk, a guy gave me some when I was testing heavy, I was quite surprised at the difference actually (Maybe its partially mental too)

Like @Perrin Aybara said, chucks are great and nice if your on a budget. I got a pair of wrestling shoes that I wear. Got them off eBay for $35 I think. You want something with a flat, hard sole that has grip for deadlifts. I use them for squats also but again like he said, some people prefer oly shoes.

 

[John Daley]

If you plan on doing powerlifting then you want to train the lifts and not body parts.

Hi Doc,
As I mentioned this was still hypertrophy focused for 4-8 weeks before I make the start on actually strength training. Therefore for the transition I simply added more of a full body workout to my usual type of split, just to get my lower body used to actually working out again.
This is why I asked if I should maybe post on the bodybuilding forum, but given that my goal will go into powerlifting I just tried to keep the thread in 1 place.

When it comes to strength training, my split will be focused on the Madcow 5x5 workout. I will add my own days in between as I really don't know if I would want to only go gym 3x week.

Like @Perrin Aybara said, chucks are great and nice if your on a budget. I got a pair of wrestling shoes that I wear. Got them off eBay for $35 I think. You want something with a flat, hard sole that has grip for deadlifts. I use them for squats also but again like he said, some people prefer oly shoes.

I'll bare that in mind mate, dead lifts today so I will try with new footwear.

 

[Johnny442]

Hi Doc,
As I mentioned this was still hypertrophy focused for 4-8 weeks before I make the start on actually strength training. Therefore for the transition I simply added more of a full body workout to my usual type of split, just to get my lower body used to actually working out again.
This is why I asked if I should maybe post on the bodybuilding forum, but given that my goal will go into powerlifting I just tried to keep the thread in 1 place.

When it comes to strength training, my split will be focused on the Madcow 5x5 workout. I will add my own days in between as I really don't know if I would want to only go gym 3x week.


I'll bare that in mind mate, dead lifts today so I will try with new footwear.

When I started powerlifting about 7 months ago, I didn't think 3-4 days a week were enough, but boy was I wrong. Once you really get going you'll beat the living shit out of yourself! If a movement doesn't improve my squat, bench or deadlift I don't fuck with it. I've gotten stronger and grown more by doing 4 days a week as opposed to what I was getting out of 6!

 

[John Daley]

When I started powerlifting about 7 months ago, I didn't think 3-4 days a week were enough, but boy was I wrong. Once you really get going you'll beat the living shit out of yourself! If a movement doesn't improve my squat, bench or deadlift I don't fuck with it. I've gotten stronger and grown more by doing 4 days a week as opposed to what I was getting out of 6!

This actually intrigued me and put a smile on my face, actually very excited to start now!
Are you cycling while powerlifting?

 

[John Daley]

My issue is that I'm currently on cycle, and don't want to waste my last 7 weeks of it by lifting light at the beginning of a strength training programme.

I may just incorporate my own strength training and go all out before starting a fixed programme, I guess I am just eager to get going with it and impatient.

 

[Johnny442]

This actually intrigued me and put a smile on my face, actually very excited to start now!
Are you cycling while powerlifting?

I was on trt only the first 2-3 months . I then blasted test/deca for 3 months during meet prep.

 

[Perrin Aybara]

Don't add days, run it as written. I've only been training 3-4 days a week for years and it's all you need.