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At first glance, for a beginner, selecting the correct powerlifting belt can seem like an overwhelming task. Should the material be leather or velcro? Do you go with single-prong, double-prong, or lever? Do you go with a 10mm thick belt, a 13mm belt, or something else? Should it be 3” wide, 4” wide, or should it taper from small in the front to wide in the back? Does the color matter at all? Help? The rest of this article is going to elaborate upon why I recommend you grab

By Jake Boly -November 20, 2018 As we head towards the end of November, we’re left with only two weeks until the 2018 World’s Strongest Man Hafthor Bjornsson competes in his highly powerlifting meet. Bjornsson will be competing in a meet titled Thor’s Powerlifting Challenge, which will take place during the Iceland Open expo in Laugardalshöll, Reykjavík, Iceland.

Before we get started, I’d like to say that I drew heavily from the concepts I learned in Starting Strength to create this material. While Starting Strengthis not a book about powerlifting, it contains more than 300 pages of biomechanical analysis directly relevant to the powerlifts. If you grasp this knowledge, you will begin to develop your own ideas about optimal technique based on physics. I can’t recommend Starting Strength more strongly. Executing an efficient deadlift is infinitely simpler than justifying what efficient technique actually is. If you’ve been following along with the deadlift article series thus far, you already know the following things: 1) The bar must start over mid-foot 2) The shoulders must start slightly in front of the bar (to establish the 90 degree angle between the lats and the humerus) 3) The hips must start relatively high in order to facilitate both 1) and 2

If you weren’t aware by now, a lot of the concepts in this Powerlifting Technique series were distilled directly from Mark Rippetoe’s Starting Strength. While I’ll do my best to convey these complex topics in stream-lined article form, if you find yourself wanting more, note that Starting Strength contains 300+ pages of this type of discussion. It isn’t just a book about a novice program. You can grab a copy here. In my opinion, the bench press is by far the most technically challenging movement of the three powerlifts. Because of this, the bench press is also the powerlift where you will see the greatest technical variety. And because of this, many would suggest that it simply isn’t possible to prescribe an optimal model for powerlifting that can be applied across populations. Minor tweaks and extenuating circumstances notwithstanding, I disagree. If you’ve read Part IV of the technique series regarding bench press mechanics, you probably do as well. For reasons put forth there, the wide-grip, arched-back bench press will be considered the optimal, and preferred, technique for the purposes of powerlifting for the remainder of this article. In other words, this “powerlifting style bench” will be our base model going forward.

Spread the love As a brief aside before I answer the ominous questions above, PowerliftingToWin.com is a site dedicated to competitive powerlifters. I’m writing this piece to give competitors a quick reference they can use to bring friends and family up to speed on what exactly it is that they do. If you’re a complete novice, this will help a lot. If you’ve been around the sport for any length of time, you won’t learn much of anything. I respect your time and don’t want you to waste it. With that said, let’s begin. I do want to say that it is particularly difficult to “grasp” Powerlifting culture from an article. If you want a more immersive experience, grab a copy of Power Unlimited. To this day, Power Unlimited is still the best powerlifting documentary ever created in my opinion.

ometimes I struggle with how I feel about my fitness level. I started working out seriously when I was 14, did my first true powerlifting competition when I was 19 (22 years ago), and I have competed in about 50 meets over the last 2 decades. I have now been retired from competitive lifting for 3 years.

In the land of gym goers, not everyone is created equal. While bodybuilders might be ripped and aesthetic – powerlifters care about one thing and one thing only: the weight on the bar

By Jake Boly -November 15, 2018 Over the weekend, Westside Barbell powerlifter Dave Hoff competed in the World Powerlifting Congress WPO Championships and put up some monstrous numbers. The WPC WPO Championships were a multi-ply meet, and Hoff has reminded everyone in the sport of powerlifting just how strong he is (not that we needed much reminding!)