Powerlifting

When your deadlift breaks off the floor fine but stalls near the top, partial deadlifts are the answer. Block pulls and rack pulls let you start the bar higher and overload the top of the lift, building the strength to finish a heavy pull instead of stalling just short of lockout. Block Pulls Versus Rack…

If your deadlift dies the second the bar leaves the floor, the deficit deadlift is one of the best fixes there is. You stand on a small platform so the bar starts lower, forcing you to pull through a longer range. It builds raw strength right where a lot of deadlifts fail. What a Deficit…

If your bench feels heavy the moment it leaves your chest and never builds any speed, you have a bottom-end problem. Getting explosive off the chest is about building both the raw strength and the speed to launch the bar hard out of the bottom, so it carries through the rest of the lift. Why…

You unrack the bar, lower it, drive it off your chest, and then it slows, stalls, and stops halfway up. The lockout is where a huge number of benches die. The good news is that a weak lockout is one of the most fixable problems in powerlifting once you know what drives it. The Lockout…

There is no single correct way to bench. The lifter with the long arms and the lifter built thick and short will press their best with different setups. Understanding the main bench styles lets you build a setup that fits your body instead of forcing your body into someone else’s lift. The Arch and Leg…

Where you put your hands on the bar changes your whole bench press. Grip width decides how far the bar travels, which muscles do the most work, and where your lift is strongest. Most lifters never think about it and just grab the bar wherever feels normal. Dialing in your grip can add pounds and…

The pin press is one of the most honest exercises in the gym. You press the bar off pins set in the rack, from a complete dead stop, with no bounce and no stretch reflex to help you. It exposes exactly how strong you are at a given height and then builds that strength. What…

The Spoto press looks simple and humbles almost everyone the first time they try it. You stop the bar just short of your chest, hold it, and press from a dead stop in midair. It builds control, bottom-end strength, and tightness, and it exposes any weakness you have been hiding with a bounce. How to…

When your bench dies in the top half, the board press is one of the oldest and most reliable fixes in the game. It lets you handle heavier weight through the part of the press where you are weakest, the lockout, and it teaches you to grind through that range. What a Board Press Is…

If your bench dies right off the chest, the cambered bar is one of the best tools to fix it. It is a specialty barbell built to attack the exact spot where a lot of lifters fail, the bottom of the press. Used right, it builds strength in the hardest part of the lift. What…

The bench press is the lift everyone wants to be good at and the one most lifters stall on the longest. After thirty-plus years around the platform, I can tell you the bigger bench is not built by benching harder and hoping. It is built by training the right things in the right order. Here…

Powerlifting is contested in weight classes, and where you sit can shape your whole approach to the platform. Pick the wrong class or cut it the wrong way and you can show up weak on the day that matters most. Let me walk you through choosing a class and eating to make it without wrecking…