The Ultimate GUIDE to START POWERLIFTING (program, equipment..)

Summary

Powerlifting is an accessible sport at any age, according to powerlifting world champion Pana. In his video guide, he emphasizes the ease of starting powerlifting, even in your 20s or 30s, and breaks down the essential elements needed for this strength sport. From stepping into the gym and performing basic lifts like squats, bench presses, and deadlifts, to customizing personal training programs and understanding necessary equipment, Pana offers comprehensive advice for budding powerlifters. He encourages developing strength through specific training blocks and underscores the psychological and physical benefits of utilizing proper equipment, even on a budget. To enhance your powerlifting skills, he recommends pursuing specific goals, participating in competitions, and finding supportive training partners.

Highlights

• No prior muscle baseline is necessary to start powerlifting. 🤷‍♂️
• Key lifts in powerlifting develop muscle efficiently and provide a strong foundation. 🏗️
• Effective programming is individualized, and it's key to focus on specific strength developments. 🎯
• Performing lifts with proper equipment boosts safety and performance significantly. ⚙️
• Engage in the powerlifting community to maximize growth and enjoy the journey. 🌟

Key Takeaways

• Starting powerlifting is simple; just head to the gym and focus on key movements like squats, bench presses, and deadlifts. 🏋️‍♀️
• Age is just a number—many world champions started powerlifting in their 20s or 30s. 👌
• Customized training blocks help improve strength systematically and efficiently. 🔄
• Utilizing the right equipment, like belts and knee sleeves, can drastically improve performance and safety. 💪
• Powerlifting is not just about lifting; it’s important to engage with the community for support and motivation. 🤗

Overview

Powerlifting is heralded as an inclusive sport that anyone can embark on, no matter their age. Pana, a seasoned champion, assures viewers that starting this sport is as simple as stepping into the gym and focusing on foundational strength-building exercises. Whether you're 22 or even 30, it is never too late to start and excel at powerlifting.

The strategy to succeed in powerlifting is to focus on creating well-structured training blocks. These blocks are intentionally designed to grow your strength over time. Customizing exercises and focusing on specific strengths can lead to substantial improvements. Pana emphasizes that the right approach to training, paired with supportive gear, can significantly enhance performance and safety.

Equipment plays a pivotal role in gaining powerlifting prowess. Pana discusses various gear types, including belts and knee sleeves, which not only aid performance but significantly reduce the risk of injury. For those unwilling to go at it alone, building connections within the powerlifting community can provide invaluable support and shared motivation, driving success forward.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:30: Introduction The chapter 'Introduction' explains that powerlifting is easy to start but becomes more complex at higher levels. The author began powerlifting at 22 and notes that unlike sports such as basketball or football, it is possible to achieve success even if starting later in life.
• 01:30 - 06:30: How to Start Powerlifting The chapter titled 'How to Start Powerlifting' introduces the author who is a two-time world champion in powerlifting. The author expresses their goal to provide a comprehensive guide for beginners looking to start a powerlifting career in 2025. The video includes categorized sections, allowing viewers to easily navigate to topics of interest, such as equipment, by using provided time codes. The first section of the guide focuses on the initial steps in starting powerlifting.
• 06:30 - 19:30: Programming for Powerlifting The chapter discusses a common misconception in powerlifting that one must have a certain level of muscle development before beginning the sport. It argues against this idea by comparing it to basketball, where beginners start practicing the sport itself rather than first training in a different discipline. The focus is on developing skills specific to powerlifting while simultaneously enhancing other necessary physical qualities.
• 19:30 - 29:00: Powerlifting Equipment The chapter titled 'Powerlifting Equipment' discusses how anyone can start a powerlifting career as soon as they begin going to the gym. There is no need for years of prior weightlifting experience, although having such a background could be beneficial. The text emphasizes that powerlifting movements are regarded as effective muscle-building exercises and encourages individuals to embark on powerlifting at any stage of their fitness journey.
• 29:00 - 42:00: Rules of Powerlifting Competition This chapter discusses the relationship between bodybuilding and powerlifting, emphasizing that powerlifting is effective for muscle building. It challenges the notion that powerlifting isn't good for building muscle and argues that with proper management of powerlifting work and muscle building accessories, one can benefit significantly. It suggests that many successful bodybuilders incorporate squats, bench presses, or deadlifts into their routines, thereby highlighting the synergistic benefits of combining powerlifting techniques in muscle building.
• 42:00 - 50:00: General Tips and Motivation The chapter stresses the importance of diving into powerlifting right away. Instead of spending years on general weightlifting to then advance to the sport, the author recommends immediately practicing the core movements: squats, bench, and deadlift. This approach helps individuals quickly determine if they truly enjoy powerlifting, which, like many other sports, involves repetitive actions. The main takeaway is to engage directly with the sport to ensure one's passion for it.

The Ultimate GUIDE to START POWERLIFTING (program, equipment..) Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 in my opinion powerlifting is a very easy sport to start although like every other sport once you get to the top level Things become much more complicated but in order to just start your powerlifting career it's actually pretty straightforward I started powerlifting at 22 years old and I don't know any sport that you can start this old and actually accomplish good things in it if we take some other examples like basketball or football you can't really make much if you start at 22 or 23 but in my case while I did start at
• 00:30 - 01:00 22 I ended up becoming two times world champion in powerlifting so my goal is to give you guys the most complete guide I can provide for you in order to start your powerlifting career in 2025 this video will be segmented with different sections so let's say you are interested in the equipment section you can directly find the time code just under this video the first section is how to start
• 01:00 - 01:30 powerlifting I know there's this idea that in order to start powerlifting you need to have a given muscle Baseline and for me that's a pretty wrong way to view it because let's take a quick example if you want to start basketball you don't first start a track and field career you immediately start basketball and while you're developing your skills at maneuvering the ball or at making passes stuff like that shooting the ball at the same time you also go to refine the other qualities that that you need in
• 01:30 - 02:00 order to become a good basketball player and that's actually the same with powerlifting you can start your powerlifting career as long as you step foot into the gym you don't need two 3 four years of lifting weights before being able to start powerlifting obviously if you have this background like I did when I started that will be much helpful because then the muscle building phase will be easier to do but you can start immediately your career with powerlifting and the reason also is that the powerlifting movements are generally accepted as very good muscle
• 02:00 - 02:30 building movements like if you take some very good bodybuilders most of them they do some squats they do some bench or they do some deadlift so saying that powerlifting is not a good sport to build muscle is in my opinion pretty wrong and obviously if you have a good management of your pure powerlifting work and also your muscle building accessories then you do get the best of both worlds and you can immediately start with powerlifting another thing I wanted to say about like how do you
• 02:30 - 03:00 really start powerlifting like I said you just step within a gym start to do some squats some bench some deadlift and also in my opinion it's important to immediately start with a sport to actually see if you enjoy it because you know powerlifting is a pretty repeatable sport because you're mostly focusing on three movements just like some other sports but you have to make sure that's a sport you actually could be enjoying so instead of second guessing oh I'll start by doing two years of General lifting weight and then I'll start doing the movements iMed immediately start
• 03:00 - 03:30 with the movement the sooner the better and also then you'll be able to know if that's actually a sport you want to invest in onto the second segment of this video which will be about programming so I just want to do a quick disclaimer programming for any sport so probably thinging is one of those is very very individualized so I'll try my best to give some general advice that would and could work for 99.9 % of you guys but
• 03:30 - 04:00 some of you may be an exception and some of the general recommendations I'm going to make won't be 100% for them so just keep that in mind those are the recommendations that I gathered after eight years of being a prlifting coach and as many years as a high level athlete so it's probably solid advice but you may be one of the exceptions where those advice could apply a bit differently to you strength is specific what does it mean is if you want to become stronger let's say on bicep curls you have to do bicep curls if you want
• 04:00 - 04:30 to become stronger on dumbell rows practicing dumbell rows will be one of the best ways to become stronger on that so the same goes for your squat your bench and your deadlift in order to develop strength on those movement you have to have a specific approach what does it mean it means that you must do some squats some bench some dead leaf on a weekly basis now in terms of General recommendations for squats I would recommend between two and three squats so one squat may not be enough and and above three squats may be an overkill
• 04:30 - 05:00 for most of the lifters but between two and three is I think a sweet spot for your squat for bench I would recommend between three and four So Below three that might not be enough to drive those specific strength adaptations and above four may be a bit too much especially in terms of recovery so between three and four bench press sessions a week and finally for deadlifts that's the movement that takes most of the time to recover from that's the most taxing movement from powerlifting so usually
• 05:00 - 05:30 for deadlifts we have a lower frequency and so for deadlifts I would recommend between one and two deadlift sessions every week the way we train powerlifting nowadays what is quote unquote meta is to do some training blocks so a training block is like just a sequence of training and it could go from 3 weeks up to 8 10 12 weeks usually from my own experience and the way I personally coach athletes is I most often do between three and six week's training
• 05:30 - 06:00 block the goal of the powerlifting block is to start at a given level and finish up end up at a higher level and so in order to make that happen what we most of the time do is we start the block with room left in the tank on every movement so if you start your block and you're already at Max output Max effort first the recovery will be very very hard to do and also you won't really able to grow into your block if you start week one 1 RM Squad quad bench
• 06:00 - 06:30 deadlift how do you improve on the coming weeks most of the time if you start very very high the more you progress into your weeks of training the more things start to lower and in reality we want the opposite to happen we want to start at a given level and grow into our block and be able to finish higher than we started the block and one very good way to do so is like I said leaving broom in your tank especially at the beginning of the block and then as we go week by week by week into the block that's actually where
• 06:30 - 07:00 we're going to increase some training variables and just to name a few one of those could be volume so you start let's say with like 5 tons of volume and week two you at 7even tons of volume and week three you're at 8.5 n Etc so you have this slow build of volume and another variable that we usually play with in any powerlifting block is actually intensity we also want to increase intensity because like I said strength being a very specific way to train in order to become stronger as a
• 07:00 - 07:30 powerlifter you need to have those more specific intensities and so you want to start at a given intensity and climb also your way up so most of the time that's the two variables with which we're going to play so volume increasing volume over weeks but also not necessarily in conjunction you could just increase volume without touching at the intensity but you could also increase intensity on its own or a bit of both at the same time my recommendation is do not try to increase both very very substantially at the same
• 07:30 - 08:00 time so don't go crazy with volume and intensity every week after every week so just to give you a quick example for you guys to make sure you understand that let's say you start your block with a single rp6 or roughly 88% of your one ram that will be your work for week one and then from the RP 6 from week one you go to RP 7 and A2 for week two which is roughly 91 to 92% of your 1M and then week three you bump that up once more and you go from 7 and 1/2 to maybe 8 and
• 08:00 - 08:30 1/2 and that would more or less be around 95% of your 1M and so on and so forth so ideally you start your block at a given point and by the weeks you increase that point which hopefully will lead to strength gains and you usually are able to end up your block a bit higher than you had started now you've understand how we usually shape the training programs for powerlifting what do we actually do in any given training week because you understood the General ideas but how do we train powerlifting
• 08:30 - 09:00 in reality so the way I usually do it me personally as a coach and also for myself as an athlete is I used a form of periodization but instead of having a periodization over different blocks training blocks I usually have this periodization over the course of a week so for instance you'll start your week with one day for squats for example where you'll have this high-intensity practice training so let's say you'll have heavy triples to do so a triple rp8
• 09:00 - 09:30 for instance which would be close to 88% of your 1M and that will be a day where the key will be to have this highly specific training and then because you had this day with this type of training this style of approach then on the other day you'll have a different thing to train so for instance that will be volume so instead of doing triples very heavy you'll do much lighter sets with like more reps so maybe six reps or seven reps where instead of being very very high in in terms of intensity
• 09:30 - 10:00 you'll be at a much more moderate intensity but accumulating more volume on this training session and so by doing so you actually end up having The Best of Both Worlds because you have a very very highly specific way to develop your skills as a powerlifter and at the same time you do accumulate a lot of volume which will be very important for muscle growth but also that will be important for developing other skills because if you're doing six Reps for every set in terms of accumulating a pattern for for any given movement so whether it be
• 10:00 - 10:30 squats whether it be bench whether it be deadlift that will be very very efficient and also in terms of recovery that's probably one of the best ways to manage your body and manage your overall recovery that's a moment where I quickly want to plug in my own personal coaching services so if you want to follow a powerlifting program that I written on a training app that will calculate everything for you so you just type in your 1rm squad bench deadlift and then you simply follow whatever the app tell you to follow and again like I said that's based off of my own personal
• 10:30 - 11:00 training programs you can click the link in the description and go to the pan. app where you'll be able to access over 15 training programs for just one monthly subscription and at the moment this video is out there is actually a brand new powerlifting program and also a bench only program so go to the pan. apppp in order to be able to follow those but at the same time for those of you guys that want an individualized coaching I have my coaching team that is ready to welcome you on board so if if you want to become one of our direct
• 11:00 - 11:30 athletes there's another Link in the description you'll have a couple of things to submit so your name your goals your email address and then by doing so you'll be contacted by our team in order to be coached by us so make sure you either follow the training app or do your submission in order to become one of the athlete and now we're back to the video so now I just want to do a quick summary of what I just said because it may be a lot of information to digest at first but in general my number one recommendation would be do specific
• 11:30 - 12:00 stuff if you want to become stronger on your squat practice your squat if you want to become stronger on the bench practice the bench and so on and so forth number two is use a form of periodization into your training so so do not always train crazy heavy do not never train heavy have a bit of both so having some heavy training having some more moderate training having some high volume approach having a lower volume approach but make sure to tackle all of those aspects as they all combine into making making you a better athlete
• 12:00 - 12:30 overall number three leave yourself some room in order to be able to grow into your training blocks not start crazy high because you won't be able to actually progress that but also don't start too low because you could be leaving some gains you could be making number four don't be afraid to lift heavy lifting heavy is part of powerlifting imagine a her meter Runner that's afraid to go fast to run fast no that's the goal you just don't simply do that all the time her % of the time but
• 12:30 - 13:00 you have to be able to make some of that training otherwise you won't be able to grow into the sport and develop the qualities that are required for the given sport number five variations and accessories are useful tool as a power when I say tray in a specific way doesn't mean don't do anything else it means most of what you do has to be oriented towards your squat your bench your deadlift but having to develop some other qualities on the side could be and is usually pretty helpful but the video would be be 1 hour and a half long if I
• 13:00 - 13:30 was to say everything about variations and accessories so if that's a topic you're interested in make sure to let me know in the comments and that will definitely be a video I'll make in the future now onto the third segment of the video which will be about the powerlifting equipment up until that point I talked mostly about how do you actually get into powerlifting which is again very simple just go to the gym start to do
• 13:30 - 14:00 some squats some bench and deadlift hey you became a powerlifter also we talked about some programming ideas and strategies in general we could go much deeper into that but again that would be a more than an hour long video so just I think those General ideas will be enough for you to start your journey now we're going to talk about the equipment because the equipment is essential in any sport if you want to properly practice a sport in my opinion you have to be aware at least of the equipment what it does does and in order to know
• 14:00 - 14:30 if that's something you could be interested in since I personally love these and I think in general internet loves these we're going to do a tier list in order to know which is the best equipment and which is the maybe not as useful equipment for powerlifting but before I do it two things number one you have to know the only absolutely mandatory required equipment in order to compete in powerlifting is a singlet a pair of socks and a pair of shoes so just to say it quickly you just need those three elements in order to compete
• 14:30 - 15:00 so all of the other elements such as belt for instance the knee sleeve stuff like that that's not mandatory that's helpful that's something I would definitely encourage all of you guys interested in the sport to learn about and to probably Buy in order to make the best out of your training sessions and your competitions but in general you can start powerlifting on a very very low budget a singlet pair of socks pair of shoes you're good to go number two is I want to be upfront with something when I started powerlifting I wasn't sponsored by any brand so I just you know tried a
• 15:00 - 15:30 couple of Brands here and there and that's how I encountered the SBD brand the SBD apparal brand and I immediately fell in love with their products because as an athlete that's the best products out there and that's the only products I trust personally in order to support me during my training sessions but also my competition that's why I use their belt at any competition almost since I started powerlifting so whether it's local level National level International level when I won worlds in 2021 2023 I was using their belt I was using their
• 15:30 - 16:00 knee sleeves well I think you get the point that's a brand I really really respect and I think they have the best equipment out there but since I started powerlifting I'm now sponsored by SBD so I think that's a tie I just wanted to be upfront with you guys about I started using their equipment before any of that but now I'm a sponsored athlete and just I wanted you to keep that in mind during this tier list because maybe some of you guys want to have some alternates in terms of brand and that's completely fine but that's also my role to tell you what I think is the best equipment and
• 16:00 - 16:30 just keep in mind this whole tier list is going to be based off of the SBD products because that's the only equipment that I use and that's the only equipment I really recommend here I gathered some of the most usual equipments we see in powerlifting so you have the belt you have the elbow sleeves you have the knee sleeves and I'm going to do a tier list with every one of those equipments so we start with the S tier in the S tier I have the powerlifting belt the SBD belt and I'll be up front that's the only equipment I
• 16:30 - 17:00 personally have in my S tier because the belt is just this type of equipment the thing with the belt is most of people don't really understand what the belt does the belt is not here to brace for you the belt is not here to protect your low back the belt is here for you to be able to maximize your intraabdominal pressure which will then lead to two things number one if you have better intraabdominal pressure you do lower the risk of injuries on squats and deadlifts and also with better intraabdominal pressure you have usually better
• 17:00 - 17:30 technique repeatability and also you can lift much more weight so the belt is not a magical tool that does those things for you the belt is a tool that helps you support and improve your own intraabdominal pressure to put it up simply if you don't know how to brace then the belt won't do much for you if you do know how to brace then the belt will act like a almost a superhero suit right it will be very very helpful so that's why I do recommend you check out the the SBD belt which is a fantastic
• 17:30 - 18:00 piece of equipment and like I said that will be the only equipment I steer which means that's the equipment I highly highly highly recommend for any of you guys watching this video and I'll say something quickly I know some people and I was guilty of that will say hey as long as I don't squat 200 kilos or 400 and something pounds then I'm not good enough to wear a belt but that's not the way to view at it because if you start a sport you want to be able to develop yourself as much as possible and you do that with the the best programming you do that with the best movement you're
• 18:00 - 18:30 able to produce you do that with the best techniques do that with the best of everything that's actually how you can really improve and if you want the best program if you want the best technique why don't you want the best equipment at the same time in order to be able to grow in a most efficient way in a sport you're actually interested in following the S tier we have the a tier and at the top of the E tier which is probably A+ I would say but still in the E TI not quite in the S tier I the KNE sleeves so
• 18:30 - 19:00 the kniss sleeves are in my opinion a very very good equipment that allow for improved support at your needs and if you're squatting two times three times sometimes even four times any week uh and squatting somewhat heavy I think they're a very very good way to manage joint fatigue because sometimes your muscles can recover from that sometimes your central nervous system can recover from that but the recovery capacity of joint is actually sometimes a bit lower so in order to allow for a better joint
• 19:00 - 19:30 management and Joint recovery using a pair of knee sleeves can be very very helpful now in terms of pure strength I don't know how much these add to be honest with you but I would say it's probably around 10 kilos 15 kilos of weight added and it's not necessarily a weight added just in terms of mechanics because as you can see it's it's pretty flexible right it's not it's not made out of a crazy material it's neoprene right but the thing is when you wear those and you're about to squat you feel your knees so much supported that
• 19:30 - 20:00 mentally it creates something where you're feeling very very stable you're feeling very comfortable and that's I think in my opinion why the knee sleeves quote unquote give you this much support in the squat it's not just purely mechanics it's mostly I would say mental and you probably know it but feeling strong mentally is very important in order to be actually strong physically right I don't think it creates this much support as the belt does but it's still a pretty useful tool and I think every good part lifter should squat using a
• 20:00 - 20:30 pair of knee sleeves so for me personally I like to size down so my recommendation on the SBD website is uh to wear a small size and I wear extra small size because I don't have crazy big CES so it's easy to put them on so if that's your first ever pair of knee sleeves I would recommend you take your size or just one size down but if you're an experienced sfter then you can try maybe one size down two sizes down but yeah um I think the knee sleeves are pretty useful equipment and that's why it's at the top of my e TI in the E TI I
• 20:30 - 21:00 have the wrist wraps the wrist wraps do two things actually they first allow you to create a better stable position for your wrist and then they allow you to lock in this position and the way you're wearing wrist wraps is actually you don't wear them just below your wrist because as you can see here my wrist doesn't do anything and it's just free to move anywhere the wrist strap is supposed to be where here so at the junction between your the end of your your forearm and your wrist it's supposed to stabilize and lock in those
• 21:00 - 21:30 position as you can see my wrist doesn't move a lot now compared to here weight can move so if you use W wraps make sure you put them on properly in order to make the most out of them and for the SBD re wraps I use them personally for squats because since I have a low bar squat that's very helpful to stabilize this upper body position and also I do wear them occasionally on bench press because on the bench press they will really allow me to have a good feeling of the bar into my head and and if you saw this previous video where I talked
• 21:30 - 22:00 about the importance of having a stable wrist position and also a good positioning of the hand in your palm you'll understand how important wrist wraps can be also for the bench press in terms of what to take I usually recommend these wrist wraps which are the flexible as you can see they're not very very stiff they're quite flexible medium and I think they're the most versatile wrist wraps that will be useful for 99.9% of you guys we're still in the a tier and in this tier I'll have a pair of Olympic weightlifting shoes so
• 22:00 - 22:30 the reason as to why I think this is still a tier is because a lot of people don't really understand the simple mechanics of squats when I say simple I don't mean it simple in terms of how to execute that that's actually pretty complicated but I mean in terms of like just the movement itself is quite straightforward and these allow for better Mobility at the ankle which is called also dorsy flexion and that's way to really have a very knee dominant squat so now the knee dominant squat is
• 22:30 - 23:00 not probably the strongest in terms of just pure Force output style of squatting because having a low bur squat which will have a much more important involvement of your posterior chain will probably be better in terms of pure strength output just pure Force output but at the same time in terms of understanding the movement I think especially if you're complete beginner to the sport trying out a pair of Olympic weightlifting shoes is a good way to have your first quats so that how I started squatting and now since then I
• 23:00 - 23:30 actually acquired the required Mobility on my ankles to squat without those but I do believe they're a pretty good way to start the movement in terms of recommendation I would definitely recommend this pair right here which is called the powerlift and the reason as to why I recommend this pair is because as you can see so the drop so which is the height of the heel is not crazy high and I think in terms of just understanding the movement this is probably also the most versatile pair of squatting shoes and that will be helpful
• 23:30 - 24:00 for 99.9% of you guys out there so if you're struggling on the execution of the movement just give this pair a go but yeah pretty useful still in the E Year we're still in the E year and I have a pair of slippers so I'll explain to you what the slippers do so that's actually my brand Sal worker so if you do want to support me uh and try out these sleepers make sure you go in the link in the description and grab yourself a pair of of those but those sleepers as you can see they have a
• 24:00 - 24:30 grippy soul and the grippy soul is very very important in two instances on the bench press when you're pushing with your feet against the ground if you're wearing for instance a pair of Olympic weightlifting shoes as you can see the sole is not grippy at all so your foot might slide and you might lose first positioning but also strength from the leg dry so that's actually why I personally wanted my brand to have a pair of those it's because the sole is gepy and your feet are just cemented into the floor and in order to produce a
• 24:30 - 25:00 lot of force with your leg drive it's so much better but also there can be very helpful especially for Sumo deadlifts because with sumo it's pretty much the same as the bench press you're really pushing into the ground creating those like lateral or frontal motions and if your shoes are not non-slippery you might be sleeping whether it's in training whether it's on the competition platform so that's why those are very helpful and for me they're in the a tier for that reason so obviously any pair of grippy sleeper will be in the a tier it doesn't have to be S worker it doesn't
• 25:00 - 25:30 have to be my own Brand's uh sleepers but if you do want to support your boy make sure you try those out but definitely a pair of gepy slipper is a must for any series poiter and that's why I have them in the a tier now lower in the B tier we have the powerlifting singlet so contrary to the belts or the knee sleeves the singlet doesn't actually give you any real support so why is it still in the bat tier and not for instance the CT or DT or whatever it's because in my opinion when you're
• 25:30 - 26:00 practicing a sport you want to use the required equipment of the sport like I said in the intro of this section the paring singlet is mandatory in any competition you have to have a singlet otherwise you're not good to compete so that's why I still have it in the B tier because in the same fashion as a basketball player wants to play with a basketball short and not a jean for instance because it will recreate better circumstances of movements and that will be better for its training and also for its competitions that's the same with powerlifting that's why most of the time
• 26:00 - 26:30 you see me train in a singlet it's because I want to replicate the circumstances I'll be under when I compete and squatting with a very very wide short and squatting with a tight singlet in terms of feeling it's not quite the same so that's why I do recommend the singlet steel although it's not like as supportive as some other equipments can be like you know the shoes the wrist wraps the sleepers any other equipment I presented so far but still worth thinking about it especially if you're a competitive
• 26:30 - 27:00 powerlifter if you're not a competitive powerlifter then you know probably don't bother to buy a singlet but if you are a competitive powerlifter you know you don't have a choice because you'll have to wear a singlet in comp and I think having couple of singlets and be able to train in them especially as you get closer to your comp could be interesting so make sure you still give it a thought finally we finish at the last position of this equipment tier list and we're finishing with the elbow sleeves so just as the knee sleeves that a pair of sleeve in order to support your elbow joint especially for pressing motion so
• 27:00 - 27:30 it can be bench press but also like overhead press military press whatever um those are meant to give you the same style of support than the knee sleeves but for the elbows so if it's as good as the knee sleeves in terms of support why is it much lower in the tier list and the reason is pretty straightforward is although the KNE sleeves and every other equipment I presented you so far is accepted in competition so you can use those equipment in competitions for the elbow sleeves they're not allowed in a par in competition so in my opinion if
• 27:30 - 28:00 you're really relying on those in order to feel good feel strong to have good training sessions to have good PRS whatnot and then on the midday the day of your competition you can't rely on those because they're not allowed you may end up having some unpleasant surprises so although I do believe in terms of just the equipment they're very useful if they were allowed in proding I would probably put them in the same tier as the N sleeves but since they're not allowed that's why I have them at the lowest of my tier list and that's why I don't recommend you use those unless you have some instances where you do need
• 28:00 - 28:30 those like for instance on some squats low bar squats because then otherwise it just hurts your elbows stuff like that why not do some training sessions occasionally with those but don't rely too much on those because again on the day of the competition you won't be able to use it now if you're not a competitive powerlifter just as I would say don't bother buying a singlet I do would say do bother buying these because I think they will be very useful especially for some bench press for some of you guys that do low bar squat could be be very very helpful in order to manage your upper body joint fatigue so
• 28:30 - 29:00 that was it for the equipment I think it was a pretty thorough analysis if you do have some specific questions feel free to ask them in the comment section I personally will answer or I'm sure some other people of your community will answer for you guys but here is from top to end what I do recommend you invest in and you know again you can start poting on a very very low budget but then if you want to maximize your growth in the sport that's worth giving some of those equipments a
• 29:00 - 29:30 [Music] thought the next part will be about some general rules within powerlifting so let's say you're now fully engaged you do want to compete I just wanted to give you a general idea of what you should expect in a powerlifting competition especially in terms of movements rules so what is to avoid during a squat what is to do during a squat in order to have your lift accepted by the referees and just that section could be an hour long
• 29:30 - 30:00 video again with the programming we could have another hour with some other stuff we could have an hour so keep in mind it will be General recommendations just the most General stuff and in order for you to have a pretty substantial understanding of the powerlifting world and make sure you start your journey correctly in 2025 so without further Ado let's see the rules of powerlifting I personally compete in the ipf which is the best Federation for tested lifters in the ipf you have a 2hour weigh in so it means that you're
• 30:00 - 30:30 being weighed in 2 hours prior to your comp so in terms of body weight management that reduces a lot the risk of crazy crazy weight Cuts so just keep in mind if you do want to compete in the ipf you'll have two hours between the moment you wi in and the moment you're doing your first sad on the platform we have eight categories in powerlifting you'll see them right now on the screen so eight for men eight for women and we also do have age category so you have the sub Juniors you have the Juniors the
• 30:30 - 31:00 open and then master master 2 and so on and so forth so the athletes will be ranked in depending on their weight but also age categories now in terms of movements the first movement in any pring competition is the squats for the squat you have two styles of squats that are allowed in a competition number one you have the hyber squat where the bar is resting on your traps and then number two you have the low bar squat where the bar is resting on your rear delt in General I would recommend you do low bar
• 31:00 - 31:30 Squat and not high bar squat in competition because usually most people are stronger with the low bar squat I talked about it briefly before and I do have a tutorial on that again which will be linked but most of the time the hyra squat places a higher Demand on your knee extension aspect so your quads but also your spinal Erectors whereas the low bar squad has a much more balanc stress which will be placed also on the knees and your spinal Erectors but also on the posterior chain where you'll have your adors where you'll have your glutes
• 31:30 - 32:00 you'll have your armstr thingss which are much bigger muscle groups and usually that's the reason as to why people are stronger with the low bar squat now the high bar squat is still a very very useful tool to train to me that's one of the best squat variations you can do and again like I said if that's the variation and accessories is a topic you're interested in make sure to let me know in the comments but keep in mind in competition you'll probably be strong with a low bar than you would be with the high bar and that's why I recommend the low bar for comps now in terms of rules you have to follow you have three main rules to follow for a
• 32:00 - 32:30 squat first you have to be upright at the beginning and at the end of your movement if you're not standing upright enough either at the beginning or at the end it will be considered as a fault by the referees once you're standing upright with your knees locked and your hips locked the central ref will give you the start command from this moment you're allowed to lower yourself but there's something incompetent called the depth and you have to make sure you hit depth in order to have your movement accepted by the referees the rule is simple the top surface of your legs at
• 32:30 - 33:00 your hip joint has to be lower than the top surface of your knees to put it up simply let's say you just have to break parallel in order to make sure your squat is a good lift in any prlifting competition once you've hit depth you then have to come back up lock out your knees your hips and at this moment the central referee will give you rack and you can replace the bar on the squat rack in terms of what does it mean for your training sessions I would say you have to make sure the upright position
• 33:00 - 33:30 at the beginning and at the end of your squat is just second nature so when you unrack the bar make sure you're able to stand still upright for a solid two seconds and make sure you're able to do the same at the end of your training repetitions in terms of depth so that's um controversial topic I would say because some people are like oh no I don't need to hit depth and but depth will be there on midday and some people are on the opposite like crazy crazy strict about depth like oh if you don't hit depth doesn't count blah blah blah I would say you should hit depth in
• 33:30 - 34:00 training most of the time when I say most of the time it's like 90% and above hitting depth if you're not like built for that is required in order to have a technical repeatability so for instance you have a lifter let's say when he goes down he doesn't hit depth and he just simply repeats that pattern on midday he won't really be able to repeat a pattern where he hit depth because that's not the pattern that he trained for so that's pretty much this idea so you should most of the time 90% of the time 95% of the time train while hitting
• 34:00 - 34:30 depth one last one usually you don't have to think a lot about this one but like I said you have to be able to stand upright at the beginning at the end and again remember staying upright means your hips but also your knees so make sure you're able to lock your knees prior to squatting and after finishing your squat sessions onto the bench press so that's pretty much the same as squats on the bench press you have to be able to assess a given position in order for the central ref to give you the start command and this position is pretty straightforward you have to have your
• 34:30 - 35:00 head your butt against the bench so you cannot have the start position and you cannot lift like that bench press with either the head of the Butt Off the Bench and also you have to have your foot especially your heels onto the ground so that's a rule in the ipf I know some other feds allow for just the toes on the ground and not the heels but in the ipf you have to have the whole foot which means the toes but also the heels onto the ground once you're in this position with your elbow straight then the central ref will give you the start command from this moment you can lower the bar until it touches your
• 35:00 - 35:30 chest you have to be able to touch your chest with the bar and once you've touched your chest with the bar you have to stabilize it what does it mean is the bar has to be still it doesn't have to move so if you're at the bottom and you're moving from left to right normally that doesn't count as a pause in the powerlifting rule book so make sure you're able to stabilize the bar at the bottom once you're there the central referee will give you the Press command which means you're good to go and then from there you push the bar back up making sure you're locking out your elbows to mean you finished the
• 35:30 - 36:00 repetition from there the central ref will give you the recommend and you can put the barbell back on the bench track some things to consider for your bench press especially in training like I said just same as quat you have to be able to be comfortable and have a given position be second nature to you and that position is head on the bench butt on the bench foot slightly cemented into the ground uh toes heels and also have the elbows extended at the top what I personally do is is I unrack the bar lock my elbows stabilize the position
• 36:00 - 36:30 for a good second and then I start my motion because then when I step foot on the platform I don't have to think about all of that it's just second nature to me I I know I have to unrack the bar I know I have to lock my elbows I don't have to wait for the ref to give me the start comment and so on and so forth for another aspect and to me that's as crucial as depth is for squat it's the bench press pause in competition like I said you have to be able to pause the bar when it enters contact with your chest and just as the squat if you're not able to stabilize and pause Ste the
• 36:30 - 37:00 bar at the bottom you are missing out on technique but also on strength so in order to make sure this doesn't become weakness for your bench press in competition you have to be able to train that in the gym so whenever you're bench pressing make sure you pause the bar on your chest now it's just same as quats you don't have to become crazy strict about it like let's say you're doing sets of six and you're like pausing 2 seconds on every rep it doesn't have to go up to that extreme but whenever you're doing heavy bench press sessions especially sessions where you're like
• 37:00 - 37:30 okay because I hit that in training I can like project myself hitting that on the platform you have to make sure there's a sort of pause on that so what I would recommend is on the higher reps sets on the bench press you're not forced to pose like very very strict all of those but on the lower rep especially like practice singles make sure you're properly pausing every rep there's another thing that could be very interesting is doing some 2 seconds 3 seconds pause at the bottom so that's a variation again like I said variations are very important uh for powerlifting
• 37:30 - 38:00 but yeah having some variations where you're pausing like really really lengthy your that's hard word to say in English lengthly it's like prere prerequisite lengthly make sure you're pausing lengthly your reps with the 2 seconds 3 seconds pause bench press finally uh with the butt on the bench press so some people don't really understand the leg drive and that's why the butt comes off the bench because if you do understand well the leg drive your butt shouldn't come off the bench but having the butt come of the bench can sometimes be helpful in order to
• 38:00 - 38:30 complete the Reps so make sure you're not relying too much on those because in competitions so I don't know if we'll find uh images to show you guys but sometimes in competitions the refs are actually like that and so if your bench moves like by this much which you can probably see from where you are from where the camera is but if it moves this this much it's like complete no lift in competitions and I don't critique any of that it's just how it is one good way to assess that is record yourself from the side from time to time when you're doing your bench press you can really have
• 38:30 - 39:00 this view on your butt and does it come off the bench or not rather learn it in training be able to account for that and do some changes rather than learning late in comp where you can't do anything about it and you probably won't be able to have your bench press accepted by the referees now onto the last movement which is the deadlift so same as squats on deadlifts you have two styles that are accepted in poing competitions the conventional and the Sumo obviously I know the Sumo is cheating blah blah blah is a very very hot topic on the internet
• 39:00 - 39:30 and I don't want to interact and engage on that topic what I will say is Sumo does have some strengths that the conventional doesn't have one of those strengths being uh you can have your hips much closer to the bar which has a much better leverage for the movement so if you have a good hip mobility you have good external rotation at the hip I do recommend you give Sumo go because it will probably be stronger and feel much easier for you than the conventional wood now I just want to say that but you
• 39:30 - 40:00 don't have to pull Sumo in order to become a good poter you don't have to pull Sumo in order to become a world champion like in my case I don't pull Sumo and I'm in a way class where 99% of the lifters do pull Sumo because on the lower weight classes usually people are a bit more flexible and despite that I was able to win twice in 2021 and 2023 now when it comes to the competition whenever the timer goes you have 1 minute to get on the platform and complete the lift you don't have to wait for any signal uh by The Ref contrary to
• 40:00 - 40:30 the squat where you have to wait at the signal and the bench press also on dead lift you don't have any signal whenever your name is called you're good to go get on the platform and pull with however long you want just know you have 1 minute to start pulling on the bar once You' finish the rep you have to lock out your shoulders your hips but also your knees so whether it's Sumo conventional you have to lock all of those in order to complete your lift in competition once it's done the central ref will give you the down command and that's the signal where you can lower the bar until it touches the ground be
• 40:30 - 41:00 careful you're not allowed to drop the bar so if you finish the rep but you drop it at the end it will be a no lift so you can lower the bar as fast as you want but it doesn't have to leave the contact of your hand so you just lower it you can slam it if you want but just keep your hands in contact with the bar until it touches the ground now in powerlifting competitions the use of straps is forbidden which means you can resort to hook grip or a mix grip make sure you're not relying on straps in order to deadlift heavy I did a recent
• 41:00 - 41:30 video about it it will be probably here but if you're just using straps all the time and then on midday you can't use straps you'll be lost it will be very very hard to create a grip strength or a grip technique that you didn't train properly in the weeks and months prior to your competition so that's for me is one of the biggest things when training for powerlifting especially for deadlifts make sure you're not relying too much on straps if you do want to use the straps occasionally let's say your hand is very very helpful at a given
• 41:30 - 42:00 moment let's say you talous your hand is bleeding whatnot yeah obviously you can use the straps on given sessions but don't rely solely on the straps especially if you want to lift heavy and don't rely on those for your heavy singles or whatnot make sure you're able to either hook grip or mix grip your heavy sets in order to be properly prepared for your [Music] competition so that was it for the competition and rules part I just wanted to finish with the general ideas General
• 42:00 - 42:30 recommendations and especially some things that helped me personally a lot when I went from like a gy bro to competitive powerlifter and then world champion I talked about it in the intro but to me one of the biggest strengths of powerlifting is it's again an easy sport to start you don't have to have started the sport at 8 years old or 10 years old in order to become just good but to become one of the best we have so many examples of athletes starting very early and not having great careers in the long run and also some very very
• 42:30 - 43:00 good examples of athletes starting very late and then becoming world champion I talked about my example where I started 22 became world champion I have another example in mind with Leah baval which is a friend of mine which some of you may know as Leah Po on Instagram but Leah started a year before me so she started also at 22 because she's a year older but she started at 22 and she also became two times world champion and one of our current best female athletes regarding the classes so it's possible you can do it what it just requires is
• 43:00 - 43:30 if you like the sport and that's a sport that interests you and you do want to learn everything about the squad the bench the deadlift how to refine your techniques how to refine your programming all of that you can become very very strong and I really wanted to emphasize that because we also have the example lately of athletes in their like late 30s that are becoming world champions in very competitive way classes we have the example of Jan Gamu who won worlds this year here in the 83 Kil weight class which is like a very very competitive weight class in the
• 43:30 - 44:00 men's side and he's in his mid to late 30s so it's doable you don't have to start the sport very very young you can start like in your mid 20s still become very strong and I would say you can even start in your 30s and still become probably a world class level lifter so keep in mind that's the biggest strength on the sport and don't overlook that another tip I have is don't put limits on yourself I'll give you a quick idea that I have in mind imagine your you're starting the sport right now you're a 74 kilo lifter you're pretty good you know
• 44:00 - 44:30 you you squat like 160 which is I would say pretty good for a 74 kilo lifter especially someone who's starting out the sport and then you go on social media and you see some 74 kilo lifters squatting 260 kilos squatting 270 280 kilos and you're like oh there is no way I have no chance and although I do understand this idea I would say it's the same with everything like if you're new to drawing for instance and you're like at your 10th hour of drawing and then you look at some things on social media you'll see crazy crazy crazy
• 44:30 - 45:00 pieces of Art and you're like oh there's no way yeah there's no way right now but if you train for months for years then maybe there's a way but right now of course there's no way because those people that you see at that level they didn't start a year before they didn't start 6 months ago they started 3 years four years 5 years 6 years prior to that so if you're interested in prlifting understand that there are layers to becoming stronger it doesn't happen in 6 months although it can happen happen very fast sometimes it also takes time I gave my example because again that's the
• 45:00 - 45:30 the example I know the the best right I started at 22 it took me 5 years to become a parting world champion so imagine if after starting at 22 by 24 I wasn't at the World level again if I I would have said oh I'm not at the World level I will never get there so might as well stop I would never have become a world champion so keep in mind yeah there's probably a huge gap between you starting right now and the top level of your weight class regardless of the weight class but you know you have to start you have to practice the sport you have to train for weeks for months for
• 45:30 - 46:00 years and then you know if you could be good at the sport or not so that will be uh my advice don't put limits that don't exist on yourself what you should put on yourself is expectations and make sure you're able to create like um short-term midterm long-term expectations don't just look at the higher higher top level athletes and be like shortterm I want to be there no that's probably your longterm short term is okay I'm squatting right now when 60 if I do 180 I may qualify for Nationals okay let's
• 46:00 - 46:30 push to 180 that's your short to midterm goal and then midterm is I want to be top five at Nationals okay cool you train for that and then you know have these you know sequences in a year because if your only goal is I'll become world champion and I think that's a good goal to have when I started had that goal I still had layers that then led me to my goal because if you only have that goal um because it's so far away you can't see how much closer you're getting so having small goals you can just take on the way up is the way to go my final
• 46:30 - 47:00 advice would be I think it's probably the most underrated advice powerlifting is an individual sport yes I know that and I agree on that but if you look at some of the best powerlifters they always practice the sport almost as the team sport so in my example I'm training with like 10 15 athletes almost every day and we all are alone when we're doing our motions our movements but there's like this General environment that like just pushes us upward and the crazy thing is in my gym where I train
• 47:00 - 47:30 we're three world champions and it's not like we all became world champions and then started training together it's we started training together years before we became world champions We started training together with Leah in 2018 we both became world champions in 2021 so three years prior and with Tiffany she probably I think joined around 2019 2020 and then we became world champions afterwards and for me it's not about it's it's not a coin incidence it's because when we were training together we had this very very high expectation
• 47:30 - 48:00 of each other you know when Tiffany was squatting Leah and myself were watching having high expectations for her the same with Leah the same with myself so I would say is try to find a gym where first P lifting is allowed because some gyms don't allow it if your gym doesn't allow Pro lifting find another gym pretty straightforward uh but once you found a gym that allows powerlifting try to find training partners because those training Partners if they're good spirited like you then it will just be this whole environment of pushing each
• 48:00 - 48:30 other up and you'll be much stronger down the line than if if you were to train alone now obviously you can train alone you can become very very strong alone we all know some good athletes some even like the best athletes that do train alone and I don't want to say you can't make it to the top while training alone but I want to say that training with an environment training with a crew is a very good way to get to the top uh probably a bit faster than if you were to train completely alone and I think that without this whole idea without
• 48:30 - 49:00 this own feeling that I had and I wanted to always push myself I wouldn't have been able to accomplish what I have accomplished so far in powerlifting and what I also will accomplish in the future because it's not done it's not done so that's how I wanted to start 2025 with this video for you guys so I think it was a pretty lengthy video but I just wanted to go over some general things that you know you could have in mind to how you can actually start prlifting so so 2025 guys have some uh things that I want to do for myself and
• 49:00 - 49:30 I want to challenge you to do is push yourself to become stronger train harder find those gym Partners like I talked about whether they're physically with you but also remotely on social media where you can then exchange and have good conversations about that but yeah powerlifting is a sport where you need to train hard train with intent in order to grow in order to become strong but I think that's a sport that a lot of people can actually become very good at so so don't waste any time 2025 is the year to start and I hope this tutorial
• 49:30 - 50:00 this guide was helpful that's the case it was a lot of work writing the script down editing for my camera guy so the best way you can support is make sure you leave a comment make sure you subscribe make sure you like this video and like I said I have a lot more to come in 2025 on this English Channel so make sure you follow to not miss any of that guys we're all going to train our asses off this year so it has already started