Powerlifting

Cutting fat as a powerlifter is a balancing act. Lose weight too fast or too carelessly and your strength goes with it. Done right, you can drop fat, hold onto nearly all your strength, and even move better for it. I have walked plenty of lifters through this without watching their numbers fall apart. Go…

More muscle has more potential to produce force. That is why most powerlifters spend part of the year deliberately building size. The trick is gaining mostly muscle instead of just getting fat and calling it a bulk. Done right, you come out the other side bigger, stronger, and still able to move. Eat in a…

Once you know which supplements are worth taking, the next questions are how much and when. The good news is that the few supplements that actually work for powerlifters are simple to dose. You do not need a complicated schedule. You need consistency. Creatine: Daily Beats Timing With creatine, the timing barely matters. What matters…

The supplement aisle is built to separate lifters from their money. Most of what sits on those shelves does nothing you can feel. But a short list of supplements has earned its place for powerlifters, backed by decades of real use under the bar. Let me cut through the noise and tell you what is…

Powerlifters spend a lot of time thinking about protein and carbs and almost no time thinking about the vitamins and minerals that let the whole system run. These are the small parts that keep your energy, your recovery, and your bones holding up under heavy iron. Miss them and you feel run down without knowing…

Hydration is the easiest thing to get right and one of the most common things lifters get wrong. A small drop in how hydrated you are can cost you strength, focus, and bar speed before you ever feel thirsty. Under heavy weight, that margin matters. Why Hydration Affects Your Strength Your muscles are mostly water.…

Lifters love to argue about meal timing. Three big meals or six small ones. Eat early, eat late, never eat at night. After thirty-plus years of watching what actually works, here is the truth. Your daily totals matter most, and timing is the fine-tuning that comes after you get the totals right. Totals First, Then…

Most powerlifting sessions do not need anything more than water. But when the work gets long and heavy, what you take in during the session can be the difference between finishing strong and falling apart on your last lifts. Intra-workout nutrition is a tool. You just have to know when to reach for it. When…

The session does not end when you rack the last rep. What you do in the hours after heavy training decides how much of that work you actually keep. I have coached lifters who trained hard and recovered poorly, and they always plateaued faster than the ones who took refueling seriously. What Your Body Needs…

What you eat before a heavy session shows up in the quality of your work. I have seen lifters blame their program for a bad day when the real problem was they walked in under-fueled or stuffed full ten minutes before squats. Pre-workout nutrition is simple once you understand what you are actually trying to…

Carbs fuel the session and protein rebuilds the muscle, but fat is the one people cut first and miss the most. For a powerlifter, dietary fat is not just calories. It is the raw material your body uses to run its hormones and protect the joints you are loading with heavy iron. Why Fat Matters…