Posted by Dave Napper in Muscle Building
Estimated reading time: 2mins
Fast forward to the present day. I’ve now been competing in power-lifting and strongman competitions for three years. During this time I’ve followed training programs from coaches who are stronger and more experienced than myself and I perform the power-lifting movements such as squats, benches and dead-lifts pretty much every training session.
My lifts have improved dramatically. My squats have increased from 230kg to 300kg, my bench presses from 140kg to 170kg and my dead-lifts from 270kg to 331kg. I now understand the importance of sleep and strive to get as much of it as possible, knowing that lack of sleep will detrimentally affect my training performance and recovery. I now also place much more emphasis on the importance of proper nutrition with regular meals, adequate calorie consumption and I use key supplementation.
My 12-plus years of training have been a lot of trial and error. Here are some key take home points to help you avoid the mistakes I made:
Still not convinced? Have a look at the program I devised for myself as a high school student, compared to what I do now.
2004 | 2016 | |
---|---|---|
Occupation | High school student | Nutritionist, owner of Brisbane North Barbell and power-lifting coach |
Training | 5 x per week. 1 hour per session. 1 body part per session. No squats, bench presses or dead-lifts. | 5-6 x per week. 3-4 hours per session. Squats, bench presses, dead-lifts every session. |
Best lifts | Didn’t squat Didn’t bench press Didn’t dead-lift | 300kg squat 170kg bench press 331kg dead-lift |
Sleep | 5-6 hours | 7-9 hours |
Diet | ‘Clean eating’ with far too much dietary restriction and lack of nutritional intake. | Flexible dieting with zero calorie or macro counting. |
Example diet | Breakfast – 2 Weetbix + milk. Lunch – Sandwich, fruit, snacks. Dinner – Tiny meal. | Breakfast – 1000 calorie protein smoothie. Lunch – Left overs + another 1000 calorie smoothie. Dinner – 500g meat, massive salad + some sides. |
Daily supplements | 1 scoop of whey. Multivitamins. | 6 scoops of Whey Protein. 2 scoops of Micellar Casein. Creatine, Acetyl Carnitine + L-Lysine. Magnesium, Zinc, Vitamin D + Omega 3. |
I hope this helps you to achieve greater goals and see better results from your training. Good luck!