After my last powerlifting meet in October, I set one simple goal: squat 600 pounds before my wife and I had our first baby, who was due on February 5. On February 7 at about 11:30 am, I hit that goal, and about 18 hours later, our beautiful daughter Clara was born.
Talk about cutting it close. She’s the only thing I could be more excited about than the 600 squat. Wanna see a cute pic of her? Of course you do!
With Clara napping next to me as I write this, I’ve had some time to reflect upon the journey from a 570 squat in October to a 600 squat in February (about 17 weeks). Like my first 600 deadlift and first 400 bench press, there were plenty of lessons along the way.
1. Set a Deadline
As the saying goes, “A goal is a dream with a deadline.” Setting a firm deadline for any goal holds you accountable, especially a date that can’t be changed. That’s why actively competing in powerlifting is so motivating; whether you’re ready or not, the day of the competition is set in stone. You’d better be ready to show up and lift.
Our eminent due date was incredibly motivating because I knew I’d have much less time and energy to train once Clara arrived. Squatting 600 pounds amidst dirty diapers and sleepless nights sounded nearly impossible, so I buckled down and got to work.
2. Have a Firm Plan, Loosely Held
I knew adding 30 pounds to my squat in 4 months would be challenging, especially since I’d only added about 10 pounds in the previous year. I looked back through approaches that had worked well for me in the past, and it turned out the most progress I’d ever made on a single lift in a similar timeframe was my bench press on what evolved into the Bench Like A Beast program.
So I followed a similar plan, but knew I’d have to make changes along the way. I still had a high-volume/medium-intensity day and a low-volume/high-intensity day. I still used plenty of squat variations to target weak points. However, the exact weight on the bar was much less strict than Bench Like A Beast, and I learned to push hard when I felt great and pull back when I was tired.
Basically, I had a firm plan in place, but didn’t freak out when I couldn’t follow it perfectly. I always had productive training sessions, even if it meant doing a little less weight or using a slightly different exercise to work around an injury.
3. Don’t Be Afraid to Specialize
Pouring so much time and energy into the squat meant dialing back my deadlift training. Recovery is a finite resource, and sometimes you need to pull back the throttle on one lift so you can be ready to push another as hard as possible.
I kept my deadlifts pretty light (never going above 75%) and limited them to one day per week. I only did sumo deadlifts and RDLs, as they were easier on my back and built up my hips and glutes, which seemed to help my squat.
It’s been said many times: it’s hard to make all three competition lifts go up at the same time, especially if you’ve been training for many years. It’s OK to specialize in one lift for a bit and put the others on cruise control.
4. Attack Your Weaknesses
Weak point training is not a new concept in powerlifting. “You’re only as strong as your weakest link,” as they say, and it’s true: when weights get really heavy, your weakest muscle group and/or biggest technique flaw will be exposed. Your exercise selection must target your weak points if you want to keep getting stronger.
My main weak points were/are:
- Bar drifting forward while squatting down
- Knees caving in when I squat really deep
- Bar tilting/rotating to my left side
Many of these weak points wouldn’t show themselves until the weights got heavier, so I preemptively used squat variations to help myself “feel” when they occurred. The best coach isn’t a person, but an exercise that provides instant feedback to teach you right from wrong.
The variations I used:
- Front squats (to teach upper back tightness and prevent forward drift)
- Pin squats (to prevent twisting/tilting)
- Concentric pause squats (to prevent knees caving in)
These variations worked well for me, but certainly won’t work for everyone. Your job is to discover which variations cure YOUR weaknesses, and then use them faithfully.
5. Train in a Low Arousal State
I’ve written about this before, but it bears repeating: you can’t always get super psyched up during every training session. In fact, the lower your arousal level in training, the more your performance will increase when you actually need to get psyched up (i.e. testing your 1RM, preferably at a meet). You shouldn’t have to smack yourself in the face and rips shots of whiskey just to squat 80% for a couple sets of 3 (trust me, I’ve been there). And if feel like you have to, you need to reevaluate your recovery and readiness to train.
Think of it like Star Power in Guitar Hero (does anyone remember that game?). Star Power gives you tons of extra points for each note you hit when you use it, so you want to save it for a part of the song with lots of notes. Don’t waste it on a simple the simple verse riff; that’s like sniffing an ammonia cap during a run-of-the-mill training session. Instead, save your Star Power for the big guitar solo, which is the Guitar Hero equivalent of maxing out.
During the 17 weeks leading up to the 600 squat, I didn’t use any preworkout caffeine or psyche-up techniques with the exception of my three heaviest squat sessions. So out of 68 total training sessions, all but three of them were “low arousal”. That way, when it was time to hit 600, I had my ace in the hole and actually felt a boost in performance.
6. Listen to Your Coach and/or Training Partners
The Strength House is an amazing community of like-minded lifters. I am unbelievably blessed to get to train alongside Greg, Nancy and bunch of other strong and motivated people every day. But having great training partners goes beyond motivation. Eventually, your training partners turn into your coaches without you even realizing it.
Throughout the quest for 600, Greg and Nancy provided helpful feedback to make the process smoother and avoid roadblocks. Nancy clued me into the bar twisting/tilting to my left, which could have gotten really ugly because I couldn’t feel it. Greg was quick to point out when my stance was off, leading to knee cave and loss of pop out of the hole. And the rotating cast of lifters who train with us during staff lift were always happy to help spot and run the monolift, which takes no less than four people.
It would have been easy for Greg and Nancy to say nothing critical about my squat, just to spare my feelings. It also would have been easy for me to ignore their advice and plug along as planned. But there must be a willingness to coach and a willingness to BE coached for the coach-to-athlete relationship to flourish, even if you’re just training partners. Turns out, your training partners will eventually know more about you than you know about yourself.
7. Take Your Mental Preparation Seriously
It took me three separate tries to finally squat 600. I missed it on January 24, then again on February 4 (I would not recommend maxing out your squat the day after the Patriots win the Super Bowl and you’ve been crushing double IPAs since noon).
A year ago, this kind of failure would have crushed me mentally. The fear of failing again would have prevented me from even trying. But leading up to my last meet in October, I started taking my mental preparation as seriously as my physical preparation.
The mind will always fail before the body. If you don’t believe you can the lift the weight, you won’t. If you let thoughts of doubt or negative self-talk creep into your mind, your fate is sealed before you even touch the bar. Blocking these things out can be tough, but like anything, mental toughness takes practice.
I developed a consistent routine that helped center my focus and block out negative thoughts every time I approached the bar. First, I would stare at the center knurling of the bar as I got my hands and feet into place (I borrowed this approach from Greg). The bumps in the knurling look like shark teeth (the Great White shark is my official spirit animal), and this would remind me to attack the bar like a shark attacks its prey. I’d literally imagine myself doing this:
Once I got inside the head of an apex predator, I’d look at the big Strength House banner directly across the gym. I’d stare at the second “T” on the banner, which in my mind stands for “Tony” and reminds me to believe in myself. Even after two misses at 600, this routine kept me from dwelling on the negative and helped me focus on the task at hand.
For more info on building your own pre-lift routine, read Positive Self-Talk for Instant Strength Gains and 30 Seconds of Undivided Attention.
Lessons from the Iron
Turns out powerlifting is a lot like parenting. You can read all the books you want, but the only way to truly learn what matters most is to experience it for yourself. I’m not sure what the parenting equivalent of squatting 600 pounds is, but until I find out, I hope these seven lessons can help you reach your next lifting goal.