Adherence

One thing that I have done very well in my powerlifting career is adhering to the program. With every coach I’ve had, and with every program I’ve had, I have always followed the program to a T. This is one of the main things I credit to my relative success in the sport, and my ability to make continued progress even as my strength becomes more advanced.

I find this to be more of an issue with newer lifters but also with more advanced lifters that lack discipline. It can be difficult to follow the program exactly as its laid out because, as powerlifters, we love lifting heavy weights, which often leads to overshooting our prescribed loads for the day. If we take a step back and consider the program as a whole, we will likely see that there are planned progressions from week to week.

If the program says “Competition Squat, 1x1@RPE 6”, that intensity was chosen for a reason. In most cases, that RPE 6 single is going to become an RPE 8-9 single later on in the block. If you overshoot the single earlier in the block, it leaves less room for those planned progressions to work as intended, and you are likely limiting your bodies ability to make the neurological adaptations we are looking for as powerlifters.

If we choose to be patient and follow the planned progressions, the outcome will work in our favor, more often than not. If you take anything away from this post, I hope it’s this. FOLLOW THE PROGRAM AND STICK TO YOUR RPE’S.