Powerlifting

Warm Up

For powerlifting warm up you want to take anywhere from 3-5 movements and
keep warm ups short and intense. Think about what exercises you are going to do
for the day and the patterns you need to hit. Warm ups should take anywhere from
7-15 minutes depending on how you feel and your personal needs. We are going to
include a foam rolling guide as well as a mobility exercise index so you can pick and
choose and create your own plans depending on your personal needs for the day.
Feel free to work on problem areas on off days as well.

The big thing is to focus on what YOU need to do. That being said I do believe you
need to hit 6 key areas every time for a good general warm up. You want to fire up
and gain stability using the “core”, lats / upper back, and glutes/hips. And you need
to mobilize ankles, hips and upper back. The degree of you needs will be very
individual. Over the course of time you will find certain movements get the job done
for certain exercises and for certain people. Use these principles as a guide so you
can create your own warm up and mobility routines to fit your needs. These are
suggestions for what has worked for our athletes but always listen to your body and
never push range of motion into a painful zone.

Here are some key ideas you need to know that are specific to powerlifting. We
included videos as well so you can get an idea of how it looks and how it should feel.

Stability Big 3

Abdominals

In order to fire up the muscles of the core exercise like planks can be utilized and
dead bug and leg lowering variation have the highest transfer to squatting and
deadlifting respectively.

In both of these variations the athlete is learning to disassociate the spine from the
hips. By bracing effectively and using the core muscle they can move the limbs
independently from the spine. If athletes have trouble organizing their spine under
load these drills can be super helpful.

Something like a push up position plank can be helpful to learn tension in for a
bench press type position as well.

Breathing/ And Bracing I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQuVHnLyd3U >

Supine Core Series
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOe_6zFXYLM >


Glutes

Glute activation isn’t something new. Having optimal glute firing will help keep
your knees and lower back healthy and keep the athlete in better position during
the lift. The key is to make sure you are utilizing movements that mimic the activity
you are going to do.

In the quadruped glute series you can utilize different leg positions to prepare the
body for different exercises.

When you go into hip abduction with the knee flexed (bent leg) that is going to more
closely resemble of more moderate stance squat where as hip abduction with the
knee extended (straight) would have better transfer to a wider squat or sumo
deadlift.

A movement like a bird dog or just going through hip extension with the knee
extended would be a similar position the hip needs to be when locking out a
conventional deadlift. With the knee flexed (leg bent) this would resemble leg drive
in a flat footed bench.

These drills as especially helpful if you have trouble feeling your glutes when you
lift. You can emphasize which glute activation drills you use depending on what the
primary exercise of the day is.

Quad Glute Series
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANbNFgfDpkU

Lats
The lats are another muscle group most novices have trouble feeling and engaging
when performing the big three. Lat tension and upper back tightness is super
important for holding proper spine position on squats, keeping the chest up and
shoulder safe when benching, and keeping the bar close when deadlifting. The lasts
are very important for both safety and performance.

Similar to the Quadruped glute series utilizing a prone shoulder series you can work
on engaging the lats and upper back in specific position to help prepare the body for
specific lifts and exercise. You can work on different positions of shoulder flexion,
external rotation, and extension for the exercises you will be using in the workout.

Lets say you are going to go overhead in your workout. Lifting your arms off the
ground making a “Y” is a great way to work on overhead position. By creating a “W”
this is going to mimic a back squat position. You can even do a pull down motion
from “Y” to “W” to really work on the feeling of bending the bar over your back.
Brining your hands directly under your elbows and lifting them off the ground (we
call this a surfer) would mimic a bench or push up type position. Having hands at
the sides whiling shrugging down in a “V” shape would mimic a deadlift position. If
you are doing some type of weight lifting movement like a snatch or clean pull that
requires internal rotation you can also perform an “O” with the arms behind your
back.

With all of these drills it is important to think about how it is going to prepare you
and transfer over to the workout at hand. Also don’t forget to utilizing proper
breathing and bracing and perform them all with intent and purpose.

Prone Surfer Series
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-O01Wwd86w&t=7s >

For the majority of people I have found that a lot of movement will be cleaned up
once they learn how to breath and brace properly and learn to stabilize their body
using their abs, glutes, and lats. By giving an athlete more awareness on how to
stabilize proper they can more efficiently utilizing the range of motion they already
have an control it better. There are cases where more stretching is warranted but if
you already have the request range to do the task at hand spending a few minutes
just to work on maintenance is probably plenty. For older, larger, and athletes with
mobility restriction spending more time on mobility work is going to be needed. The
big three for mobility are the ankles, hips, and thoracic (t) spine.

Having sufficient mobility in the ankles, hips, and upper back is going to help an
athlete squat to depth, achieve a proper bench arch (without stressing the lower
back), and get into a proper start position for the deadlift as well as a get into a full
finish for the deadlift. If an athlete doesn’t have the range of motion at a particular
joint it is going to try to gain it else wear and often times this ends up being stress in
other areas of the body such as the knees, low back, shoulders, and elbows. This is
why mobility work for these particular joints are of paramount importance in the
practice of powerlifting .

Ankles
For ankles it is important to have adequate dorsiflexion in order to keep your heels
down for a below parallel squat. If you have trouble squatting deep check your
ankles. Dorsi flexion is always important for getting into proper starting position
for a conventional deadlift as well. If you don’t have the ankle range of motion it is
very hard to get leg drive off of the floor. It’s not always a hip issue.

Here are some simply drills you can do with or without the use of bands.

insert Ankle Mobility Drills
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNGl0IJ04l8 >

Hips
It is important to have hip mobility in many areas. Having adequate hip flexion is
important for squatting deep.

.If you are a narrow stance squatter and conventional deadlifter you won’t need as
much external rotation as a sumo deadlifter and wide stance squatter.


So keep that in mind. If you have trouble getting into a bench arch or having trouble
locking out deadlifts working on hip extension can be very helpful.

T-Spine
Having good t-spine extension is very important for keeping a neutral spine when
squatting and deadlifting as well as for keeping a proper arch when benching. Low
bar squatting can also be problematic if you don’t have a lot of t-spine extension and
general mobility in your upper body.


Here are some t-spine and hip mobility drills that can be very helpful to be done as
part of your warm up. The first video is more specific to bench pressing and the
second one is more specific to squatting and deadlifting.


T-spine and Hip Mobility with Bench
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgR_u5vlSr0

Squat Flow Hip Mobility Drill
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4u6geH6EH5g >

If you have a lot of mobility restrictions you can also do these exercises on off days.
You can do a few sets of a few reps or the exercises that are going to prep you for the
day. 1-2 sets of 3-6 reps with intent and purpose is a good start. If you have a deficit
in a certain area spend more time improving that. In general most lighter guys,
novices and women need to spend more time on stability work and most big guys
and advanced lifters need to spend more time on mobility. As a general but not hard
and fast rule.

Listen to your body and experiment with what works best for you!