art icle s.e lit e f t s.co m http://articles.elitefts.

co m/training-articles/mo nster-garage-gym-its-no t-always-the-stro ngest-lifter-who -wins/

Monster Garage Gym: Its Not Always the Strongest Lifter Who Wins
Although I have been f ortunate enough to win a f ew big meets over the years and total Elite a good number of times, I will tell you that some of my wins were due to the f act that the stronger guy in the meet, plain and simple, def eated himself. Truth be told, it is not always the strongest lif ter who winssometimes it is the smartest strong lif ter who wins. Sometimes it is the most meet sophisticated strong lif ter who wins, and sometimes it is the healthiest strong lif ter who wins. Sometimes it is even the lif ter who puts his/her ego on the shelf and stays within his/her means who ends up taking home the prize (and there is nothing one wrong with that). Just like your training prepares you f or the meet, a prior meet can prepare you f or the upcoming competition. Looking back over the years, beginning with my f irst meet in 1989 and then continuing on with about two to three meets per year thereaf ter, I must say that I picked up some things that are keys to victory when you may not be the strongest guy in your class. In other words, unless you are a superior powerlif ter, a`la Ed Coan, Steve Goggins, or Chuck Vogelpohl, these are things that most of us scrappers can apply in order to pull of f the win, even though strength-wise you may just be in the mix in regards to your total. T his, by all means, is not an exclusive list. But here are a f ew things I picked up along the way that helped me squeeze out that win at some bigger meetsduring those times when really I could have just as easily placed second. Feel f ree to steal the ones that could be helpf ul to you.

Know Your Platf orm:

One of my f irst experiences in an international competition was the WPC Worlds in 2000: some 30+ countries and a week of amazing powerlif ting with the always colorf ul and up-all-night Las Vegas, Nevada, as the backdrop of course. Pretty f antastic. One of the many dif f erences between a local meet and a national- or international-level meet is the lif ting surf ace. Typically, a local meet will have the squat stands or monolif t on a f ew sheets of three-quarter-inch plywood. T his is then tightly screwed together with a thick rubber mat on top of the wood, and then a slice of carpet lies on top of that mat. At the big meets, however, there is typically an actual platf orm that is (in addition to being elaborate) a f oot to several f eet of f the f loor. In turn, the platf orms are usually made of wood and have some type of carpet on them. T he plywood at a local meet is pretty much what we are accustomed to in a gym; however, the big meet platf orm can be a dif f erent story. So, a couple of things I have learned about these platf orms:

1. First , t hey have some give t o t hem.

I have been on easily a dozen or so big platf orm stages, and all but a f ew of them had a little to a good deal of give to them. (And even a little give can mean a lot when you are squatting and pulling). As powerlif ters, we wear Chucks, f lat shoes, or powerlif ting shoes with hard heels f or a reason. When you push of f your calcaneus, the energy you produce drives downward into the lif ting surf ace. If that surf ace is hard, the energy goes straight back up, giving you drive of f the lif ting surf ace. If you are on a sof ter surf ace, the energy pushes that surf ace down, and once the surf ace stops compressing, the now compromised energy then goes up. Its kind of like the dif f erence between bouncing a tennis ball on a hard tennis court vs. bouncing a tennis ball on a squishy throw pillow. When I would f ind myself on a platf orm with either a little structural give or considerable give, I would lower my opener in order to f eel how the platf orm would respond with some 900 pounds on it. (My 220 pounds plus 700+ pounds of bar weight). On these types of surf aces, the give can create issues f or the lif ter on his opener. I have seen it time and time again. Mostly the victims are f irst-time big meet lif ters who open up a little too aggressively, or the guy shooting f or a record and thus needs a big opener to reach his record number. But it basically comes down to being those lif ters who do not check the surf ace prior to the meet.

2. Second, when you are a couple of f eet of f t he ground on a plat f orm, t he head judge is now much lower.
Remember, you need to compete how you train. T he elevation f rom the platf orm can make the squatter look down toward the judge at the start of the lif t, and more of ten than not, I have seen that lif ter f all f orwardand there goes the opener down the drain. Head goes up, weight goes up, head goes down, weight goes down.

3. The t hird t hing t o ponder is t he plat f orm wit h regard t o your knee wraps.
Here is what I mean. Sometimes there are stairs leading to the platf orm or a little ramp to walk up in order to get to the monolif t or uprights. Either way, when you have your elitef ts Krait knee wrap on and you have a ramp or steps to go up, the closer you park your chair to the platf orm the better. Dont walk, or more accurately dont wattle, f arther than you have to.
*Video: Distance from being wrapped to the monolift/squat stands. Video courtesy of Maroscher Powerlifting Team video vault.

4. Last ly, in regards t o t he plat f orm t here are somet imes shallow t hree-quart er-inch gullies carved out f or t he deadlif t plat es.
T he idea was saf etythe barbell wont roll of f the stage and kill the head judge should a lif ter drop the loaded barbell. T hus, this makes it so that it is like being on three-quarter-inch def icit board. T heref ore, at one of these meets I lowered my opener on the deadlif t, and that made all the dif f erence. Why? Well, it wasnt like pulling of f a three-quarter-inch boardit was like pulling of f a three-quarter-inch board af ter squatting and bench pressing at a stress-f illed international meet where you paid an entry f ee, bought your round-trip f light, and slapped down cash f or a hotel roomand you are going 100 percent redline on third attempts. T hus, the three-quarter-inch groove where the plates laid was exponentially dif f icult to pull f rom. Oh, and if you are a bigger guy who rolls the weight out and then back toward your chins, sorrythat weight is staying right in those grooves.

Bottom line: Make a thorough check of the competition platf orm the day, or days, bef ore a big meet. For me, those f ew

*G arry Franks 3 hig h, ye t s up e r s turd y APF Natio nals p latfo rm. Pho to b y Mo ns te r G arag e G ym p ho to vault.

adjustments made the dif f erence between coming out on top or just staying in the mix. It really is not the strongest lif ter who always wins, and if you can appropriately adapt to your meet conditions, that can make all the dif f erence.

Spin The Bar:

When we are deadlif ting at the gym, we sometimes load the deadlif t bar without collars

*Sp ring c o llars and p lywo o d p latfo rm at the MO NSTER G ARAG E G YM. Pho to b y Be nt Nail Pho to g rap hy

and sometimes with those spring collars. We add more weight, slip on the collars, and lif t the weight. T his continues until the training session is done. At a local meet, you will see those same spring collars since they are great f or quick weight changes. At the bigger meets, however, these old f ashioned 2.2 KG butterf ly screw collars (or something similar) is of ten used with the kilo plates. T hese are not quick-change collars, and when they are slipped on the barbell sleeve and tightened, they are very tight. When those collars are on nice and tight, take a moment and try to spin the barbell with your f oot.

If the barbell does not spin, put your f oot on top of the inside plate on either side of the bar and give it a shove outward toward the collar. T his will loosen the bar and allow it to rotate. If the bar does not easily spin and you then pull the weight of f the platf orm, the plates will begin to rotate f orward and the non-spinning bar will have no choice but to do the same. T hus, the bar with hundreds of pounds on it will rotate f orward and it will come out of your hands. T hat is physics and that is a f act. If the bar can easily spin when on the ground, then once you pull the weight and the plates begin to spin, the bar will stay upright in your hands and the barbell sleeves will rotate like they are designed to. Nonspinning sleeves are like what you f ind on a f at bar the barbell sleeves do not rotate. T he Make s ure yo ur d e ad lift b ar s p ins b e fo re trying to p ull the we ig ht. Pho to b y Maro s c he r Po we rlifting Te am vault. loaders are going to give you a nice tight bar because they dont want the plates to shif t, but you also need a bar that can rotate. And getting the bar to rotate can be the dif f erence between a big pull and the weight coming out of your hands. T his is such a simple thinga quick spin of the bar, but it has literally been the dif f erence in making or missing a third attempt countless times. Do meets come down to the third pull? You know it. Spin the bar.

Measure Your Bar Height

I actually wrote about this tip bef ore. For the whole story you can click HERE.

At a meet, you can wait just about f orever in a long line f or the monolif t in order to try to get an estimate of your bar height f or the squat. You have seen that bef oreeveryone standing in line, going one af ter another trying to estimate the height f or the squat bar. T his process takes a long time. Just do the math: a hundred squatters, each going up to the bar and placing the bar on their backs, taking a step out, getting into their stance T he reality is that a lif ter can try to simulate where he thinks his stance is while dressed in sweats and f lip f lopsand under an empty, non-bending bar (not to mention without wearing his Metal brief s, suit, knee wraps, etc.). I mean, I could take my place in that long line, or I could walk up to that monolif t, pull out my tape measure, have 52 inches of metal tape showing (my bar distance f rom the f loor), bring the bar to that level of the tape, and glance over at the pin hole. Done! Now I am of f to warm up while the masses are in line f or another 30 to 50 minutes. T hink about this: even af ter their long 30 minutes, all they end up with is a best guess of where the bar should actually goa mere approximation of that perf ect bar setting that they have so successf ully used at their gym f or so very long.

Here are the

*Can o ne ho le up o r d o wn re ally make a d iffe re nc e ? Whe n yo u are at 100% max s q uat with a p e rs o nal re c o rd o n the line , yo u c an b e t the b ank it matte rs . And no thing is mo re c o s tly than re g re t. Me as ure yo ur b ar he ig ht fo r the s q uat. Yo u c an d o this o n the b e nc h p re s s to , b ut fro m the p ad to the up rig hts as no t all b e nc he s are the s ame d is tanc e fro m the flo o r. Pho to b y Be nt Nail Pho to g rap hy.

specif ics:
When you measure your bar height, do it during a training session with your competition weight on the bar. You should also be wearing what you are going to wear during the meet. Why? For one, the gear makes you stand wider. T he more gear, the wider the stance and the lower you are going to need the bar height to be. Furthermore, if you have a good amount of weight on the bar, the bar bends some. T hus, you want to make sure that when you are standing with a loaded bar on your back that the monolif t hooks can clear the bar once you have stood up in preparation to squat. I am sure that you have seen this at meets yourself the lif ter stands and either the hooks cant get out f rom under the bar and he has to raise the monolif t height. Or perhaps once the lif ter squats and comes back up, the hooks cannot get back under the bar. Remember: with big weights, the bar bends and your spine gets compressed. So, a half an inch of vertebral pads getting squished and two inches of bar bend can make it so that the hooks on the monolif ts arms cant get under a bar And that is when bad things happen.

T he point I am illustrating f or your benef it is this: you have readied yourself for this meet by making copious plans in regards to your training poundages. You have made sure that you are making weight, and if you are equipped, you have been making sure that your gear is perf ectly f itted. So why take a chance on guessing the proper height of the barbell? T hat position, that perf ect barbell position, is the launching point and landing point f or your competition squat. T he squat sets the tone f or the meet. You might be nervous and you might have warmed up too much or not enoughso have control over this variable. T his crucial variable is important. If you are more of a USAPL lif ter and a monolif t is not being used f or the squat, this is still a must-practice since the bar does bend. (Even more so since the USAPL does not use the 55-pound bars. So there is somewhat more bend and whip). Also, there is the whole back compaction that will occur in every lif ter when the weight gets up there in poundage. And if nothing less, you are saving yourself 30 minutes of standing in line, as you will always have to give your squat rack height to the head table prior to when the squatting begins. We think of f ootball as a game of inches and powerlif ting as a game of poundsbut f or a powerlif ter attempting max-ef f ort weight with the squat, you want everything to be as perf ect as it is in the gym. Having the inches f rom the f loor to the barbell at the meet exactly as it is at your home gym can be the dif f erence between making the weight or not making the weight. It can even be the dif f erence between making the weight and getting injured, and nobody wants that. So, has the tape measure helped me win a meet? Well, I have had guys in my weight class bomb out in the squat because of a bad estimated height, and f or all I know, they were 700-pound benchers and 850-pound squatters. So, Know Your Platf orm, Spin T he Bar, and Measure Your Bar Height . In my experience, these three things have made a dif f erence, especially in a larger, more serious meet. (Assuming you have no holes in your training, nutrition, and strategy come meet time). When cognizant of them, they have personally helped me squeak out a win when I should have received second place based on strength alone. Being prepared can help you win, and there is nothing wrong with pulling out a victory because you were either more prepared, smarter, more experienced, or any of those in combination. Nobody ever complained because the big game was won by a coach who was too well prepared, who took advantage of the other teams weaknesses, or was too smart. Bottom line: although it is most of ten the case, it is not always the strongest lif ter who wins . So, if you are more of a middle-of -the-pack or top-of -the-middle competitor, this is your opportunity to move up in place as others f all victim to their own mental or strategic shortcomings.

Check out Monst er Garage Gym Monst er Garage Gym T-Shirt Bent Nail Phot ography

Related Articles:
Its the Littlest T hings T hat Can Make the Biggest Difference Dont Shake the Weights! Set Up to Squat Huge