Should You Hype Up or Stay Calm for Powerlifting?

It’s one thing do just follow a program and go through the motions. The next level up is understanding the WHY behind each piece of your program which then allows you to approach each set and rep with a purpose and strategy.

Becoming strategic with your mental approach to training pays big dividends.

Problem:

Many lifters either get too hyped up for their top set or they get hyped too quickly within a given powerlifting training session. As a result, we can see a crash that results in poor performance on backdown sets, accessory work or primary work that is later in the session.

When your performance on these latter 3 aspects of the training drop off, they don’t have immediate effects on your lifts, but will reduce the potential of any given training cycle to improve your gains from the block.

If backdowns, acessories, etc didn’t matter then we wouldn’t need to have them in the first place. Some of the strongest lifters you know take their “non top set” work just as seriously as the main work and it shows.

Hype Spikes

There are a few factors that impact sudden spikes in hype or arousal as we approach the top set in a given training session:

1. Anxiety about certain bar loads
2. Use of caffeine/stimulants/ammonia
3. Exciting training environment (music, people, location)
4. Motivating training partners (crew mentality, yelling, etc)
5. Use of music or hype songs
6. The almighty PR.

Appropriate use of Hype – Training with Intention

Here’s 4 strategies to use when training in order to actionably manage hype in training in order to strategically use it as a tool

1. Minimize use of caffeine / stimulants / ammonia on secondary work and earlier sessions in the block
   
   This can help improve sensitivity to these performance enhancers so that you get a bigger boost out of it for when you actually need it.
   
2. Train with focused intent
   
   Ask yourself what the purpose of the day is – what’s the goal for the block and how does it fit into that goal?
   
   A weight will always be that weight, but the way you talk and think about the weight can change the way you approach it.
   
3. Understand the purpose behind the movement or load
   
   There’s a good chance that your week 1 triple is going to be fairly easy, that doesn’t mean to take it lightly but instead not to treat it as any more than it is.
   
   Your last warmup flying doesn’t mean you need to go up on your topset, especially early on in the block.
   
   Instead of focusing on load, focus on practicing the movements and making the improvements that need to be made.
   
4. Have a bigger picture mindset and maintain that focus across your sets, workouts, days, weeks and months.
   
   Every session won’t be PR worthy and that’s okay. Secondary work and earlier sessions in a block are all about setting the tone for the block as a whole – let it be about building into something bigger than itself.

Quick Reminders

• Hype isn’t a bad thing, but it can have a negative impact on performance if you let it.
• PRs aren’t the only indicator of improvement and may come in many different forms besides a new 1RM (technical improvements, decreased RPE at a given weight, etc).
• When a PR does happen, enjoy it, but don’t lose focus on the remainder of the training session.

PS – here’s 2 ways I can help you prepare for your first powerlifting meet:

1. Follow me on Instagram (@strongeryoupt) for free lifting advice, programs and more powerlifting content. You can DM me the word “GUIDE” and I’ll get you a copy of “Your First Powerlifting Meet” – my guide that shows you strength standards and how to compete in powerlifting.

OR

2. Apply to join my “Platform-Ready Blueprint” and become a case study. We’ll work with you 1-on-1 to show you how to add up to 200 lbs to your total and compete in your first meet with less than 5 hours per week in the gym.

It takes less than 60 seconds to apply HERE in order to find out more information and see if you’d be a good fit.