What skills do elite lifters have that others dont?

Ever since I first started lifting weights back in 1955 it has been evident to me that some people get a lot more out of their training than others. Reflecting on many of the elite lifters I have known, it seems to me that there are some skills that they have developed that help them make the most of their natural talent.

In powerlifting or any sport, the name of the game must be get the most out of the physical talent you have. Obviously not everyone has the same talent. However, everyone has the potential to be the best they can be. IMHO one thing that elite lifters do better than others is get the most out of the talent they possess.

Begin by discarding the idea that there is some magic arrangement of exercises that will propel a poor lifter to the upper ranks of lifting stardom. Much of the time the average lifters do pretty much the same routines as the elite lifters.

Another caveat is that in some cases those who lift less may not have not put in the years of hard work that are needed to ascend to an elite status. Like it or not, there are no shortcuts or roads to becoming an instant star.

Over the decades I have been in powerlifting I have noted that elite lifters (and athletes in other sports) had some habits that lesser competitors did not seem to have. The good news is that these habits are ones that anyone can develop.

It takes focused attention and consistent practice over time until these things become habits you do without thinking about them.

There are two habits that I believe can be immensely powerful in helping any lifter reach their full potential. These are intense focus and mastering the feel of perfectly executed lifts.

 

Habit #1 Intense Focus

As soon as I say intense some will assume I mean some idiot running around screaming and letting everyone in the area know that he is getting jacked up.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The person who is actually has intense focus will probably not make much noise when preparing to lift.

Let me illustrate this with a story from the Dark Ages back when I competed in my first National Masters Championship.

There were about a dozen of us in the flight competing against each other. As I prepared to lift, I noticed that a couple of the guys were roaring around the warm up area raging and pumping themselves up. When they hit the platform, they executed their lifts with plenty of yelling. They did oknot great.

Sitting quietly in the back was a man who didnt make a sound. Little going on around him seemed to even register. When all the bellowing and snorting died down, this man took his first attempt. His lift was 100 pounds over the next highest squat. In short, he crushed the rest of the field. His lift completed he went back to his quiet space preparing for the next lift.

My observation of many great lifters is that they are all business when it comes to training and competing. They may be friendly and chat with others, but when it comes time to lift, they go into a place of deep concentration and focus only on moving the weight. At that time, nothing else exists in the universe for them.

Being focused on lifting your best begins when you walk in to the gym from the parking lot. You should begin forgetting about everything else going on in your life to focus on lifting for an hour. Your gym time is when you think about lifting and nothing else. The other parts of your life will be waiting when you leave the gym.

Intense focus is the ability to block out everything else in the world when you are lifting a weight. It doesnt matter whether it is in practice or in a contest. Getting the most out of your abilities means blocking out everything else going on around you when you are lifting a weight.

Yet another storythis one from my past is an example.

Back in the 90s the legendary Bull Stewart was training me in a gym in downtown Seattle. The gym was on the 12^th floor of a 40-story building. Bull had me doing a set of five reps in the deadlift. Just as I completed the second rep, a major earthquake struck Seattle.

The light fixtures were swaying like we were on a ship at sea. Dust and dirt were falling from the ceiling. The building was lurching under our feet. The quake continued for another minute or so.

OhI completed my set of deadliftsthen hustled over to a doorway where Bull was standing so that if the ceiling fell, we would be as safe as you could be with the building jumping around.

Maybe not the smartest move I ever made, but once I started the set.

Im assuming most people will not have to deal with earthquakes during a workout. However, you will have to deal with a lot of potential distractions in most gyms. If you consistently practice blocking out everything each time you lift a weight, you will have a key habit needed for mastering the skills of powerlifting to the limits of your own ability.

Blocking all distractions allows you to put all your energy into the lift and be fully aware of the feedback your body is giving you while you lift.

 

 

 

Habit #2 The feel of perfect execution

Everyone has heard the term practice makes perfect. This should be perfect practice makes perfect.

I frequently refer to the lifting technique I see many people using in commercial gyms as flop and thrash. Most have no idea how to do a proper squat, bench press, deadlift, or any other lift that requires coordination and power.

Endless practice of bad technique means that a person perfects their mistakes!

Poor technique is Death Valley for a powerlifter. Technique is not about style points, it is about getting the maximum mechanical advantage you can muster each time you lift a weight.

Realizing your full potential will never happen without refining your lifting technique to be the best you can deliver. Then, you must be able to deliver perfect reps every time in competition.

If you have intense focus, you can train yourself to sense exactly what perfect execution feels like. To do this you have to concentrate on the signals your body gives you at all parts of the lift.

Developing the feel of a perfect rep will allow you to build your capability to the maximum extent possible.

Unfortunately, some lifters have no idea what a good rep feels like, and each time they attempt a squat, it is essentially new territory. They may have someone tell them they are deep enough. However, they dont take the next step and focus on what this feels like so they can duplicate it on their next attempt.

If a lifter does not have their internal guidance system developed so that they know a good rep from a poor one, then their practice will be of marginal value. It is relatively useless to practice squats if they are 2 inches too high.

A lifter who does not have a well-established feel for a perfect execution of the competitive lifts will always struggle with uncertain results from their training. They may think (aka. hope) they can do a 500-pound squat, but it might not be contest legal. When the contest arrives, this lifter will be guessing and hoping.

Therefore, part of your training should be to learn the feel of a perfect rep. I recommend you do this on all your heavy work sets. It may take some time to master this, but it will be well worth your effort. After all, you are going to be lifting the weight anywaywhy not make sure your hard work is perfect.

Sotwo habits you can incorporate into any existing workout. The cool thing about these two habits is that anyone can learn them and reap the benefits that come with regular focused practice.

Powerlifting is about mastering specific movements while lifting a lot of weight. To do this to the best of our own abilities, all of us need every edge we can get.

Lift Big, Richard