- Avoiding weaknesses. Training should be fun and enjoyable, otherwise we'd burn out pretty quickly. Part of the enjoyment comes from doing things you're good at. If you have a natural affinity towards a particular exercise you'll likely perform it often. But does that come at the expense of an exercise you're not good at but is likely an exercise you should do in order to improve?
For most of my training career I neglected two big lifts: the good morning and the barbell row. I was a naturally good squatter with poor pulling levers, which meant a sucked at good mornings and rows. I wasn't good at them, they're uncomfortable, so I just didn't do them. As a result, my deadlift stagnated for years and my entire back was weak. Once I decided to focus on these two lifts, everything improved: my deadlift went up 45 lbs, my back stopped hurting, and my shoulders felt in the bench press better thanks to stronger lats.
The same goes for the bench press. I never spent much time doing triceps extensions because I sucked at them. Guess where I was constantly missing bench attempts at meets? Right at lockout. Once I started regularly practicing extensions of all kinds, more close grip presses, and partials (from pins and boards), my bench improved. - Training too heavy too often. While it behooves you to train at maximal intensity year-round in order to get stronger, you have to know how to program those heavy lifts. One max effort day per week for the upper and lower body is sufficient, and you'll likely need to rotate your ME lifts weekly to avoid accommodation. If you train the same lift to a max effort for multiple consecutive weeks, you'll stagnate and possibly get hurt. I made this same mistake and tried to remedy it by trying to push myself harder in each training session and recover as best as I could, but at some point you have to train smart as well as hard. Rotating lifts weekly allows you to still train at a maximum intensity year-round while avoiding stagnation and maintaining progress.
Assistance work can get too heavy as well. Bigger supplemental exercises -- i.e. squat/press/deadlift variations -- ought to be trained heavy ideally hitting regular PR's. For smaller exercises, the weight doesn't necessarily matter. A triceps pushdown or a dumbbell curl is used to build up weak muscles that will improve the bigger lifts. - Neglecting GPP. A lot of people equivocate GPP with conditioning and cardio. For strength athletes your aerobic base is part of GPP but only a part of it. GPP means exactly what it stand for: general physical preparation. That includes not just cardio but also flexibility, coordination, and a number of other basic physical characteristics. Strength itself is GPP for athletes in other sports; for powerlifting it is the key trait. But it relies on a strong base of general physical characteristic and skills. As with specific weaknesses discussed in the first point, other non-lifting traits might be what's holding you back.
- Training alone. The past three months have put me in a position where the majority of my training is done by myself. While I made progress during that time, I would've made more progress if I had training partners each workout for spots, coaching, and a little extra motivation. Scheduling might be a little more challenging but it's worth the effort to train alongside others. My training always improves when I'm with like-minded lifters.
These are fundamental principles that anyone can implement into their training. If you've plateaued, look at what you've been doing and see if one of these can make a difference. It might be as simple as training with other lifters or doing a couple quick extra workouts for GPP.
