The #MPOWERment Blog
Prevention and Treatment of Powerlifting’s Secondary Injury: Obesity
Powerlifting is a sport that requires brute strength, perseverance, and high pain tolerance but does not require a lot of athleticism. The latter is one of the reasons that high mass and body fat content are so prevalent although powerlifting can have a positive effect on obesity if mindful eating practices and long-term health is of priority. It is a question for another paper whether powerlifters become fat, or if those who carry more fat and body mass are simply drawn to the sport for their ability to more easily partake in this sport than others with high-level dynamic performance parameters. Powerlifting does have a fairly high caloric need or at least makes you feel like you do, but the culture does not often approach this need in a healthful or periodized fashion. Both anecdotal and empirical evidence highlights that the practice of powerlifting can be helpful for health by building functional muscle mass if hunger is managed, but it also has shown that there is a prevalence of encouragement of poor eating habits within the culture.
While powerlifting meets have a periodized approach to training, the off-season is often when athletes are at a greater risk of cardiometabolic issues as this aspect of the macrocycle often involves little to no cardiovascular exercise in order to theoretically avoid any strength decrements and an increase in food is consumed to conceptually build more muscle mass. The more educated and new-school participants of powerlifters appreciate the value of proper nutritional intake for better system recovery, prevention of obesity and its comorbidities i.e. diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and benefits to performance during competition. Unfortunately, there are still pervading myths and misunderstandings amongst powerlifters on how they should eat for optimal performance, injury prevention, and treatment of injuries. The focus will be on preventative strategies of over-fatness in powerlifting athletes, as well as non-invasive methods of managing obesity and over-fatness if and when it occurs to prevent clinical health issues from arising.
Prevention and Rehabilitation Strategies
The primary means of prevention come from the inclusion of some cardiorespiratory exercise and diligence to quality and quantity of food intake. Neither strategy is often utilized and the simplicity of adding these methods can have a huge effect on the athlete’s career longevity and overall long-term quality of life. Below are more of the prevention strategy but these methods can also be used if athletes have already begun a state where secondary and possibly tertiary prevention strategies are needed.
Powerlifting Obesity Prevention Protocol | |
Phase One | |
Monday | Lower body hip dominant hypertrophy and accessory workout |
Tuesday | Incline treadmill walking 20 minutes @50-60% HRR |
Wednesday | Upper body pull hypertrophy and accessory workout |
Thursday | Incline treadmill walking 20 minutes @50-60% HRR |
Friday | Lower body quad dominant hypertrophy and accessory workout |
Saturday | Upper body push hypertrophy and accessory workout |
Sunday | Yoga |
*Increase in weight by 5% upper body and 10% lower body each week as the stimulus. Cardio increase of intensity to 70%, not increase in duration as a stimulus. | |
*Macronutrient profile: 50-60% carbohydrates, 30-20% protein, 20% fat. Quality food intake of complex carbs, lean protein sources, nuts, seeds, fish oil supplementation. | |
Phase Two | |
Monday | Lower body hip dominant strength-hypertrophy and accessory workout |
Tuesday | 15-25 mins Incline treadmill walking with a weighted vest. Intervals at 1:4 of 30:120secs with max 85%HRR:60%HRR |
Wednesday | Upper body pull strength-hypertrophy and accessory workout |
Thursday | 15-25 mins Incline treadmill walking with a weighted vest. Intervals at 1:4 of 30:120secs with max 85%HRR:60%HRR |
Friday | Lower body quad dominant strength-hypertrophy and accessory workout |
Saturday | Upper body push strength-hypertrophy and accessory workout |
Sunday | Yoga |
*Increase in weight by 5% upper body and 10% lower body each week as a stimulus. Cardio change stimulus from different modality not increase in duration. | |
*Macronutrient profile: 50-60% carbohydrates, 30-20% protein, 20% fat. Quality food intake of complex carbs, lean protein sources, nuts, seeds, fish oil supplementation, creatine monohydrate. | |
Phase Three | |
Monday | Squat and Bench Press |
Tuesday | Active recovery |
Wednesday | Low Volume Upper-Body Accessory Work |
Thursday | 15 mins of intervals at 2:1 ratio, 85-90% HRR. Mobility work. |
Friday | Active recovery |
Saturday | Deadlift and Pulls |
Sunday | Low Volume Lower-Body Accessory Work |
*Max lifts alternating each week with 90% lifts. | |
*Macronutrient profile: 30-40% carbohydrates, 40-30% protein, 20-30% fat. Increase caloric intake by 10% with an emphasis on peri-workout nutritional intake. Quality food intake of complex carbs, lean protein sources, nuts, seeds, probiotics, fish oil supplementation, creatine monohydrate. | |
*Heavily monitor recovery abilities, sleep quality. Adjust accordingly. | |
Phase Four (Pre-Competition) | |
Monday | Squat and Bench Press |
Tuesday | Active recovery |
Wednesday | Deadlift and Pulls |
Thursday | Glutes and Back |
Friday | Squat and Bench Press |
Saturday | Active recovery |
Sunday | Deadlift and Pulls |
*Max lifts for sport-specific movements. 80-90% for glutes and back. | |
*Macronutrient profile: 30-40% carbohydrates, 40-30% protein, 20-30% fat. Increase caloric intake by 10% peri-workout nutritional intake only. Quality food intake of complex carbs, lean protein sources, nuts, seeds, probiotics, fish oil supplementation, creatine monohydrate. | |
*Heavily monitor recovery abilities, sleep quality. Adjust accordingly. |