The Best Assistance for Powerlifting

Success in powerlifting boils down to one thing -- how good you are at squatting, bench pressing and deadlifting. These three moves should be the foundation of your routine, but they certainly shouldn't be the only exercises you do in the gym. Purely focusing on these three will lead to plateaus, would be boring and could result in over-use injuries. By including assistance moves in your schedule however, you strengthen your weak areas and build strength without spending all your time on the big three.

  1. Super-Sizing the Squat

    • Implementing different squatting variations into your routine is the best way to build squat strength. Speed work, using a load that's around 50 to 75 percent of what you'd lift for a heavy set, but aiming to move the bar as quickly as possible, is an efficient way to build squatting strength, notes New York-based trainer Christopher Smith. Steve Pulcinella, coach and owner of Iron Sport gym, recommends using different types of squat, such as front squats, squats to a box, squats with a safety bar and overhead squats.

    Bringing Up Your Bench

    • Like the squat, stick to bench press variations to improve your regular bench press. Kyle Hunt, of Hunt Fitness, recommends five basic exercises for bringing up bench strength. One-arm dumbbell presses, standing overhead barbell presses and floor presses, performed like normal bench presses but lying on the floor instead of a bench, are the first three. Numbers four and five are slightly more intricate: pin presses, which are partial-range-of-motion bench presses performed with every rep starting from a dead-stop, and plyo pushups, regular pushups but with a hand clap at the top.

    Driving on With Deadlifts

    • Once again, deadlift variations come out on top for deadlift assistance exercises. On the Lift website, elite level powerlifters Chad Wesley Smith, Brandon Lilly, Corey Hayes, Mike Tuchscherer and Jim Laird all list some form of deadlift variation as their favorite assistance move. These include pulling from a deficit, deadlifts paused at knee height and elevated deadlifts. In addition, world-record-holding lifter and member of Juggernaut Training Systems Caitlyn Trout notes that glute-ham raises, rows, pull-downs and weighted core work will all build your deadlift.

    Applying the Assistance Principles

    • Be smart when planning your assistance work and don't just throw in every exercise you can think of. You have two basic options -- either have one squat, one bench press and one deadlift day each week and add two or three assistance moves to each session or save all your assistance exercises for just one weekly workout. Either way, keep the same exercises for six to eight weeks and start with three sets of six to eight repetitions in week one. Gradually add weight, sets and reps until you're at five sets of eight to 12 reps, using a heavier weight than you started with. If you're still progressing at the six-to-eight-week mark, keep doing what you're doing. If not, change your assistance exercises.