Burnout in Powerlifting
OUTLINE
Intro
How lifters get burnt out
Attaching your value as a lifter to a certain outcome
Trying to mimic your idols
Doing too much too soon
Prioritizing powerlifting too high
Adjusting to the real world
Not having training partners
Doing it all on your own
Monotonous workouts
Instagram Lifting
The good
Awareness
Community
The bad
Approval-seeking behavior
Ego
Comparing yourself to others
The ugly
How you can prevent burnout
Evaluating your WHY
Enjoying the process
Introduce a novel stimulus
Staying within the prescribed intensity
Having things to look forward to
My recent approach to training
Pre-Arnold approach
What I’ve done wrong
What I’ve corrected since then
Conclusion
INTRO
I feel like a lot of people talk about the burnout in bodybuilding, but not so much in powerlifting. I wanted to do an in-depth article giving my opinion of burnout in this sport. I will discuss both the good and the bad of the sport and ultimately leave whatever overall message you get from this article open to your own interpretation.
One thing I’m sure of, is that my goal with this article is to make you feel heard. You may have thought about some of the things I mention in this article, but never brought it to anyone else’s attention.
Most people know by now that powerlifting is a sport of longevity. The people who are the best in the long run are the ones who are most consistent with their efforts and can stay healthy the longest. The key to longevity is avoiding burnout.
In this article, I will outline the potential causes of powerlifting burnout, the role IG plays in that, what can be done to prevent it, and how I’ve approached training the last 6 months.
HOW LIFTERS GET BURNT OUT
Burnout in powerlifting happens one of several ways. It’s normally attached to some type of expectation, whether it’s one you have of yourself, or one that others have of you. In this section, I will mention several causes for this phenomenon.
Attaching your value as a lifter to a certain outcome
A lot of us have high expectations of ourselves. We chose powerlifting because it’s a more objective sport. You can either lift the weight or you can’t. There aren’t too many gray areas. This is ultimately what we like about the sport, but it’s also what holds us back sometimes. We tell ourselves we won’t step on the platform until we hit a certain total. We tell ourselves we’re not ready for a national meet. National meets only come around once a year, and sometimes we miss the qualifying total, which can be demoralizing. It can make one feel like their training up until that point was useless if they attach their value to whether or not they qualify for nationals. This can be one major cause of burnout.
Sometimes we attach ourselves to rankings. The competition amongst each other is great and it’s getting more competitive each year! Really competitive lifters always strive for that number one spot. The danger with that is if a lifter attaches their value to getting that number one spot, they’ll be disappointed if they fall short of that goal, and forget to celebrate the small wins along the way that will keep them adherent long-term. This can cause one to stop seeing the short-term benefit to training, because there is no positive reinforcement to keep morale high.
This can also cause us to obsess over what our competition is doing. Everything from what they choose to show us on Instagram, to what we see them do at meets, what people are saying, etc. Although this makes competing more fun because it gets everyone more into the story behind each lifter, it can be unhealthy for some people. The obsession could make one devalue their own progress because they’re comparing themselves to someone else.
Trying to mimic your idols
You may be super-inspired by someone you see on IG and you try to copy their workouts without the proper context. Their body isn’t the same as yours and you probably don’t have as long of a training career as they do, so you likely won’t be able to handle what they can handle in terms of training. Not to mention, IG posts don’t tell the whole story. This can cause you to make some huge mistakes in your attempts to copy them, and you could end up burning out and not wanting to train anymore.
Doing too much too soon
People who aren’t at the top of their weight class tend to want to play catch up and adopt the mindset of outworking their competition. If one has not built up this type of tolerance to high frequency/volume training, this can cause them to do too much too soon and either get injured or burnt out.
I mean come on, we ALL remember the Smolov days!
Prioritizing POWERLIFTING too high
Let me preface this section by saying that if you want to be great at anything, it must be a priority and you must make sacrifices.
With that being said, that also has its fair share of drawbacks. Most people in the sport will agree that this is very time consuming, and if you want to be great then you must pay attention to detail. Gym sessions take long, counting macros can be tedious, and making sure to get adequate recovery can be hard with most peoples’ schedules. There will be things you’ll miss out on.
No one is getting paid to compete in this sport, so prioritizing this comes at a great cost (not just in terms of money). Maybe not with higher priorities like work, but in other areas like a social life or other hobbies. You may be skipping out on having fun with your friends on the weekends because being well rested for your squat single is important to you. Either that, or you never lift with your friends who don’t powerlift because your workouts never match up. You may not have time for another hobby or interest. That’s great if you’re truly passionate about lifting, but if you don’t have any other outlets, then you may find yourself very down when your lifting doesn’t go well; and trust me, there WILL be times when your lifting isn’t going well.
I constantly encourage my athletes to do something completely unrelated to lifting that they enjoy, or to hang out with close friends in a low-stress environment when they’re frustrated by their training because the worst thing they can do for their self-esteem is attach their emotions to a single session. Human beings are social creatures, and fulfilling interactions with other human beings is one of the most powerful things we can do for our own happiness.
Ask yourself this: When I have a bad session at the gym, do I let it negatively affect my mood for the rest of the day?
Adjusting to the real world
When you graduate from college, you’re going through a series of both internal and external transitions. You may be trying to find your first full-time job or get into grad school. It may be time to get your first apartment and start paying your student loans. This can be a stressful time in your life and stress will negatively impact your training, which can make you not want to show up. It’s also super time-consuming to apply for jobs and to grad school.
Post-grad depression can hit. You may secure your first job and find yourself thinking “wow, is this all there is to life?” You realize that none of your coworkers care about your hobby the same way you do. You realize that your environment has changed and that your priorities have to change to match it. Suddenly you don’t feel as happy, and training is no longer fun to you because of everything else weighing on your conscious, especially if you’ve already put a ton of pressure/expectations on yourself.
Not having training partners
One of the biggest things I’ve heard from people who struggle to get back on track with their training once they graduate from college, is the lack of community. Maybe they’re back at their commercial gym with gym bros who don’t know how to give a proper lift off on the bench press. Maybe they don’t have that same push from their friends as they did back in school. Maybe they don’t have that same drive and motivation to train because they feel alone.
One thing about lifting in school is that you typically have less responsibilities and you’re surrounded by people who are just as serious as you. Once real life sets in, you might have to take a step back.
Doing it all on your own
Even if you know what you’re doing in terms of a gameplan for training, it really helps to have people who know and care about you in your corner. Having that objective opinion from someone else can keep you from stressing.
Doing everything on your own can cause you to question yourself when you shouldn’t and not fully commit to or trust the process.
Monotonous workouts
Yes I know. Spending 2-3 hours at the gym just squatting, benching, and deadlifting can be extremely boring. If you’re not a fan of the day-to-day grind of doing the same thing and not always seeing instant results, you will likely burnout from this sport.
INSTAGRAM LIFTING
Okay, so now that we’ve covered the potential causes of burnout, let’s talk about Instagram. This is an interesting topic to me, because it’s really the only way we follow other lifters and know what’s going on. We’ll cover the good, the bad, and the ugly. I’m a positive guy, so let’s start with the good.
Sidenote: who remembers the good old days of pre-IG lifting?
The Good
Powerlifting is not a spectator sport, so Instagram gives a big platform and spreads awareness to an otherwise unknown sport. It gives coaches a chance to put out helpful content immediately. It give lifters a chance to post their lifts and receive support/feedback from their friends and coaches, as well as boast to their competition, or just treat it like a journal entry. It can be extremely motivating to see someone you look up to hit a big lift. It gives influencers a platform to build their brand and expand. It gives people a voice. I have never seen knowledge spread so fast. I love seeing everyone express themselves, even if I don’t necessarily agree with them. Overall, it’s just a giant hub for the lifting community.
The sense of community is great for building friendships, connections, and encouragement with others. I’ve seen great friendships form just through having this in common and being active on Instagram. It’s pretty cool to know if you ever find yourself in Houston, Texas, you’ll have 20+ lifters who will accept you into their gym with open arms to join you for a workout and provide some hospitality. It’s pretty cool to know that people are just connecting so conveniently over a hobby.
Typically, the purpose of a community is acceptance. We know that powerlifting culture is a meme, and people at the gym who aren’t a part of it have their stereotypes about you. This can cause you to feel awkward or lonely when you’re at a commercial gym of some sort. The community is a great place for everyone to feel accepted and surrounded by people with similar goals as them.
The Bad
Approval-Seeking
Some people can find themselves in a negative feedback loop of approval-seeking behavior, which can be super draining and lead to burnout. It starts with posting your lifts, and people encouraging you. Then you may get to a point where you’re addicted to the validation and you like the instant return on your investment. Then you’ve established consistency and have become a constant in the lives of your followers, so you develop this belief that people EXPECT you to post your lifts. So then you get to a point where your purpose behind training and posting may have changed. You may get to a point where you’re not posting for yourself and your own reasons anymore, but now you do it to fulfill an expectation that you think others have of you.
You may attach your identity to this sport. Your mind feels safe with familiarity. When your progress isn’t always going well, your sense of identity is threatened and it makes you feel insecure. This is why I always stress the point of having other hobbies and things going on.
This can be especially true with some people who have bigger followings. I tremendously respect the people who show up consistently despite how they’re feeling, because I’m sure that’s not easy to do.
Ego
The validation one gets from social media can inflate their ego to a point where they’ve put themselves on a pedestal. When you have carved an expectation of yourself on this pedestal, it can be really draining on your energy and self-esteem when you don’t always meet that expectation. If you have a bad meet, you may really beat yourself up over it.
It can also cause people to ego lift. When I say ego lift, I mean the temptation to chase PRs and overshoot the prescribed intensities because you want something to post on Instagram. You’re afraid that if you don’t have a cool PR to post, then people will forget about you and your value as a lifter will decrease.
Comparing Yourself to Others
This is a more obvious one. I’ve been guilty of this a lot. You see your competition lift a certain weight, and you tell yourself that you have to one-up them. This is great in terms of having a competitive spirit, but it can also be bad.
For example, you may see your competition hit a PR, so you impulsively hop off program and do the same thing and set yourself back in terms of fatigue or injury risk. What you didn’t know was that this lifter is hitting their last single in a peak, while you’re in the middle of a hypertrophy block. Context. Instagram doesn’t tell you the whole story.
Another thing to keep in mind is that it doesn’t matter what people hit in the gym; it doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll hit it on the platform.
NOTE:
This section was NOT meant to judge anyone based off their actions or tell anyone that they’re right or wrong. It was simply to remind everyone to reevaluate their relationship with Instagram from time-to-time to prevent burnout in the sport.
A good exercise is to ask yourself the following: “Why do I post? What do I want to get out of this? What do I want to give?”
Self-awareness is key!
The Ugly
I hate to cover this one, but it’s necessary. The beef, the drama, the hate, the pettiness, the ridiculous arguments in peoples’ comments, the slandering of your peers. This is the ugly.
To me, this is wasted energy and emotion, and in my opinion, it doesn’t have a place in the sport. Keep in mind, this is just a hobby.
Moving on.
HOW YOU CAN PREVENT BURNOUT
Evaluate your why
Really sit down and ask yourself why you train and compete in this sport. When you keep asking yourself why and digging deeper, you’ll be able to find that intrinsic motivation and purpose behind your actions, which will serve you well on the days you don’t feel like getting up to train.
Evaluate your goals; both tangible and intangible and work backwards to figure out your gameplan. When you do that, you’ll have a visual representation of what you should be doing each day and you’re more likely to adhere without overshooting.
Enjoying the process
You have to get to a point where you enjoy what you’re doing on a day-to-day basis. Periodically, I’ll ask my lifters if they actually enjoy the exercises they’re doing. If they say no, we’ll find a way to give them what they need while switching things up to make it more enjoyable for them, or to work with their schedule better.
At the end of the day, you must accept that not every day will be fun or a PR. If you can manage your expectations, you will be fine.
Introduce a novel stimulus
Maybe it’s time to introduce that random accessory that doesn’t directly correlate to your powerlifting training. Sure, it may not be optimal, but if it boosts your morale and gets you to look forward to going to the gym, then I think it’s appropriate.
Evaluate the tradeoff between optimal training and fun/sustainable training, and apply this principle with your best judgment.
Staying Within the Prescribed Intensity
Personally, I think the most motivating part of training is building momentum. Seeing the weights progress from week to week and trending in the right direction does numbers for your confidence. The most demoralizing thing can be the opposite: when your momentum halts. You’re either stuck at the same weight from week to week, or you’re taking steps backwards.
This is why it’s important to not get greedy during training and chase PRs. Chase the momentum instead. Leave some gas in the tank for the next session, and leave some room to grow and improve. Pushing your threshold every session is one of the quickest ways to burnout.
Whenever my lifters are jumping back into training and don’t know where to start, I always tell them I’d rather them undershoot and be able to add weight every week than overshoot and kill their confidence.
Have Things to Look Forward to
Having meets or mock meets to look forward to periodically, as well as fun things in training makes it easier to see the whole thing through. It’s harder to stick to a long-term plan without an end date or milestone. Even things that aren’t lifting-related are good. Having other hobbies or social occurrences to look forward to are great ways to not attach your identity/value to this sport. Remember, it’s just for fun!
Here is my Recent Approach to Training
I had a terrible prep leading up to the Arnold this year. I couldn’t use as much weight as I normally could and I couldn’t figure out why. It was super frustrating. I was still dealing with a pec injury from the previous year. I also strained my lower back a couple of weeks out from the meet. I was almost never excited to go to the gym anymore. When I had a bad session, which was most of the time, I wasn’t in the best mood going to work. I would find myself putting more weight on the bar than I should sometimes because I thought I had to play catch up. Then of course, when I got to the Arnold, I had a bad meet.
Although I still liked training and made it just another part of my day, I realized it wasn’t nearly as fun as it used to be. I used to look forward to going to the gym. At that point, I would leave the gym early and skip accessories at times and take more deloads than normal. I knew I still liked the sport, but I couldn’t figure out why I never felt like training.
After the Arnold, I decided to completely rethink my approach to training and I was able to pinpoint the following:
I would overshoot my RPE just to put myself on pace to hit a certain expected number, which only fatigued me more and sabotaged future training sessions, making me even less motivated to train
I was going into the meet expecting a certain total (despite always telling my lifters to never do this)
I was tired of doing the same movements with the same approach
I felt guilty about spending so much time in the gym, because I knew I should be working on my business
HERE are the changes I’ve made as far as mindset going into training this time around:
I stopped focusing on numbers altogether: I went really conservative with my numbers and realized if I just did my job everyday and continued to add weight to the bar, it would eventually pay off. When I say really conservative, I mean humbling myself and using numbers I haven’t used in years and not impulsively adding more weight. Celebrating the small wins of adding weight to the bar every week would build confidence.
I introduced more bodybuilding in the offseason: I missed getting a pump and doing new movements, which gave me something to look forward to in the gym. Plus seeing the physical changes of this addition would keep my morale high moving forward.
I changed my workout structure: More frequency with less time spent in the gym everyday to get in the habit of going to the gym without feeling mentally drained by the end of a session. Plus it gave me more time to work on my business.
I stopped looking at IG and caring what my competition was doing: This doesn’t mean that I don’t want to win. It simply means that I understand that everyone will bring their finished product to the platform and what they show on IG doesn’t really matter.
I desensitized myself emotionally from the result of a training session: Whether I have a good or a bad session doesn’t really matter to me. I still leave the gym and approach the rest of my day the same way regardless. If I have a bad session, which is inevitable at some point, I don’t think much of it. But if it continues to happen, then I address the problem.
I took the pressure off myself to perform and hit certain numbers because I was so far out from my next meet: there is no sense in stressing about what numbers I’ll be hitting in the future. I’m not there yet. It’s just a wasted emotion, and it clouds my judgement.
I started embracing my social life and doing more things I found enjoyable, without worrying about how it would affect my training (within reason). It’s no coincidence that my best meet preps came when I was going out more often. For myself personally, I don’t see a need to be neurotic unless I’m cutting a lot of weight.
I stop thinking about the gym the moment I walk out of the building after my session. I don’t really talk about it, and it doesn’t cross my mind. There’s a time and place for everything.
All of this built momentum.
I realized that I needed to actually LIKE training again in order for me to get to a point where I wanted to be competitive and prep for another meet. Otherwise, I’d fall flat on my face like I did with the last prep.
All of this has been an interesting experience for me because I’ve been coaching myself since after last Raw Nationals, so I’ve definitely been challenging and testing myself in different ways.
Now I feel refreshed and I actually enjoy training again the same way I used to. I’ve gotten rid of the crazy expectations for myself and just focus on staying present with my training.
The offseason foundation has been built and I look forward to seeing the improvements this year at Nationals.
Conclusion
As I’ve said in the intro, the purpose of this article is not to define a standard of values for you, or tell you what you should/shouldn’t do. This is to serve as a reminder to keep digging deeper to find your WHY, reevaluating your relationship with the sport and with social media, and ultimately start a conversation.
I hope you can take what you’ve read in this article and implement some positive changes to your approach to training to avoid burnout in powerlifting.