How to Increase Powerlifting Performance with World Champion Powerlifter Solana Lewis

What's up, coach? Beverly Simpson here today we're talking all about powerlifting with Solana Lewis.

Are you ready?

Let's get started. What's up, coach? I'm Beverly Simpson, the owner of Bees and Sin Fitness and the founder of PT Profit formula and PT Profit podcast. Today is an interview I did with Solana Lewis and we are talking all things powerlifting. She talks about some common misconceptions, including the warmup. In fact, she has included a 5 minute bench warmup to help powerlifters increase their strength in their one rep max. So I'm going to leave that link around this video. So without further ado, I'm going to go ahead and roll this interview. But if you haven't already, be sure to like hit subscribe and tap that bell to be notified when the next latest and greatest video comes out. Hi, Solana, thanks so much for joining me. How are you today?

I'm doing pretty good. How are you?

I'm doing great. I'm really excited for this. This is going to be so fun. Thanks for being here.

Thank you for inviting me on.

Can you just go ahead and share with us my first question right off the bat, a little bit about who you are, how you got started and who you serve.

Okay, so who I am, My name is Solana and I'm a powerlifting coach. And how did I get started? I'll make a long story short, but when I was in school, in college as a sophomore, I started getting into just working out in general. I was looking at people like, probably Katie Hearn Fit would be a good example of someone who I was like, kind of idolizing actually, because I was like, oh, she's lifting weights to look like this. Like what? Like, I had never lifted a weight before. I couldn't do a push up. So I got in the gym and I had a friend who powerlifted and when he saw me like lifting for like a year, he was like, oh, you're pretty strong. So fast forward, I saw him compete to support him and I saw women powerlifting and when I saw that, I was like, my brain kind of exploded. I was like, these women are like lifting so heavy and like having so much fun and like the community around it seems so, like, just positive, like everyone was cheering for. Everyone wasn't like, oh, we're against each other. So I got into it like the end of my sophomore year and I just never stopped. Like, I got a coach, started doing it, fell in love with it, got pretty good at it. And I think what Got me to become a coach, which I became a coach only, like, two years later. So I've not been coaching for about four years. Was. I just saw, like, a need to have more female coaching. Like, even me. Like, I've had a few coaches and I've only had men, and there's not, in my opinion, there's not a lot of female coaching options. There are some, but not a lot. So I became a female. Obviously, I'm a female, a powerlifting coach. And I would say about two and a half years ago, I was kind of introduced to the idea of pri, the Postural Restoration Institute, because I had a coach who was into it. And I just started to see, like, all these powerlifters are always in pain. Are always in pain. Like, 99% of them. Like, you meet someone, it's like a badge of honor to say that my back hurts. Like, they're, like, excited about it. Like, yeah, I'm a back hurt. I'm doing something right. Like, no. And.

Saying, no pain, no gain.

Right? Exactly. And the harder you work, the better. And it's like. But it's really easy to get burnt out in this sport. Could be lift heavy, and you need to know how to, like, actually program properly for it and lift how much you should be lifting and when. So I just kept seeing people, like, in pain. And since I had this coach with ncpri, I started getting more into it. Also, Katie's recently took Katie's course, Empower Performance. That really helped me too. So now I just kind of started to really utilize, like, positional breathing drills and how I can mesh that in with lifting really heavy in a way that's not one, physical therapy, like, because that's not what we're here for. We're here to lift heavy stuff. But two, how to lift heavy and just not be in pain. By moving in ways that are better for your body, depending on where you are.

I love that. So now, do you primarily work with female powerlifters?

That is definitely the bigger part of my clientele. I work with both, but I would say my split's probably 80, 20 female to men.

I see. Okay. So what would you say now? I love that you're bringing in these. These new concepts into your work, because I feel like now in my limited experience. So please feel free to correct. But I feel like there's common misconceptions which you've already brought up. One, and we'll go into that. But in addition to pain, I am curious, like, do powerlifters feel nervous or hesitate to train differently than the, than their actual skill set. Is their fear that, oh, if I train in this way and if I incorporate this strength or incorporate these fundamentals, am I going to lose time training the skill?

That's a good question. I would say. I don't think that powerlifters are thinking they will lose time training this skill if they like focus more on I guess essentially technique and their position more than just getting stronger. Here's why the new powerlifter might feel that way. Because you're new to powerlifting, like you got the newbie gains. So when you're new to powerlifting, you're just thinking about, can I add more weights to the bar each session? Which you probably can for a while because you just started. But I would say once you've been in powerlifting for even just like a year, you start to realize that technique just holds you back. And if you look at the best powerlifters today, like the current IPF world champions in multiple weight classes, you'll see that they all don't like their form doesn't fall apart when they hit, when they hit their Walmart max. So if your form is falling apart, once you get past like 85% of your one rep max, that's a problem. And it's going to hold you back. That's what's going to hold you back. So I would say that once you've been in sport just for a little bit, you'll start to see how important it is to work on position first, then strength second and the first like two minimum. This is an opinion first. Like two years of powerlifting should just be about technique and we shouldn't even be trying to constantly go for one more maxes. And I think that's another problem when you're newer to the sports. People are always trying to retest and retest and they have these, all these programs that are like linear periodization, which is not bad when you're new. Linear periodization is like pretty easy to do when you're a new powerlifter. But they start to get into this mindset of this is what powerlifting is. 12 weeks, I go up, up, up, up, up,. I 1 rep max. I repeat, I start low, I go up, up, up, up one rep max. And that's cute for like a year or two and then you can't sustain that anymore. You can't keep doing that.

Yeah, yeah, no, for sure. I feel like we also deal deal with this in fat loss. Like people think that they're just going to Lose one indefinitely. As long as they do, like, long as they do what is written on their program forever.

And it's the same thing. It's like when you're new to fat loss, you will lose it faster and as you get better at will, slow down. And you can't keep expecting £1 a week. You can't keep expecting a new Walmart Max every 12 weeks.

Yeah. So what are some of the common myths that you think that the powerlifting industry kind of talks about that or perpetuates rather that we, we could use some shifting in people's perspectives.

Okay, well, I think the first one, even though it's like I kept talking about just now, is that being in pain is just normal. Like you're gonna feel a tweak here and there all the time and just work through it. Like if you work through it, eventually the pain just magically disappears. Like, like it wasn't an issue. It's just magically goes away if you keep going. I think that's the first one because when there's pain, there's an issue. And that means we need to assess what is happening. And people aren't taking the time to really look at their form or what they're missing. Maybe it's their warm up. Maybe they're not even targeting the right muscles prior to hitting the barbell. That's a big one. Or my favorite. Which is why I see the most often people come in after working all day, probably sitting most of the day, unless they happen to have an active job. And, and they're in just these crappy positions. And then they're like, I'm going to just go straight to the barbell. It's like, great. Even if I'm sitting for 12 hours to the barbell, that might be the reason you have pain. So I would say like, no pain, no gain is not correct. And we need to stop thinking that. What's another misconception? I would just say that. Okay, here's one. People have an idea that something's wrong if you're not constantly getting stronger. I'm putting air quotes around getting stronger. You can't see the air quotes podcast. There are, there's times to just do all the boring work and you won't see that your numbers are technically getting higher. And then when people don't see that, they switch the program. Switch the program, switch the program. But I call this, and my old coach said this on Instagram like last week, frick around, Itis. Okay, you're bored, so you switch it you don't like it. It's been 10 weeks of the same thing. You switch it. How about you try doing the same exercises for like 12 or 16 weeks and just changing the progressive overload in it for 12 or 16 weeks. Don't even like, don't change any exercise in it. You'd be surprised how much stronger people get as opposed to, I gotta change all my accessories. It's been a four week block because everyone does four week blocks.

Yeah, me too.

Not bad. But the next block may not be so different from the first one. Doesn't mean that your coach was too lazy to write you a good program. That means they have a reason behind giving you similar stuff. People like, you know, the four week block, all of a sudden your, your squat was 225 and then it was 250. You didn't get 25 pounds stronger. You're just getting used to the movement. Like you just got used to movement on week four. You're finally getting used to it. Keep doing it.

Yeah, that's, I mean, we, I always say, you know, repetition is the mother of all learning. So I'm sure you have some more. But real quick, before we move on from these, I'm curious, you know, so if you are looking, you know, if you're working with a client and you as a coach are noticing that, okay, their strength may or may not be increasing, how do you measure the performance and then decide whether or not you need to adjust the program or they need to stay the course?

How do I measure their performance? So I always get a lot of understanding of what's going on in their day to day life. So for my clients personally, like every single workout session, they have to fill out how much sleep they got the night prior, how much water they drank that day. Most of my clients count their macros. So I know, like literally tell me the macros you ate before you came. Like, did you even eat carbs or protein? Like you're about to do a heavy strength session, you need to eat something. Are they the time of the month? I get all this information. So once I know that if nothing in the outside world is really affecting you, as in like you're on top of your sleep water and you're eating. And then I'm seeing that like every single week, like you can't even go up five pounds and we're six weeks in, then at that point I might say, okay, maybe we need to adjust the program. Maybe it's, you're doing too much of something that is a Weak point. I'm not working enough on, like, the strong points that can. That can be an issue too. Sometimes you see, like, a client's weakest points, you just focus on that so hard and it's like. But we need to keep working on the things they're good at too. I might just sprinkle more stuff in that they're already good at to help them kind of keep going. So that's what I would say.

That's such good insight. I think we forget, you know, we're so focused on trying to fix problems that we forget that we also need to keep sharpening the saw, you know, putting our energy on things that people are good at. That's true. I hadn't thought of that. Okay, what else are there more?

I think those were probably the top two things for powerlifters. I don't really. There's probably a lot more myths about powerlifting, but in my mind right now, I can't think of more.

Got it.

No.

I'm curious if this has ever come up and what are some of the things that you do in terms of, you know, we'll go back to pain, because that was the one that you did talk about. Now, do you ever find that people will only be in pain when they're working on this skill versus when they're working on technique? What do you do? Like, let me give you an example.

Right?

So if someone's working on the bench press, right. I think of benching technique being very different than the bench pressing positions that you need to be on for powerlifting specifically.

Right.

And how do you navigate, you know, pain management when you're working on technique versus skill, especially if it's only coming up, say, in the skill.

If pain is only coming up during the skill, I would say it's time to probably take a step back and see, like, are you trying to treat the skill work as your. Like, how I say it? Like, are you trying to go as heavy during the skill work as you would doing your regular, like, bench press for powerlifting technique work? Because sometimes we think they're the same. Here's a good example. Okay, so low bar squat. That's what powerlifters do. We don't really squat high bar because it's not as optimal. You can use more of your back. Your lats are way more involved if you have a low bar squat position. Right. So if I'm like, okay, well, we need to really work on keeping, like, your ribs down and getting your quads more hypertrophy. I'm Going to add in a high bar squat. That's not your regular squats. That's a skill work technique now. So are you trying to go as heavy in the high bar squat as your low bar? Because you can't. You can't. You're probably literally thinking in your mind that squats, a squat's a squat and it's not. The front squat's different from the high bar squat, different from the low bar squat, different from the safety bar squat, different from the camber bar squat. They're all so different. You're probably overshooting.

Yeah, no.

Okay.

Yeah, I totally. I absolutely hear that and see that. I see that a lot. And honestly, I see that with me too. Like, I'm like, oh, yeah, squat is a squat is a squat.

Mm. Like, and I post on my Instagram yesterday, I was like, oh, doing boring skill work. I was doing like two 45 pounds, 245 pounds on my high bar squat for Sessa 4. But meanwhile, I had just done 290 for low bar squats. That's the 4, like four days prior. It's a very large difference. I can't do 290 for four and a high bar. I would have crushed my spine. Like, I couldn't do it.

Yeah. Oh, yeah, I totally didn't. I didn't even think about it in that way. That's awesome. So I'm also curious too about. Do you work primarily with. With powerlifting athletes or powerlifting beginners? I feel like there's a difference between people that are just new to the sport versus people that are, you know, competing.

Both, I would say. My bigger clientele at the moment are people who are about to do their first meet. So like, they're essentially like, I'm becoming a powerlifter now. Like, I'm about to be rewarded the name powerlifter by getting on the bar on the platform. But I definitely do have those clients who have been competing for a couple years already. So they're already essentially an athletic powerlifter. And I'm just getting them to keep going, getting stronger, stuff like that. So. But definitely my bigger business right now is beginners who are about to get underneath the bar on the platform for the first time.

So now you did mention this because this is. I'm curious because I don't know, but I'm curious because I know there's a difference between. There's a big difference between hypertrophy and, and strength training and, you know, training that central nervous system. Essentially when you are bringing someone Into a. How do you. How do you create your program so that you are focusing on building strength? But what if you also need to do hypertrophy? How do you typically set up your programs?

So that's not crazy hard, actually. And it used to be something that I was like always trying to battle between. Like, do I do hypertrophy with the strength work? Do I do both? Does it have to be a just strength block? Like, everything, sets of four to six, nothing else. Even your plank is four seconds long, like, and I would say, like, it's easy, it's easy to blend both. So when it comes to you getting closer to a meet, then we're definitely going to do lower repetition for your main lifts. But also, I believe this hypertrophy and strength can be combined in this way. I could have you do 10 sets of doubles. Now, that's a lot for a powerlifter, right? We did 10 sets. We didn't do a ton of reps, but we did 10 sets. That's still high volume work when you actually add up the amount of sets we did. Right. So I might, as they're going on, increase, like the amount of sets, decrease the rest time, but not necessarily having to do high repetition. And as a powerlifter, we are still. That's still working high volume. But then I might pair that with some more like actual high repetition work for their accessories. And now we're in a. You can still call that a strength block, but we're still getting in a lot of hypertrophy. If you're really close to your me, if you're like less than six weeks out, we're probably just doing everything low rep, even your accessories, because at that point we don't need to focus on getting your muscles bigger. Right. Like, hypertrophy work is great because we can work on technique under fatigue and also we can literally try to grow our muscles. But right now I'm trying to get you ready for the platform. So once you're six weeks out, it's like, let's just working work on great technique for very low rep work.

How do you manage, you know, even hearing you talk about, like, preparing for the, the meet, my heart gets a little like, how do you manage the, you know, anticipation, the adrenaline rush that people are feeling in their training as they prepare and get ready for a meet?

It's always fun and it still depends on the lifter and the environment that they have. I would say, I always say you're lucky if you're able to go to a powerlifting gym. Right. Because you're gonna have that community in the gym itself. And you know, powerlifting is such a community based sport that if you're in the powerlifting gym, everyone's cheering you on. Everyone's gonna know like when your meet is and everyone's gonna be like, okay, like, let's start to like, let's all stare at her when she does her Harvey singles. She'll know what it's like when she's in front of people. Like, seriously. I mean, so I would say, honestly, I personally don't have to do a ton besides remind them that they need to make sure that they are getting the correct commands in their training. So when I say commands, I mean when you're on the platform, you get commands for the bench press. They'll say starts and then you start, it hits your chest. You can't move it till they say press. And then you press, you push it up and you can't rack until it say rack. So I have to be like, don't forget to get a friend and get them to say these things to you. Because if you have never practiced your commands and it gets the platform just like start benching and you're not going to remember it. Like, it's very different. Also, it's small things like this. A lot of gyms have like their regular gym at least will have the squat rack facing a mirror, right? You don't realize how different it is to squat not facing a mirror for the first time. It's so weird. Like you're going to be facing people. You're gonna be facing like 100 people instead. So if possible, stuff like that, I'll be like, is there any way literally that you can have them like turn the squat rack so you can like face a different direction? Which sometimes possible if you have a regular competition rack and just move it super lightweight. If you're stuck in a com, a regular gym, okay, I'll just remind you that it's gonna happen. So get mentally ready for it.

Can you close your eyes?

Not a good idea in my opinion. You're about to do a load that is pretty heavy. Wouldn't recommend practicing it closing your eyes. Plus, literally you might like, like remember when you're doing the actual competition, you have to stare at the judge because the judge is going to tell you when to go and stop. Yeah, you're right. You're right.

And that's probably be really scary.

I might also have so many small things too. Like people who say I need my music to hype me Up. Okay, well, you're not going to have music. Well, you'll have music going on in the background, you know, when you compete. But, like, you can't be focused on music. So I might be like, you got costume music for like four weeks and see what it's like to live without music because you're just going to hear people yelling and something in the background. So you can't always squat to freaking rock music every time. And then you get up there and there's no rock music playing for you. Like.

Yeah, yeah, for sure. I'm also curious, you know, how often. Because you did mention this, you said, you know, in your programming, you can't just keep testing your one rep max. Your one rep max. So how often do you actually test it? And then how close to the meat do you get? And. And you know, do you practice the lift before? And it sounds like. It sounds silly, but when do you practice your last. Like, this is what I'm going to compete at.

No, it's not a silly question. That's a great question. The first question you asked was, how often do you test at 1 rep max? So depends who I'm working with. But pre Covid. Let's talk about pre Covid when there are way more meets options. If you told me that you. That you want to compete at least twice in the year, that I'm only going to have you do at the meet.

Oh, really? So people go into their meet not even knowing if they're going to be able to lift it up?

Yeah, absolutely. I want you to go set me and do a number you never hit. Absolutely. And, but you know right now. So I'll say this. I got some clients who are literally like three or four. They're all going to compete. Like, this happens to be right when Covid hit. So now I'm having them test it out now because we were like waiting and waiting and wait. Now they're gonna test it because it's been like six months. Like, let's just test it for fun. But if it was like regular times, like, if you're gonna compete at least twice in a year, then you're only gonna test it at the meet. And for me, personally, I only ever test at meats. I never, ever tested outside the meet. But I will have you do a heavy single RPE9 a few times beforehand. RPE9, meaning you could have done one more rep. So. And that's a pretty big difference, though. Like my RPE9, let's say, going off my last best swap My last best goal is 375, but RPE 9 for me might be like 350. That's a pretty big difference between that, my one rep max. So I'll have you go pretty close to it, but not past like 93%.

I mean, that's a big difference. 350, I mean, I thought you were going to say something more like 370. 375, not no big difference, but got.

Way stronger to the point where 370 flies like RPE9. That'll be a good day.

Yeah. Oh, okay. Okay. I just, you know, for, you know, it's. It's interesting because it seems like RP, you know, RPE 9 versus our, you know, one rep max. It feels like it's close difference, but.

It'S not because RPE9, at least for power lift isn't what I use a scale for. Means you could have done one more rep. That's. Now we're going one rep maxes. That's the big difference between I could have done one more whole rep and I had to grind out this squat and I barely stood up and I saw Jesus Christ on the way up too. Like that's very different. And I don't want to forget your last question too. You asked me how close to meet do I have them do like a heavy rep. So I will have most of my clients depending on how long they've been competing. So let's talk about a client who I've had for like a year. During their second or third meet, I'll have them do their starter. So their first attempt, you get three attempts in parallel. I think for each one they'll do the first attempt like five days out. So they're very confident about their first attempt for each squat, bench and deadlift. But that nothing to do with the second, third attempt.

Got it? Now, how many days of rest do you give them, if any, before they compete?

All depends on the person. So it depends how strong you are. So we're still talking my more beginner lifters, only about 48 hours. That's it. Nothing crazy, but let's put this in perspective. Let's say I have a male lifter who's been competing for a few years and let's say he's like Ray Williams. Ray Williams is the best in the world heavyweight. He squats over a thousand pounds and weighs 400 pounds. Okay. Ray Williams gonna need like a week. Okay. Squatting a thousand pounds is ridiculous. You need to recover. So if you're gonna do any like Your starter, your. Your one, your. What's it called? Your first attempt to test it out, like before the meet. You're going to need to recover from that because that's such a heavy attempt. He's going to need like a week. My female lifters weighing 145, 138, who have only been lifting for a couple of years, like, you can recover in 48 hours. Plus, I'm not going to have you do like something crazy heavy. 48 hours out. You didn't do your. You haven't done your starter since five days out. Your starter shouldn't be crazy heavy because I want you to hit something really heavy on game day. So you're good in two days.

You go, my heart. I'm like, oh, my gosh. It's like, my meat's coming up. I've never powerlifted before my life, so.

Okay.

So now I love that you're bringing this up too, because speaking of this, you know, I think this is a good transition because we were talking about the differences between male and female powerlifters. And so I'm curious because I feel like when I just for me, when I first started, if I thought of a male dude who's like short and stout, essentially, like big, like, to me, and this is totally stereotypical, like, do not, you know, this is just like.

I'm.

I'm just saying in my mind, I had always envisioned that it was like a really big dude. So how do you, like, do you have to overcome that?

So powerlifting. What's cool about it is it's changed so much. And definitely the last three years where it's gotten way more popular. For example, the difference between nationals for usapl, the biggest federation that exists right now, between three years ago and last year before COVID was, I think it tripled, like, the amount of people competing. Tripled.

Wow.

So I don't. Don't ask me for the numbers, but the fact that it tripled the biggest meet of the year is pretty big deal. So it's getting way more popular. And it's now kind of popular to be an aesthetic powerlifter, which is such a game changer. How do I know it's popular? Because the world champions in every single weight class, minus, like the heavyweights, they're all pretty aesthetic looking. No one's really like, you know, a super large person using their gut to help them get out of the hole for the squat. Like, it's so different now. It's so different. So it's pretty cool.

Is that A term that people use aesthetic power lifter. Like that. They. Is that a term?

Yeah. Or people call it what they call power. Building power.

Oh, yeah.

Wow.

No, I hadn't. No, I hadn't thought of that or.

I hadn't heard that.

So that's awesome.

Mm.

Because I feel like that's kind of one of those things that you'd have to overcome, especially for a new. Like, if a new power lifter. Right. A new one, someone who was new, interested in. They're like, yeah, this looks so fun. And I want to participate, but I don't want to get that belly gut. I don't want to get the powerlifting gut.

And what's cool, too, is now that, like, people are at least getting more educated about, like, nutrition, whether it's good or bad. Because there's so much information out there about nutrition at the end of the day, like, what. How big you are is about what you're eating. Because you can be extremely strong and very small. And the reason people are starting to get that now is because you have even, like, the best in the 63 and 72 weight class for women, which are like, the two most popular weight classes, even though they just changed the weight classes as of this month, which is crazy. Anyways. They're very, like, they're not big people. They're aesthetic. They have a lot of muscle and not a lot of body fat. Like, strength has nothing to do with being big. That's just bodybuilding. That's a whole other sport. And bodybuilders aren't powerlifters. That's another thing. People in their mind who don't actually compete think they're the same sport. So they think of a bodybuilder and think, oh, I have to either be a overweight man or, like, I have to have veins popping out my forehead and popping out my calf. And it's like, no, those are different sports. Like, you can be small and strong. You don't get big off of just being strong. You get big off of eating ridiculous amount of food.

And that's. And that's also, you know, a big misconception. I feel like so many people don't really understand, which we did talk about, is that strength and hypertrophy are different. You can, like you said, train them both at the same time, but they are different.

Mm. And it's crazy because, like, the average person who sees me and they find out I'm a powerlifter, they're like, you're a power lifter, but, like, you're you're like a regular looking person. I'm like, yes, I am. Thank you so much. I appreciate that compliment that I don't look like an alien to you. Totally not.

Yeah. I mean, that's a whole nother podcast, which I will do. Is that all those misconceptions about, like, image and the look of a body, you know, it's just very different. It's not like your body's not a business card. You can't look at somebody and know what they do both in their score or whatnot. So that's a whole nother thing. But important to know. But, you know, we're starting to go down this difference between power, you know, between male and female. I think one of the things I'm curious because I know that you're also in power performance, and so I know this comes up, but females have, you know that I feel like a lot of power lifters will say, like, oh, female specific will be like, I peed on the. On the platform. I must have done it.

Well, right? Yes.

When that's actually a sign of pelvic floor dysfunction or, you know, that your pelvic floor couldn't handle that load. I'm curious, do males have the same thing?

If they have it going on in powerlifting? I don't think I know about it. And that's because they're lucky because they don't have female anatomy. So you're not going to see them pee on the floor. I've never seen one of them pee, but I will say this. Actually, I can take that back. I will say this. I've heard the horror stories of pooping your pants while doing for your heavy deadlifts as a man, and that's probably a pelvic floor problem too.

So it's pressure management.

Right.

And so. And females have the. Their anatomy is just that there's a hole there. Jill and I had talked about that on our previous podcast, so. But it's interesting is that people will usually just in my experience, are like, I did it. That's a badge of honor.

Yeah. And it's not because, you know, at the end of the day, like, you're. You're peeing your pants while you are lifting for the deadlift or like coming up from your squat. And like, when you're coming up from your squat, like, your pelvic floor should actually be contracting. So if it's so, like, if the pressure is pushing it down when it should actually be contracting, it's doing the opposite. Like, you literally. It's Doing the opposite of what it's supposed to do. So people just don't. A lot of people don't understand that it's an issue and they don't really address it. I. Especially for my females, I try to address it with a lot of my video analysis. And it's funny because they don't. Everyone assumes they don't have a problem because, like, in training, they're not peeing their pants. Really? Sorry, I almost said something else.

That's fine.

In training, you're not really peeing your pants. Sometimes they do, but not my clients. So when I talk about it, they're like, but I'm fine. I'm fine. Like, there's no pee coming out. I'm like, okay. But you still need to kind of think about, like, when to contract and when not to contract. Because when it comes to game time, you want it to be, like, something you don't have to think about. Like, when you get on a platform, you can't be thinking about, Let me make sure I, like, contract on the way up. When I'm squatting, like, you're just like, jesus, help me get this weight up. I've never touched it before, and I have a hundred people staring at me. I'm just trying not to break my spine at this point. So I think it's something that's important to be addressed in training and to have them have to think about it, especially when they are doing, like, lower intensity stuff. So maybe like, let's say 65% of the warmer max for, like, multiple sets of, like, higher rep. That's an easier time to think about it because that's not such a heavy load. You can't just have people think about it, like, before they get on a platform, like, hey, don't forget contract here. And, like, exhale here. Like, no.

Do you feel like people. You commonly address this, like, is this something that people often talk about? Or would you say this is unique?

Oh, they hardly ever talk about it. Like, especially in powerlifting, they have no idea that it's a problem because it's so common.

Mm.

It's so common. So people are just like, oh, whatever. Like, if you ever see a powerlifting meet, you'll see there are people who literally, everything is volunteers. So they're not hired. But their job for the meets is when a girl pees themselves, you have to spray and wipe. That's their job. They stand there with rags and spray. And their job for the meats is spray and wipe. There's a designated person for it. That's how common this is.

You know it's. You know, it's. You know, I don't. While I'm not a power lifter, I'm a mom.

Right.

And so I feel like moms do. You know we deal with the same thing when it comes to pelvic floor stuff because they just think oh this is normal.

It's supposed to happen.

Like haha, scary mommy's joking about it. So real. And you're like wait, but mom, you're three years postpartum. You shouldn't still be peeing in your pants. You don't need to be peeing in your pants. I hate saying that word shouldn't. But it's more like you don't need to be just nobody really addresses it. So I can't even. So I'm, you know, I was curious if you're not even addressing it in the mom, you know, mom world. Are they addressing it in the powerlifting world?

No. And there. That needs to change.

Yeah. Yeah.

I don't have enough clients to be the one makes it so well known for the world. So I got. We got to figure out a way to make that like just something that's easily accessible come like I can tell my clients not to do it but that's.0001% of the paralysing world.

Yeah. Yeah. That you know. I can imagine. I can imagine. So that's why this PRI work and that's why your work is so important. I think. What other. You know. So for me the pelvic floor is like the bigot. One of the biggest differences. What else would you say in terms of you know, female powerlifting would you say is different?

I would say just the way that they left lift during their time of the month. Which is funny because for me I assumed that whenever someone's time of the month they'd be weaker. And I've actually kind of seen the opposite a lot. During time of the month they're not weaker but maybe the week before when they're PMSing, they're weaker. And so once I start to continue the CCF pattern of like there's a week where I may have put the intensity to be higher but they don't do like they don't actually get to a heavier load and that start asking questions about the time of the month I'm like okay. And that can actually address the training and be like maybe I'll make it so that like you do more deload weeks the week before your period and then the Next week's a more intense week. Like maybe even on your period, but you're good to go. I just keep seeing that, like on the period they're okay, but right before they're just weak and like more fragile.

Yeah, well, and I'm also curious because during the time of the month we also produce relaxing. Do you have to, do you have to navigate that?

I personally have not had to really, because it kind of seems like most productors are essentially in the mindset that I'm gonna push through anything. So I don't see a massive difference during the actual week or a negative difference during the actual week. But like I said, I keep seeing it more the week before. So I just really, I really tried to prep them. I tried to change up the whole week before I see what they're like during their actual period and if they can continue to do like a higher intensity on that week now just keep it like that. But everyone's different though. I've had some people who did actual week of like, I had to change it, make it more, less intense as a person.

Now, have you ever worked with any pregnant, pregnant powerlifters?

No, not yet. That day will come. And what's funny about this question is that I was talking about this with two people from Empire Performance like maybe two weeks ago and I was just showing them pregnant powerlifters who are high, high level, like have gone to Worlds, which is the highest competition before, who are currently pregnant. And what I am seeing, they are not changing their training. Like I'm talking like putting on the belt 16 weeks in, like the belt is something to help you manage pressure. Right. So you're pushing into the belt. I just don't think that's ideal to be doing when pregnant. So I think that a lot of pregnant powerlifters don't understand that training should be adjusted and you shouldn't be doing like RPE nines. But I keep seeing it. But I personally have never worked with someone who's pregnant yet who would. The powerlifter.

Yeah. Yeah. That's one of the reasons relaxin made me think about it is because that's one of the things that we overproduce so that we, we can become essentially hyper mobile. And so we have to be careful when we're training in certain positions because you can actually over. You think you can do it, but you can't really, your body's not ready for it. But, but to your point, to your point anyway, to your point, the, the athlete brain, to me, when I hear you Talking about it, like, that's the athlete brain. And I feel like power lifters, crossfitters, people who are really highly competitive, deal with that. Deal with, like, that question of, I can do it, but should I do it? Is that. Is it really good for me to do that? Because when you're pregnant, your pressure management completely changes. So that's hard. That's a hard thing to navigate. But, you know, and aside from that, I'm just out of curiosity, have you had to deal with that even with people that are not pregnant, you know, wanting to run before they can walk because they're just so excited?

Absolutely. I think I'm seeing it a lot right now because, like, I launched a new program recently, and I launched it literally, like six weeks ago. And so I have a lot of people who are like, I'm ready to run. I'm ready to do the heaviest way possible, because my technique's getting changed and it's getting better kind of working with you. I'm like, that's great. No, wait, come back. Like, listen to me. Let me give you actual loads to use. And that's why when I have newer power lifters, I can't just go by the RPE scale, because RPE is like, in my opinion, RPE is for advanced lifters because you don't really know if you're doing RPE7. Like, could you have really done exactly three more reps? That takes years and years of lifting to really know your limits. And when you're newer, you just. You just don't. You might think you do, but you don't. Like, they. They either drastically overshoot or way under shoe. And I'm like, you could have done 12 more, but you called that RPE like, eight. Right? So I just have to give them, like, an actual number alongside the RPE. I'm like, hey, the goal is RPE 7, right? But you have an option to do between 100 to 110 pounds. Like, you don't get that much of an option. It has to be within this little bubble, because I know that if you surpass this, you're over the rpe, and now you're just trying to lift as much as you can. And we're not on the platform, so why are you trying to listen much as you can?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, for sure. Yeah, I would. I get that. I feel like that'd be me. That's something I do.

I'd be like, oh, yeah. It's still partially. Sometimes me. Like, I started with a coach more recently because When Covid hit, like, my training got a little wonky and I'm like, great. And he's like, cool. Like, don't forget you aren't on the program. So we're doing a lot of RPE6. And I'm like, okay, the RPE6. And I almost had to grind out the last rep. He's like, really? Solana? Like, yeah.

Oh, my gosh. I'm also. I'm also curious. Do you. Do you work with people? Do people powerlift and not compete? Like, just because they, you know, love to do it?

Yes, I do have some people like that who they think the sport is fascinating. They're like, I want to get really strong and swappish and deadlift. But, like, their goal is not necessarily to go on the platform. So I'll like, add in other stuff too. I like that because I get to play more around with their accessory work. I can give them stuff that's like, more healthier movement patterns and not just focus so hard on, like, the actual competition lifts. Very different. So I like that. And I do have some clients like that.

That's fun. Now, how do you work the cardio, like, how do you work cardio or aerobic capacity into your programming for Powerlifter? Who's getting ready for a meet?

Ooh, it's so much fun. I love it. So they all have an active recovery day. Well, most of them have an active recovery day at the least. Right. And I got a lot of my techniques from Joel Jamison and his book ultimate mma, which I think every single trainer in the world should read. And I love that he talked about techniques where you can work on their aerobic capacity to help them get more endurance in their fast twitch fibers. Right. So like hict High intensity continuous training. H I R T High intensity resistance training. These are ways of training that are not necessarily go run the treadmill for an hour. It's like, how can I use a sled or a bike or a Versaclimber or even a step up and make it into an aerobic capacity training? But I'm not like, running for an hour. So stuff like, I use those two HCT and HRT a lot. And that's mostly what I do for them. And also on top of that, for overall health, I give them a stuff count goal daily to try to hit because, you know, they forget to move. They like, forget that movement outside the gym is okay. It's okay to do too.

Especially now. Especially now during COVID I was just today, for me personally, it's really, I've had. I've noticed my steps have just gone way down because you have to make that kind of conscious choice to go and do it.

Yep. Like, they're now getting up every hour and walking around the house. Like, I'm like, y' all need to move a little bit more.

Yeah, no, that's for sure. That's a real thing. Okay, I got it.

I will do it.

I'm gonna do it, coach. I promise. Oh, my gosh. Do you get power lifters that push back on your aerobic aerobic training?

Not so far. No. Not so far. They actually enjoy it because most of the time, they come to me from doing a program that was like, a regular program that they bought online, and none of it's included. And so what's cool about the training is that it's very different. Like, they probably never did, like, one rep of a step up every three to five seconds for 10 minutes. It's kind of monotonous, but it's different. So they're always kind of excited to try it out. Also, once I tell them, like, the benefit of it, literally, you have some power at. Who are so detrained aerobically that they do a set of, like, five squats and they have to rest for, like, five minutes, but the RP wasn't that high. And you're like, yeah, you need to shorten that rest time. It's a little too long. Remember, on meet day, you might only have five minutes to your next squat, and if you can't recover from that quickly, then you're not going to have a good second of their attempts. So once you tell them that and you put it in their mind, like, oh, this is going to help me on the platform. Oh, this is going to translate well into my actual meet day. I'll do it. And if you're not willing to do that, then, like, why are you paying a coach?

Yeah, yeah, I know, coach. I totally get that.

I totally get that.

You know, I was just curious because as someone who, you know, I'm not gonna lie to you, I hate it. I hate cardio, and I hate aerobic training, and I feel like it's easy to just hide in the. Like. Yeah, well, I love strength training.

It is easy, too. But again, I had to. I'm not gonna say, like, you know, once I've been with them for a year, they might start to slack off on it. And all of a sudden, I see that box that day, like, somehow never checked off, and I'm like, what? And I Have to remind them why it's important. That totally happens. But, like, once I kind of remind them and say, hey, like, I'm watching. I'm waiting to see it. I'm not gonna give you a check in until I see it. They're like, fine, fine. Let me go do it.

Yeah. Yeah. I also think, too, that that's a good way to remind people. I think people segment in their mind, like, I got my strength training day and my cardio day not recognizing that. Listen, they work synergistically together. Yeah. Do you. Have you ever had to deal with. I want to be mindful of your time, so this will be our last question. Do you ever have to deal with, you know, over training? Right. Or dealing with the, you know, diminishing returns.

That so. So far, I have not really had too many clients seem to have been over training, but overreaching sometimes when I'm not supposed to have an overreach. Yes, it's definitely happened. And especially with the years that I've been coaching. I'll say specifically last year when I was working with newer clients, then I remember that I would sometimes go a little too long before giving them a deload. And I could tell because their numbers just dramatically would drop. Like, dramatically. It was like, oh, today's RPE. Like, it was the same RPE as last week, but they did, like, 15% less. And that's me learning the hard way, because I will look at that and look at, like, the stuff they're putting next to about their stress and their sleep and blah, blah. And I'm like, okay, it's not the outside world. I think I could adjust my training for it because, like, everything's just dramatically dropping. And then once gave him a deal. They're like, oh, my gosh, I feel so much better. I'm like, oh, we might have went a little too long. So definitely something that I had to learn. Like, deloads are something that is so important. And a deload, too. I will say this last thing. A lot of people think of a deload as, oh, cool, this week, I'm gonna do, like, 50% of my more max for, like, sets of five, like, super, super low intensity, like, barely moving. It's so easy to have to think about it. That doesn't have to be your deload. You know, a deload could just be that you only dropped, like, £20 in your squats. Like, it's not like it's so easy. You can do with your eyes closed, or it's like a warm up set, but it's just a little bit lower intensity. That's it. And some people are like, oh, it has to be so easy. So, so light. That, like, it's like I'm moving just the barbell. Like, that's. That is a deload. But it doesn't have to be that drastically easy of a week.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Deload can still be challenging.

Mm. Challenging, but just definitely not. Not pushing you too much.

Yeah, challenging, but not at the boundary. Do you have to deal? And I. You did. I know I said it was last question, but this will be six seconds.

Okay.

Is that, you know, do you ever have to deal with, you know, client buy in? Like, how do you deal with monotony? And, you know, this again, 16 weeks and I've already been squatting. Like, I've done a kajillion.

Absolutely, yes. I deal with that where the person's like, oh, I want to just like, change it all up.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm like. And when that happens, I'm like, let's remember what our goal is. But also at the same time, like, if we're really far off from a meet, we can do a little bit. A little bit more of switching it up. But we have to remember that the more I switch something up doesn't mean the better I get. It just means the less bored I am. That's all it means. Yeah, you just don't want to be bored, then I can get you a little bit less bored. But I'm going to tell you, if you're not bored at all, there's probably a problem. You have brick arounditis. All right, I'm going to give you a week of fun and then we can come. We got to reign it back in. I can't have you doing, like, just box jumps and lateral lunges and, like, random stuff. And I'm like, but we never touched the barbell. And the barbell is kind of important. Yeah, yeah.

I feel like that is an industry. I feel like it's an industry thing.

Right?

The industry teaches us that, like, oh, come to this, like, bobby boot camp. Come to the, like, bouncy bouncer game. Like, I went. I worked at a gym where they had, like, kangaroo class.

And you're like, what? Oh, I need the muscle confusion so I can make the results. I can get the results. If I confuse the muscle, like, the muscle isn't. It's not going to get confused. Like, what are you talking about? Most of them have a brain. I forgot about Muscle confusion. Yeah, that was a thing.

I forgot that was a thing. Oh my gosh, I'm dying. Okay, so for those of you who want to learn more about powerlifting, want to potentially work with you, hang out with you. Where should I send them?

Yes. So my Instagram. Solana. So S O L A n A underscore L I F T and also just email me at Solana Lewis ptmail.com and very soon we'll have our website up. Beverly. So that's in action coming up, but there's no name yet. It's okay. Be on the lookout on my Instagram. Yeah.

And you also have your, your warmup, right? You have that like PDF warm up people can get, right? Tell us.

Yes, I totally have a downloadable PDF that is a bench press or upper body day warmup. So people can actually understand that if you do some good movements and get your muscles in a better position, you're probably going to have a much better day underneath the barbell.

Ok, awesome. So we'll be sure to link all of that up in the show notes and we'll update it too when that website's up and ready as well.

Awesome. Yes you will.

Solana, thanks so much for hanging out with us today. I really appreciate it.

I loved it. Thank you.

Thank you so much for hanging out with us today. If you haven't already, be sure to hit subscribe and subscribe, hit like and share this video with your friends and I'll catch you on the next video.