I did my first powerlifting competition last weekend. It was great fun and I thought I would share my experiences with you. Perhaps it will encourage some of you to enter competitions too, if anything has been holding you back. It would also be interesting to hear from anyone else who competes in powerlifting. The [...]

Possibly the most popular exercise in any gym, the bench press is not just for ego and the t-shirt muscles. It is an event in powerlifting and a great way to build upper body strength. What is the bench press? The bench press is one of the three lifts in powerlifting (the other two are [...]

I recently started holding my breath throughout my heaviest bench press lifts. I never used to do this in the bench press as I wasn’t taught that way, but in the squat and deadlift I consciously hold my breath throughout the rep and it seems to have naturally carried over into the bench press. This [...]

Overhead pressing is not often seen in gyms but it is a valuable and functional skill. The popularity of the bench press has made lifting a weight overhead while standing on your own two feet a rare event outside of olympic weightlifting. Let’s bring it back! What is the push press? A push press is [...]

Strength exercises to prepare you for olympic weightlifting