General
Sleep and Recovery for Masters Powerlifters
Most masters lifters know they need to recover better. They also know what that means in the abstract — sleep more, manage stress, don't train seven days a week. What most of them don't know is how to actually prioritize this without feeling like they're doing less.
By Aint Dead Yet MF3 months ago in Men
Small Victories
Some people write thoughtful, planned prose. Others express themselves through poetry that flows from deeply intellectual ponderings. Then there are writers like me. “Stream of Consciousness” is too gentle for my style. “Raging River Rantings” is more accurate. It is not that I write angrily, but that as a violent river flows unpredictably, so also my thoughts move to and fro in seemingly disconnected ways. They link but occasionally splash bystanders in the process.
By Mack D. Ames3 months ago in Men
Ounce A Pawn A Thyme
I can't recall how I found Vocal Media. When I did, the stars shone brightly in my eyes. Dreams of won challenges danced in my head. Cha-ching, cha-ching was the song they sang. Then I wrote my first piece, crashed to earth, oh dang. Tried again, burned up. Once more. Gave up. Glassy-eyed, I knew I'd never crack the top two, so what would I or should I or could I do?
By Mack D. Ames3 months ago in Men
How to Return to Powerlifting After Injury When You're Over 50
Every long-term powerlifter has been here. Something goes wrong. Maybe it was a specific incident — a lift that went badly, a pop you heard, a moment you knew immediately was not good. Maybe it was gradual — weeks of something wrong that finally became something that needed to be addressed.
By Aint Dead Yet MF3 months ago in Men
How to Keep Squatting With Bad Knees
At some point in a long powerlifting career, your knees will have opinions about what you are doing. For most masters powerlifters the conversation about knees is not "should I squat?" — the answer to that is still yes — but "how do I keep squatting when my knees are telling me something needs to change?"
By Aint Dead Yet MF3 months ago in Men
How Often Should Masters Powerlifters Train?
Training frequency is one of the variables masters lifters get most wrong. Some train too much — five or six days per week running programs written for twenty-five-year-old competitors with unlimited recovery resources. They grind themselves down, accumulate injury, and wonder why progress has stalled.
By Aint Dead Yet MF4 months ago in Men
Weight Class Strategy for Masters Powerlifters
Weight class selection is one of the least discussed and most consequential decisions in competitive powerlifting. Most lifters pick a weight class in their first meet, stay there by default, and never revisit the decision. Some cut weight aggressively because that is what the stronger lifters seem to do. Some walk around fifteen pounds over their class and wonder why they are getting outlifted by smaller people.
By Aint Dead Yet MF4 months ago in Men
Protecting Your Shoulders on the Bench Press After 50
If powerlifting has a most common injury site for masters lifters, the shoulder wins. Not even close. The rotator cuff, the AC joint, the biceps tendon, the pec-delt tie-in — somewhere in that complex of tissue, most masters benchers are dealing with something. A click that wasn't there five years ago. A twinge at the bottom of the press. A shoulder that needs twenty minutes of warm-up before it feels right. Pain that shows up in the days after a heavy session and doesn't fully resolve before the next one.
By Aint Dead Yet MF4 months ago in Men
