TMGP Ep 41 with South African powerlifting champion Haroun Pietersen - a world-class athlete lifting South Africa to New Heights

Woo! Another white boy with a podcast. Pronouns Jim Bro. Another white boy with a podcast. You want to see the video? It went viral. Hi gains gurus and welcome to TMGP, the muscle growth podcast, episode 41. I am your host Rosco and today we are welcoming Harun Peterson onto the show. Hailing from Mitchell's Plane in Cape Town, Harun is a standout figure in South African powerlifting. Despite only beginning his competitive journey in 2023, he has rapidly ascended the ranks to become both the 2024 African Powerlifting Champion and the Commonwealth Powerlifting Champion. At 37 years old and weighing around 104 kg, Peterson has achieved remarkable lifts. a squat of 322.5 kg, a bench press of 217.5 kg, and a deadlift of 285 kg, nearly three times his body weight. His journey from local gyms to international platforms is a testament to his dedication and resilience. Beyond his personal achievements, Peterson is passionate about uplifting his community and inspiring others through his story. He actively shares his experiences and insights on his Instagram account @ Harunliffs SA. Harun Peterson stands as a rising star in South African powerlifting, making waves at the international level with impressive performances in the under 105 kg weight class. At the 2024 World Classic Championships, Peterson delivered a strong showing, posting a 707.5 kilogram total and setting new personal bests, showcasing not only his raw strength, but also his strategic approach to competition. His journey beginning as a firstear competitor at 37 years old highlights his dedication and rapid progress making him a notable figure in South Africa's growing powerlifting scene and a source of inspiration for aspiring athletes across the country. Get ready to be inspired by Harun's remarkable journey, his insights on powerlifting training, and his mission to uplift others both in and out of the gym. In today's episode, we dive into a wide range of insights. Some of their topics include Haroon's achievements in the first two years of competitive lifting. Body mechanics, short versus tall lifters, powerlifting, being a marathon as opposed to a sprint, training blocks, sticking to the plan, especially when it's from a good coach. The importance of recovery, not overtraining, sleep, nutrition being fuel for the body, supplements for peak performance, food as an athlete, static holds for body conditioning, overloading versus de loing and programming, and so much more. Get ready for a truly informative episode. Quick shameless selfplug. I'm uploading consistently on Reps with Rosco on YouTube and Instagram, so check that out for some epic fitness edutainment content. A little disclaimer, this show does not contain medical advice. The views and opinions expressed by guests on the Muscle Growth Podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect my beliefs or the stance of the podcast. While we aim to provide valuable insights and information, it's important to approach all topics with critical thinking. I encourage you to do your own research. Consider multiple perspectives and form your own conclusions. Healthy discussion is always welcome and I'm happy to engage with listeners in the YouTube comment section to continue the conversation. Lastly, don't forget to follow us on all major social media platforms including Instagram, YouTube, Tik Tok, and X. Find us at the muscle growth podcast and myself reps with Rosco. Welcome Harun to the Muscle Growth podcast where we explore subjects related to muscle science and hypertrophy. I'm thrilled to have you join us for today's conversation. Can you briefly introduce yourself and your journey into the world of powerlifting? Uh thanks so much for for having me today, Oscar. So I'm Arun Peterson. I've been powerlifting since uh March 2023. It was my first competition officially. I did a provincial competition in the northwest because I missed out on my king entry that year. So I think that was just the the beginning of the official competing journey. Uh so that year we've done the SA championships which was the SA RAW and SAP. We compete in both disciplines where we managed to finish second in the in the raw and second in the equipped. But uh later on there was a a water uh testing done for the person who actually won the 2023 championships and he failed a doping test. So automatically I got upgraded to the South African champion uh due to an individual failing a doping test after competing in the South African championships. So for 2023 I actually managed to become a South African champion in the very first year I competed in the in the powerlifting which was actually uh a little bit of an after burner because I didn't get to manage to like celebrate the victory in the in the in the time that it actually happened but it was also uh an eye opener. It doesn't matter who you are in the sport, the water or or wherever the officials are, South African drug testing officials to actually do their job and come to these events to to make sure that it's a fair sport as that's at the end of the day. That's what the essence of it is and why it is a tested federation after all so that everybody has a fair playing ground and those who try to take advantage of of situations uh eventually they do get caught up. Um I think a little bit a little bit more about the journey that year. So I did I also did the the kouting equipped and then I did the South African National Championships in under 120 kg class cuz that's the weight class I started off with. Uh I was doing the under 120 for the first year and in the second year we decided to drop into the under 105 in 2024. So, we took a bit of a a weight loss journey, which wasn't the easiest thing to do. So, I dropped about 20 kilos of body weight um over a period of time in order to compete in under 105 in the 2024 calendar year. And we managed to do pretty well in 2024 calendar year. Um we finished uh in total we finished first in the provincials. At the national RAW, I only managed to play sixth, but I still went on to compete in the World Championships uh in Lithuania in 2024 as well. Um qualifying for the South African National Squad. Um so none of the other athletes were able to participate in the championships. So it afforded me the spot uh to go and actually represent the country in the world champs. Um and then fast forward, we we went through the SA equipped again. So we went the we did the equip 2024 and then we did the SA equip 2024 where I placed gold uh on the 2024 SA Champs and then after that particular competition we then went on to do the equipped in three international competitions. So we didn't do raw at the international competitions we did the equipped uh discipline. So we went on to do the first one was the Africa Asia Pacific Championships where we placed second. Uh so my first official international medal for South Africa which was an amazing achievement in its own. But just that feeling of of getting onto an international stage and winning a medal on behalf of the country. I think that was uh that was an amazing uh time and an amazing experience going up against uh some really top athletes from all across Asia, Africa and the Pacific region. Uh after that we went on to do the Commonwealth uh championships in Sun City in 2024 October which was an amazing experience because we got to meet a lot of uh international athletes coming through uh from the Commonwealth standpoint as well as um just the it also ran concurrently with the world masters. So there were quite a bit of international lifters that came to come and compete in South Africa at Sun City for this particular event. So it was quite massive and it was it was amazing to see so many high performance athletes in one place doing the thing and just uh giving it their all. I think that was also one of the the humbling highlights of 2024 and then for the African championships which was held in Port Strum also in 2024 November um that's where we placed first and we won the best lift in Africa. Uh I think that was like the highlight of the year because it also then qualified me to to get an opportunity to go to World Games this year. So it's official now. I've been invited to represent South Africa in the World Game Championships in China, Changdu in August 2025. So I'll be competing in the equipped um championships for the World Games 2025 in China. And I think that is kind of just a walk time. Huge congratulations on all of that. That's absolutely spectacular. I think that winning all these competitions in your second year of competing is absolutely incredible. Um, I think there's going to be a lot of people that are very envious of that. Um, but congratulations to you. That's absolutely fantastic and um, I wish you all the best for the World Games coming up in China. Uh, that's how you feeling going into that. Look, we we are training hard at the moment. We in a in a bowling block at the moment. So the the goals are are big for China to put some big numbers on the board and just uh it's I'm still in awe of the whole experience and and the opportunity to go and repres represent South Africa on this kind of platform because it's it's once every five years that it comes along and it's to say the equivalent of the Olympics for a lot of sports the world games is is our kind of Olympics in the powerlifting. So being able to go up there with the top the top uh athletes in the world to be able to compete for a place in the the world games I think that's that in in itself has just left me in awe. That's so exciting. Well let's chat a little bit about how you preparing the training that kind of stuff. What what are the best tips you can give people looking to get onetenth as strong as you? Look, I think one of the one of the important things uh for me has always been being able to to understand and know yourself and and being able to benchmark yourself. So instead of comparing yourself to others and other athletes in other weight classes, other weight divisions, uh focus inward and try and establish your own baselines, find what you what works for you because a lot of advice sometimes does not apply for everybody. So I'm I'm a shorter uh athlete, so I'm I'm 175 in height. So a lot of my techniques and and um my applications for my lifting comes from applying myself with a lower center of gravity. So it gives me a little bit of an advantage over the taller lifters with a longer feur in terms of the squat. That's why the squat is my is my more uh dominant lift because of the the shorter femurss in the in the in the structural part of the of the body where the legs play a major role in your squat but also the tilt that you are able to control during the squat I think is one of the important parts because that's where your back becomes a leverage point or it can become a strength or a strain point for a lot of lifters with longer and higher um statutes. So people who are taller tend to have a little bit of a difficulty when it comes to the squat with the tilt when the weight becomes heavier. So it's a it's an advantage for them again in the deadlift where they have longer arms and they are able to lock out the weight a little bit easier. So it's it's also coming back to understanding your anatomy and understanding your body versus what you're trying to achieve in the sport. I think a lot of the a lot of the easier things to work on is repetition repetition. But there are certain techniques that applies to especially uh overloading and and de loing. So giving your body opportunity to recover is just as important as trying to do big numbers. And I I've seen that last year with the the number of competitions that we had to participate in it. It's brought my recovery time down and it impacts your body in the long run and being able to just give your body the opportunity to recover from a a so to say power training block. So when you when you are uh progressively growing your numbers and you are are backing off, take those those back offs um as your your decompression and the time to reset mentally and also just to understand like where you are going in terms of your bodily progress. I think one of the the bigger challenges for lifters is we always want to be putting on big numbers. We always want to be lifting the heaviest possible. But uh when when we actually engage with our coaches and we we take a step back and understand the difference between the programs and the programming itself in order to achieve a a peak so to say. it it doesn't make sense to a lot of people, but the coaches uh that we that we find ourselves uh listening to and being programmed with uh I think it's an important part of the every lifter's journey to actually be able to get that exposure to what an actual program is supposed to look like and what an actual peak is supposed to look like. Uh, one of the difficult things for an a just a usual gym goer is every week we want to push a PR. Every week we want to do the the biggest uh bench press. We want to do the biggest deadlift. We want to do the biggest squat that we can possibly do. But it's not always sustainable when it comes down to the recovery of the body and the and the health of the body too. And I think that's where training blocks uh kind of show you how to build up in different ways and how strength building doesn't necessarily mean lifting the biggest weight that you can every single time you lift where the the ability to look at a program that's actually going to ballst over time and to gradually build a journey. So it's not something that you're going to get to overnight powerlifting. Um I I think a lot of people should try and look at it as as a marathon and not a sprint because you are not going to uh get longevity when you try to sprint every every single time you you hitting your your track and you you're trying to peak continuously. It's actually detrimental to your progress without you realizing it. So, you're going to get strong and then three weeks later, you're going to fall flat because you didn't take the time or or actually allow yourself the time to to progress gradually instead of trying to force a progressive jump. A lot of people and a lot of athletes have different development phases and sometimes you do take a step backwards too in your training. Uh and that's also in essence of protecting yourself and your body because I think the biggest challenge for powerlifting is injury and staying injury-free. Uh that's the that's one of the the hardest uh challenges to face as a powerlifter is is an injury because that that will slow your progress down to a standstill and you have to rebuild and start rehabilitation over and over. uh repeating the same thing where a simple lift that you would have been squatting for example 180 kgs for five reps. Now you're struggling to squat at 100 kgs for five reps because of that rehabilitation process. And that's also um something to recognize is listening to your to your body and being able to as an athlete also uh understand that your body, yes, it's capable, but it also has limits. And in in terms of listening to your body, that doesn't necessarily mean that you you will always understand or be able to predict uh something going wrong, but being able to understand that sometimes you just have to say that enough is that's enough for today. and hope to to recuperate and and come back and fight another day or fight another week out instead of trying to risk risk it all just for a training session to to suit your uh your mental state or your ego in that sense. It's it's it's difficult to to back off sometimes. It is for myself as well. I feel the same. Sometimes you you get frustrated with the process. But as an athlete, as an as a human being, I think a lot of things in life we go through that it is a journey uh like we we grow to an age uh over time and we realize as we growing we we get stronger without realizing it becomes sort of a reflex. But at the end of the day, training that and and harnessing and and enhancing the results at the end of the day by creating the the consistent flow of effort as well as giving yourself the opportunity to take time out to actually recover. I think sleeping people take for granted and I think eight hours is is not an easy target, but that would be at least a benchmark of trying to get that rest in for the body to recover. Younger people can get away with less sleep. For myself, I'm I'm getting closer to a master lifter in the next couple of years. So, the sleep actually takes its toll if you don't get enough of of rest in because the body and the muscles don't get enough recovery in. And then at the end of the day, you you create a a domino effect of of struggle where your body is not ready to to take the next steps because you haven't given it the opportunity to actually rest during the period that it needed to recover. So it's I think there's a lot uh a lot of basics that that we that we need to stick to with regards to training as well and also trying to avoid overtraining because it's so easy to to create a problem by fatiguing the body and and creating more challenges for yourself in the journey and and a lot of our uh our habits come from habitual uh gym going because we we do so much in the gym we want to do more and we always uh end up pushing longer training sessions and pushing ourselves in terms of our limits. And I think uh we sometimes need to need to be able to pull back from that and actually listen to uh the guidance from other athletes as well as our coaches where we find ourselves. um using the program that and sticking to the program because uh that that in turn gives you the opportunity to actually see the progress and see the building. Though you you might not think that it is um working in the beginning, but at the end of at the end of a a block and and at the end of a a cycle of training and you actually transition into that peak phases, then you notice the difference from a athletes perspective as well as the coach's perspective and then you can actually feel that gain and and that momentum that you've worked for because it becomes uh encumbersome and becomes a bit frustrating when you're in those stages because you want to get to the peak, you want to get to the exciting parts, but it's also th those um repetitive uh patterns that creates the power building within the sport. And I think um so for myself, I'm very fortunate. I've got a coach that's coached uh quite a few uh South African champions, quite a few world champions. He's got quite a few weightlifting athletes as well. and he he's recently done the Africa um weightlifting championships in Maicius where one of our gym members uh finished second in South uh second in Africa for the for weightlifting as well. So yeah, so having those kinds of uh insights and knowledge in the background from a coaching perspective also helps you to understand and grow within the sport and also to use um tactics that will will enhance yourself at a later stage. things that uh are a little bit out of the box that you it catches you off guard or by surprise. But that just goes you goes to show the knowledge and the wisdom behind the coaching staff as well in South Africa. It's quite a few uh amazing uh coaches in our country that are on the top flight and and have gone to world competitions and and taken people through their phases and and gotten them into situations where they could possibly have taken the gold for South Africa. So having that kind of uh packing from a team perspective also puts you at a little bit uh at ease when it comes to understanding and listening because we're all stubborn at in certain points when it comes to listening because we always know better. But sometimes we just need to take that back seat and and listen and actually take the instructions from a coach. Um just apply what what we're supposed to be applying instead of trying to do our own um thing. And I think that's also one thing for for young athletes is is don't be afraid to to seek knowledge from experienced uh coaches and experienced athletes because I think that's the one thing about the powerlifting community is that we we love to share knowledge and to to inspire as well as to help each other. I think that's the the biggest part of the sport that uh comes forward is is that togetherness uh or the the camaraderie that comes with the the sport itself. until we meet each other on the platform, we can we can be best of friends and then we become competition. That's amazing. There's a lot to digest there. So, I've made a lot of notes, so please excuse me jumping from uh thing to thing, but I think uh do you want to quickly shout out to your coach and your gym on the on the podcast? Say thank you to them. Give them a little heads up. Of course, man. Uh so look uh Rodney Anthony is is my coach from school of strength here in Hurlingham in Koeng. Uh he's is an amazing coach and he's uh he's got quite a few top athletes coming from his gym and himself was a South African champion as well as a international champion in his weightlifting and powerlifting days. He actually revealed something quite cool to me the other day is that his maximum squat that he did in in his competition days as an equipped athlete was 400 kg and I I wish to one day be able to squat 400 kilos in a in an equipped competition. Yeah. So he he did a 400 kg squat and that was his his maximum squat that he that he did in his competition days. And that that's absolutely astonishing because for myself, my target for World Games is to do a 350 squat and that that's kind of the the benchmark as we're going to try and break the South African squat record, the South African bench press record uh of 242 or 240 kilos. Uh so we're going to try and break those two records and possibly the total record of 862.5 as well. So that's kind of a benchmark that we've set out for world games in terms of numbers trying to get to South African records in the squat in the bench press as well as the the total record. Is that in the under 105 kilogram category? That's correct. Yes. Amazing. That's so exciting. Well, I really hope you get it. I'm sure you will. Best of luck with it. Thank you. And then um do you high bar squat or low bar squat? So I prefer the low bar but we do alternate in training. Um so for for strength building the high bar is actually considered more difficult than the low bar squat. So we alternate from time to time during our training with the high bar uh to create more resistance in the in the squatting. and the the straight up position of the back with a high bar creates a bit more tension and and it creates more more power requirement in order to squat. But I in competition I do squat low bar. So I don't go super low but uh fairly low on the traps and the rear deltoid and locking it in with a with a good brace into the back. Uh, so it's a a little bit of a I would say niche thing to do because not a lot of people like the strain that it puts on the the actual shoulders, um, the wrists, the biceps especially take quite a bit of strain when squatting in with this technique, which is something that a lot of people don't even realize is that your biceps actually contract tremendously when squatting low bar. So a lot of people struggle with bicep cramp. um during squats, which is something that you wouldn't really think would be a problem, especially considering that squats is a dominantly leg exercise. Yeah. No, that makes sense. So, yeah, that's one of the things. And then, uh for the low bar, especially probably if you're doing heavy stuff like you are more so than if it's just light. But yeah, um do you have any other recovery tips? You mentioned sleep and you mentioned not overtraining. What else could you could you suggest for for recovery? One of the the biggest uh challenges for powerlters that compete in in weight class is maintaining your your weight for wins and to to be able to make weight for competition. Uh I think one of the biggest things that we we need to understand with powerlifting also is we need to fuel our bodies. So maintaining a good level of carbs and protein intake in our diets is is essential because especially when we when we are training in blocks and and it becomes like a cardio effect. I like to call it cardio when we when we're doing five reps and a lot of people probably think that that that's too little reps. Um but yeah, under the heavy weights when you're doing up to about five reps and you're doing three sets of five at the at the peak of your set. So for example, this week past we did 220 on deadlifts. So there's 220 by five by three sets. So you work 15 reps on 220 kilograms and that's where we are in our deadlift block at the moment. And then for squats, we work 245 by five by three sets. So those are the kinds of volumes that you that you kind of end up working to. And if you're not fueling your body um sufficiently, not only pre- but post-workout as well, you tend to lag in terms of recovery. And I think the calorie um the calorie surplus is is a necessity when it comes to powerlifting because of the the amount of energy that you exert, the amount of energy you burn during training sessions, and as well as the amount of energy it requires for your muscles to recover from putting it through the stress. So nutrition plays a major role and um yeah the the the fear of of carbs can't exist in our world. So carbs are carbs are your friend. Uh especially protein as well high protein meals um especially for the fueling of the muscle. fi fiber recovery as well as uh just the the general condition of the body, being able to get those uh amino acids and getting the balanced uh meals in that are able to give you the the micronutrients. And if you can't get the micronutrients you need to actually boost your micronutrient intake by having something that's going to aid you in creating enough micronutrients so that you don't um have deficiencies or suffer from cramp for example. So the magnesium intake um the potassium intake from bananas all the if you understand the the micronutrients that your body requires after um breaking down and burning out a lot of the salts in the body as well. I think that's also vital to replenish in the in the process because the worst thing for for training is is actually going to spasm and going into crap because your micronutrients are running low in the body. And that's also like a lot of the the nutritional side of the sport that a lot of people might not think uh is a necessity, but having a good electrolyte um during the training session also aids in in keeping those salt levels up. Um but understanding that uh things like your zinc and your magnesium and your uh other macronutrients that that play an aid in recovery especially in the body and the rebuilding of the of the power and the and the lack of um salts and energy cells that that you do eventually deplete during your training sessions. So just replenishing that and getting the body back to or giving the body the opportunity to recover and giving it the the necessary fuel to grow as well. Like it it's very similar to in the bodybuilding world where you you actually using the bulk method during these training blocks in order to generate the most energy and to grow and develop lean fibers and get stronger. And then once you get into peak, you're kind of maintaining that level. So then you then you're no longer just uh eating for recovery, but you're eating to to get stronger. So you you eat even more excessively in calorie intake in your peak block. So that's also understanding what you're doing with your diet in certain phases of your training as well. And I think that plays a major role in how how effectively you're going to perform and how strong you actually get during your block. Because if you are trying to be or trying to perform at your peak, but you're not allowing your body the the adequate fuel to to get there, you're actually putting yourself backwards in terms of your development. Absolutely. You made some great points there about the nutrition. I really like the electrolytes uh during training. A lot of people don't even drink water or electrolytes during training. I'm like, you're there for two hours. you you should be at least water and probably electrolytes, maybe I have dextrose and electrolytes, so I get the sugar and I get the electrolytes. Um, and it's delicious. So, it's just great. Um, and it helps with the glycogen stores and everything like that. So, do you also use a sugary something to like help with the insulin or not really? Not necessarily. So, I actually tend to uh prefer natural sugar intake. So, I try and stay away from synthetic things. Uh, but for myself, I would use an electrolyte that's uh from Diskim. It's quite affordable. It's like 150 bucks for a pack of 30 um little fizzies. So, I'd like to use that. And then I take a a raw a pure um creatine just to to boost the the recovery because that's also one of the things that depletes in the muscle. Uh, so I use a a creatine monohydrate just to to make sure because I'm always going to be eating a steak to replenish my creatine levels. So just to those days that I'm having my chicken and other alternative uh proteins, I like to have a little bit of creatine just to boost the the muscle um levels again. So it replenishes and and keeps that uh resistance and and endurance when it comes to the training as well. A lot of people um use whey proteins that contain stacks and things to that effect, but at the moment I'm not even using preworkout anymore because I just use a micronutrient um which is called hydrovate and and that that sums up basically it doubles up on electrolytes as well as the micronutrients intake for the for the recovery and it helps a lot with hydration as well the hydration levels of the Um and it it maintains pretty well as well and it also gives you quite a bit of an energy boost. Does have a little bit of sugars in there as well and I think that is that's about the extent of it. Uh other than that my nutrition comes main my main nutritional sources are food. I don't do do any whey proteins of any sort. Um and yeah that that's basically my diet and how I like to to boost and feed the body. But yeah, also understanding which foods get you your amino acids and which foods get you your your required monomers for the building of your uh your protein absorption and that type of thing. So I think for me the the easiest ones are the the best balance which is the uh the basics which is the boiled egg. I think that's one of the the better balanced the sources of amino acids as well as a good uh beef intake as well. So lean beef also gives you quite a good intake of of balanced amino acids. Uh so yeah just understanding what foods you need in order to um because a lot of people can micro supplement and and do that do it that way but I prefer getting my nutrients from food. It also helps with the with the recovery at the same time so I get the best the best of both worlds. How many eggs do you have a day and what is your total calorie intake? um carbs, fats, proteins. Do you know? I don't really track it that often, but um I think for for myself, like when I when I need to supplement and I'm not having like a raw oats or a a um a prepared oats breakfast, then I would have four boiled eggs for breakfast uh just as a as a start off on the on the daily, which is not too intense. And then I'd load up um with a with a homecooked meal with uh either legumes or steak or something that that's high in in protein and fiber at the same time. So it's a little bit of a balance of everything. So trying to maintain uh like calorie intake because I also have a high energy consuming job where I walk uh like 14 to 16,000 steps in a day. So I tend to burn a lot of energy. So that also makes makes the requirements for eating a bit higher. Uh then I also keep some fruit in the diet. So an apple, an orange, a banana or two just to keep the potassium levels um going. Uh but I think in general I I would average on about 3,00 to 3,500 calories of of uh intake in a daily basis when I'm not um on a on a peak cycle. on a peak I tend to have an extra meal just to boost before training and after training recovery. So then I would have actually four or five meals during the day when I'm on a peak cycle so that the body can just uh ingest and also refuel for the next sessions to come because when you're peing you're kind of pushing your your limits uh to the peak of it of its capability and doing that takes quite a bit of energy from you as well as quite a bit of mental um strength when it when you get to those phases of the training. So yeah, you kind of doubt it in the beginning because you you don't feel used to what you what you've done in the in the previous peak because it's been such a long uh power block cycle. So like I think um on Sunday yesterday, yesterday morning we were squatting and just to to get me used to the weight on my back, we just did static holds. So, we just took 275 on the bar and just stood there with it. And then we pushed it to 305 and just stood with the weight on my back just so that my body can get assimilated to the next uh session of pushing the limit again because now we're going to go into a peak block and kind of just feel what the body's doing. Do some negative work. So, coach has already set a guideline for our block to end at about 3:30 for this particular squat session. So, we'll go up to 330 and then we'll do negative 330 repetitions just to feel the weight into the into the sink point and to to feel the weight out on the body and to also neurosshock is is something that we experience during powerlifting when you put a weight on your back or you pick up a weight that you've never done before and the body kind of goes into a little bit of muscle shock. So, a lot of people experience doms from overexertion. So something that you experience in the powerlifting um space is actually actual neurosshock to the body. So your body um adjusts to the heavy weight that it's never felt before, it kind of goes through a little bit of shock and then all of a sudden you you realize that your body has adapted. So the next time you feel that same weight on your back, it it completely uh blows you away by how much lighter it actually becomes. And that I think that's one of the phenomenons of the when it comes to the powerlifting and heavy lifting itself is that your body adapts um so quickly to the to the change of environment that you you actually kind of shock yourself when the the the second or the third attempt at that same weight goes and it moves a lot better. that moves quicker and you almost um you're in disbelief of yourself. But then at the same time, it gives you this confidence boost going into your your peak and and you know feeling that that strength and that power that you've built through a process of training and understanding that development comes from phases and not just peing uh 300% of the time. No, that makes perfect sense. And you mentioned something that um Austria's strongest man Emanuel Pascari mentioned and that is the static holds. He also is a big proponent for for static holds and and increasing the muscular ability even not lifting it just taking out a big weight and telling your body hey we're going to be doing this soon like get ready. So he also uses that and he's Austria's strongest man. So here we have South Africa's strongest man, Austria's strongest man. Need to keep those countries falling. Eh um and then you mentioned um can't always be lifting your heaviest. Um you need to peak. What's the importance of programming? And can you explain a little bit about overloading versus de loing? Like obviously everyone gets like the basic concept like okay this week we're going to lift more than last week. That's progressive overload and next week we're going to lift a little bit less because we've we've you know we've fatigued the body. But can you go a little bit deeper than just the basics of the overloading versus de loing? So I think for for powerlifting in in essence the the block and how the development blocks work. So there's different uh styles and different coaches apply. So my coach for example at the moment we're on a fives program. So every single lift that we do, whether it be squats, uh, bench press, or the deadlift, we're on a five cycle. So at the peak of the of the repetition, so when we get to the peak set. So for example, this week, the training or the past week that we've trained, we did the bench press. Uh, but we did an equipped bench press. So, I put the best on and we we start with the raw lift and we only do because equipped is a little bit different to the to the raw lifting. We we only do minimal reps when it comes to the bench press. So, for example, we started off with uh five reps on an empty bar, which is just the warmup. Then we would move to 75 for for three. Uh 125 for two. And then we'd move to 140 for one. And then we put the vest on. And then change over the weight to so we we increase the weight to 165 when I put the vest on for the double. But uh because the weight is not heavy enough, which is something strange to say, uh it doesn't actually touch my chest with the vest on. And we we just do the two repetitions and we increase to 185 and then we actually get the bar to touch me. So then we did two sets of two reps with 185 and then we do we we finished off with 185 for two. So 195 with the for for a double was the bench workout with the vest because the vest programming works a little bit different to to the conventional uh raw lifting. So the coach that I have is is versed in both disciplines and he's really good with the equipped as well and setting up of equipment and understanding how the body operates within this uh single ply world that is equipped. Um and then for for the deadlifting we've been doing deadlift raw. So no no no equipment uh no suit on just to get the body used to the movement and and getting stronger with the deadlift because the deadlift has been lagging quite some some bit this year. So I've also competed this year in the SA jumps uh raw and equipped uh one day equipped for SA 2025 and I placed fourth in the RAW for SA 2025. Um so with that we also had a little bit of a sticking issue with my deadlift not improving. and it's kind of gone backwards. That's why I was saying like during your training blocks, uh you find that sometimes you go up, sometimes you won't find that peak again and then you kind of hover for a while and developing now and trying to get past those blockages is what my coach is working on with me. So, we've integrated a few different things into the program. So, the deadlifting would then go from from an empty bar at five reps all the way up to 220 for five reps. And then at 220 for five reps, we do two additional sets of five reps. So then becomes the peak rep or the peak set will be two 220 by five reps for three sets. So that that's how the deadlift block would then finish off in terms of um building on that strength and the and the development. So to put it into perspective the start of the block we were on we started at 205 and now we've progressed last week um to 215 and this week we've gone 220. So now the next week coach will one of the things that my coach doesn't do, he doesn't tell me ahead of time what we're going to do. He kind of just keeps it a for each workout I discover what I'm going to do at the workout so I don't have too many uh mental challenges with thinking about it too much before the time. Just come in and do the work basically. And then similar for the squat, we've we've worked um up from 225 um to 245 to 255 last week. So those have those have been progressively how the block has been. So the 225 was just the raw squatting, no uh no straps or wraps that they that they put around the knee for the equip lifting. So I haven't done any equipped lifting with with the knee wraps for two years now. I've been using sleeves, but recently there was an IPF decision made about the stiff sleeve being used in the in the IPF. So now we're back to using the the normal neoprene SPD sleeves. It's been it's been an adjustment within the raw environment. Uh but in the equip now is because it's uh fully equipped. So we're allowed to use knee wraps and just adjusting to using knee apps again. It's been a it's been a challenge because it's quite difficult to move in these things. It looks like fun and games, but it's actually quite painful, which is which is one of the things with equip lifting that comes uh that's that's very different from the raw lifting is the equipment you use actually creates quite a bit of tension on the body as well as the the knee wraps. Uh it's lovely. It takes a bit of your skin off when you when you wrap and you actually squat in them and you take them off and you can feel that uh little bit of a breeze on your on your open torn skin. It's quite fun. So you get to it's a little bit of a lovehate relationship I would say but it's also how you go through the programming and how you get used to operating the equipment because the thing with the equip lifting is that it's it's how you find your groove and how you find your rhythm and your movement and how what's more efficient for yourself once you put under pressure because the amount of pressure actually restricts your amount of movement. So you have to kind of find that balance of how you're going to move and how you're going to be able to hit depth. For example, in the squatting once you have those knee wraps on. First time I put knee wraps on, I actually couldn't move. It was it was quite amusing. I just stood there. I couldn't pick up the bar. I couldn't do anything because my body just went into I don't know what I'm supposed to do mode. Uh and that was quite entertaining. My coach had and I had a good laugh. Um now I'm getting a bit better. So with the squats with the with the knee rack now we've done 245 uh previous week. This week we took 255 out but we also had a bit of turbulence during this the last session where we kind of didn't uh know what was what was happening with the movement and why my body was reacting the way it was. So, we took a step back and actually just focused on singles because we thought we just uh my coach just figured, look, I think we're thinking about these reps too much. So, let's just break it down and make it simpler. So, I took out the the bar for for single actually with the with the knee wraps on just to to get used to the idea of moving. So, we're still working on a few glitches with the with the equip lifting, but I think one of the the biggest parts for the the power building and going into peak. So when we when we reach for example the peak of this block I would estimate it to be around 275 when or or 2 285 maybe even 295. We will still be doing reps uh in the squat for example for the deadlift and the bench press. We we're working towards a marker of 250 in the bench press. So, I would say around 230, 235, maybe even 240 for a double is where we we will probably work up to um in terms of that block. And then for the deadlift, which is the lagging lift, the target for the deadlift is to just get past the 300 marker. So, we'll probably be working up to about 255 260 for for three to five reps depending on how the block moves. And that that's kind of how the indicator balance. So when when you get a bit higher up in the weight, sometimes your coach will bring down the repetitions or they'll maintain the five repetitions in in terms of how your body responds to the training and the block itself. So it's a lot of monitoring that goes into uh the development of a of a powerlifting block as well as um watching your athlete perform and seeing if your athlete is actually uh I don't know if you if you're familiar with the RP method that's applied in a lot of powerlifters. So my coach doesn't necessarily apply the RP mode. He he prefers to observe um his athletes and to to watch uh how they how they perform and how they're peaking and how their body is responding to certain parts of the blocks. So a lot of people would apply the RP method where they would say this is the max exertion or it would be a eight or a nine out of 10 for the for argument sake in the RP range. Um, and for my coach, it's not really a a terminology we use during training, but it's also something that's applicable out there for a lot of other powerlifting coaches that apply an RP method for determining how how the athlete should peak and what what their their capability should be like or their range would be like in terms of peing their strength. Um yeah, I think that in terms of of building blocks is is like the it's it becomes a bit complex once you start integrating the more intricate things like an RP range or um a stage or I would say a a peak block is generally broken away after a a volume block. So it's broken up into those two main categoristics which is a volume state of training versus a single state of training where you kind of go into a peak and you only do singles building up to a maximum weight. And those would be the two different stages that we go through as powerlters. So, one volume block and then after a volume block, we'll go into a peak block. Some some people would do three volume blocks and then a peak block. Some people would do two volume blocks and a peak block. Some people would do one volume, one peak, two peaks even, and then go back to two volume blocks. And it varies from coach to coach and the methods and also the athletes capability of maintaining the stress on the body because peaking is the is the most stressful on the body as well as the volume blocks where I I tend to call it cardio because that's what it feels like to us powerlifters like our coaches making us run up a mountain and it's never ending uh reps after reps but it's also builds that resistance and resilience when it comes to going through the peak and and getting stronger when you actually put that heavy weight on on your reps and and you you'll see the progress that comes from that repetition repetition repetition. Thank you. That was that was very thorough for the periodization and the blocks. So, thank you for that. And then I was wondering, can you please educate me and maybe some of the listeners? I've never done um any uh uh equipped uh training, so I don't actually know like the difference between a vest and a suit versus having a sling on the bench press um sleeves versus wraps like is when when you said for example for the bench press you have a vest, is that the same as the suit and then do you also have a sling or is that a different competition entirely? To hear Haroon's answer and to learn more about the various different kinds of powerlifting, you're going to have to tune in again next time on the Muscle Growth Podcast. Thank you for tuning in to the Muscle Growth Podcast. If you found value in today's episode, we'd really appreciate it if you could leave us a five-star rating and a quick review. It helps us grow and reach more people just like you. Don't forget to follow us on all major social media platforms including Instagram, YouTube, Tik Tok, and X. 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