Powerlifting Bench Press

Choosing the Best Powerlifting Assistance Exercises

Assistance lifts and the use of them is certainly something that is very specific to powerlifting, yet there are some who do not employ this type of philosophy at all. Assistance lifts started when powerlifters saw specific movements or exercises as helping them achieve greater results by using them.

For example doing front squats in order to improve your performance on a squat or adding hip thrust to your workout to achieve the same results. Basically the type of assistance lifts that one chooses is actually specific to your type of genetic structure and there are some that will work for you and some that will not.

Going back to the squat, which is a movement that requires strength from all quarters of your body and is actually a great indicator of your general strength. There are many powerlifters that firmly believe in the unilateral leg work like extensions and ham curls etc. that they say would never have got to the weight they currently lift without doing those assistance exercises as well.

It all depends on where your weak links are and if we are honest everyone will have a different weak link. For example if you find that your weakest link when doing a power lift like a deadlift is in your grip and you find that your grip is failing before anything else then you need to concentrate on that.

Strengthening your specific grip on a bar would help a lot if you did some hanging Sumo deadlift or just hang with a weight around you for as long as you can. As you can see the specific assistance exercise that you choose to do is always for a specific reason and it should not be mentioned here that one will suit all.

The big three are deadlift, bench-press and squat and if you can find your weak link when doing these exercises then you will have found out exactly what type of assistance exercises you should do. It might help if you get someone who knows what they are doing to take a look at you doing these movements in order to get the best advice.

But it must be said that the art of powerlifting is without a doubt something that comes from being able to listen to your body. You need to be totally aware of what your body is going through when doing one of the big three. This will more than likely be able to guide you very specifically on what your weak points are.

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