MM Team at Gymshark Nationals.

November 2022 Ben Nicholls joined the MM team looking to achieve a highly ambitious goal of competing at the British National Powerlifting Championships in April 2023 having never competed. His current bodyweight was 78kg and his 1 rep max’s were Squat - 160kg, Bench - 80kg, Deadlift - 205kg. We first established which class Ben would compete in and opted for the 74kg class as we believed he would be most competitive here. This meant that we would be targeting strength improvements while eating lower foods in a calorie deficit - a tall order! We began repatterning Ben’s lifts and working on his technique, because we needed to find the most efficient way for Ben’s body to lift. Initially, Ben really struggled with the adjustments and at first he actually got weaker because his old technique and habits had to become weaker. However… Ben trusted the process. We then started the building phase of Ben’s strength operating through volume, work capacity and intensification training blocks to increase Ben’s strengths.

We set the Winter open as our first competition to compete at in order to get some competition experience and to get a qualifying total. Mid Christmas period we started the peaking phase to prime Ben ready for maximal performance. Throughout this phase I took the decision to reduce Ben’s food and take a slow approach to bringing Ben’s bodyweight down so he could make weight. 2 weeks out from the competition Ben’s bench press really suffered and there was a lot of questioning, but we stuck to the plan. Ben competed easily securing the qualifying total and taking a north west powerlifting record with a 216kg deadlift! On the day Ben added over 35kg to his previous 1 rep max’s to a competition standard.

Our sights were now well and truly set on British Nationals at Gymshark headquarters in April. We iterated and adapted the roadmap based on what we learned from this first competition. The biggest takeaway’s were Ben’s need to improve control on his bench press and squats in the downwards phases of the movement. We also took the call to sustain a higher training weight of 78-79kg and then take a stricter water cut to make weight. We continued with the build…

A week out from the competition, the work was done and we began the water cut and week of recovery. Ben started the week at 79kg, 4 days in we had not seen much change in Ben’s weight which is relatively normal, however on day 5 we expected a big drop which never came. We again expected the same on day 6 and only saw 1.5kg which meant 24 hours out from the competition we were still 3.5kg over weight. Something had gone wrong with Ben’s fluid and salt intake. The evening before the competition, I went round to Ben’s house and we started the process of a very aggressive water cut involving steaming hot baths followed by periods wrapped in blankets. In just over 3 hours we got a weigh in of 74.8 and we stopped. Ben felt dreadful and was severely dehydrated. From 8pm that evening until weigh in at 1pm the following day he could not eat or drink anything…

The day of the competition arrived and Ben fortunately made weight, easily actually… at 73.2kg. A large crowd at turned out for Ben from the MM team as everyone knew what a rollercoaster or a journey and huge event this was. Ben performed exceptionally given the drastic circumstances of the water cut, finishing 11th in the country in what was only his second ever competition. He took a 190 squat (30kg PB), 87.5kg bench (7.5kg PB), 230kg deadlift (25kg PB). An immense day and super special for me as only 1 year prior I was competing at the same event as a lifter. It meant even more to see the MM team out in full force supporting Ben. Seeing the connections that have been made through the platform of the MM team is truly amazing. Fantastic work Ben, onto the next… 

- Coach Harry