Impacts of squat attempt weight selection and success on powerlifting performance
Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Title
The Journal of sports medicine and physical fitness
Volume
62
Issue
4
Publisher
EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA
School
School of Medical and Health Sciences
RAS ID
36170
Abstract
BACKGROUND: To date, there is no evidence to support the optimal competition strategy for success in powerlifting competitions. The purpose of this study was to analyse Powerlifting (PL) competition data to assess the relationship between squat attempts, the success of each lift attempt, and weight increase between attempts, with winning. METHODS: 10,672 individual competition entries (males: n = 6617, females: n = 4,055) were included within the analysis from 'raw' Powerlifting Australia sanctioned competitions held between 2008 and 2019. We reported Cohen's d, statistical significance, 95% confidence intervals and the univariate odds of winning an event. Factors were assessed by separate simple logistic regression and reported as an odds ratio. RESULTS: Overall, first squat attempt weight for those who won was on average 7.0kg greater (P<0.001, d=0.14 [0.10, 0.18]) than for non-winners. In the total sample, athletes selected opening attempts which were an average of 92% of their achieved maximum on the day with 93.5% of competitors improving on this weight in subsequent attempts. Winners had a 0.5kg (P < 0.001, d=0.10 [0.06, 0.14]) greater absolute increase in weight between first and second lift attempts than non-winners. Overall, ~68% of winners successfully lifted their third attempt weight compared to ~64% of non-winners (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: A powerlifting athlete's odds of winning a competition overall are significantly increased by selecting a larger opening squat attempt weight than competitors and completing the attempt successfully. The opening squat may be one of the most important lifts during competition.
DOI
10.23736/S0022-4707.21.12140-1
Access Rights
subscription content
Comments
Howells, R. J., Spathis, J. G., Pearson, J., Latella, C., Garrett, J. M., Owen, P. J., & van den Hoek, D. J. (2022). Impacts of squat attempt weight selection and success on powerlifting performance. The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, 62 (4), p. 476-484.
https://doi.org/10.23736/S0022-4707.21.12140-1