Coaching Paralympic Powerlifting Champions - Ben Richens
Hello and welcome to The Progress Theory where we discuss how to implement scientific principles to optimise human performance. On this episode, we have GB ParaPowerlifting High-Performance Coach, Ben Richens.
Paralympic powerlifting is different to traditional powerlifting as it focuses on one lift: The bench press. Paralympic powerlifting is a sport that is growing quickly in the UK and we’ve got a strong contingent heading to the Tokyo Paralympic games, all of which are coached by Ben Richens. Yet despite its growing popularity, there are many who are unfamiliar with the sport. In this episode, Ben describes the training and coaching differences between traditional powerlifting and paralympic powerlifting, where common programming mistakes are made, and how you can get into the sport.
In this episode, we discuss:
- 2:00 - Why Ben did this podcast while in isolation (his recent competition in Dubai)
- 2:45 - An introduction to Ben Richens
- 6:58 - How Ben got into Powerlifting and Para-Powerlifting
- 11:12 - The difference between powerlifting and para-powerlifting
- 15:56 - Ben’s fulfilment and accomplishments in coaching and coaching Para-powerlifting
- 20:44 - The Invictus Games
- 23:40 - The team for the Paralympic games
- 24:46 - Getting involved in para-powerlifting
- 27:09 - Programming for para-powerlifting
- 28:56 - Training for performance and quality of life
- 34:22 - Longevity and progress in para-powerlifting
- 40:43 - creating small wins to avoid the repetitiveness of training
- 41:42 - common mistakes when training the bench press
- 48:06 - Advice for getting into para-powerlifting coaching
Final Thoughts
Thank you to Ben Richens for coming onto The Progress Theory and talking about his work with the GB para-powerlifting team. For a sport that is quite simple in nature, it is truly fascinating, and Ben did an amazing job discussing his ideas around training and the differences between the bench press and para-powerlifting bench press.
I just wanted to provide some final thoughts on key areas which really stood out to me.
Firstly, it was the importance of variables outside of the training programme which will have such a profound effect on the athlete. As coaches, we spend hours thinking of how to create the most beneficial programme that is specific to the athlete. However, if poor lifestyle factors such as lack of sleep, poor food choices and a lack of water are being followed by an athlete, then the effectiveness of the programme will never be realised. Often it is these lifestyle factors that are more important for an athletes progress than the programme itself. We should be aware of this as coaches and educate our athletes appropriately.
Secondly, the importance of training for quality of life. We sometimes get over-focussed on programming to improve performance that we forget how that might affect the athlete outside of the gym/sport. If we drastically reduce an athlete’s quality of life through the training and our programming, it may lead to a situation where the reduced quality of life now negatively affects the training. It can be a vicious circle. This highlights the need for us to be athlete-focused with our programming. Always think ‘How is your programming going to improve this athlete at their sport and as a person?’
Anyways I hope you enjoyed this episode. As Ben says, we need more lifting clubs so get busy and start one. What better way to become better at training is by immersing yourself in the right environment that you’ve created for yourself. It would be awesome if you could also leave us a review and share this episode on your insta story to help the show grow. Also, head to our website theprogresstheory.com and listen to our other episodes. We’ll see you in the next one.
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The Science of Hybrid Training
It was originally thought that you could not effectively train for both strength and endurance at the same time because they required different adaptations which were not compatible with each other. It was claimed that ‘an interference effect’, blunted the adaptations for strength if you simultaneously trained for endurance. However, recent developments in sports which require both strength and endurance have really challenged this idea, with hybrid athletes producing impressive performances in both strength and endurance sports together. This had led scientists, coaches, and athletes to rethink what is humanly possible and suggests the interference effect is not as influential as originally thought. But what is a hybrid athlete? What is the ‘interference effect’? And how can we maximize our training to improve at the same time our strength and endurance performance? In this book, Dr Phil Price provides insight into the misconceptions surrounding strength and endurance training by distilling the past 50 years of research and drawing on the conversations he had with great scientists, coaches, and athletes on The Progress Theory podcast. This book is essential reading for hybrid athletes and coaches who are looking to understand the key training variables and their effect on the simultaneous development of strength and endurance performance.
