John Coffee, Owner/Senior International Coach
Home of 5 Olympic Weightlifting Olympians!
16 Women’s National Olympic Weightlifitng Championships Titles

• Olympic and Powerlifting Platforms
• Strong Man Apparatus
• Personal Training Available
• Home of Mike Judge’s Throw One Deep Track and Field Athletes
• Beginner and Serious Level Welcome

Gym Hours:
M-F 6am-10pm
Saturday8am-6pm
Sunday10am-4pm

1800 Lower Roswell Road Marietta, Georgia 30068
770-321-6900  770-321-0170 fax

Email us at coffeesgym@hotmail.com

Also be sure to check out Coffee’s Gym on Facebook.

“Welcome to Eaton Barbell, Preble County’s only premier, private strength training facility. Eaton Barbell caters to powerlifting, bodybuilding, and people that are just serious about weight training and wanting to get into better shape.

The gym is private, and not open to the public.  Membership is mostly comprised of county employees, and a team of powerlifters and other strength athletes.  24/7 Pin code access allows members to train on their time whenever they want.”

Also be sure to check out Eaton Barbell on Facebook.

I’m trying to decide whether to pull sumo or conventional. My strength training background is mainly Olympic Lifting like yours and all the deadlifting I’ve done is Olympic pulls.  Have you tried both sumo and conventional? Which is your favorite? And is there anything other than personal preference which can help someone pick whether they do one technique or the other?

Thanks,
Deciding Deadlifter

Hi Deciding Deadlifter,

So funny you mentioned doing Olympic pulls.  That’s almost ALL I do and ever have done for my deadlift training…even for sumo powerlifting deadlifts!   Heavy snatch and clean pulls.  When meet time gets close I’ll do a couple of sessions sumo with and without the suit, just to get used to the technique, but my training is almost exclusively Olympic pulls.

I have tried both sumo and conventional deadlifts and weight wise raw I’m not far off with either.  I’ve never pulled conventional  in a suit so I can’t compare there.  It’s my lower back that keeps me pulling sumo.  It takes such a big toll on my lower back to grind out heavy conventionals, plus as you know…when we Olympic pull we keep such a flat back and I find when the weight gets really heavy I have a tendency to start rounding which my lower back isn’t very fond of.

As for picking one, personal preference is definitely a big factor along with leverages and strong and weak points. Some people are just built to pull conventional, some sumo.  Unless you notice a HUGE number difference between one vs. the other, just pick which ever you’re more comfortable with and enjoy training the most.  Either one you choose, be sure to experiment with different foot and hand placements to see which you feel the strongest with off the floor all the way through to lockout.

Also, don’t be afraid to train both lifts even if you are only going to use one style in competition.  Many top sumo deadlifters are known to do conventional training and vice versa.

Keep Pullin’ Heavy,

Kara

I just started competing in powerlifting and was able to qualify for the USAPL nationals with a raw total from my first meet. I don’t currently have gear, but was thinking it would be a good idea to get some and learn how to use it before that meet. My coach was telling me you have some pretty impressive numbers in the various lifts and might be able to give me a few tips on where to look for powerlifting gear and if there are any tricks to using it.

Any help you can give is appreciated,

thankx!!
M

Hey M,

That’s awesome that you qualified for USAPL Nationals raw! Good stuff. I’d be glad to help you out however I can with Powerlifting gear.

I’m not sure I can be tremendously helpful with suit tips because I never really did master them. I come from an Olympic Lifting background so I’m used to squatting and pulling completely raw. I just squat in a pair of briefs and a singlet in most federations, but briefs aren’t allowed in the USAPL so I use a loose suit when I compete there. Since you’ve been lifting raw for a while I definitely recommend getting suits that aren’t overly tight…especially the straps. You can ALWAYS alter the suits and make stuff smaller as you get more acquainted to gear.

Also, for now you can probably get away with wearing the same suit for squatting and deadlifting…particularly if you pull sumo.

Now bench shirts…I can definitely help there. I do tons of raw benching and even more overhead pressing, but for whatever reason I never felt uncomfortable in a bench shirt the way I did in suits. Once you get a shirt we can get more into training technique, ways to tweak the shirt to get more out of it, etc.

As far as to look for gear…sometimes you can find stuff on ebay. I’ve always worn Inzer gear so definitely check out Inzernet.com. I’ve tried every bench shirt imaginable and my favorite one is still the Inzer Rage X which is single ply and USAPL approved.

For suits the the Inzer TRX squat suit and Inzer Fusion deadlift suit are two of my favorites.  Both single ply and USAPL approved.  Don’t let the fact that they’re single ply fool you…these suits are extremely supportive and can provide great carry over to your raw lifts when used properly.

Like I said earlier…the suits are quite similar so you can really get away with wearing one for both the squat and deadlift. This is just my personal preference but I like the Fusion deadlift suit for both squatting and deadlifting after trying both for each lift. The legs are cut a little shorter and more straight across and the straps are a bit narrower than the TRX so it just feels a bit more natural. You can’t really go wrong with either though since they’re both great suits.

All the equipment I’ve mentioned is also VERY easy to alter which is great. I’ve done ALL my alterations myself on a $55 bottom of the line sewing machine from Walmart and I can’t sew worth a crap lol. The material is very easy to work with and hold alterations well. You can always just take the gear to a tailor too of course as you get more adjusted and want to tighten things up.

I know the stuff is expensive but it lasts forever. I’ve worn the same Rage X bench shirt for every single meet and training session I’ve done since 2006 and it’s still good as new! I’ve also worn it in competition at 165, 148 and 132 just altering it along the way.

A few final thoughts…since you are used to lifting raw, switching to equipment is going to be a big adjustment.  I definitely recommend not ordering your gear overly tight so that the transition isn’t too drastic.  As time goes on you can alter your gear accordingly.

You will also notice the lifts feel much different in equipment.  Your leverages, strong and weak points, sticking points, and technique may all be affected.  You may want to look into some specific exercises and routines for equipped powerlifting lifting.  I actually have another question to answer on that topic so check back here soon!

Keep me posted,

Kara

Eaton Barbell

• Bench Press – close grip and max grip
• Incline dumbell press
• Side lateral raises – super set with dumbell bicep curls
• Face pulls  - super set with push downs – face pulls done with Spud Strap

Garage

Was going to go to Eaton tonight but trained in the garage instead. Worked out well. I super setted squats with cooking dinner, deadlifts with laundry, and overhear squats with cleaning the oven lol. I may have to make this a standard plan when I do my morning garage sessions looool.

• Clean & Front Sqaut – 1 clean & then front squat reps
• Sumo Deadlifts*
• Overhead Squats

*Something feels really off with my sumo deadlift form and I can’t put my finger on it. I have a feeling it may be related to weighing ~40lbs less than I used to lol. I tried some various foot stances and angles but that didn’t fix it. I just feel like I can’t get in a position where my butt is down so that I can pull nice and upright using my quads and hamstrings like I normally do sumo. I’m leaning over the bar all funny. I’ll have to take a video or something.

Trained at Eaton Barbell

• Leg extentions – single and double leg
• Sumo deadlifts
• OL front and back squats – super light high rep sets
• Overhead squats

Oh did I feel this for a few days after lol! Definitely going to make this a standard workout.

Bench & Accessories

Trained at Eaton Barbell

Bench Press
Incline Dumbell
Push Ups super set w/Bicep Curls
Push Downs w/drop sets

Did a lot of sets & reps + I haven’t benched in a LONG time so I know I’m gonna be crazy sore! Woke up the next day and was already in shambles lol.