His training is unusual for a powerlifter.
Read how Mike trains, you will be amazed.

Training 90%. Hereditary factors 10%. Willpower 100%.

And to top it off, the figure of a bodybuilder.
A fitting description of Mike Phillips, the US powerlifting champion of the American Powerlifting Federation in 1987.
With 54 years is Phillips the strong man who has been a powerlifter at the national American level for 10 years.
With its 1.65 m Mike able to press nearly three times your own body weight on the bench.
That is a great achievement for everyone.
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– Bodybuilding Training

Phillips ist ein überzeugter Befürworter eines dem Bodybuilding-Training ähnlichen Zusatztrainings. Und wenn man ihn so ansieht, fällt die überwältigende Muskelentwicklung an seinem Rücken und seinen Schultern auf. Seine Deltamuskeln, Coleman neidisch machen.

Phillips readily admits that his muscles are not the result of just the three disciplines of powerlifting.

His training includes exercises such as: leg curls, leg extensions and calf raises to improve his squats and leg development, bench press with an SZ bar, incline bench press, neck press, triceps press and lat pulldowns for his bench press and for general conditioning of the upper body partial deadlifts, sitting and rowing Shoulder raises for deadlifting and back development.

The sets and reps vary from exercise to exercise, but generally he does 3-4 sets of eight reps each.

He is firmly convinced that this additional training is of decisive importance for his overall development and his performance as a powerlifter. He puts it this way: “Without my supplementary exercises, I would never have been able to increase my muscle mass and strength so much. Such exercises should be important for every powerlifter. "

- Training over full range of motion
In addition to his normal training, Phillips is also interested in flexibility. He says: "Without training over the full range of motion, I will hardly be spared injuries that would set me back in my performance." His bench press training also includes work with an SZ bar so that the muscles involved before the contraction be stretched as much as possible. He deadlifts standing on a 10 cm thick block of wood. “It's a big difference,” explains Phillips. "If I switch from the SZ bar to the normal barbell or go down from the wooden block, the freedom of movement is significantly reduced."

- breaks
Mike doesn't rest very long between his training sets. In powerlifting training, he hurries and takes 4-5 minutes before the next discipline. In the additional training, however, the breaks are significantly shorter.

- visualization
In the competition, Phillips stirs up by walking around quickly and visualizing. “I walk around and picture myself completing the next attempt with perfect technique. Basically, everything went well before I started to weight! "

Mike's goal is a world bench press record of 254 kg with a body weight of 82 kg. His previous (official) best performance is 245 kg.