You're too small, and so am I

It took me a while to figure this out. I'm not that smart. By the looks of it, neither are lots of other people, so maybe this'll help. 

Go to any low to mid level powerlifting meet and look at the people who win their weight class (assuming there is more than one person in it...) and win best overall lifter. You'll notice that they almost always look like they lift weights. Then look at all the other lifters. You'll notice that a lot of them don't look like they lift weights. 

Here's why. I'm so smart it took me around five years to figure out, despite the fact that it was staring me in the face the whole time: more muscular people are better at powerlifting. No shit genius, you may well say. That's a fair comment, because pointing out the obvious isn't always that helpful. This one's a biggie, though, because it's hiding in plain sight. Powerlifting training sucks for building muscle. Don't come at me with a rebuttal either, because you and I both know it's true. Even the best powerlifting systems won't pack on muscle like a bodybuilding system. 

So what's my point? It's simple: until you're actually big and muscular, don't train like a powerlifter. Powerlifting training evolved into what it is because the people who formed it came into the sport with a solid base of muscle mass. They were footballers, wrestlers, meatheads to a person. All they needed was to practice the squat, bench press and deadlift and maintain what muscle mass they already had while filling in a few little gaps here and there.

People like me (and a fair few of you) came into the sport with none of that time under the iron. Hell, I'm part of the new generation of powerlifters that started around when raw powerlifting took off in the mid 2010s. We're basically a bunch of pencilnecks who decided they'd have a go. Fast forward a few years you've got even more people entering the sport who've barely touched a barbell prior to that. They start training like powerlifters. Big mistake. Yes, for sure you're going to need to hit the competition lifts because you need to get good at them. But for the love of iron, do as little of that as you can get away with and train like a bodybuilder for the most part. Yes, you can do high reps on the squat, bench press and deadlift. No, that won't build muscle as well as other lifts. Especially the deadlift and bench press.