Grab your pre workout and turn up that volume. It is time for a new episode of The Power Lifters Den with your host Cam Smith. Hello everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Power Lifters Den. I'm your host Cam Smith and we are back to bring on a a beast of a human, someone who is squatted over 1000 lbs raw. A comical power lifter of sorts. Patrick, why don't you introduce yourself? Hi, I'm Patrick McGuire, super
heavyweight powerlifter. I don't really know what to say about myself because I'm not really that special. I just squatted 1003 at the American Pro 622 bench, which wasn't APR either, and then 716 deadlift, which also wasn't APR. So I'm just one of those average going into a meet, don't PR anything except the total. I mean you are definitely not
what I'd call average. I guess we can start by kind of talking about what got you into the sport itself, maybe what inspired you or if you had like a sports background that kind of transitioned you into it. So I Back in high school, I played football, ice hockey and then my senior. Instead of doing ice hockey, I joined the bowling team because bowling's fantastic. But my oldest brother.
Kind of. Every summer we'd have this thing where we basically go to the gym every day and we'd have a good time, watch MMA fights at night and that overall kind of thing. But when he went off to college, there was kind of like that void going on. And I I got up to the point where I don't actually know how heavy I was back in high school. I remember I was, I think I was 210 back in 6th or 7th grade, so I was just the fat kid. And I got tired of being the fat kid.
So I, I I started going to the gym for for kind of like health purposes. Trying to trying to lose weight, trying to look good naked, That whole shebang, watching Kai Green, Ronnie Coleman videos, going to the health club and watching all the soccer Mills just stare at me while I just scream. Yeah buddy. But I got down to like two 40s which. I I don't actually know where I started off at, but that was the summer after I graduated high school.
And there was, there was a guy at my gym who was well known for being like the strong guy in the gym. And he had his own like online powerlifting team. And I was doing like 2A day splits, doing like Ronnie Coleman's like his training day. In the morning I'd go to school or like, go home, take a nap, eat a meal and then come back in the afternoon. And then run an Arnold Schwarzenegger day for the same muscle group, kind of do 2A days trying to trying to beat a dead horse.
And I developed tendonitis in my wrist from playing football and playing hockey and I I really noticed it with preacher curls. And so I asked the lead trainer at at the gym that I was going to his Hampshire Hills in. I don't know if it's Milford or Amherst NH, but I was going there and the lead trainer was like, why don't you talk to Brad? Because, Brad. He's got these wrist wraps they they help support the wrists and and whatnot.
So I I go up and I talk to him he's like well are you a pussy? And I was like I I don't think so. He was like come bench with us on Wednesday we'll we'll see whether or not you're a pussy and that that was the first time I ever trained powerlifting. I think we maxed out bench and I benched like three O 5. Nothing too shabby and. That November I did my first meet. It was, I think I benched 335 and deadlifted four O 5 and it
was a push pull, so no squat. And my squat at the time was 3/15, so I I didn't want to help bench my squad. So yeah, yeah, so that's that's awesome. I love hearing everyone's origin stories. For me it was. I kind of was always big into lifting for sports, specifically football, and kind of towards the end of my college career, obviously the past few years, I was like, I want to compete. I figured this would be something I got into after the fact.
So now I do golf and powerlifting to very drastic ends of the sport. But kind of the two paths that I feel like most retired college college athletes go for, I get. So you did mention that you competed at the American Pro this year. Was that your first time competing at the American Pro? I competed at the American Pro last year as well. I didn't have as good of a
showing. I got the American Pro one, I got my squat opener on my 3rd and by the by, when when that happens, you just don't want to be there anymore and you're like, let's just go and and like let's finish the meet and then let's just go home. So I I went one for three on squats with 970 and then I benched 628 I think and then deadlifted 728 which was a 2332 I think. And that was the first time I PR D my deadlifts since 2016.
Yeah, it was. It was kind of funny that the one lift that actually went according to plan was the the red headed stepchild of my 3 lifts. Yeah, I feel like that's kind of the same way for me. I think it used to be bench for me, but like, recently my bench has been going through a growth phase. My squats just been my squat. I mean, they're not relatively comparable, but yeah, I think the American Pro has been like an awesome meet to watch. I mean, you get some of the
heavy hitters there. So maybe talk about more some of the actual experience of going to the meet, seeing some of these heavy hitters. Just the the energy and all that. The biggest difference between the American pro and like a local meet is there isn't that much of a difference except they had a bouncer at the door because like when you go to a local meet. You know the warm up room gets swamped, crowded and there's there's no room for anything to go on.
But at the American Pro, you had to have like a like a coaching pass or a lifter pass or just walk around in a singlet. No one was going to question anyone if you were like half naked, but like it. It was a bouncer at at the door making sure that no one who wasn't supposed to be in there was in there. But like everyone, like, it's almost like one big family when when you're competing, because when you compete and you're competing against someone.
Especially at the top level, you never want to beat someone and then be like, you know, I didn't really have my best day. So everyone's like sharing food, sharing water, sharing whatever they can to help their competitors to, to perform at their best so that when you eventually do beat them, they got no excuses. You don't. There's no asterisks on your Hall of Fame when you're when you beat them, when you've made sure that they are as prepared as you are. So it was it was pretty cool,
like. I got to talk to Chad Penson. I got to talk to Justin Zadal. Ed Blair is pretty cool in person. Hunter Henderson a lot. It was. It was. It was real cool just to get a bunch of meatheads in the same zone with all the same goal and just exist. Yeah, yeah, it seems. I think that's something that eventually I'd like to try to get to that level of the go to. It just seems like a unmatched like energy and kind of it almost seems it's like obviously the WPO is more of like the
equipped. This is kind of like the raw meat I would say. I guess there's like that and the Ghost Clash, I guess maybe for for you, what's what's your next plan meet? I don't know if you have one set yet or you're kind of just in a training phase or? I just started training for the Ghost Class 3. It'll be my first meet in sleeves, so not. I'm looking forward to not stressing about the timer, but I'm not looking forward to everyone being like, oh, you get
this much out of your raps. Yeah, that's. Yeah. I mean, is there a reason you chose to do sleeves or is the Ghost Clash? Can you use raps in that or is it just a choice you made? Yeah, I I competed in the first Ghost Clash and I I used raps. And at that meet, I actually got to talk with Dan Bell. And he was like, all right, listen. You can't be. You can't just do one type of of lift. You don't want, you don't want
the the wraps to be your crutch. You have to do a lot more work outside of the wraps and then whatever you do is going to translate directly into the wraps. So what what he says, what what he was doing at the time before he like competed 20 times and what was it, 22 or 23 whatever. It was a ridiculous amount of time. So he was like. Every other meat do wraps and every other meat do sleeves so that you get that compounding
interest. You get more than just one kind of total because when you're doing wraps you got that central nervous system just just firing. Like I've I've I've thrown up at each of my past four meets just from the central nervous system, overloading and overheating and stuff and then like having to recover from that just in time to start benching, warming up for bench or like. The American Pro was fast.
So I was I was doing some of my recovery stuff in between my bench warm up stuff just so that I could get onto the platform. But going into sleeves you're not able to push your limits as much because it it's it's more muscular than its elastic Potential energy going through your knees and and collecting that with the wraps and the stiffness of the wraps and all that big science voodoo bullshit stuff.
But which means that like. I've I've done a couple bench only meets in the past and I've always said bench only is gay unless you're injured or seven hundreds on the bar. And I it usually takes me like 4 or five years to to beat the numbers that I hit in that bench only meet. So, like having the the sleeves squat where you're not taxing your CNS as much, where it's more like you're not going to squat as heavy unless you're Craig Foster in Sleeves than you
will in wraps. So like having a little bit more left on the table, a little more energy in reserve means that you potentially will have a higher bench and higher deadlift. And we all know how my deadlift goes. Yeah. So I mean I just started using wraps this year. So I've kind of thought about, I've got, I've been kind of questioning like what's what's my total going to look like in sleeves or what's my squawking
look like in sleeves. Now Because most of my training I only put on the wraps if it's heavy, single or like a straight bar, straight weight, which I haven't done that on squats since the meet. So I mean, I feel like I've gone through a really big growth period with it. But I do think it's important to kind of make sure you're still
building a foundation. Just like with any multiply guys like you still have to be strong at your base or you're just not going to be able to handle weights no matter what the suit does. It's it's kind of similar to how I approach my belt. Previously I used to belt up
even just for the bar like. I wouldn't latch the belt, but I'd still have the belt on because someone was like, you realize that when you have your belt on, your form is different than when it's not on. You got to practice that. And I just took that to heart and I just ran with it. And then I ended up with a herniated disc because my cord was so weak from just using the belt as a crutch all the time.
So like when I when I got the herniated disc, someone actually stole my belt and I didn't realize it for like 6 months. But coming back didn't use a belt. And now now it's like I start warming up. I'm like naked. And then I throw on the sleeves and then I throw on the belt and then I latch the belt and then I take the sleeves off and then I start with the wrap.
So it's like a progression so that I'm not relying on one like equipment system and at a single time, so that I'm building up the raw strength without affecting anything else. Yeah. And that's actually a good thing to bring up too, because I mean, some people like to go with like I don't put the belt on till I'm not like 60% or something I've kind of done is in the offseason. I kind of do around 60% when I'll throw the belt on.
But when I'm in prep, once I have two plates on the bar for that, the left or squat, that's when I'll throw it on, just to either save my back or just kind of keep injury prevention at a lower level during the prep. Yeah, you want to play just the tip with, like, pushing your limits without getting injured. Yeah. And it's kind of like just shouldn't, like you said, not develop weaknesses.
Kind of like if some people will use like straps on every single back exercise in the book and then they go to try to deadlift and they wonder why they're dropping four O 5 double overhand when they can pull six with straps, so.
I I just recently started using straps and stuff on on back exercises, but my caveat with that would be that I also make sure on every bench and every deadlift day that isn't succeeded by. A bench or a deadlift day that I'm doing some sort of grip work so that I still get the the the gripper, the the grip going so it and and that really helped it. It brought me from dropping 700 for five years in a row on deadlifts to locking out 777
twice and then getting Reds. So do you, I guess, more into your training? What is kind of like your structure of training? Do you have a coach like do? What kind of program do you follow? I've been with Joe Sullivan for the past year about if I've I've I've had his girlfriend Brioni Terry running my nutrition for the past like 2 1/2, maybe three years. At this point, when I when I was looking for a new coach, I actually asked Brioni and she was like, no do Joe.
I hooked up with Joe and it's it's I I used to run 5th set. I I ran 5th set for for seven years in a row. And this new this new training has a whole lot of variables that I had not even considered. Like the biggest one would be an undulated deload kind of method where. I never take a full deload like a whole week where I'm just doing like 5 by three or or three by 150% or whatever.
It's always like I'll be squatting heavy, I'll be benching heavy and I might be deloading my deadlift or like Deload, my squat still be benching, still be dead lifting. And it's it's kind of like a push and pull of like where the fatigue systems are are are laying out and then I used to train three days a week and then as I got closer to the American Pro the first time I was doing. One training session every three
days. So my week would be 9 days long, but I would only get three training sessions in. But Joe pretty much was like, you're being fat, stop doing that. And now I train five days a week. One day is completely cardio. It's like cardio, sprints, cardio making me less fat, basically. And then there's there's the justification for all that stuff is is like, I didn't really understand it until I saw how it.
Cracker like in action on the platform at the American Pro because my after the squats like we already said that my CNS was blown out. I was overheating I think Garrett said I I was sick or something and I dropped my bench opener. I I haven't watched back the the the the footage from the the stream yet but everyone always mentioned on that and it was like I didn't drop because of that and I dropped it because I I couldn't hit anything over 545
in training on bench but. There's ADHD side tangent yeah the cardio yeah it's it's it was cool because now now we're getting into the the the the kind of funky voodoo bullshit as I, as I call it. Because if when when you hear Joe talk about things on on like his Instagram stories and stuff a lot of people are like there's no way that that just sounds weird. It it, it doesn't. And and I was in that group too until recently where he's
talking about. Training your hypoxic response, which is basically your body's response to having less oxygen in it. And because you put yourself into hypoxia when you're lifting, because you are, you're trying to control your heart rate like you almost have a video game controller able to control how fast, how slow your heartbeat goes once you train, train your cardio up to a healthy point. And it's completely based on how
you're breathing. There's there's the sympathetic, parasympathetic nervous systems that go in effect when you breathe in increases your heart rate. When you exhale, decreases your heart rate. So a lot of like the, the, the, like meditations from like the Far East and whatnot is all about slowing down the heart rate and and being more centered. No one really like ninjas used to do that mythologically and
like. There's so many people online that are like, I'm a Viking, I'm a tiger, I'm a lion. No one's like, but what the fuck did the ninjas do? Like how? How are they so efficient at killers? We're trying to assassinate these weights. What were they doing? And so we're just controlling our heart rate with, with the breathing rates, with meditative breathing. And it's like, I'm like, this feels so stupid, but it works. Like going into the mean I was, I was the least confident that I
had ever been. Because my my nutrition was not anywhere. It like, I'm eating 2900 to like 3500 calories, like being at 3:50, that's that seems kind of low. And then also doing a ridiculous amount of cardio every day, I was like, I I don't think I'm stronger. And then I go out, I'm 17 lbs lighter. Like I was in fights with Brianna constantly. I was like, I need to be at 370. I need to be at 370. And she was like, no, you don't think about your DOS. And I was like, Oh my gosh.
Fucking dots. The dots. I just want a bigger total. And I go out there, I get AI, get a total PR and I'm like, shit, it worked. Like at one point I was like, I don't, I need to be at 370. I'm freaking out. And I'm too light right now because I was at like 320 in the offseason and they were like, hey Pat, calm the fuck down and shut the fuck up. And I was like, you know what? I'm pissed off now. I'm just going to be maliciously compliant. You give me the program, I'm falling it to a tee.
If it works, good for me. If it doesn't work, you're fucking wrong, yeah. And now I'm just eating crow because it works. Yeah. But it is kind of that brings up a good point too. I think something with like with hiring a coach, like you might question some of the things they do or maybe it's just very different from when you've done the past. But I think it is very important to kind of just if you're going to pay them, might as well fucking buy into what they're
selling. Like just just go for it. If it doesn't work, see you later. Like, yeah, it's. And a lot of it goes against your intuition. It's like it. I feel like when you hire a coach, you have to ask a lot of questions like you're going to be annoying but you literally pay them to answer your questions. It's almost like you you bought a genie, you have unlimited wishes and all the wishes are are just answer my damn questions. I don't know what's going on.
Tell me what's going on. Like, yeah, I'm like, I'm super like, I guess OCD about like my programming. So like when I get something, I read it through and I'm like, what's this? Why does he want to do this? And then like, what's it going to look like in a few weeks? So I think being transparent like as a coach myself and having a coach like being transparent with that stuff is also very important. And the amount of times that
I've cursed my coach out. Like I I've always said the 1st, the 1st 2 rules of coaching is never coach yourself, never coach your significant other because like I wouldn't I would not program myself the way that that Joe's been programming me and when I'm like I've already puked this training cycle once because we're we're trying to work on the the hypoxic response and trying to work on getting better at controlling the heart rate. So like he's like I'm gonna I'm
gonna have you do 180 air squat superseted with. 120 push ups with 60 pull ups and you're only going to get 60 seconds of rest every every single time that you go through this. And I was like, that's not I I would rather masturbate with sandpaper than do that. But let's do this. Like I would not program that for myself. The amount of times that I curse my coach out Joe, any past coaches I've had, even Brianna just for the nutrition, I would not 1A significant other cursing me out that much.
That would not be a healthy relationship. That is that is Dom sub level even worse. Yeah. And kind of with that the the biggest thing with a coach is even like for for people that are at elite level like, I mean just like you for example, like Leah Reichman obviously has the highest female total of all time. She still has Laura Phelps as her coach like. Just because you're up in that level doesn't mean you don't need someone to keep you
accountable. Yeah. And accountability is the the biggest thing. It's it's almost like you're paying like you're paying them to program you. But what? So one of the things that I've noticed with a lot of like lower level lifters and and like I hate the word amateur level lifters because we're all amateurs. But they feel like they're bothering their coaches so they don't send videos, they don't, they don't ask questions and stuff like that where it's like that's the most important part.
Like I at one at one point in my my last training cycle I had what was it like four sets of 12 dumbbell rows. And I'm like, I'm I'm a big guy so I'm going to be dumbbell rowing pretty heavy. And my, my my gym has like like plate loaded. Like you're able to load up a dumbbell with plates and I got it up to 300 lbs And and I sent a video of my coach. I'm like look at this. I'm so proud of this and he he he sent a voice message back he was like Patrick that was absolute dog shit.
Do not ever do that again. And like he he completely restructured the way that I was doing my accessories. Like I I basically was like accessories mean go as heavy as possible as long as you can still do it. Body English doesn't matter. It's just that the weight moves and now it's all like everything has a tempo, everything has a stretch, everything has a compression, focusing specifically on the mind muscle connection.
Like I I watched all those Kai Green videos like 12 years ago and now I'm finally under understanding what he was saying and I'm like oh more than just grapefruits and shit. Yeah, yeah. And I think I feel like you see some of the most successful power lifters are the ones who do their primary, secondary or whatever, but when they go to their do their accessories, they're training like a bodybuilder. Yeah, I mean, no one can disagree that when you add muscle, you're going to get
stronger. It's just the fact of life. So why not do it properly to increase your muscle mass? Yeah. So. I guess also is where do you train out of? Like, where's like your central gym? I I'm in Manchester, NH right now at Free State Barbell. I've been at at a pretty much. Up until recently I've been a a gym hermit pretty much going anywhere. Like I've I trained at Mass or Mass Barbell before it closed down. Back when I worked in Worcester, I trained at Iron Empire before it shut down.
There isn't a trend there, I hope. Yeah. Wait. Free. Stay. Watch out. Yeah. But yeah I've I've, I've pretty much gone every like this past training cycle. I went to Med fit for a couple squat days. Like the the the gym is very like you get the Monday, Wednesday, Friday crowd that do squat, bench, deadlift on those specific days and then like Tuesday, Thursday it's dead. It's it's just so dead. In my my program I bench before I squat.
So bench is on a Monday just so that I don't get the the inflammation in the shoulders from like going out wide to squat and then just having it negatively impact my bench. So I was always squatting on a Tuesday, so like load up 900 lbs when there's no one in the gym. I mean I've done that before but you don't want to do that. It's it's not fun. You end up you end up cutting yourself high.
You end up squatting high end training because you don't have those systems of safety like I used to. I used to be a hard ass. Me like never use spotters. Like if you get if you put yourself in a situation where if you miss the lift you're going to die you're going to find a way to to make it so. I always use clips on bench and and always make it so that you die if you miss a lit. Now that I'm two years older, I I understand that it's it's not that way. Yeah, yeah.
I feel like that that's something that it's kind of like a. The logic, like you think about it logically, you're like, well, it's kind of like the fight or flight response. Like I'm going to like Joe Sullivan says adapt or die. But it's like, no, you're just being a fucking idiot and someone's going to find you with a barbell around your neck on the next morning.
So I think the biggest thing and you can push yourself to limits, you didn't know when you have a group of people around you, even just the energy levels, but specifically the safety of just having spotters. There's there's the whole like weighing of of how comfortable are you with failing versus how safe are you when you do fail. And it's it's like that push and pull and you don't really want to test the waters of either. Just it's just always better to be safer.
Because if you die, you can't be stronger the next day, no matter how enticing that is. Yeah, the economy. It's awful. Yeah, I know, rough world. But I guess over the years kind of what has been some of your biggest like lessons or what kind of made you kind of realize that you're going to be one of these top level athletes across the board. I I've got some pretty bad imposter syndrome so I'd I'd still don't believe that I'm I'm
at the top yet. Like there's still guys out there like Dan Bell's records gonna stick around for a while. You've got Zach Myers who's who is at 275 and is eyeing that record. You got Andrew House coming in getting close to that record and sleeves you've got Jesus Olivera's or and then there's just a little old me. I'm like, I'm like it's almost like until I hit that 24 legit then then I'm just average and I don't I don't once I hit the my first 1005 back in 2021, I think it was or 20.
Yeah, I think it was 2021. I was like all right maybe we're on to something. When I hit my first 600 LB bench I was like maybe but the the deadlift has always kept me humbled. It's like I could like if I had an 800 LB deadlift I'd be swinging swinging with with the big boys. But I'm still like five years worth of 675 being my my deadlift and then only recently breaking that and and at this past meets still only 716 even even with being able to lock out what I did lock out and but
still didn't get past. Like, I'm not there yet, but I I have learned a lot a lot of lessons along the way. It's it's like the pursuit of strength is something that no one can ever take away from you unless they take like a leg or something. But it's it's it's taught me a
lot of patience. I've had a lot of mental health issues and like like I I feel like strength training and the pursuit of strength is like the movie Inception where where they never really know when they're in a dream unless like he spins the top and like being able to like bench 500 or or squat 600 or whatever is like me spinning that top and realizing this is my reality. This is where I'm in because I've had, I've had times where I didn't I wasn't in in in
complete check with reality. Like one of one of the times that I I went to the hospital, I completely hallucinated a cat. I I had a cat and then when they switched my meds I was like, where'd the cat go? And they're like, what Cat? And I was like, you're telling me that I don't have a cat anymore, but like even further with with the stuff that Joe's teaching me. Learning to control my central nervous system, learning to control my breathing, my heart
rate, all of that stuff. It's allowed me to, like, get better in touch with like controlling my emotions. It sounds Pansy esque, but like couple weeks ago my cat passed away and I I would have been way more self-destructive if I wasn't in more control of like the the way that I I see myself in like able to control myself internally. So it's like the gym is is more than just the gym it's it's it's the hard stuff is outside of the gym. But the most benefits are also outside of the gym.
Yeah, and I think. I mean, you hear it all the time. Like, no one ever regrets joining a gym. No one ever regrets getting a workout in. And I mean, for a lot of power lifters, it's just an escape from reality for most people. And I mean, pursuing the sport is like, it's something that just like, it's almost like chasing the dragon, but in a
much different manner. I think something that you touched on briefly and something that I've been learning over the past year is kind of just focusing on the longevity of the sport and not just like. Trying to burn out too fast because I mean you see so many people come into the sport and you're like oh who this guy is going to be good and he just some 19 year old kid just walked on the platform and put up 1800 and he's he'll be on the right track.
And then you check in a year later and his Instagrams gone, you've never seen him compete again. And it's just like it's important to find the balance. Obviously it's physical, but mental is just as important in the sport. Yeah finding finding that personal identity of of like who you actually are is pretty important because a lot of those guys, like I used to be the young guy always around and everyone would be like let's just wait until Patrick kids puberty.
But like you'll see like I remember a couple years ago there was a a kid who was getting close to a 900 LB squat at like 18 or 19 raw and I was like damn, like like we're all going to be pretty screwed once he like actually goes and is is here for a while And then he just he I think he hit 900 and then just disappeared for like 3 years And like the the the
current. I think it's still the current teen raw with raps all time total record Skylar Brand like he he hit that and then he disappeared for a little bit and then he competed at the American Pro last year and it was pretty cool to to be able to talk to him but he still hadn't gotten back to to that level of where he was at and it's it's kind of cool seeing guys like what used to be Larry Wheels but like now it's Andrew House and the guys who like were those young guys
doing the the really like absurd numbers like actually continuing with it and it's it's it's hard to see when kids are like I am the teen they almost it's almost like peaking in high school and that's that's my own personal biggest fear is having peaked so I that's that's part of why I'm in the sport I don't want to ever have peaked even though I know it's coming eventually.
Yeah, exactly. And it's kind of like the IT goes along with the beginner's mindset as well as like the the pursuit of just breaking records or setting your own life goals that you maybe have deep down side that you don't or you just kind of want to see your potential. Like, it's mostly just, I want to see where my limits are and where I could go on the sport, not just, all right, I want to get to a 700 LB Squat and then oh, OK, I'm done.
Yeah, 'cause, like, once you once you hit that goal, you get that taste of, you get that massive, like, cache of dopamine just dropped all over your face and you're like, I need more. Yeah. Or at least that's how I go. Some people are like, I got it, we're good, We can now eat salad and go on Turkey trots. That's. Yeah, I mean, yes. It's like the never be satisfied and always like hit one goal, move on to the next and just see where that drain the train is going to stop.
I guess the next thing I wanted to talk about with you is kind of obviously you said you've had some struggles with your deadlift, but you put up some insane numbers across the board and your squat, I mean being able to squat over 1000 lbs, that's a special club of its own. What are some of the things that have got you there? Maybe specific movements I guess, or you just think that's been something that you've wanted to train the most or just kind of explain? Overall squats for sure.
The thing that got me there was definitely doing air squats. Like my old coach. He used to say do 100 air squats a day. Just grab a broomstick and a four PVC pipe. 100 squats a day because it takes about 200 reps for your body to develop a muscle memory. So you got to do 200 perfect squats. You do 700 squats a week you you develop that good form and like
I I had some depth issues. I mean I've had depth issues on and off but I I took a squat and I I hit 965 but called for depth and I was like this is this is not OK. So I started doing 100 air squats a day. At least 25 air squats before squat sessions and and and then the next meet and I was like my my Max right now is 965 so I'm going to take 970 on 2nd. I still had a shitty squat. I got on my toes and ended up good morning in it. But on the 3rd I got 1005 and and that was that.
But like what I'm finding now is like basically above 95% your brain can tell your body whatever it wants. It's not going to listen. It's just going to tap into the muscle memory like you'll see people at meets and their first squat will be like, like Chef Kiss, beautiful. Like this is, this is textbook squatting. And then they come out for their second and it's a death grinder. Their knees are touching. They're they're all hunched over
the bars on their their armpits. And it's you're like, who are you? Like, what happened? And it's 'cause that that's where their muscle memory is at. Like they were able to adjust on the fly at their like 92, 1/2% whatever their opener was. But once they get to their second and third, it's like, yeah, it's it's a little bit of a a boogeyman going on there. But between the air squats.
And I started training my core a bit more aggressively, trying to get more ranges of motion, trying to work on both the the stretch and the the the contraction of of the muscles going on. Also training the obliques like very few people train the obliques and it's like it it makes sense because we never do a twisting movement when it comes to any of the big three lists. But the moment you start to twist, oh shit, probably should have trained the obliques at some point.
It helps with the stability and stuff. And I'm getting to the point where like I'm having to learn like how to properly. Like I've I've I've talked about breathing before but like when you take a squat like when you take the bar. Like your the your ability to take air in changes and and at at some point it knocks the air out of you and you've got to be able to like like if you watch the videos from my most recent American Pro my first squat, I
took my air. I took the bar and then I got the squat command took another big air and then I squatted my second attempt. I felt the pressure. If I open my mouth all my air was going to go. So I just, I was like, Nope, biting the bullet. Let's do this. Just learning how to how. It's almost like the biological systems back to the funky voodoo bullshit but like working all the all the muscles that are used in the squat. So like doing super high volumes worth of leg extensions. Leg curls.
What else have I done? Like Bulgarian split squats working on? Like I I recently changed to squatting from barefoot to heels and turns out I don't actually know how to squat. So I I have I was meeting up with Dexter Bideaux the the guy who does probability up at Med fit and he was like you just have you have two Frankenstein legs that just don't match and you don't have any sort of connection to the the nerves and and any control of like what's
actually going on there. So, like, learning how to, like, contract the right muscles at the right time rather than trying to muscle things up. Because I've just been muscling things up for as long as I can remember. Like actually learning how to lift the way that we're supposed to lift. That probably got me probably the furthest. And then deadlifts. So when I competed at the American Pro last year, I weighed in at 369 and I I I noticed a trend that was going
on when people lose weight. Like there's almost like a bell curve for every every lift where the weight classes like kind of distribute where the the prime leverages for each of them are most. On squats and bench you're super heavyweight. You should be good like every like a lot of people use powerlifting as an excuse just to be fat and be so like I'm part of the the the the Super heaviest should be for the professionals only.
Like if you can't open with a 800 squat and 500 bench, just lose 2 weight classes and that's the whole point of dots is to prevent that from happening. But people love their cookies. Yeah right. I noticed that it's almost like the the the 220-240-2275 area, that's where the prime deadlifts are happening and then the squats and and bench are all often super heavy so there's some sort of leverage issue going on. You you look at all the top dead lifters, a lot of them are dead lifting sumo.
They've got the leverages going on there and not a single person above £300 up until Shane Haller recently and Luke Nall have have been pulling sumo above 700 lbs. So it's like there's there's some sort of like body distribution going on there. So I was like let's Recon, get back to the same weight and my my nutritionist Brianna Teri was like, all right, finally we're we're going to make you not fat anymore.
Well we got down to 320 and I ended up pulling 750, holding it for like 10 seconds at lockout just to prove to myself I actually locked this out and I'm, I'm gonna hold on to it doing a bit of like kind of sporadic grip work. Like I'm doing more grip work now because like I basic. I've I've seen like what it's able to do for me and I'm able to progress like with it. And it's a lot of like not not even heavy singles, a lot of light singles.
Like I'll have a 10 by 1 at like 500 lbs with a. 60 seconds of rest and it's like the the 10th Rep has to look the same as the first Rep and that's building that consistency. Almost like the air squats with the squats. Kind of building that deadlift up to to something that I won't be embarrassed about. Something that I won't out bench. I still out bench my sumo
though, yeah. That's kind of like, I do agree with that kind of bell curve thing, because something like John Ruppo told me once was like. Like, so he's sitting around like 315 now, but he's like if I if I were to put on like 1015 lbs, my deadlift might go down by 20 lbs just because either my stomach's in the way of the bar, I can't get down into my proper position. But yeah, so I did notice that too. Like the the two 2242 is where you see like some of those Moss
or deadlift just because. Whether like at that weight class, that's like you can be like a lean, like the body composition is overall Like you don't really see like very fluffy 240 twos at the elite level, Like that's just at that point they're going up to 275 plus and it's kind of the opposite. With bench, it's like the heavier you are usually, the more you can press. Like, I mean Julius Maddox, 770, he's like a £400 dude. Like there's not many people under the.
I mean, it's rare to see a £500 bench at 2:42. Anything under that, it's basically you don't really see it. So yeah there's like 90% of deadlifts is all in the starting position. So like if you can get into the perfect starting position you're you're golden. And us fat guys who struggle to pick up to to even put on our socks but that and the same with with bench I lost about two inches. I I went from 370 to 3:20 and back up to 350.
I lost about two inches of belly and I was taking a video. I was like damn I could actually compete in the USAPL. Now I'm I'm hitting depth on my bench. This is absurd. But with that also came with like we we I hadn't ever trained the like 2 inches is a lot. I was getting girl. It is a significant amount. It's too much. Yeah. That's that's like 175 PSI when I'm at 3:50, you know? Yeah, but we hadn't ever trained that, that two inches. So I was getting extra inflammation in like 4 weeks out
from the meet. I ended up missing a 575 bench because like my descent got it was it was almost like someone turned the video into slow motion. Like it just came down and it was probably a 10 second descent, 2 second pause and then like start to like at that
point. It's it's not even worth pressing at that point because like when you take out any sort of weight above a certain percentage, you've got a timer going on. And like, once that timer's up, whether you've done reps or not, you're not going to be able to lock anything out. Yeah, and that's something that I kind of get a little bit with. It's more of like a so I can like maintain like a pretty solid like. I don't have like a crazy arch, but I'm not like a pretty like.
I have a pretty decent, like good arch to my bench and I've started to notice more and more that like. It's almost getting more difficult to just get it down to that last inch and 1/2 or so. It's almost like trying to touch in a shirt, especially with how wide and like trying to keep my lats tight and everything. And I mean, it's made a world of difference in terms of my pressing ability.
But, like, I get up from the bench and my head's purple and I feel like I'm going to pass out rather than, Oh, my chest is sore. Yeah, it's there's something to be said about being able to manage all the blood pressure going to your face. Yeah, yeah. And I mean, it's obviously a much different level and equipped, like you see some of the and like the, the biggest thing with Equipped is actually being able to deal with the
pressure. Obviously you have to learn the suit and the shirt and all that shit. But like half the time some people just won't get a lift that they could definitely do because they blacked out at the hole in the hole. Oh yeah, they couldn't get it to their chest in time before passing out. So yeah, I I guess like trying to compare pole vaulting with high jumping. Like, it's two completely
different things, yeah. Yeah, I guess kind of touching on that a little bit, have you ever thought about getting into gear or competing in gear? I don't have enough friends and I got my eyes on on a couple goals in RAW before I even consider doing it. I've I've had people just sliding in my DMS for the past like five years. Like before Jimmy started like his initial break once he hit his first 1000 lbs on bench, like someone stood in my DMS.
Like hey you could do that. He's he's older than you. You could do that now. And I'm like just play. I don't have any friend any more friends I'm but yeah I've I've only gotten in a shirt twice and the the last time that I did I was 19. So that was eight years. Oh, I'm old, but at the time I could only bench 5:45 and I couldn't touch 600 and I was like, what is going on? Do we need to add more weight? I've heard that work sometimes and it's it's it's like trying to walk on a slack line.
It's it's weird, it's fun. I wish I could do more, but like, I've got these goals already set out for me. I've got too many plans in place. Yeah, I mean, I'm kind of the same way. Like I'm mostly around it a lot with being around with John and like this past week and I went down to Hell Bent and Bridgeport and like all those guys are just.
Piece and their gear. So I mean I'm, I'm getting a little taste of it, but I kind of have my goals, my own and I'm like, all right, I mean I don't know what it's going to take or how long it's going to take, but I really want a total 2000 raw, whether it's at 242 or 275, that's kind of the where I want to stay. I don't think I want to get any
bigger than that. But yeah, I think I definitely, and I also want to start using it as like a training tool to like overload, whether it's just a pair of briefs and a single ply shirt, just. I think anyone can benefit from being able to overload the CNS, kind of just like how any equipped guy benefits from training RAW. Kind of goes both ways, Yep. So I guess before we kind of wrap things up, I know recently you I saw something on your story about a little e-book that you wrote.
You want to kind of explain what that is and what what kind of inspired you to do that. So the e-book, basically it's way too long. So the way that I program my clients, when I program them, it's it's based on my experiences and the experiences of people who've taught me. So I didn't feel right writing an e-book unless I'm like, hey, here's the context is of everything that I know.
And so I I went through like the the, the the original programs like 531 block periodization where that came into play. I also went into 1020 Life Juggernaut, 5th set and the Cube method trying to basically give context without like I've got a lot of lines in there that are like, hey, if you want a full program by their ebook, I don't want to step on their toes or anything because like powerlifting is is for everybody like everything you want can powerlift and it's it's really
fun and it's really fulfilling. So I wanted to like basically give it not anthological or like powerlifting one O 1 before I go into like what I program for my clients. And then like where the the the future of programming is going with the stuff that I don't completely understand yet but it's it's it's 77 pages long with no graphics so far which is long for an ebook. But my my old coach was like you should write an e-book didn't give me any instruction.
And Joe, my current coach Joe Sullivan was like you need to write an e-book. You've got these like out of box ideas like put them on paper and you will understand how things work a little better. It's it's almost like doing math. Like, you can do math in your head, but like once you write it down, you understand things a lot more, a lot better to be grammatically correct that it's
like basically it's a training. It's basically powerlifting one-on-one with the SAT program that I've given my clients before. Yeah, that's awesome. And I think this actually transitions perfectly into my final question of the episode. If you could give a power lifter, a new power lifter going into his first meet, a piece of advice, what would it be? Just have fun. Like like you, you shouldn't have a lot of weight on your shoulders going into your first meet.
You just get get a good squat, get into your meet, get a good bench, make sure you're still in the meet, make sure you get a good deadlift because all the numbers that you're going to have progressing forward, your second meet, your third meet, everything. All your training numbers are going to be based off of what you hit in that first meet. So it's almost like everyone starts somewhere. This is your starting point. Go try as hard as you can to go 9 for 9. It might not go to plan.
That's OK, just start somewhere and that'll be your diving board to jump off of to get some gains. That's awesome. Well, I wanted to thank you for coming on and taking the time out of your day to join me. If you have anything you want to plug or you want to let them know where they can find you on Instagram, that would be great. My Instagram is full primal power underscores in between each word. My equipment sponsor, Move Weight, is currently having a Black Friday sale.
I believe it's 25% off. Find them on Instagram at Move WT. I think that's it. Awesome. Thank you very much anytime. Thanks for having me. No problem.