When I was 12 years old,
in the summer between 6th grade and junior high, I started lifting weights.
Granted, I only lifted weights for about two weeks that summer, but I was
pretty sure after those two weeks that I was going to A) be the next NFL superstar,
and B) probably break a whole bunch of world records! Turns out neither
of those things happened, but some 22 years later it’s clear that barbells have
been woven into the fabric of who I am as a human being.
During that same summer,
I attended a football camp at the high school I would attend some years
later (Go Black Tornado!). I attended camp with my older brother and
I was one of the youngest kids in attendance. The camp was awesome for a sports
nerd like me because it was hours of football drills and hours of lifting,
everyday! Moving forward in life, I lifted all through junior high,
always holding onto the hope that it would help me become a football star.
Unfortunately, it quickly became clear that I was never going to be a
football star anywhere, except in my dreams.
In my freshman year of high school, I became friends with a dorky loaner named Tom. Tom was a kid from the country who only attended our high school because his mom was a staff member. Tom and I started hanging out midway through freshman year, and for the rest of high school we were pretty much inseparable. So, when Tom started getting competitive in powerlifting, I became interested in the sport as well. Late in my high school career, I decided to compete for the first time. At that point, my love for the barbell became more than just an affair. For the first time, I was not just using the barbell to make my other relationship (football) jealous. Now, I was embracing my love for the barbell and trying to “go steady” with that dirty girl.
After high school, I had two separate time periods in my late teens/twenties when I temporary ended my relationship with the barbell. Those where I drifted away from fitness and health were strange times in my life. Sports have literally been a part of my life since I started T-ball at age 5! Fitness and health are very much a part of who I am, and during those lapses the worst part wasn’t that I got fat or that I had a myriad of health problems; the worst part was that I had lost a HUGE part of who I was!
After my most recent break, I returned to fitness and health in early 2011 with my girlfriend Jackie in-tow. I was miserably unhealthy and closing in on 300 pounds, and although I didn’t know it at the time, deep down I was missing the barbell. When we got back in the gym to lose weight, we immediately started lifting weights. For me, this was nothing new, but for Jackie it was about as foreign as learning Mandarin. While she too had been an athlete her entire life, she had never touched a barbell. How in the hell in this day and age you can play college basketball and not be on a strength and conditioning program is completely perplexing to me, but that’s what happened for Jackie. Regardless, we were in weight loss mode at that point, so we did cardio as well, but we spent most of our time lifting weights. I worked to teach Jackie how to do the three powerlifts: squat, bench press, and deadlift. We did a lot of other crap, even crossfit in a globo-gym (GASP!), but the heart of our training for weight loss was the barbell.
Now, some 3+ years later, we find ourselves in a
very different place in life…
In the midst of trying to
look good nekkid, I rediscovered my love of the barbell and the powerlifts.
I played around with crossfit, I enjoy olympic lifting, but I was born to
do the powerlifts and man do I enjoy that style of training! I know that
powerlifting isn’t nearly as "sexy" as crossfit, or even Olympic
weightlifting, but I love it nonetheless. Right now, I’m training for the
2014 International Powerlifting League Worlds, and that training is pretty damn
time-consuming. Up to 10 hours a week of training on top of a full-time
job, part-time coaching duties, and a commitment to sleep and recovery means
that my social calendar looks as barren as the Gobi Desert. There are
sacrifices to be made when chasing goals, but the feeling of purpose and
gratification is great!
Jackie, on the other hand, found a new outlet for her ultra competitive nature (she’s right now training for her first powerlifting competition in June!) and so much more! I have seen her grow by leaps and bounds as she struggles to move more weight. Sure, she’s gone from barely
being able to deadlift 100 pounds to doing work sets with 225+
and closing in on her first 300 pound deadlift, but the changes have been much
more than physical strength. Not only is she stronger, fitter (looks good
nekkid!), more athletic, but more importantly Jackie has really started to come
into her own as a woman these past three years. I’ve seen it, and I think
she’d tell you, that something changed inside her when she began to get
physically strong!
So, that’s the very personal story of two people on very different paths, both finding great things in powerlifting. In Part 2 of this blog, I’ll focus on why I think powerlifting should be at the heart of your training, and why I think it can save this obese country!
In my freshman year of high school, I became friends with a dorky loaner named Tom. Tom was a kid from the country who only attended our high school because his mom was a staff member. Tom and I started hanging out midway through freshman year, and for the rest of high school we were pretty much inseparable. So, when Tom started getting competitive in powerlifting, I became interested in the sport as well. Late in my high school career, I decided to compete for the first time. At that point, my love for the barbell became more than just an affair. For the first time, I was not just using the barbell to make my other relationship (football) jealous. Now, I was embracing my love for the barbell and trying to “go steady” with that dirty girl.
After high school, I had two separate time periods in my late teens/twenties when I temporary ended my relationship with the barbell. Those where I drifted away from fitness and health were strange times in my life. Sports have literally been a part of my life since I started T-ball at age 5! Fitness and health are very much a part of who I am, and during those lapses the worst part wasn’t that I got fat or that I had a myriad of health problems; the worst part was that I had lost a HUGE part of who I was!
 |
| Jackie and I at our fattest in 2010 |
After my most recent break, I returned to fitness and health in early 2011 with my girlfriend Jackie in-tow. I was miserably unhealthy and closing in on 300 pounds, and although I didn’t know it at the time, deep down I was missing the barbell. When we got back in the gym to lose weight, we immediately started lifting weights. For me, this was nothing new, but for Jackie it was about as foreign as learning Mandarin. While she too had been an athlete her entire life, she had never touched a barbell. How in the hell in this day and age you can play college basketball and not be on a strength and conditioning program is completely perplexing to me, but that’s what happened for Jackie. Regardless, we were in weight loss mode at that point, so we did cardio as well, but we spent most of our time lifting weights. I worked to teach Jackie how to do the three powerlifts: squat, bench press, and deadlift. We did a lot of other crap, even crossfit in a globo-gym (GASP!), but the heart of our training for weight loss was the barbell.
 |
| Nowadays my social calendar looks like this! |
Jackie, on the other hand, found a new outlet for her ultra competitive nature (she’s right now training for her first powerlifting competition in June!) and so much more! I have seen her grow by leaps and bounds as she struggles to move more weight. Sure, she’s gone from barely
 |
| Jackie used to be deathly afraid of water, yet here she is surfing! |
So, that’s the very personal story of two people on very different paths, both finding great things in powerlifting. In Part 2 of this blog, I’ll focus on why I think powerlifting should be at the heart of your training, and why I think it can save this obese country!
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