Just wondering Mike, could you tell us roughly how strong you were after say 2 years lifting, and how you progressed throughout the years.
Also would you say you was naturally a strong guy, say at school were you known for strength? and what age did you start taking training very seriously?
what and whom did you learn from about powerlifting as I feel every top lifter needs someone to have guided them during the early parts of their career.
I was always a big guy. After I started lifting, I became a strong guy, but before that I was kind of fat.
I started lifting in 1997. I was in the 7th grade (12 or 13 years old) and we had a "weightlifting club" at school. We only met once a month, but I thought it was cool and I was on fire for lifting weights. I remember my little brother and I wanted to lift, but we were too young to lift at school and we didn't have weights at home, so we go our aluminum baseball bat and did manual resistance stuff using the bat as a "bar". My second month of the weightlifting club, I benched "the big boy weights" -- 135. Of course, I probably weight in the 150-160 range. Maybe more than that. But still, not bad for a youth/early teen. In 8th grade, Dad bought the lifting set every kid had growing up. The bench with the leg extension machine on it and the sand filled weights... So my brother and I lifted with him. When I got into High School, I was lifting weights with the football team (which I was a part of). We did a lot of different stuff then. About this time, we got the internet at home, and I started reading all I could about lifting weights. I discovered if you wanted to get strong, you were a Powerlifter (simplified for a 15 year old's understanding). So it wasn't long and I quit the program on the football team and wrote my own. I still have it at home. It wasn't good, but coach let me do it anyway. But it must've been good enough, because I benched my first bodyweight bench -- 195. As a Sophmore, I read about periodizaiton (linear) and I started doing heavy triples. In no time, my bench shot up. I did 315 before I was a junior in High School. During this time, i was also squatting and deadlifting. I don't remember what the numbers were, but I broke the school squat record as a Sophmore (440 or so). As a Junior, I broke the school bench record (370). I can't remember if I got over 400 or not. I want to say that I didn't. As a junior, I was following Westside pretty heavily. By the time I finished my senior year of High School, I benched 435, squatted 600, and deadlifted 535 -- all raw. I also set my school Clean record with 315. I weighed 250. Then I went to the Air Force Academy. In basic, I went from 250 pounds bodyweight to 225. I started a lot of lifts over again, but also got into powerlifting very seriously. I got some Metal gear for Christmas and began my evoloution there.
I never had a "coach" and have always been too hard-headed to listen to anybody. I have to question everything I learn. It's turned out to be a good thing, but it's got some pitfalls of it's own. I was self-taught on programming, on technique, and especially on how to put gear on and how to use gear. There was NOBODY around me who had even heard of that. What I did do was read a lot. I totally emersed myself in powerlifting. I read about it all the time. I thought about it all the time.
I guess I should clarify, I would read and "listen" to people all the time. I just didn't arbitrarily believe everything they said. I had to question it and affirm it in my own mind.
As for my junior level lifting... I'm still a Junior until May, so we'll see.
What I find astonishing is your ability to train alone & figure things out AND be SUCCESSFUL. I always see forums or big name trainers say that you need a team behind you in powerlifting & you've shown otherwise which is a great inspiration.
I feel VERY strongly that what they mean to say is that you have to LEARN to be good at Powerlifting. If you learn best from other people, that's great. If other people aren't available to you, you must learn other ways. I've never been around a bunch of powerlifting superstars for a long period of time, but I have made learning about Powerlifting a central focus for a lot of my free time. I have: Read numerous books from many sources about all manner of fitness subjects Read a ton of online articles Emailed other intelligent Powerlifters Bought and watched numerous DVD's about all manner of fitness subjects Spoke to other knowledgable lifters (either over the phone or in person) Spend large quantities of time contemplating training (this is a tricky thing to do) Used video analysis on my own lifts (because I have no partners for feedback)
I've dedicated a large chunk of time to my powerlifting education and I still have SO much more to learn. I probably have 6 books and 3-4 DVD's waiting to be studied. I'll be making time to get back into that stuff soon. Then after I get through that material, I'm sure I'll find more material.
The point is -- you can reach a high level IF you dedicate yourself to learning about your chosen discipline.
Ah, yes, yes, Nick. The good ole Training ADD days....
You know something though? I'm glad I did it because it gave me a lot of information that wasn't available at the time. I'm talking about specific effects of training / training programs. It helped me learn a lot about exercise selection and some other stuff. It was definately a waste of training time (and now that I can pass that info on, nobody else has an excuse to do what I did), but I think it happened the way it was supposed to.
Either way, your point still holds true. Learn, Apply, Stick it out, Adjust.
