Getting fit by First Principles – Part 6 – Lessons from Powerlifting

Victor (00:00) Hello everyone and welcome back to Getting Fit by First Principles. So in today's episode, I want to cover lessons I've learned from my various athletic pursuits. And the topic of this one is going to be powerlifting. Now, the reason why I want to go over my quote-unquote athletic history is to showcase where I have learned these first principles. And I owe a lot of my personal knowledge when it comes to fitness to my time in powerlifting. Victor (00:38) Throughout my training history, I've had a lot of different phases and different seasons. And there isn't really anything I would say I regret. Even though technically I wasted time when I was 18 years old and had no direction, I feel that that was also an important experience for me. Victor (01:01) Even though I no longer engage with the sport of powerlifting, I still think everything I have learned while in the sport has stayed with me to this day. Victor (01:14) I first got into the sport of powerlifting during my junior year of college. I went to UC San Diego and there was a barbell club called Triton Barbell. And during my sophomore year, you know, I was admittedly a little intimidated because I was definitely smaller and weaker than most of the people on that team. And then by my junior year I just decided to take the plunge and just, you know, join them for a group workout. And that was a very humbling, humbling experience. Victor (01:47) When I first joined them, I was same height, you know, six foot one, but I was a skinny one hundred and eighty three pounds at the time. I had been running and lifting in the gym for a number of years, but nothing really impressive because I didn't really have a clear plan when I went to the gym. I was just lifting unintentionally. And then that is when I met one of my first ever mentors. She was a top ten power lifter in the US in the 125 pound female class, and she was outlifting me, which was very, very embarrassing. Victor (02:31) I remember our first conversation when I participated in a group workout with the barbell club. It was like an exchange straight out of a movie because she asked me, how long have you been lifting for? And then at the time I said, around four years. And then she said, why is your bench pressed so low? And, that was a very, very huge blow to my fragile male ego. Victor (03:06) And despite this rough first encounter, she ended up taking me under her wing like my powerlifting big sister. Which in retrospect was kind of a huge honor because she was in a way a local legend, in this powerlifting club, because she had already graduated like three, four years prior, and she chose to stay back and stay with the powerlifting team, which I thought was really, really cool. And I remember that summer of my junior year, I hung out with her a lot and we went back and forth about programming and programming methodology. Victor (03:47) Now the reason why in multiple episodes I keep harping on the importance of logging was in one of our first conversations, my mentor had asked me if I kept a logbook. When I said no, she said that's your first problem. You need to keep a logbook. And then she showed me one of hers. It was a leather bound journal. That was just covered in chalk and dirt with pages just crumpled from sweat getting on them. And she had kept this logbook for years and she was very detailed and meticulous about the way she logged her workouts, every single set, every single repetition, down to the way she felt about each set and little technical notes. And she said that if you're not logging, you will have zero data on how you will improve in the future. You need to keep a logbook. And that first kick in the ass was what I needed. Victor (04:45) So then after that exchange, I bought my own Moleskin journal and I started keeping track of my workouts too. I started writing down my sets and reps and seeing how I was progressing week to week. Victor (05:01) So after that initial burst of strength gains, right, when I started seeing my squat, bench press, and deadlift go up, I started getting into powerlifting YouTube, just consuming as much powerlifting content as possible regarding technique, programming, special exercises, et cetera, et cetera. And I was so excited, I would text my mentor, like, my god, this is what I did today. And then Sounding very unimpressed, she would reply, okay, that's cool and all, but what are you trying to accomplish here? Like you're just doing random things, and if you just want to have fun, that's fine. But do you actually want to get stronger? If if so, I'll tell you how to get stronger, but if not, like don't waste my time with this. Victor (05:49) Now, this exchange was where I learned my second important lesson from powerlifting: training with a plan and with a goal in mind. Because at the time, right, I was thinking of competing in the sport of powerlifting, and I wanted to get stronger, specifically at the squat, bench press, and deadlift. So When my mentor kind of called me out for just kind of following what seemed trendy on YouTube rather than having a distinct plan with a focus on developing a very specific quality, Victor (06:25) that got me to really sit down one of my first ever custom workout plans for myself. she said, Okay, this looks like a structured plan that will get you what you want, which is more muscle and more strength. Victor (06:42) And then when I committed to this program for that entire summer in college where I would do my schoolwork, work at my lab, and then go to the gym, I found that I was making a lot of gains. I went from I think around around 183 pounds to about 198 to 200 pounds. Victor (07:03) I also managed to bench press in the mid-200s, squat in the mid-300s, and start to deadlift within the mo mid-400s, like within a couple months, which I was very, very happy with at the time. Victor (07:18) at this time I truly understood the difference between exercising and training. Exercising is when you merely Get a sweat going with no clear direction. You're just moving your body just to move your body, which is fine for most people. That's a perfectly fine way to engage with the gym. However, I found that with training, you have a very specific goal and a very specific intention in mind. And with that level of focus, I found that I achieved a lot of the things that I wanted to achieve. I got stronger and I was able to build some muscle. Victor (07:58) After this initial burst of gains, right, I felt myself starting to plateau again. And then obviously, being young and not having the experience of multiple training cycles, I did start getting a little antsy. You know, there were points where I started tweaking my program. I started questioning my exercise selection, and then I would keep pestering my mentor about like, I'm having issues with this part of the lift. Should I start performing these? Types of accessory movements. And I was so anxious about my performance that eventually my mentor snapped at me again one day and she said, Listen, I can't answer these questions for you. I actually don't know whether or not these adjustments will be positive for you. You need to be scientific about it. You have the data, you're logging your workouts right. You need to just simply stick with your plan for three to four weeks. See if you are making progress in your lifts. And if you're not, you make an adjustment. If not, and if you keep making progress, then you don't make any adjustments. These are things I can't tell you. You have to experience them yourself. Victor (09:12) Now Even being a decade removed from this conversation, I find that there is still a lot of wisdom to be had in reflecting on it. Because my mentor was right. She had an idea of things that could work for herself, but I was a completely different body with a different set of experiences and training histories and injuries. So she c she can't say for sure whether or not changing one exercise here, one rep scheme there. Would have made a difference with me, and that I just needed to simply think long term and just follow a plan. If I think a certain adjustment would yield more gains, then I need to stick with it and let my body take time to adapt because these things take a while before you will see results. Victor (10:01) The third and final lesson that powerlifting taught me was to stick with the plan. If I make a plan that I need to stick with it in order to find out if it truly works and not to let emotions dictate my decision making. The unfortunate thing is that much like life, gains aren't necessarily a guaranteed outcome in any endeavor you pursue. The only thing that you can really guarantee is the amount of effort, intentionality, and focus that you bring to the training session. Everything else might be out of my control and I needed to accept that, especially being younger. I was kind of afraid of wasting my time, quote unquote. Like, what if I chose the wrong exercises? What if my program wasn't optimally designed? And the truth is It probably did not matter as much as I thought it did. I think what tr would have mattered more was the amount of effort that I was putting into each training session, and whether or not I was actually properly eating and sleeping. Victor (11:15) Now, the wisdom that we can extrapolate from this final lesson is that in a lot of endeavors in life, we are afraid of quote unquote wasting our effort, we can't always force a desired outcome for any of our endeavors. We can try to hedge our bets and work towards a given outcome. But there are a lot of external factors that can throw little Hickups and bumps and bruises into our vest laid plans. Victor (11:46) All we could do and all I could do was approach my programming and my lifting journey with a level of curiosity and discipline. Simply creating a plan, following it through, and examining the data objectively. Did I get stronger? Did I get bigger? Or did I not achieve those goals? And if I did not achieve those, then adjust. But also Giving myself the time to really get those training sessions in and allow my body to adapt. Victor (12:20) And now that I think about it, another great takeaway from my experience in powerlifting is the importance of finding a community in your fitness journey. Victor (12:34) To summarize the lessons that I took away from my powerlifting season of my life, I would say the first one is keep a running log of your training. You cannot improve what you don't measure. Secondly, create a plan. And train intentionally, have goals when you go to the gym, don't just wing it. Thirdly, embrace uncertainty and approach your training with a level of curiosity. Experiment but give yourself time to see whether or not changes are actually taking effect. And then The fourth and final lesson: surround yourself with like-minded individuals that are also pushing themselves. If you want to get faster at cycling, hang out with cyclists. If you want to run faster, hang out with runners. If you want to get stronger, hang out with powerlifters and find somebody who will nurture your attributes.