Massenomics Podcast - Ep.117: How Important is Goal Setting for Powerlifting?

Episode Date: July 2, 2018

This week we dig pretty deep into the idea of goal setting for powerlifting. Is it a necessity for improvement? How specific do we get in the process? We all give examples of what we have done in the past, and the successes/failures that we have experienced along the way.

M-M-M-M-M-M-M-Massanomics Welcome to Massanomics, the world's strongest podcast. Find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at Massanomics. Make sure you go visit massanomics.com. There you'll find the rest of our powerful content. While you're there, check out our store and buy yourself some of that sweet Massanomics gear. All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of the Massanomics podcast.

Joined here today with Tommy. What's up? And, of course, Flying Ryan. Yo. We've established consistency now. Yeah, that's what I was just going to say. Two weeks. Three? Three in a row? No, it was two in a row in the gym. Oh, that's what I was just going to say. Two weeks. Three. Three in a row.

No, it's two in a row in the gym. Oh, in the gym. Yeah. Yep. So we're not fulfilling the what we the prophecy we made of maybe traveling. Man. We have a few locations up our sleeve. Let's just say that.

So we're back in the same spot. You're looking at the same white wall behind us that you were before. So we're in the gym and there's some people clanging and banging iron right now you might might hear that in the background but it shouldn't be too distracting so uh one thing i wanted to talk about today probably the main topic that i was thinking about was uh uh how you guys use goals or goal setting in your training and in your numbers and the biggest reason i was thinking about that is because uh you guys both compete annually usually it's as far as that's when you do a powerlifting meet is once a year and how many have you done now tommy i've done four over the course of four years yeah and you've done three now or yeah just three yeah and you've both how many have you done two three i've done uh four power lift

oh yeah i forgot about those other ones yeah yeah so i've done four meets um but what i'm wondering is you guys have both made significant process uh progress each time like what what did you start do you remember your numbers my initial i think my first total at a meet ever, this was at 183 pounds. I believe it was like 1107 or something like that, I think. It was 1100. It was right around there. Yeah, mine was right around there too. And this is how clueless I was.

I think I had been power lifting from October to, when is the meet? March. Yeah. So what's that? Five months. Yeah, yeah five six months and I didn't even know what the weight classes were like until like a month or two before I thought there was like a 245 pound weight class there isn't so I was in the 265 pound weight class and I think I weighed like 240 or something like that yeah but yeah I think my total was like 1100 or something like that

yeah around there yeah yeah which seems like so long ago I mean not that I'm an expert by any means now but yeah I think that'd be like three years this March on it what that first meet that I did wouldn't that be like three years ago this coming March I think so yeah that's kind of a while ago I guess I don't know so you're both around 1100 and you've been in the same weight class every year then yeah just now i'm just actually at the end of it and what have you done a couple different weight i've done i did 183 for my first oh you did okay and then my second meet i did the 205 and then my third and fourth meet i did the the 231. Just like Ed Cohn. Hey, just got to break records across all classes, you know.

183 does seem like a long time ago. You take fifth in one meet and you just clean up and claim fifth in the next meet. Yeah, 183, that's a long time ago. Yeah, it is a very long time ago for me. Because now, I mean, with my last meets being at 231, you know, I, both meets, I weighed in at 220 for both those meets. And that was with zero cut of any kind. I mean, that was me eating basically whatever I wanted to. So I'm, uh, I'm definitely undersized for that class. But, um, I can say, uh, after my first two meets where I kind of like was sort of on the top end and was like, oh, I'll just watch what I eat a little bit and like lose a few pounds.

It's just so much more fun doing a meet when the weight isn't a factor at all sweet yeah it's like what do you want to approach it like oh do i want to be as big and strong as possible or do you want to be like high school wrestler style well no and yeah and i get like i didn't like tired yeah and i was only a couple pounds over so it wasn't really like i was cutting it was just mostly like i wasn't eating like an asshole for three days yeah um but yeah there was definitely some growth that's happened during that time yeah like my first meet like i wasn't even like i was 22 23 pounds like under then the second meet i was like right at 260 and i felt like i was eating 24 7 just to get to that weight and then this last meet was like oh like, oh, I need to eat, like, a little better for, like, a month

just so I know I can make weight. And that's about all it took. So it's never, like. So it still wasn't a challenge for you to make it this year. The 120 weight class is what you compete in, right? And you're 105 now. Yeah. So do you think 105 would be, I mean mean do you ever picture being in a different weight class

either higher or lower than I have a hard time seeing myself getting bigger than that just because um I'm not I mean I've never been like the type of guy that just loves to eat so for me actually now going from you know 183 to 220 like that's some pretty that's some pretty decent growth yeah and then 220 to two and then yeah for that to even be like a thing it's like well i mean you'd have to go up to like like why would i want to weigh 235 to be at the very bottom we talked about it's like so yeah unless it doesn't from a weight class perspective it doesn't even really make sense to go up unless you're going to try and make a run at 260 and i just me personally i don't really want to do that because

i kind of like feeling like i'm somewhat athletic and can move and all that stuff and that's like a whole different lifestyle at that point now and you've got room to spare anyways then if you've been weighing in around 220 well yeah that's the thing it's like accidentally got a little bit bigger within that 105 weight class yeah yeah so like that's not really a factor for me at all would you ever purposely try like if you've weighed about 220 the last time would you purposely try to weigh like 230 to um i maybe would it's just like it's just worked out for me that that 220 has just kind of been the thing um but again like i'm i just know like for me personally in my experience it's like usually the more weight and i think you guys would all probably agree for this too usually the more you weigh the probably the stronger you are

um but it's just there just comes a point where it's like, I also just don't like feeling crazy bloated all the time. And I know like me and you have talked about this too before because like I'm pretty close to like right on the border of like super heavyweight and you're usually left super heavyweight as far as I know. It's like, yeah, it's not really worth doing super heavyweight unless you're going to get like in 360. No, not even that big. But it's like, what's not really worth doing super heavyweight unless you're going to get like in 360. No, not even that big, but it's like what's the point?

Like if you're going to lift at like 270, it's like you might as well just lift at 264 or whatever. Yeah, yes, in that case. That's not enough to justify being in that weight class as far as I can tell. Yeah, because the average weight of the people you're going, if you weigh 270 in it, the average weight of the people in that weight class is probably 300 plus and maybe 310 or more. So you're giving up 40 to 50 pounds on average against the guys you're competing directly against. Yeah. Again, I would also make the argument though that unless you're a national

level competitor, none of this matters at all. Because, again, there might be a state record you might think you're chasing, but that's just going to go away in a year when someone else does it. So, like, it doesn't matter. It's like the Dimitar meme. Hashtag Dimitar meme. Just to take a break on that to talk a little bit about Dimitar memes. uh because just to take a break on that to talk a little bit about dimitar memes yeah and uh so that's kind of a new up-and-coming thing that's sweeping the the lifting nation i think so hashtag dimitar memes

people like it i mean you can kind of get him with whatever reaction and it just works in that in that format he's pretty supportive of it too like i think he likes that one that i made like i've tagged a minute like a minute later he liked it it's like oh i must actually like it so what's your favorite dimitar meme uh well i don't know i did think that one um i think you guys or you posted it a couple weeks ago where he has the stone and then what's that chunky cheese that yeah that man guy that was really that actually might be my favorite the guy switched the head and the stone around and they're like well there's more grooves to hang on to now that was some that was some good uh photoshopping i don't know if he did that on his phone or if he did that actually

on the computer i did like that one a lot i actually when i that popped up on my phone i actually laughed out loud for a second and it's not very often that when you actually see something on your phone that you physically laugh out loud it's usually like like that's usually about all you get but no i actually i did genuinely laugh at that thing yeah uh i i would like to see though a few a few dimitar memes coming from places other than us so if you've got any it's gotta start somewhere yeah make sure to tag us in those. So I'd be more than happy to make sure that we share any and all hashtag Dimitar memes. As long as we find it somewhat funny. Yeah, I mean, it can't completely suck. I mean, you've seen our stuff.

It doesn't have to be great. Don't spend more than like two minutes saying something they say. Yes, but we'll have more Dimitar memes coming i'm sure too like yeah you got to get the people what they want yeah although dimitar never does comment on them like it always it i i often wonder what dimitar thinks is going on if he's just being a good sport and then if he ever sees us in person it's like gonna approach us and try and kill someone i don't know if his english is all that great i think it's pretty good though we talked about this yeah yeah you see him in videos and he seems to just he can talk fine and all that so well i was gonna say maybe there's some type

of language barrier but you know in a meme format it could all go out the window there's a lot of subtleties and nuances to those things but i also wonder sometimes if he thinks that we're making fun of him if he's like yeah what are these guys i mean i would understand if he thought that but having fun with him but yeah i mean i do genuinely think he is like a really a really like respected strength athlete like yeah we're not making fun of him it's just that he's like a funny person to use in memes too you know just he just has the look he's a very particular looking individual yeah I'll say that. Yeah, definitely. So be on the lookout for more Dimitar memes. But so, I mean, do you remember first to second meet, first to second meet, or second to third?

How many pounds you gained on your total? For me, my second meet, like this probably isn't a very good example to use because I was really sick. Do you remember that one? Oh, yeah. Can I forget? I probably shouldn't have even done the meet, but it was like, well drove six hours like got a hotel all this stuff it's like at this point i'm literally throwing away 200 or 300 whatever it is if i don't compete so i was like yeah i'll do it how do you recall that night ryan i don't know i remember we went out to eat and you i don't know

if you even felt really all that great then it was me and tom yeah tanner tommy and larry larry i think was nick with us too that night or not i think nick was there too yeah that's right and then we got back to the room and like just sleeping and i heard some commotion from the bathroom and i just like sprung out of bed like just thought something was seriously wrong and i think oh something was seriously wrong. Oh, something was seriously wrong. I had sprung a leak from all directions. There was a lot of sounds going on. I realized what it was, and then I couldn't stop laughing, and then I fell back asleep.

I was like, man, that's really unfortunate. Yeah, that was like the worst-case scenario going into a meet that you could ever ask for. And in any other situation, I would never, ever compete. But at that, I was like, I'm this far invested. I have to compete. So I had, for really what I was considering I mean actually was probably better than it should have went but in the grand scheme of things it was a terrible meet for me so I think I had like a like a 40 pound PR on my total from first to second um I think my first meet I think my total was 11 36 and then I just put in what I thought I got for my second meet and my total was up by like

200 pounds exactly so I think my first a second was up 200 so I think I got like 1336 and it's like you know most people you would want to do that every year yeah just just a 200 just do it for 10 years as long as you can and then you'll be the best but it doesn't really work that way how much did you gain the next year that did it slow down i mean did you gain 200 pounds again or because first year you'd only bet it stands to reason that you made a pretty huge jump between that first and second one because the first one just like you said earlier you'd only been training for about six months so then come your second meet you have a year and a half in and probably

started i think i had like maybe 10 pounds on my bench like 90 pounds on my deadlift and then about whatever 80 pounds on my squat or something like that i think because my first squat was like 374 or my final squat and the first meet was 374 and then my final squat my second meet was 485 and the funny thing about the first meet was 374, and then my final squat in my second meet was 485. And the funny thing about the first meet I ever did, like I had a belt, a Pioneer belt, and it came like, I don't know, maybe a week or two before the meet, so I used it once or twice. And then I had never even used knee sleeves at that point. And then we get to the meet, and Larry had just bought, I think,

new SBD knee sleeves, so he had those blue reband ones.'s like oh you want to just use these like yeah sure and I felt like they made a huge difference at the meet but yeah that was my first experience with knee sleeves which probably isn't the most ideal way yeah I felt like they made a difference those things were really really broken in compared to other knee sleeves that I've used because I think he had had those for many years at that point. And I would say like, so like my most recent total, I think it was like 1405 or 1406. So for my first meet to my last meet, that's like around 300 pounds,

my total, which is not bad. I would also say probably the biggest thing there is like, I was just not good at all in the beginning. You know, like it was still like, you can only go up when you start. So yeah, I was, I was undersized. Like I like i hadn't been i mean i hadn't been like lifting i had been going to a gym but i hadn't been doing like any type of like actual power lifting very long right and i was in the same situation i had never used a lifting belt until like two weeks before my first

meet someone else and i borrowed a friend's i had never used knee sleeves and never used wrist wraps so i mean it was just like oh okay i'm going into just gonna go do this meat which i think is how you should do it like too many people wait for the perfect time like i think the biggest reason why people don't do powerlifting meets is because they think that they're not going to be strong enough but it's like you could literally make up that excuse and talk yourself out of everything and no one and no one yeah no one i mean i can't like i would like to bench 400 pounds and deadlift 800 pounds and squat 700 pounds but that's not the way it is and you're not going to get there you know by just not doing it's like it's not even fun to be like i'm just not good enough but i honestly

can't even really remember what i did for my first like i knew my first one was around 1100 and i thought my second meet was about 50 pounds more i don't even know that for sure yeah and so it's like i don't even remember what i did for my own numbers but you probably made a pretty big jump from your second to third yeah i think that when i put like 175 150 pounds my total it was something like that i just like mine maybe even more was like 60 i think altogether 60 pounds from second to third but yeah and i don't know i think a lot of people don't want to do the meet because they're like i don't know they get embarrassed or something but it's like it doesn't matter it really doesn't matter anyways and it makes your lifting a little more meaningful too if you're actually and i think that's the biggest thing

with it is once you actually put a like a date on the calendar that you have to show up for that's when you like start to make shit happen because like right now like because i know i'm not going to do a meet until next March and so even with that it's like well it's been a really crazy week I might miss a day like and you like now is the time if you're going to miss yeah but you don't want to but now is definitely the okay but you give yourself way more excuses now like this time of year and like if you had a date like if I knew three months from now I was going to be competing like I wouldn't be letting myself slide like that. So you hold yourself way more accountable when you actually have a date on the calendar,

and it gives you something to train for too. You're not just showing up day in and day out for nothing. That's what some people like to do. That's fine. But if you really are trying to get stronger, it's probably the best way to get stronger is to actually put something out there. Yeah, had you guys not done three or four meets

in the last three or four years, say you did your waited until you were thought you were strong enough and just did one here this last year i would be just about positive to say that you wouldn't be as strong as you oh no i don't i don't think so advantageous to get those out of the way because you know what it's like you know how like the order goes, and there's really nothing to be nervous about. And like this last one I did, my fourth meet was the funnest one I've ever had. Whether that's just a mix of, I mean, a huge part of it is just the venue and how nice everything was, and the people you're with, but also doing four meets, it's like you kind of just know what to expect now not that you're not like nervous before you go out and do your squat yeah you always have that

bit of like more like if you didn't have any antsiness at all that'd be kind of weird because it's like well if you're not fired up now like do you ever get fired up but um it was more like a i'm just having a really good time like this is awesome right and so that that's that's a big one to me when you can like go into a meet and like just be having fun with it yeah yeah uh do you think that the you know you've each gained about 300 pounds in your total over that on our body weight on my bmi do you do you think subsequent years you know coming into this next one will it be harder to if you've

gained on average 50 to 100 pounds could you continue to gain 50 to 100 pounds well see for me so now like these last two years my body weight has stayed the same and um two years ago like my total did go up and it was mostly my squat like my squat went up almost 50 pounds um my bench went up like five that was me probably not taking the smartest attempts because um I did miss a bench attempt and same thing with deadlift I know for a fact my deadlift was stronger but it didn't it didn't go up on meet day because I missed my third attempt and so that's just part like it's always easier to get stronger when you're getting bigger like it just always is there's There's almost no question about that. But there's a pizza guy here.

I don't know. Sexy delivery boy. Large sausage. I got so thrown off by the pizza guy. I can't remember what I was talking about. I think we were talking about that the other day with coaching. And I think there's just some considerations that you have to take into account like or just so many cards you can pull to be like okay like this meet was honestly the first time I had ever done any kind of like actual peaking program whereas the two meets before just like oh I'll just do my

regular lifting program up until the meet and then maybe do some heavy singles like two weeks before and that's it without any type of like actual programming involved. So I think that that you can always get better programming. Coaching is another thing that we talked about a little bit last week. well out of the three of us as far as i know have never paid anybody to coach us or you know advise us through lifting or or in going into a meet which i think is super popular nowadays i think a lot of people feel like you need to do that to be um but i think it is helpful no no no it definitely is i'm not saying that it's wrong or anything i'm just saying i think that's definitely a consideration that that will that you can use to help you. And I think, you know, to be smart, maybe that's something that you save for later down the road

and not use it while you're still a beginner because you still have so much momentum and growth on your own that you don't really need maybe a coach or something like that. Yeah. As far as I yeah it's like with all that there's like so many ways to look at it but yeah it's what but so your point that you were talking about is you the other years you kind of were jumping weight classes yeah so that was obviously going to lead to a big increase but you're not going to yeah I don't you're not going to be doing yeah I don't plan on doing that now and so yeah it's just like just training better and smarter and it is strength is one of those things that it seems like once you've had it once it's easier to get it back but it's always a lot harder to get more of it you know yeah and um yeah it's just it is one of those like I got a little surprised

with my squat this year like things were just clicking with me and I think all kind of the mentality that you don't max out hardly ever um so like all of a sudden meet time's getting closer and i was like blowing through like what had previously been my one rep max and it's like whoa where is this at actually and um i think that's another thing too like you just get more familiar with your own lifts and what works for you and i think that um just certain volume ranges it might not really work like for deadlifting for me like I think two sets of five is like perfect like same thing with like squats like five by fives or five by threes those are always really good and I'm starting to realize

that benching like doing heavy sets of like five by threes or five by fives is just not enough volume and just doesn't really do a whole lot for me but I and I think that's just something that you kind of maybe figure out the longer you you lift because it's not really a one size fits all for for everyone yeah that's exactly true and we've talked about that before I mean your squat and your deadlift are more advanced relative to your bench oh yeah so it makes sense you know logically yeah but it makes sense that maybe your bench would require more volume to to get it up to it it also ties like it also ties in the thing that almost everyone has one lift that they just yeah naturally aren't that good like for For me, I'm no squat and bench expert, but I'm definitely better at those.

I'm definitely better at those than I am at deadlifting. Like, deadlifting, and there's several guys in the gym that have the same mentality. It's like, oh, deadlifting. This just never gets better. Let's go do it again. That's the thing, too. I think people get really down on themselves on it,

and I completely agree with this. Like, complaining about, oh, my deadlift sucks or whatever, whatever and it's like that's exactly how i feel about bench and it's like well and how i feel about squatting yeah it's like i don't even get so much down on myself it's just it literally never moves well actually actually going to this last meet i was actually hitting rep prs and then the day of the meet like it just wasn't wasn't there for me if i could put five pounds on my bench in a year, that's like good for me. And it's like, oh man, it's still so low. It's so slow.

Almost everyone does have one out of the three lifts that they could put in. I don't know if like, if you can think of someone that doesn't have one, then they probably are a really good lifter. Or I mean, just probably one of the strongest people, you know, because like everyone has that one lift that they that like like chuck and larry are both like we hate that yeah we hate that also both um firemen in that one chuck and they are they are both portrayed in an adam sandler movie and and we're we're talking about it relative to your other personal lifts because like there could be

you know this could apply to someone very beginner and very very advanced you know someone could be squatting 800 pounds larry wheels and he would you know and the squat is that lift for him i think yeah and he's squatting over 800 pounds so it's not like he's not yeah it's not like right but but it's just when he's benching 600 and pulling almost 900 yeah that all of a sudden that 800 pound squat seems like oh that's a little like that's not hanging with it like it's the thing that's holding him back from yeah being even better than he is when the other two lifts are where they are at yeah then that's just like shows like there's not very many people that you can just say are good like even like kaylor william like he's really good deadlifting pretty good good bencher too. Like surprisingly a good.

And like his squat just doesn't, I mean, it's still not a bad squat at all. I think he squats like in the mid to high sixes maybe. Yeah. But still like in the comparison of those things, like that's like the lagging one. Yeah. So I think just recognizing that you have, but everyone has that one. It's not just you and, you know, you might have to do extra work. It might just, it's probably always going to be that thorn in your side.

And like saying that even like the, you know, the best lifters like Larry Wheels have lifts that might not be as good as their other ones. Do you think there'll ever be a time where there's somebody totaling 3,000 in raw powerlifting? I don't know that seems so far away right now because even right now like 25 has 2500 even been hit no no and i don't and that's and that's going on like 30 years of people like getting that because what was ed cohen hitting like 23 20 like people have been in the 23s and 24s for just about 30 years right you have to i mean to even make sense you have to bench at least you'd have to just bench over seven maybe 800 pounds i think you'd have to you'd have to squat 1200 would maybe be a potentially far-reaching possible you'd

have to like squat a deadlift a thousand at least yeah and then that's not enough you'd have to definitely 1100 and bench seven like yeah 2500 would be the first one and like ray williams is getting crazy close to that he'll be he would be the one to hit that on a good day and as long as we're on that the the this lifting legend will be out out by then but this is uh our lifting legend is a recurring uh i don't know do you call that a meme or is that something just a recurring post yeah that we do and we've talked about it before and we kind of highlight some maybe relatively older lifters or sometimes lesser known but uh we go about their put on about their background and some of their statistics and this guy blew me away don reinhout uh i've you guys have heard his name

before yeah okay if kaz likes to talk about him too yeah yeah that he went against him and he made made him turn around crying or whatever kaz says to us every year when we talk interview him but a couple of uh this isn't anything crazy here but he won four consecutive ipf world championships in the 70s uh he was the 1979 world's strongest man he beat kaz that year that was his first year okay kaz didn't actually win that year uh in his first time competing but then this is what i thought was just insane to me that i didn't know this he had the largest raw power lifting total for 35 years at 2,391 pounds he did that in the 70s it wasn't broken until andre milanichev in 2013 really yeah see that just seems really hard to have to consider that the power lifting technology hasn't changed at all since then so no that's crazy because you

have to assume that he wasn't wearing like maybe some kind of weird knee wraps or something. That was an ace bandage. I would say, yeah, the wraps then were just ace bandages. So, yeah, it was essentially raw. That's not single-ply suit. You know, that's no old suit. That's raw with just ace bandage. Yeah.

And singlets that, oh, he's not wearing one there, but wearing one of those singlets that lets your nipples show. Yeah. Those are, like like some crazy numbers um can you believe that though no i had i would have nobody beat him for i would have assumed that someone had a big one totally on there somewhere and then the um his best raw bench was 607 his best uh deadlift was 886 and i don't know what his what his squat was in there whatever would have to add to those two but he also held the record for biggest squat with no wraps for

an equivalent period of time he did 934.5 pounds and just nothing and that wasn't beaten until ray williams beat yeah i was gonna say to say, besides Ray, no one is squatting. Almost no one squats over 900 without wraps now. Like when they do the U.S. Open, there's a few, like, I mean, quads like Rob will touch like 90-something, like depending on how his attempts go. Yeah, I think he's done like 909. Yeah, he's in the low nines, and there's just a couple other guys.

So, yeah, I mean, that is. I mean, that's, and what I think is funny is, I mean, I know this name, of course. And if you follow powerlifting for a long time, you probably know it even better. You'll just hear it come up, yeah. But no one talks about him as being the greatest of all time. And it isn't like if you just look at those things alone that he hit. It seems like it, yeah, that you were 30. It's like, oh, yeah, he ran a four-minute mile 30 years before anyone else did.

Yeah, right. It's usually one of those things are also reading here it says that he was the first guy to ever break the 2400 pound total but the the caveat to that is this 2391 pounds it was originally considered over a 2400 pound total but then they physically weighed all the plates and it came out to a 2391391 pounds. Which I think if you, through the years, weighed a lot of people's plates, there would be a lot of totals that aren't what they say they are. Because they weren't using calibrated plates at that point in time.

Outside of the IPF, I don't think calibrated plates have been that common until the last decade maybe. Right, right. Because watch so many old competition, even old IPF or even like USAPL older meets, they have pound plates on there. Yeah. And I wonder if that might have been protocol at that point in time, you know, is that they didn't have calibrated plates. So if you broke a world record, maybe then that's when they were like, all right, let's weigh them up. Yeah. It seems like if you look at like the possibility of totals, it seems like the 2,500 mark should be broken in the next five years yeah

or sooner that's what i would think this is kind of interesting too it says that he lost a lot of weight for health reasons which i think is probably you know to be expected and it said that his last meet that he ever did he was in the 275 pound weight class weighing 264 pounds and he's still totaled 2,000 pounds so 725 pound squat 525 pound bench and 750 pound deadlift which that's so pretty impressive yeah 265 yeah so yeah looking at those those totals though like I do think 2500 will be broken yeah in the next five years I mean it could even be in the next year well I think Ray Williams will do it. Yeah, it's just like Ray just has to have a good day. Yeah, well, if he squats 1,100, which I think he will someday, and he pulls close to 900, so there's 2,000.

And then if he goes and benches 525 or whatever he can do. Which he can. Yeah, so there it is. So, I mean, he's on the cusp of doing it, like, right now. Yeah. Yeah, it's just whenever that good meat's gonna happen uh on on single ply like blaine sumner is the one pushing the limit there like he could be the first single ply person to have a 3 000 total which would be you know put him as the third

person ever to have that total right yeah because i think it would just be donnie thompson uh dave yeah so like and those are in the guys are multi-ply obviously yeah and i think he's just same thing like if he can just be healthy obviously yeah and i think he's just same thing like if he can just be healthy and have a good day he's right on the verge of that because he's throwing around like an 1100 and some squat and then his bench you know is like 900 so he's already at two two thousand there so there is deadlift you know that that's the thing that if he can get that moving for him like that that could be a possibility but but he could get a squat up higher oh yeah and his squat could go up higher yeah i think he could have a 1200 plus squat like that and so that's where like some of those numbers could and he could

also be one of the first people to do you know he could start getting closer to that thousand pound single ply mark too yeah i mean there i think there's a few guys that maybe could be doing that but um so yeah those are probably like the upper limits of what's possible for the next five years of power lifting yeah that's what i that's what i would say too because it seemed like even somebody like uh what's his name kirill serichev like he can you know he bent like the last meet he did i think he benched seven what is his record 728 or something like that yeah and then his squat is like pretty close to that. And his deadlift is like low eights. It's like all of his lifts are, you know, within like 80 pounds of each other, which is insane just because he is so good at benching.

I think we're going to see the most, and it's obvious right now when you just look at powerlifting, we're going to see the most like things getting pushed to the limit. It's women's powerlifting. Yeah, definitely. It seems like every meet complete all-time world records are being absolutely destroyed yeah and it just seems like there's no limit to that right now that's what i would wonder about is seeing maybe like uh 1800 pound woman's total yeah like that would be like where yeah where you're gonna see like

some i think some really weird like freaky numbers come from like all across weight classes like not just the biggest women but even like you know when you're seeing like on the smaller end like stephy cone and then you get a little bigger to like the um stacy burr and uh like cc holcomb and this russian lady whoever they are, their numbers don't even make sense for what they're... They're respectable guy numbers on any day. And they still seem to be breaking each other's records every time that there's a... Yeah, it seems like none of the records stand for more than a few months. No, that's true.

I get what we were talking about. We let in with all the the progress you guys have made in your totals and each individual left really over that period of time but uh what i was wanted to cover that too to get to next was whether you guys if you i mean i'm sure in some capacity you use goals to help you get there but but how specifically do you use goals with that or in other things in life too? Trust the process. With powerlifting, I think I might have said this before, but I always think this is like one of the truest ones I've ever heard,

and I saw Johnny Candido had it, and he said like with anything powerlifting, weightlifting related, just however long you think it's going to take, take that times two, and then you're probably pretty close to what it's actually going to be. Because it's going to take, take that times two, and then you're probably pretty close to what it's actually going to be. Because it's so hard. It is just so hard to say, I'm going to put 60 pounds on this lift

and I'm going to do it in a year and a half. And it's like, yeah, you better hope everything goes perfect in that year and a half and nothing changes in like your personal life or your work life. Or anything that's going to mess because, oh, all of a sudden your job changes and you're lifting're lifting with different partners or it's like oh i used to sleep eight

hours a night now i sleep five and a half to six hours a night like that's a huge change that just right that right alone right there is a huge change so that's why it's so like with all this stuff consistency is the biggest thing and it's really hard to know that your life is going to be consistent a year from now i mean a lot of people don't know what they're going to be doing with their life a week from now yeah and like you said like goals or whatever and I remember that second power to meet deadlift in like 606 like oh the record is 671 I'm gonna break that next year it's like no I mean it's nice to think like that and it's good to want to do that but and that's even more just maybe being honest with yourself and like yeah

that would be really cool and it's a nice goal to like go for but just putting in the work and trying to get there is is good enough to make any kind of progress yeah so is that generally more the approach that you take is just like you don't set a specific number like so here we're sitting in uh june you'll compete presumably in march of this next year. And you know what you did at this last meet for all three lifts in your total. Do you have, do you have, either of you have any numbers in mind for any of the individual lifts or total that you're saying, I would like, at least saying, I'd like to get that here.

Yeah. I have like rough numbers in my mind, but it's really hard to say like what's going to happen over the next, because like certain numbers like to start hitting those, like training probably needs to start going really good right now. Because it needs eight, nine months to build on it. And like as of right now, like I've kind of been saying the last few weeks, like training hasn't been going the best for me. Just with having my own business and just the traveling, life stuff, getting married. Like my schedule's been really crazy lately right um so i i understand that those goals may or may not be there and like a lot of

people would say like well you're not dedicated with with an approach like that but it's like yeah but something's got to give like you're not just gonna be like oh i can't plan my wedding yeah well let's do this professionally like tanner you benched 450 like four years ago and you've put 20 pounds a year on that since then right I I benched 455 before mathematics was the thing even existed and then you know injury being a big part but that's also a real really realistic thing that everyone yeah well because no one plans on getting injured yeah exactly and so yeah four years later I gained 20 pounds so over I gained on average five pounds a year on it yeah you know and that's and if you would have asked me at the time that I bet bench 455 four years ago like what are you gonna do four years from now I wouldn't

have probably said like oh geez if everything goes great maybe I can get 475. I'd be like, well, so that sucks, you know? Yeah, it's like, oh, way to set those goals high. So that's just, that is the tough thing, especially because, I mean, with anything in life, there's an element of luck to it, but especially with lifting, like, because, I mean, the injury thing can happen anytime too, whether you're doing all the right stuff or not, like it can totally happen to you.

And depending on what that is, that can set you off for a month, six months, two years. Like you never know. Yeah. What about like bigger, less specific goals? Do you ever have any in your mind that maybe not even, you know, probably not a year long goal, but just like, I'd really like to do that before I quit. Before I decide, like, yeah, I'm not ever going to get any stronger than I am right now. See, I also – how old are you, Tanner?

Thirty – Thirty-one. Thirty-one. I'm 29. I'm 28. I'll be 30 in, well, not six months. But, I mean, I'm getting closer to 30 every day. The clock is ticking.

I mean, I'm getting closer to 30 every day. The clock is ticking. I mean, but when you look at it, though, it's like you can look at the IPF and USAPL charts. I mean, they document people's age and everything. I don't know if all federations do that. But you can kind of see right now where the age groups for the strongest people in the world are. And a lot of people, I know when I first got into lifting, and I felt like I would hear Mark Bell say this all the time was like oh strength strength sports it's kind of an age thing you

just keep getting stronger as you get older I don't know if that's completely true like for a natural lifter I don't know because like when you look at the top guys in the world right now they're usually in like that I mean you definitely see some in their 20s like that that is totally a thing now but but you don't there's just 20s. Like that is totally a thing now. But you don't, there's just a handful of people that are at their top of their game in their late 30s and on. What do you call Bryce Lewis? Those guys are all right around 30, I believe. I think now it seems like in the natural age or in the natural competitions,

like the strongest people are in that kind of 28 to 32 range. And so like when you look at it that way it's just like oh i mean your window of being peak performance is probably closing but at the same time i haven't hit like optimal training or anything so i know i can still get better i'm not like a world competitor where i've eked out every little bit of of training i can but i also know at the same time like I'm probably not putting 300 pounds of my total in the next three years. Like that ship has probably sailed. And I think a lot of people don't want to admit that to themselves. It's like,

you know, if you're 20, 21, 22, 23, I mean, it kind of is for a little while, but as soon as you're done with college and you start to get a job,

then you'll actually find out what it's like to have to have bounce real responsibilities around to do stuff. Cause you see that too. It's like people, people are like super into lifting when they have a lot of time on their hands. And now all of a sudden, like they have a schedule,

they have a schedule and family and commitments and all that. And like lifting gets a lot less fun in a hurry for those people. So this conversation is kind of starting to sound grim all of a sudden. Do you want to lift or do you want to be able to have a regular life? You can have both. Do you see yourself in the next three years hitting a lot of all-time PRs for yourself? That's tough because that's just like what you said, like no one would ever want to admit that they –

but I do look at 35 as a number where I think I can go until 30. I think I can continue to, that's my, yeah, that's where I think I can still start to still continue to make improvements. So I do think that's about my window is I have like three or four more years where if I train right and I can maybe avoid the injury and and stuff that I could go that much longer and then maybe after that point it it's

still possible it is like a great example would be Larry Legend here he's 40 years old now and has actually hit all-time PRs part of that though is just because this yeah this gym started to exist and he would say the same thing yeah this started to exist and getting around a group of other people that are all trying to do the same thing and yeah it's pushed him farther than he's been yeah that he was i mean nick's kind of the same way too but nick would probably also say he hasn't been like doing like regimented programming and training until probably the more recent years yeah i guess i don't know it's complete training history but that's what i would yeah but assume to answer the question i hope so

but also i wouldn't be completely surprised like i could hurt my shoulder again yeah next week and my shoulder could be hurt for two years again and then i am you know yeah almost 34 like with me like one of the big goals for me would be to squat 600 pounds i would love i was gonna ask about the round numbers i would love to squat 600 and like when you look at it i have put for the last four years 50 pounds a year on my squat like it's like been like it's been like it's been like clockwork i put 50 pounds a year on my squat. What did you squat this year in the meet? I did 540.

I was going to say, I don't know if it's 541 or 540. That day, I feel like there was probably five more pounds there. That was not an absolute grinder. There was probably more there. So it's like, okay, if I just do what I did again, put 45 pounds on my squat, I'm almost at 600. but there just has to be a spot where I'm not getting 40 pounds a year on that like and then I think another thing too with goals like it's important to set goals that actually make sense and that are things that you can get because I remember starting lifting and I think I deadlifted like 505 after a few months like okay by the time I'm done powerlifting really want to deadlift 600 for a single and like

a month ago i did three reps at 600 it's like okay i've done i've done that i know i can do that it's like yeah now it's like i really want to deadlift like 700 in the competition it's like that might not happen for a couple more years but i don't think that that's like completely ridiculous and i think that's important to be honest with yourself because if you're somebody that's always like, oh, I have to deadlift 800 at the lightest body weight possible. And you're just going to set yourself up for a lot of disappointments and probably are going to, you know, get down on yourself and want to quit. So I think just being honest with yourself too is another important part about that. Yeah, I would think both of those, you squatting 600 and you deadlifting 700, would both be, like, are certainly achievable and realistic. It's just one of those things where you have to, like,

you have to hope training is going to go really good, have to hope nothing gets hurt. What about then, you know, you've already said deadlift is not your lift compared to squat, but they're the same. Yeah, they're always the same. They're the same number. They're always the same. So would you say, like a 600 deadlift 600 i just in my head a 600 deadlift

everyone deadlift 600 pounds so that's just not as it's like oh okay you finally caught up to everyone like that one just doesn't mean as much to me yeah i mean it probably is more of an achievement because my deadlift just always sucks but right um it's just to me that it doesn't have the same allure because it's like i can't name a ton of people that i personally know that squat 600 right and when i say i can't name a ton i don't really know anyone but personally yeah but but we do see 600 pounds but yeah so many people that i know personally that i've seen do it is um with jason yeah from our gym from massachusetts otherwise no i don't yeah so that's what like 600 is like way like that one

sounds cooler in my head but i mean i would love to take 600 in either one yeah i mean a six just a 600 pound lift whatever it is yeah is a really cool lift maybe bench you know what you know what why not i'm going i'm going all in on bench here well so what about you with the squat and uh like you know obviously you're you would think about a 700 pound deadlift would you think about because what did you squat this year 512 so would you so a 700-pound deadlift. Would you think about – because what did you squat this year? 5'12". So it's a little farther off, but would you think about a – like is a 600-pound squat something you'd think about?

Because your squat has improved a lot over the years too, like maybe just about as much as your deadlift has. Yeah, and I mean, I think in the gym before that I hit like 5'20", which wasn't bad. And I don't know what the deal was on the day of the meet, and it's just hard to save, you know, with any meet. But it just which wasn't bad and I don't know what the deal was on the day of the meet and it's just hard to save you know with any meat but it just really wasn't feeling right and after my second squat I blew like so many blood vessels in my face just like yeah I don't know if this is the squat day for me so that's just the way it is though I mean yeah and another thing you gotta

you set these goals and you really don't know how it's gonna go so I mean but I think yes maybe eventually 600 would be there but what about the 500 pound bench tanner um that's obviously something i had never on it never given any real you know with your current momentum only four years away that's true but really though i never had given any thought to that until benching 475 and it's worth noting i'm talking about a gym lift yeah yeah talking about lifting in competition my best competition bench is 440 what i'd really like to do is bench say over 450 in competition yeah you know because that's probably more meaningful to me than benching 475 in the gym but four or 500 as a competition lift that's not a realistic goal of mine so that's not

you know at this point that's not even as a gym lift maybe yeah that could potentially i could like that like a lot of things would have to happen right yeah for that to ever happen that was kind of a big one for me i wanted 350 for i finally hit a 350 gym bench lift yeah this winter my my best competition one's like 321 or 320 yeah but just to even say you have done that at one point like that's always super cool right so what about then benching 400 in the in the gym or benching over 350 in competition or a 400 pound bench seems just because bench gains are so hard to come by like a 400 pound bench seems so far away right now. I suppose potentially it'd be a possibility,

but I would put money on the 600-pound squat and deadlift before the 400-pound bench at this point. What about you, Ryan, then on your bench? So tell us where your bench is at now. Obviously this is your least favorite lift out of three. Do you have any number goals, competition or gym or anything on that I'd really like to bench like at least 300 this coming meet and I don't think that's too far off and I just think that's like another thing too just figuring out as you keep lifting like what works for you and I just because like this summer I've just been doing higher volume for bench and doing close grip and regular

grip bench every week and I think that's just something I need to be more consistent with and even like on my deadlift days do some other kind of bench variation too I just feel like I respond way better to higher volume and not bigger weight and lower reps so I think that's just something I need to stay with and I think if I do do that it'll translate into a bigger bench so I think I think I can do 300 this coming meet so I'd like to do that yeah I think that that I would almost be more surprised if that didn't have you know if you didn't get that but what you said about your you know your deadlift and your squat are the same at the same number yeah and you kind of already gave your answer that to you is is it more meaningful to

to mac to really succeed well on your best lift or to to have success on your worst lift so what about for you is it more meaningful to hit the 700 on uh your deadlift or maybe hit a 325 bench like which one would be cooler do you probably bench and like I remember I like every time I lift here in the day just like whenever I have to come in here like around noon or one and Ross is here and he'll ask me stuff about deadlifting I'm like dude I can deadlift fairly well but I don't know how to tell people to deadlift because I just do it and I don't have to think about anything whereas like benching I'm sure after a couple years like I think I'd have like a lot of stuff to tell people because that's just something that I've always struggled with and

I don't think if you're good at something you're just good at it and you don't yeah maybe technique isn't even something you have even have to think about so that's a good point yeah no and that is the thing is uh if you're good at something you're probably not the best coach at it i mean you could be because you could have worked a lot to get there but a lot of times when people are good at something there's a certain element of like naturalness to it and so they can't articulate yeah so tanner you what do you have out there for bigger like what would be some well actually are the the real the biggest the number one goal I have is I want to compete in our state. You just want to compete again. Successfully make a way in.

That's number one. And then, at least at this point in time, this is subject to change, just like we've talked about. We're a long ways away from that and uh life changes and everything else between now and then but what i want to do is compete in the 120 weight class which i weigh close to that i weigh like in between 265 and 270 most of the time so i'm right there i mean it could at most be a five poundpound cut. At most, yeah. Yeah, or it could be really not even cutting. It could just be just, yeah, and just not eating anything before I weigh in that day and making it.

But what I want to do is qualify for nationals, in which if as long as I'm healthy and make the weight class and everything, I should be able to do that, but that's what I want to do because I want to have the I want to compete at nationals once just to yeah not to be competitive there I have absolutely no delusions about that but I just want to do it yeah yeah yeah that's definitely a goal right there you know at a low at it because you typically would lift out super heavy weights I mean that would be a little bit lighter. Right.

Most of the time, I would probably, if I was going to do that meet and not worried about going in 120, I would weigh in at 268 or 271 or something like that. So might as well lift out, yeah, basically right there. But that's my real goal is I want to make nationals. I want to make it. That's the big goal, and I would like to go compete. That's more of a if that works out with everything else in life but yeah i want to at least know that i qualified and then i would really like to do it because it would just be fun to be there and be like hey yeah williams how's

it you know like for sure we're in you know they might be lifting at a different time it might be different weight classes this and that but you're in the same meat they say it would make a good podcast that is a because that was the first thing on your mind yeah i've infiltrated podcast number followers subscriber numbers i i think we're probably all on similar pages with most of that though I think if you're uh an elite level lifter you'll look at it differently because this you know if yeah well and you know you're in a different camp like you are really in like a one percent I mean less than a one percent camp at that point and I don't think it's bad if you're able to take a more specific approach

if you're uh if you're also an intermediate lifter like us and you're able to take a specific approach that's probably good if you can if you can stick to that and do it and it works with your life that's i mean you probably would are able to have the most success by doing that but yeah uh you know if it's not realistic for you like for me i mean if i want to be like a national competitor i'm only like 600 pounds away from my total. So if I just put 50 pounds on all my lift every year for the next four years, like then I'll be good. That's it. No, I was going to mention, I think it's, we can finally say that it's going to officially happen the we will have shorts yes and uh i think by the time this comes out for christmas yeah

by the time you're listening to this i think you could maybe check out our store and see him there i've real close to this yeah if not yeah and i think we've said this before but this time is for real yes they're they're i mean unless well unless the package starts on fire or something figure out the screen printing snap yeah i mean there's always a chance that ups could lose it or there's a natural disaster but but i do think our champion quits making shorts uh we're i think we're even in the clear on that part right now you might even we might even have those. So what the shorts are going to be is black mesh champion shorts on one of the thighs will be the Lift logo with Massanomics on it, this actual particular logo.

So if you like to lift, you might like these shorts. A lot of people lift in shorts too. So that's kind of convenient, I would say. It is. It's a good wardrobe choice. And how else can you tell people like what you do more than just writing that one verb on your, put it like on all your clothing. A tattoo maybe. You're like, I lift.

So check out those shorts when they're coming out. Besides that, check out our other stuff that we got. You're not wearing your lift hat today, I see. But Ryan does have a Lyft dad hat. We don't normally stock those, but that is something if there's more of a demand for, we could potentially get the dad hat in there. Besides that, we got all our shirts and the Lyft shirts, Masonomic shirts, everything else in the shop.

Did you say we had a review this week? Yeah, I should check that. Because I don't want to do anything to discourage uh review writers yes okay perfect it's up on my phone that's saves me like 45 seconds there uh so this is from brad underscore 66 and somehow brad left this is the second review brad left so so don't be afraid to try and leave the second review Brad left us. So don't be afraid to leave a second review. I don't know. He's probably got the first title. You know what I say?

Why stop at two? He's probably got the title for the first repeat reviewer. And I don't know. A lot of times we know who these reviewers are. I don't know which exact Brad this is. But Brad underscore 66 said, well, I did it. Five out of five stars. So a while back, I reviewed this podcast. That's how I well, I did it. Five out of five stars. So a while back I reviewed this podcast.

That's how I knew that he reviewed it. Dead giveaway that he's done it. Brad Gillingham. Could be. Or Brad Castleberry. I hope it's Brad Gillingham. I gave it five stars and said it inspired me to move to northeast South Dakota. Well, I did it.

What the F was I thinking thinking i'm an idiot anyway you guys are still killing it i listen every monday keep up the good work hope to meet you guys on my next trip to the big city oof da so that is that oof da shot at our like our lingo yeah wow low blow brad after our intelligence that was below the belt uh so thanks for the review anyone else out there please leave us a review we are getting closer and closer to that 100 mark are they going to say a hundred thousand yeah we are getting closer to that too but like one at a time i mean even a million we're getting closer but i i would i would settle for the even 100 for now even so yeah uh help us out maybe maybe the 100th reviewer will do something special before but probably not you never know if it's a good one we could paper in their trees yeah yeah so leave us a

review uh go to the website bottom of the page subscribe to our newsletter that's something that we continue to use more often we'll let you know whenever we've got new stuff coming out and if there's any deals you can snag uh besides that like us on facebook and then our instagram uh i run the massonomics page, at Masonomics. And Tommy? You can find me at Tomahawk underscore D. And Flyin' Ryan? Find me at Flyin' Ryan underscore D.

That's where you can find us. All right, thanks for listening, everybody. See you all then. Later. You just heard the Masonomics podcast. With your ears, you're welcome. Check us out on facebook find us on instagram at massanomics and make sure you visit massanomics.com and buy some of that sweet massanomics gear

from your friends at massanomics studio home of the world's strongest podcast stay strong Stay strong.