July 13, 2022 • 16 mins
About Brandon Pitre
The Weight of Lifting Documentary featuring Brandon Pitre is a closer look at his rise to stardom in his respective class in the USAPL. Here you will see his professional debut at the Virginia Pro meet, and some of his experiences leading to that performance. Some familiar faces in the industry has also shared their thoughts on their personal relationship with Brandon and his future in this sport.
Filmed, edited, and produced by Rommel Camello. Please enjoy The Weight of Lifting.
Brandon Pitre's Documentary Link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-bhiDitPcw
Your hosts: Colton Cockerell & Trisha Stetzel
Click for more about your hosts:
Colton Cockerell
Trisha Stetzel
More fun and interviews on our FB page!
https://www.facebook.com/bridgethegapinterviews
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Colton Cockerell (00:04):
Hello and welcome to a another exciting
episode of Bridge the Gap. We'rebalancing life through health,
wealth, business andrelationships.
Trisha Stetzel (00:17):
Hello and welcome to the show. My name is
Trisha Stetzel, owner of ResultsXtreme Business Solutions. And
my friend Colton Cockerell ishere with me today.
Colton Cockerell (00:28):
What is going on Trisha, it's kind of weird as
always to flip the script andhave you introduce the show
everyone it is the month ofJuly. So we are focused on
health and wellness and we aregoing to talk to Brandon Pitre
today who is a trainer and apower lifter. It just you gotta
watch this stuff. look him up.
Brandon Petrie, super cool guy,and he has some really cool
(00:49):
videos out there. Brandon what'sgoing on, man? So good to see
you.
Brandon Pitre (00:54):
Hey, how's it going? Good to see you too. It's
been a it's been a good whilethis is great that you guys are
having me on here. I lookforward to seeing what this is
about and diving into it and seeif I can, you know, spit out
some information that may helpsome people know awesome. So
Trisha Stetzel (01:08):
before we dive in, we must thank our sponsor
the Sharer McKinley Group LLC.
Imagine that
Colton Cockerell (01:14):
man, what a great company. Okay, so Brandon,
I think a lot of people outthere, you know, you all
especially high schoolers, youalways hear me I want to get
big, you know, that's just likethe thing, right? So for someone
who is starting a journey islike, you know, what, I do want
to put on some weight, I want togain some muscle, whether it's
bodybuilding or doing something,just weightlifting, whatever it
(01:35):
may be, what is some easy stepsthat you can just think off the
top of your head to help peoplelike that, who do want to put on
some muscle put on some weight.
Brandon Pitre (01:43):
Um, the first thing first is make sure that
you have consistency in yourlife, that is going to be the
biggest thing that's like a lotof people's downfall, when they
get out the gate, they get veryenergized, you may, you know,
have that energy for like thefirst two, three days. But then,
you know, after that you takefour five days off and you come
back, I would say just when youget into the gym, find some type
(02:07):
of workout routine that at leastmakes it to where something's
fun for you. But it keepspulling you back in every day.
Because that's how you start.
You can't necessarily buildanything unless the consistency
of a foundation is there.
Because then it's just gonnacrumble apart, you're looking to
you know, lose weight, get big,do anything, you got to make
sure you have consistency first,and then you can build on top of
Trisha Stetzel (02:28):
Do you think? Or do you find Brandon that having
that.
an accountability partner helpsin that space. Like if you're
just starting out and reallytrying to build that momentum to
get to the gym every day, ishaving an accountability partner
a good idea? Oh, for
Brandon Pitre (02:42):
sure. I think that's how a lot of kids in high
school even find the gym andthey continuously go is because
you usually have your buddiesthat you know, go with you,
you'll have fun, it becomes likea social hour. But at the same
time, at least it pulls you inthere every day. And the more
that you're exposed to the gym,the more you're exposed to
different things that you maysee a powerlifter. And then one
(03:03):
day you may see a bodybuilderand then one day like oh, wow, I
want to I do want to look likethat. And then that's how you
start branching off into yourown fitness journey. But it
starts with a good you know,group of friends is definitely a
great way to you know, buildsome consistency in the gym.
Colton Cockerell (03:16):
Absolutely.
And help important, not justgoing to the gym consistently.
So you building that mindset togo to the gym, how important is
eating, when it comes to gainingmuscle,
Brandon Pitre (03:27):
oh, you have to eat trying to make sure that you
skip out on carbs or skip out onthis and skip out on that and
you know, starving yourself,that's not going to cut it if
you're trying to gain muscle,you really have to make sure
that you are in a surplus, youhave to make sure that you are
consistently training thatmuscle hard. And that's the only
(03:49):
way that you're going to grow isthat you have to eat you also
have to sleep. If a lot ofpeople in school a lot of
college kids that want to growmuscle, but you're you know, on,
you know, three energy drinksand you on two hours of sleep
and you just cramming the books,you need to let your body get
some sleep. And if you also wantmuscles to grow, got to sleep
definitely have to eat that'sfor sure.
Colton Cockerell (04:10):
And so can you can you kind of explain more
when you said you definitelyhave to be in a surplus. Can you
break that down a little bitmore for our listeners,
Brandon Pitre (04:17):
everyone kind of has you know, where they
maintain their weight that andit's kind of the calories that
you have been taking in right? Alot of people don't track just
yet but you are maintaining yourbody weight with some type of
calories. So the first thing youwould kind of do or at least
what I tell my clients is forthe first week, just track what
you're already eating. Don't tryand like switch over to like a
(04:39):
new diet. Don't try to switchover to anything else. Find out
where you are so that we canfigure out where you're trying
to go. Because you don't evenknow where you are is gonna be
hard to create a deficit orsurplus. So let's say that you
track for a week you find outthat you're at 2000 calories.
Right at that point. If you'retrying to gain weight. I always
advise gaining at a slower Lowerrates. So that way you put on as
(05:01):
much lean muscle mass aspossible without necessarily
things getting too bloated andinflammation building. So I
usually tell them at 250calories to whatever that is. So
if you're at 2000, on average,let's try to go for 2,250. stick
with that for about two, threeweeks, let the poundage grow.
And then if you want to gain alittle bit more, you can add
(05:23):
another 250 Within the next likefour to six weeks. And then let
that sit for a little bit, watchthe scale rise, and then just
keep going off on that until youstop gaining weight. And then at
that point, I add another 250.
And then just keep that going.
Keep that in check. And that'show you get to a surplus.
Colton Cockerell (05:41):
I haven't heard it said like that before.
That's That's fascinating.
Trisha Stetzel (05:45):
Brandon, I was so before we started recording
the show, I said Brandon, isthis your full time job? Yes.
Which I love right now. He is anextreme power lifter. Before we
started this show, Colton showedme these videos. Brandon, you're
freaking amazing at what you do.
But I also know that you coachpeople. And I think there are a
(06:07):
lot of female listeners outthere particularly older ones.
And when we're talking aboutmuscle, they're like, oh, no,
that's not for me. So can wetalk about the importance of
building muscle for older women,and even men as well, for sure,
Brandon Pitre (06:22):
I believe that, especially for the older woman,
it's way more important for themto actually push themselves in
the gym and grow that muscle andactually get introduced to the
kind of things that I do. Sopowerlifting, introducing more
compound lifts, those are likemulti jointed lifts, meaning
that you're allowing yourself tolike work multiple joints at
(06:42):
once within one exercise. Andwhenever you're doing that,
you're building up a lot of bonedensity through the pressure of
stressing out, you know, thebones are the most of through
poundage on top of the body overtime, is going to build that
resilience. So that way,whenever you're 85 or 90, and
you see those grandmas andgrandpas get out the chair willy
(07:03):
nilly, and they're having funand they're walking free, they
probably have some of thattraining in their life. Because
if not trying to get out of achair or trying to walk is gonna
hurt. You see, like, you know,Grandpa get hip replacements and
stuff like that gettingintroduced to compound movements
earlier on this thing consistentwith that all the way through,
(07:23):
you know, 60, 65, 70, 75 isgoing to kind of limit those hip
replacements and stuff likethat.
Colton Cockerell (07:29):
And so that's your talk compound movements of
deadlifts, you know,
Brandon Pitre (07:32):
right. So you got deadlifts, squat, even even
bench I know a lot of peoplethink bench is you know, purely
for just chess or just maybearms. But you actually when you,
you know, if you learn how tobenchpress the full way you are
working every bit of your body,you're working your back, you're
working your triceps, workingyour biceps, you're working your
(07:54):
chest, you're working yourquads, you're working everything
in that benchpress. So those arelike the main ones, but you can
even do it is something assimple as like a bent over row
as well. Those are still somethings where you need to have a
slight bend in your knees, butyou're also rowing with your
elbow. So that's another multijoint movement, and just
different things like that. Sowe're using multiple joints at
(08:14):
once, which just do a great dealof service to your body.
Colton Cockerell (08:19):
I wish everyone could see what we can
see. I mean, he's just popingout his day. Just shirt. I mean,
I wish my biceps like that big.
You started though, likeeverybody else, right where
you're just like a scrawny guy.
And then you start working. Nowyou get into it. So just kind of
go through your mindset to bewhere you are, kind of tell us
your journey starting where youwere at. And then how you became
(08:42):
the Brandon weightlifting,pastry piece mode, and how you
became that and talk about yourmindset because that I mean,
that's such an important part ofworking out. If you're really
trying to try to you know,create this muscle mass this all
this other stuff
Brandon Pitre (08:56):
is funny, like my journey is a little bit
different. Mine's a littleinteresting. So I remember being
introduced to any style ofworking, I didn't get introduced
into middle school. I didn'tplay Little League, I didn't do
any like sports. When I wasyounger. The first time I
touched a sport like naturalorganized sport, I was in middle
school, and I didn't know how toplay football. I didn't know
(09:18):
anything about like anything. Sothey just threw me on the line
because all they said wasalright, just go forward and
just hit a guy. And I was like,okay, simple enough line up on
the line and then just try totackle the running back or
whatever that I don't have tothink or anything like that.
It's not complicated. And alwayslove working hard. So like a
person bigger than me. I have anolder brother who used to fight
(09:38):
me and you know, try to beat meup all the time. So I wasn't
scared of someone who was biggerthan me. So I was like, still
someone who worked hard but Iknew I knew I was doing. Then I
got the high school and Istarted learning more about the
sport I started having, like,people that I'm fans of, and I
wanted to be a skilled player.
And the coach told me that Ihave no clue what I'm doing and
that like But I couldn't playthat position. So they're trying
(10:01):
to put me on the line as well.
And I was like, no. So Idedicated my entire freshman
high school year to learning howto exercise, learning how to
workout and I would come homefrom school, and then train and
then try to watch YouTube videoson different exercises, like,
you know, watch YouTube videoson how I can like, you know,
(10:23):
grow my legs, how could getfaster, I could be more
athletic. And I just stayed withit every single day. And then I
worked out with the varsityfootball players as much as I
can. We used to say after thegame, so worked out like I just
I was I was a workaholic. Sothen from that point on, I
actually started loving theworkout part more than I did the
(10:43):
sport. And don't get me wrong.
As I grew in high school, I lovefootball still. But the working
outside is what drove me like,every single time at the
practice, I'm working out aftergames, sometimes I still would
work out once I left high schoolstill always kept working out as
a part of my regimen. And thenthat's when I started getting
into personal training. And Idabbled in all different aspects
(11:05):
of areas of fitness. And I did abodybuilding show before I
dabbled around with CrossFitwith all you guys. And I just
love testing out, you know, allthe different aspects of
fitness. The one thing that Iwas always gifted at was
strength. And then a guy at 24,he came up to me and he was
(11:26):
like, why don't you do apowerlifting competition. And I
was like, okay, as I didn't knowthat, you still do that. I
remember doing powerlifting asan accessory to football in high
school. But that didn't reallycount for anything. And so I was
introduced to the sport. Andfrom that point on, I just fell
in love with it, that the driveto want to be better than myself
every single day, because thatnumber can still go up. There
(11:49):
isn't a you know, a cap on anumber someone can say that well
800 I feel like that's the mostthat some of you do. But wait
two years, someone's going to domore, you know. And that's
exactly what happens everysingle time I have a friend who
deadlifts 1,000 pounds anddeadlifts over 1,000 pounds. So
you tried to tell him five yearsago that you can't do it. And
here he is five years later,like it's done, and now is seen
(12:13):
as like he wants more. And likethat 1,000 pounds is a regular
number to them. So there isnever a true limit on anything
the strength sport, because thatnumber can keep going up. It's
more about just seeing formyself, How much better can I
get every single day? And evenif I'm better than my
competition, Am I better thanthe person I was yesterday? And
(12:34):
that's something that willalways drive me because I can
always be better than myself. Ican always say
Colton Cockerell (12:41):
competition myself. See, Trisha that tells
you you like
Trisha Stetzel (12:44):
him? I do. He's awesome. So Brandon, for people
who don't know what apowerlifting competition is, can
you just describe it for us, sopeople can get an idea of what
it is that you just love to do?
For
Brandon Pitre (12:57):
sure, for sure.
So the competition is, is goingto be a competition or what we
call meets. So where you gettested for three lifts, which is
going to be the squat, and thenas the bench press, and then as
the deadlift, it is always goingto be in that order, you get
three attempts to basically putyour best effort out there for
(13:17):
each lifts. So you get threeattempts to squat reaches a
bench, and the three attempts adeadlift, and you get judged on
like, whether it's a three whitelifts, meaning that it's all
good, and it counts, or it canbe, you know, a three red lift,
which means it doesn't count,you have to try again. So that
way you can register and total.
(13:38):
Or even if you just get twowhite lights, and one red is
still good. And if you get tworeds and one white is still bad,
and it doesn't count. Andbasically at the end of the
meet, you combine all theweights or all the lifts that
got registered to build up atotal. And then that's how you
decide who wins the competition.
So it's all about just puttingforth the best squat, your best
(14:00):
bench, your best deadlift tostandard, which are our
standards within the usap USAPLrules and guidelines and seen as
the strongest.
Trisha Stetzel (14:12):
So are there brackets or categories based on
your body weight? Like how dothey figure out who competes
against who.
Brandon Pitre (14:19):
So there's actually two styles that you can
actually have. So we havedifferent weight classes and
divisions, we have separation ofgender as well between male and
female, but then they also youalso still kind of compete with
each other because we do thingsoff of a formula for the best
lifter. And based upon that theywill actually have us all
(14:40):
compete against each other withour totals with our body weight
and just kind of see like poundfor pound who was the best
lifter like who was better outof all the weight classes. Cool.
Colton Cockerell (14:50):
I love that and and I want to just reiterate
something you said previously isthat whenever you started
working out you had a why andthat was I wanted to play a
skill Last position and fromthere you just fell in love with
it and that's what pushed youand then even getting into
powerlifting it's notnecessarily Hey, I'm gonna beat
these people around me. No, I'mgonna beat my personal best and
(15:10):
you have a competition withyourself which is very difficult
to do like to constantly battlewith yourself daily like getting
that is the ultimate discipline.
And that is awesome. So again,everyone who do you have any
questions about working out howto get bigger how to find meet
some kind of goal that you'retrying to meet? That's the first
thing you need. You need yourwhy why are you doing it and you
got to have consistency likeBrandon said, find a group of
(15:32):
people that are working out withI'm sure you could find easily
find some people who want toalso get shredded or bigger,
whatever, whatever word you wantto use, right? You hear them
all. But the other thing too,we're gonna have Brandon we're
gonna have Brandon's contactinformation in our in our links.
So definitely feel free ifyou're like, hey, you know what,
I want to be in bodybuilding. Iwould not recommend anybody
except for Brandon, for you tosit down with have as a coach.
(15:55):
So, again, solid guy, you don'tfind a humble powerlifter. All
right, there's usually a lot ofego. But this guy is solid. So
Brandon, thank you so much forbeing on the show today, man. I
appreciate having you. Thanksfor taking the time.
Brandon Pitre (16:09):
No, no problem.
The pleasure is mine. I'm alwayshere to you know, help out any
way that I can.
Trisha Stetzel (16:14):
Awesome.
Brandon, thank you so much againfor being with us. It was so
nice to meet you today. It wasgood. Me too, Trisha. All right.
So hey, guys, just a reminder.
Like I sip on Wednesdays whenwe're posting our podcast. So
tune in next week for anotherexciting episode of Bridge that
Gap.
Colton Cockerell (16:32):
We'll be talking to Bob Rakowski. So it's
going to be good you don't wantto miss it.
Thanks again for tuning intothis week's podcast. Don't
forget to subscribe and sharethis podcast with the most
important people in your life.
Colton Cockerell with SharerMcKinley Group, LLC is located
at 820 South Friendswood DriveSuite 207 Friendswood, Texas
77546 phone number to281-992-5698. Securities and
investment advisory servicesoffered through NEXT Financial
(16:52):
Group, Inc. member FINRA/SIPCSharer McKinley Group is not an
affiliate of NEXT FinancialGroup, Inc.
Hello and welcome to a another exciting
episode of Bridge the Gap. We'rebalancing life through health,
wealth, business andrelationships.
Trisha Stetzel (00:17):
Hello and welcome to the show. My name is
Trisha Stetzel, owner of ResultsXtreme Business Solutions. And
my friend Colton Cockerell ishere with me today.
Colton Cockerell (00:28):
What is going on Trisha, it's kind of weird as
always to flip the script andhave you introduce the show
everyone it is the month ofJuly. So we are focused on
health and wellness and we aregoing to talk to Brandon Pitre
today who is a trainer and apower lifter. It just you gotta
watch this stuff. look him up.
Brandon Petrie, super cool guy,and he has some really cool
(00:49):
videos out there. Brandon what'sgoing on, man? So good to see
you.
Brandon Pitre (00:54):
Hey, how's it going? Good to see you too. It's
been a it's been a good whilethis is great that you guys are
having me on here. I lookforward to seeing what this is
about and diving into it and seeif I can, you know, spit out
some information that may helpsome people know awesome. So
Trisha Stetzel (01:08):
before we dive in, we must thank our sponsor
the Sharer McKinley Group LLC.
Imagine that
Colton Cockerell (01:14):
man, what a great company. Okay, so Brandon,
I think a lot of people outthere, you know, you all
especially high schoolers, youalways hear me I want to get
big, you know, that's just likethe thing, right? So for someone
who is starting a journey islike, you know, what, I do want
to put on some weight, I want togain some muscle, whether it's
bodybuilding or doing something,just weightlifting, whatever it
(01:35):
may be, what is some easy stepsthat you can just think off the
top of your head to help peoplelike that, who do want to put on
some muscle put on some weight.
Brandon Pitre (01:43):
Um, the first thing first is make sure that
you have consistency in yourlife, that is going to be the
biggest thing that's like a lotof people's downfall, when they
get out the gate, they get veryenergized, you may, you know,
have that energy for like thefirst two, three days. But then,
you know, after that you takefour five days off and you come
back, I would say just when youget into the gym, find some type
(02:07):
of workout routine that at leastmakes it to where something's
fun for you. But it keepspulling you back in every day.
Because that's how you start.
You can't necessarily buildanything unless the consistency
of a foundation is there.
Because then it's just gonnacrumble apart, you're looking to
you know, lose weight, get big,do anything, you got to make
sure you have consistency first,and then you can build on top of
Trisha Stetzel (02:28):
Do you think? Or do you find Brandon that having
that.
an accountability partner helpsin that space. Like if you're
just starting out and reallytrying to build that momentum to
get to the gym every day, ishaving an accountability partner
a good idea? Oh, for
Brandon Pitre (02:42):
sure. I think that's how a lot of kids in high
school even find the gym andthey continuously go is because
you usually have your buddiesthat you know, go with you,
you'll have fun, it becomes likea social hour. But at the same
time, at least it pulls you inthere every day. And the more
that you're exposed to the gym,the more you're exposed to
different things that you maysee a powerlifter. And then one
(03:03):
day you may see a bodybuilderand then one day like oh, wow, I
want to I do want to look likethat. And then that's how you
start branching off into yourown fitness journey. But it
starts with a good you know,group of friends is definitely a
great way to you know, buildsome consistency in the gym.
Colton Cockerell (03:16):
Absolutely.
And help important, not justgoing to the gym consistently.
So you building that mindset togo to the gym, how important is
eating, when it comes to gainingmuscle,
Brandon Pitre (03:27):
oh, you have to eat trying to make sure that you
skip out on carbs or skip out onthis and skip out on that and
you know, starving yourself,that's not going to cut it if
you're trying to gain muscle,you really have to make sure
that you are in a surplus, youhave to make sure that you are
consistently training thatmuscle hard. And that's the only
(03:49):
way that you're going to grow isthat you have to eat you also
have to sleep. If a lot ofpeople in school a lot of
college kids that want to growmuscle, but you're you know, on,
you know, three energy drinksand you on two hours of sleep
and you just cramming the books,you need to let your body get
some sleep. And if you also wantmuscles to grow, got to sleep
definitely have to eat that'sfor sure.
Colton Cockerell (04:10):
And so can you can you kind of explain more
when you said you definitelyhave to be in a surplus. Can you
break that down a little bitmore for our listeners,
Brandon Pitre (04:17):
everyone kind of has you know, where they
maintain their weight that andit's kind of the calories that
you have been taking in right? Alot of people don't track just
yet but you are maintaining yourbody weight with some type of
calories. So the first thing youwould kind of do or at least
what I tell my clients is forthe first week, just track what
you're already eating. Don't tryand like switch over to like a
(04:39):
new diet. Don't try to switchover to anything else. Find out
where you are so that we canfigure out where you're trying
to go. Because you don't evenknow where you are is gonna be
hard to create a deficit orsurplus. So let's say that you
track for a week you find outthat you're at 2000 calories.
Right at that point. If you'retrying to gain weight. I always
advise gaining at a slower Lowerrates. So that way you put on as
(05:01):
much lean muscle mass aspossible without necessarily
things getting too bloated andinflammation building. So I
usually tell them at 250calories to whatever that is. So
if you're at 2000, on average,let's try to go for 2,250. stick
with that for about two, threeweeks, let the poundage grow.
And then if you want to gain alittle bit more, you can add
(05:23):
another 250 Within the next likefour to six weeks. And then let
that sit for a little bit, watchthe scale rise, and then just
keep going off on that until youstop gaining weight. And then at
that point, I add another 250.
And then just keep that going.
Keep that in check. And that'show you get to a surplus.
Colton Cockerell (05:41):
I haven't heard it said like that before.
That's That's fascinating.
Trisha Stetzel (05:45):
Brandon, I was so before we started recording
the show, I said Brandon, isthis your full time job? Yes.
Which I love right now. He is anextreme power lifter. Before we
started this show, Colton showedme these videos. Brandon, you're
freaking amazing at what you do.
But I also know that you coachpeople. And I think there are a
(06:07):
lot of female listeners outthere particularly older ones.
And when we're talking aboutmuscle, they're like, oh, no,
that's not for me. So can wetalk about the importance of
building muscle for older women,and even men as well, for sure,
Brandon Pitre (06:22):
I believe that, especially for the older woman,
it's way more important for themto actually push themselves in
the gym and grow that muscle andactually get introduced to the
kind of things that I do. Sopowerlifting, introducing more
compound lifts, those are likemulti jointed lifts, meaning
that you're allowing yourself tolike work multiple joints at
(06:42):
once within one exercise. Andwhenever you're doing that,
you're building up a lot of bonedensity through the pressure of
stressing out, you know, thebones are the most of through
poundage on top of the body overtime, is going to build that
resilience. So that way,whenever you're 85 or 90, and
you see those grandmas andgrandpas get out the chair willy
(07:03):
nilly, and they're having funand they're walking free, they
probably have some of thattraining in their life. Because
if not trying to get out of achair or trying to walk is gonna
hurt. You see, like, you know,Grandpa get hip replacements and
stuff like that gettingintroduced to compound movements
earlier on this thing consistentwith that all the way through,
(07:23):
you know, 60, 65, 70, 75 isgoing to kind of limit those hip
replacements and stuff likethat.
Colton Cockerell (07:29):
And so that's your talk compound movements of
deadlifts, you know,
Brandon Pitre (07:32):
right. So you got deadlifts, squat, even even
bench I know a lot of peoplethink bench is you know, purely
for just chess or just maybearms. But you actually when you,
you know, if you learn how tobenchpress the full way you are
working every bit of your body,you're working your back, you're
working your triceps, workingyour biceps, you're working your
(07:54):
chest, you're working yourquads, you're working everything
in that benchpress. So those arelike the main ones, but you can
even do it is something assimple as like a bent over row
as well. Those are still somethings where you need to have a
slight bend in your knees, butyou're also rowing with your
elbow. So that's another multijoint movement, and just
different things like that. Sowe're using multiple joints at
(08:14):
once, which just do a great dealof service to your body.
Colton Cockerell (08:19):
I wish everyone could see what we can
see. I mean, he's just popingout his day. Just shirt. I mean,
I wish my biceps like that big.
You started though, likeeverybody else, right where
you're just like a scrawny guy.
And then you start working. Nowyou get into it. So just kind of
go through your mindset to bewhere you are, kind of tell us
your journey starting where youwere at. And then how you became
(08:42):
the Brandon weightlifting,pastry piece mode, and how you
became that and talk about yourmindset because that I mean,
that's such an important part ofworking out. If you're really
trying to try to you know,create this muscle mass this all
this other stuff
Brandon Pitre (08:56):
is funny, like my journey is a little bit
different. Mine's a littleinteresting. So I remember being
introduced to any style ofworking, I didn't get introduced
into middle school. I didn'tplay Little League, I didn't do
any like sports. When I wasyounger. The first time I
touched a sport like naturalorganized sport, I was in middle
school, and I didn't know how toplay football. I didn't know
(09:18):
anything about like anything. Sothey just threw me on the line
because all they said wasalright, just go forward and
just hit a guy. And I was like,okay, simple enough line up on
the line and then just try totackle the running back or
whatever that I don't have tothink or anything like that.
It's not complicated. And alwayslove working hard. So like a
person bigger than me. I have anolder brother who used to fight
(09:38):
me and you know, try to beat meup all the time. So I wasn't
scared of someone who was biggerthan me. So I was like, still
someone who worked hard but Iknew I knew I was doing. Then I
got the high school and Istarted learning more about the
sport I started having, like,people that I'm fans of, and I
wanted to be a skilled player.
And the coach told me that Ihave no clue what I'm doing and
that like But I couldn't playthat position. So they're trying
(10:01):
to put me on the line as well.
And I was like, no. So Idedicated my entire freshman
high school year to learning howto exercise, learning how to
workout and I would come homefrom school, and then train and
then try to watch YouTube videoson different exercises, like,
you know, watch YouTube videoson how I can like, you know,
(10:23):
grow my legs, how could getfaster, I could be more
athletic. And I just stayed withit every single day. And then I
worked out with the varsityfootball players as much as I
can. We used to say after thegame, so worked out like I just
I was I was a workaholic. Sothen from that point on, I
actually started loving theworkout part more than I did the
(10:43):
sport. And don't get me wrong.
As I grew in high school, I lovefootball still. But the working
outside is what drove me like,every single time at the
practice, I'm working out aftergames, sometimes I still would
work out once I left high schoolstill always kept working out as
a part of my regimen. And thenthat's when I started getting
into personal training. And Idabbled in all different aspects
(11:05):
of areas of fitness. And I did abodybuilding show before I
dabbled around with CrossFitwith all you guys. And I just
love testing out, you know, allthe different aspects of
fitness. The one thing that Iwas always gifted at was
strength. And then a guy at 24,he came up to me and he was
(11:26):
like, why don't you do apowerlifting competition. And I
was like, okay, as I didn't knowthat, you still do that. I
remember doing powerlifting asan accessory to football in high
school. But that didn't reallycount for anything. And so I was
introduced to the sport. Andfrom that point on, I just fell
in love with it, that the driveto want to be better than myself
every single day, because thatnumber can still go up. There
(11:49):
isn't a you know, a cap on anumber someone can say that well
800 I feel like that's the mostthat some of you do. But wait
two years, someone's going to domore, you know. And that's
exactly what happens everysingle time I have a friend who
deadlifts 1,000 pounds anddeadlifts over 1,000 pounds. So
you tried to tell him five yearsago that you can't do it. And
here he is five years later,like it's done, and now is seen
(12:13):
as like he wants more. And likethat 1,000 pounds is a regular
number to them. So there isnever a true limit on anything
the strength sport, because thatnumber can keep going up. It's
more about just seeing formyself, How much better can I
get every single day? And evenif I'm better than my
competition, Am I better thanthe person I was yesterday? And
(12:34):
that's something that willalways drive me because I can
always be better than myself. Ican always say
Colton Cockerell (12:41):
competition myself. See, Trisha that tells
you you like
Trisha Stetzel (12:44):
him? I do. He's awesome. So Brandon, for people
who don't know what apowerlifting competition is, can
you just describe it for us, sopeople can get an idea of what
it is that you just love to do?
For
Brandon Pitre (12:57):
sure, for sure.
So the competition is, is goingto be a competition or what we
call meets. So where you gettested for three lifts, which is
going to be the squat, and thenas the bench press, and then as
the deadlift, it is always goingto be in that order, you get
three attempts to basically putyour best effort out there for
(13:17):
each lifts. So you get threeattempts to squat reaches a
bench, and the three attempts adeadlift, and you get judged on
like, whether it's a three whitelifts, meaning that it's all
good, and it counts, or it canbe, you know, a three red lift,
which means it doesn't count,you have to try again. So that
way you can register and total.
(13:38):
Or even if you just get twowhite lights, and one red is
still good. And if you get tworeds and one white is still bad,
and it doesn't count. Andbasically at the end of the
meet, you combine all theweights or all the lifts that
got registered to build up atotal. And then that's how you
decide who wins the competition.
So it's all about just puttingforth the best squat, your best
(14:00):
bench, your best deadlift tostandard, which are our
standards within the usap USAPLrules and guidelines and seen as
the strongest.
Trisha Stetzel (14:12):
So are there brackets or categories based on
your body weight? Like how dothey figure out who competes
against who.
Brandon Pitre (14:19):
So there's actually two styles that you can
actually have. So we havedifferent weight classes and
divisions, we have separation ofgender as well between male and
female, but then they also youalso still kind of compete with
each other because we do thingsoff of a formula for the best
lifter. And based upon that theywill actually have us all
(14:40):
compete against each other withour totals with our body weight
and just kind of see like poundfor pound who was the best
lifter like who was better outof all the weight classes. Cool.
Colton Cockerell (14:50):
I love that and and I want to just reiterate
something you said previously isthat whenever you started
working out you had a why andthat was I wanted to play a
skill Last position and fromthere you just fell in love with
it and that's what pushed youand then even getting into
powerlifting it's notnecessarily Hey, I'm gonna beat
these people around me. No, I'mgonna beat my personal best and
(15:10):
you have a competition withyourself which is very difficult
to do like to constantly battlewith yourself daily like getting
that is the ultimate discipline.
And that is awesome. So again,everyone who do you have any
questions about working out howto get bigger how to find meet
some kind of goal that you'retrying to meet? That's the first
thing you need. You need yourwhy why are you doing it and you
got to have consistency likeBrandon said, find a group of
(15:32):
people that are working out withI'm sure you could find easily
find some people who want toalso get shredded or bigger,
whatever, whatever word you wantto use, right? You hear them
all. But the other thing too,we're gonna have Brandon we're
gonna have Brandon's contactinformation in our in our links.
So definitely feel free ifyou're like, hey, you know what,
I want to be in bodybuilding. Iwould not recommend anybody
except for Brandon, for you tosit down with have as a coach.
(15:55):
So, again, solid guy, you don'tfind a humble powerlifter. All
right, there's usually a lot ofego. But this guy is solid. So
Brandon, thank you so much forbeing on the show today, man. I
appreciate having you. Thanksfor taking the time.
Brandon Pitre (16:09):
No, no problem.
The pleasure is mine. I'm alwayshere to you know, help out any
way that I can.
Trisha Stetzel (16:14):
Awesome.
Brandon, thank you so much againfor being with us. It was so
nice to meet you today. It wasgood. Me too, Trisha. All right.
So hey, guys, just a reminder.
Like I sip on Wednesdays whenwe're posting our podcast. So
tune in next week for anotherexciting episode of Bridge that
Gap.
Colton Cockerell (16:32):
We'll be talking to Bob Rakowski. So it's
going to be good you don't wantto miss it.
Thanks again for tuning intothis week's podcast. Don't
forget to subscribe and sharethis podcast with the most
important people in your life.
Colton Cockerell with SharerMcKinley Group, LLC is located
at 820 South Friendswood DriveSuite 207 Friendswood, Texas
77546 phone number to281-992-5698. Securities and
investment advisory servicesoffered through NEXT Financial
(16:52):
Group, Inc. member FINRA/SIPCSharer McKinley Group is not an
affiliate of NEXT FinancialGroup, Inc.
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