September 22, 2025 • 49 mins
In this week’s episode, Nate and Liz recap their trip to Power Surge Pro, sharing stories from the platform, the energy of the meet, and what it means to compete at a high level while still having fun.
They also introduce a free 4-week pushup program, built to help you go from your first pushup to advanced progressions. To round things out, they dive into the age old concept of discipline over motivation. Consistency and discipline is what helped Liz stay in the game and make it back to the platform, and it can help you too! Start stacking small wins and moving towards your next goal.
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HOSTED BY
@lizribaudo_fortis
@nateribaudo_fortis
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's going on, you guys?
Welcome to another episode ofthe Fortis After Hours podcast.
I'm your co-host, nate, joinedby my wife, liz hey, and we have
another awesome episode playingfor you guys, episode 5 Since
our rebrand, and today we'regonna be checking in on where
we've been past couple weeks.
Hint, we've not just beensitting here doing nothing.
Quite the opposite.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Not quite.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
We've been all around the earth, specifically the
united states sort of.
I mean, we went to denver.
That was so weird.
That was um, so we're gonnabreak that down.
Um, along with which was ourtrip to power surge pro, where
liz competed.
Uh, liz and lana competed and Icompeted for the best hair.
(00:45):
Uh, it was a competition, uh,one on one myself, and I won.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
So crazy day for me as well, uh competed against a
whole bunch of people thatdidn't know they were competing
against exactly it was just mein the competition actually, so
yeah perfect um, but anyways,yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
So we're going to talk about that.
We also are going to talk aboutour free push-up program.
That is live now.
You can get access to that.
I will explain how to do thatlater on in the episode, so
stick around.
This is a great program foreverybody.
So if you're listening to thatand you're like Nate push-ups
are so easy try this program.
You will not be disappointedand you will be sore, I
guarantee it.
If you're like Nate, I cannotdo one push up.
(01:26):
Or maybe you're just stuck andyou're like almost at a push up
or almost at five push ups, thisprogram will be perfect for you
as well.
So stay tuned for that.
We'll talk a little bit aboutthat, and then we're also just
going to touch on whyconsistency is important, and I
can kind of like pull youthrough those lulls in
motivation.
We've talked about that manytimes on the podcast before, but
(01:47):
it is a big kind of like themethat's important to us.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
It is, and it kind of ties in with the meat too.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
It does.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
For me.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
It does indeed.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
And on that note, let's go ahead and get started.
So, first things first, talkingabout our Power Surge Pro
adventure.
So we're just going to kind ofgo chronologically.
So we flew out there, which weflew out there with Lena, which
was cool.
I kind of thought of it as wewere like flying like.
(02:18):
We were like flying like a team, you know.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
I just thought we were friends hanging out.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Yeah, okay.
So I was like, oh cool, like noone else hanging out, yeah,
okay.
So I was like cool, like we'reall flying out and I like
literally did think of someonebrought this up the other day
Cause we're going to do it uh, abig trip to nationals next year
, like flying as a team, withlike jerseys and stuff or like
you know, shirts, which Iactually thought of.
I'm like, ooh, we should havehad these on when we were flying
.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
But so much.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Yeah, Liz is not a fan of that, but anyways, we
flew out there, flew up toChicago, flight there Flight
service super easy and chill.
And then we landed, gotourselves settled.
Did we go to Walmart that day?
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Jewel Osco.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Whatever?
Speaker 2 (03:01):
But yes.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Oh yeah, we went to Jewel Osco which, like man, my
wallet wasn't prepared for that.
That shit was expensive, Likeeverything.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
It was expensive.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
This is why I shop at Walmart.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
There was no Walmart.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Yeah, apparently there's no Walmart where we were
in Illinois but we went toJewel Osco.
Fun fact, I used to work thereand I didn't like it then and I
still don't like it because Imean they had everything we
needed.
so they did and I will say thesteaks were pretty good.
So, anyways, we stocked upimmediately, which is an
important part of our journeybecause we don't stop.
(03:34):
So had to get ready to gobecause the ladies needed their
meal prep that following day andI needed some meals because I
was going to train the next day.
So right off the plane, rightjules osco snagged the groceries
.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
This is kind of important, like if you are
someone who ever does want totravel for a meet to maybe like
listen to what we did and takenote of what we did, because
what we did is actually prettyimportant for having a
successful travel meet day.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Well, that's kind of wanted to like walk it, walk
through.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
I know that's why them through it, yeah, but you
didn't say that, so I'm justmaking it very clear that if you
are someone who either isplanning on traveling or wants
to travel, or maybe you'vetraveled and had not great times
with traveling, um, there mightbe some things that you could
like.
I don't know learn some tipsyou could pick up along the way
(04:31):
of listening just by listeningto what we did yeah and there
might be things you can learnalso my first thing that you
need to learn if you're planningon traveling and flying um,
bring all of your meat stuff inyour carry-on yeah, that is step
one.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Oh yeah, we did that also.
I didn't get stop by security,which I talked about before in
one of the other podcasts.
It didn't get stopped this timewore the same pants and stuff,
so I don't know who knows?
anyways, um so, yeah, so we gotthe food.
I want to continue this forwardmomentum got the food.
That's very important.
Uh, overlooked thing of travel.
I see people all the time whenthey travel for powerlifting
meets oh, I ate here, I atethere.
(05:06):
We did eat out, but it was allcarefully selected, especially
until meat day carefullyselected and then, after the
meat was more, yeah, justwhatever, yeah, until meat day,
um, so, yeah, so that isdefinitely, I feel, like
overrated.
So got ourselves food water aswell, um, just so that we had
everything that we needed before, even like settling down for
(05:30):
sleep that first night.
That made the next day supereasy.
Got up Thursday, I think wecooked some breakfast, got some
coffee and then I meal preppedand just did some basic meals,
stuff that we were all used toeating.
That's also important.
Don't really want to changethat.
I don't know why, but I'mtelling you a lot of people when
(05:52):
they travel I don't know aboutother sports, but specifically
for powerlifting, people like tochange, like, what they're
eating.
I don't know why you should notdo that.
If you're cutting, that's awhole different thing.
We're not talking about thattoday.
But if you can try and stay asconsistent with your meals as
possible, um, it's a little bitof like a, I want to say.
I mean, there's a little bit ofscience, um, making sure that
(06:15):
you have the exact same kind ofenergy that you've been having
throughout all your training.
But there's also a little bitof bro science and that is their
body just kind of gets used tolike digesting.
Let me rephrase this isactually science but I just
don't know the specifics so I'mgoing to explain it on a very
bro science level.
And that is your body does getused to digesting the foods and
(06:36):
nutrients and water and liquids,everything.
So like it's easier literallyfor your body to recover and do
everything else If you keepeverything the same, if you
introduce, you know, let's say,you never eat fish and you're
like I'm going to eat fish forsome reason, like that's just
going to make it harder on yourbody.
So you want to make it easy onyour body, Do that by meal
prepping, selecting the foodsyou're used to.
That's what we did.
Then we headed over to surgefor quick training day.
(06:59):
I did deadlifts, you guys didSPD Yep and photoshoot Impromptu
, photoshoot, yep.
And Liz forgot something kindof important, but less important
because she switched to.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
I forgot my shoes.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
She switched to flats .
Speaker 2 (07:20):
So I did all of my lifts in just my socks.
Yeah, but it's fine because myshoes are super flat and super
thin and I mean they're grippy,which is nice, but I also wasn't
going heavy.
So it wasn't really likeslipping or sliding anywhere.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
And I will say so again, just for like learning
sake.
Devil's advocate, let's justsay she even was, you know,
squatting in, not flats, and sheneeded those shoes.
I would still have just said togo ahead and do the day without
the shoes, because that day wasmore for you guys.
Just a little bit of blood flow, kind of just like a, almost
(07:56):
like a shakeout run If you'relike running, you know, like
just a quick shakeout, get someblood flow would have been a
little more annoying if you wereused to the squat shoes, Sure,
but it would not have been worthin this case.
Like the drive back, the driveback to the gym, uh, that like
time stress, whatever.
Um, so you know, just becausewe're talking about like keeping
(08:18):
everything the same in thiscase, like in that example, I
would actually just say movingis better than not moving and or
than like all of that yeah, Imean.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Obviously it depends on what your programming is if
you have not us as a coach theymight program your last week
differently, so it might makemore of a difference or less of
a difference just depending onwhat you're doing, but if it is
just a lighter, like blood flowday, you're probably good.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Yeah, so that was Thursday, that was good.
What did we do Thursday night?
I?
Speaker 2 (08:53):
think we just chilled .
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Yeah, we just chilled .
Went back to the house chilled.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
I was hungry.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Yep.
Oh yeah, I was a little hungry,but we had weigh-ins the next
morning, so we kind of justdrank water and chilled.
We didn't have to do a watercut or anything.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
so it was nice I wasn't cutting, but I was also
like right on the borderline andI wasn't 100% sure how my body
was going to respond with flying, because that can cause water
retention, things like that.
So I was not 100% sure.
So we were trying to not eattoo much or anything extra that
night, so I was a wee bit hungryyeah, uh, she was a wee bit
(09:31):
hungry.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
I think I was just eating everything under the sun,
but that's honestly usually howour life works, um, so yeah, so
thursday, we just kind of wentback to the house chilled, got
things ready for Friday, whichwas weigh-in day.
And before we start talkingabout weigh-ins, we're going to
take a quick break because Lizis baking.
(09:58):
So quick bread break.
Ooh, I like that.
We're going to call it a quickbread break.
And while this is baking, I'mgoing to go ahead and tell you
guys about our pushup program.
So I'm pretty excited aboutthis, uh, mainly because people
actually downloaded it, which iscrazy.
So I'm super excited, um,because sometimes I make free
programs and people can't figureout how to download it.
(10:20):
I'll be it.
It's been a little bitcomplicated in the past, but I
tried to make it as simple aspossible and if you've not yet
checked it out, I encourage youguys to check it out.
It's completely free.
You get it within the trainheroic app, so that's kind of
nice because we pay for that andyou get the benefit of that so
you can track your progressalong the way.
It's a four week pushup programand it's designed to help
(10:42):
anyone of all different levels,improve their push-ups.
Now, if you're just startingout, this push-up program is
going to take you from zero tohero and or from like an
elevated push-up, maybe with abarbell on a rack, which you can
see in the video thatcorrelates with all this.
That's on our Instagram atFortis Fitness Studio, all the
way down to the floor.
(11:02):
So I kind of lay it out for youguys how you can go from you
know not getting a full push upto getting full random motion
push ups.
No problem, if you're alreadyreally good at push ups, you can
use this program to challengeyourself and improve the
strength and the push ups thatyou may already have.
So it's really designed foreverybody.
(11:24):
Like, different levels doesn'tmatter.
Some of you'll see how I didthat.
I use time actually as a metricinstead of reps.
So, for example, if I'm, youknow, pretty good at push ups
and maybe I want to challengemyself and I'm doing for 30
seconds, maybe I'm trying to getlike 30 and 30 seconds or
something crazy like that.
Or maybe I add weight and get,you know, 15 or 20 or something
(11:45):
like that.
If you're just starting out,you might just get like one or
three or four, that's fine.
So, anyways, check it out.
It's got something foreverybody.
This pushup program is perfectto run alongside with, you know,
any other workout plan that youmay be doing, and you can also
do, like, just the main part ofit, if you have.
(12:06):
You know, if you run anotherprogram, you can do just the
main part of it and saveyourself a little bit of time.
So check it out.
You guys Head to our Instagramat Fortis Fitness Studio and I
think I'm going to pin it to thetop by the time this goes live.
But yeah, there's a push-upvideo.
Watch the whole video.
I explain more in depth how toproperly do full range of motion
push-ups and then at the endthere is a code.
(12:29):
Enter that into train heroicand boom, you've unlocked your
free push-up program and we'reback from our bread break, um,
and back to our power surgerecap.
So so friday, weigh-in dayliz's favorite day because she
gets to eat all the treatsafterwards I don't really eat a
lot of treats.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
I I just eat a lot of food.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
That's true.
Let's walk through it.
So we rolled up to Wayne's andgot to see.
My parents were there atWayne's, said hello to them.
They were ready to go.
Hopefully they weren'texpecting any lifting to happen.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Who knows?
Speaker 1 (13:08):
They're just trying to be part of the action, I
think so said hi to them andthen we uh just checked in, got
the cool posters and cards whichwe'll use this little part to
talk about.
That uh, really awesome idea bysergio and his team, uh, to do
these trading cards and posterkind of like promoting the meet.
(13:29):
Uh, I thought it was prettycool, really cool way to get the
athletes involved and itactually worked.
So they there was like a lot ofathletes that got kickbacks
from ticket sales, which isfantastic.
Uh, really cool way to justkind of like grow the sport and
to get the athletes involved alittle bit in, you know, getting
fans to the actual meet itselfand getting fans to watch on the
(13:54):
live stream.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Yeah, builds up some spectators, makes it more fun
for them too, Like oh, I gotthis cool trading card of either
my favorite athlete or whoever.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
I don't know where they are.
I need to find them Right there, I gotta start a trading card
book, powerlifting trading cardsOf me, yep, and anyways.
So yeah, so we got those.
That was super cool.
How'd weigh-ins go?
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Good, nice and easy.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Blayna was, like, well below her weight, so she
was good to go you were.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
That was fine.
I don't remember.
I think it was like a pound anda half under.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Yeah, none of us or our clients have ever missed
weight, so we are on like a 100%streak on that.
Good to go yeah, so that's noproblem for us.
So weighed in and then I thinkyou guys did some athlete
interviews.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Yeah, they had the guy who is going to be the emcee
for the meet the next day.
He was doing some interviewswith all the athletes just to
kind of try and find out alittle bit more about him.
So he had some things to talkabout on the meet day while he
was emceeing, just to kind ofagain relate a little bit more
to the spectators, make it amore relatable sport.
(15:05):
Because, let's be real,sometimes powerlifting can be
kind of boring, and that's fromsomeone who loves powerlifting.
Yeah, sometimes powerliftingcan be kind of boring, um, and
that's from someone who lovespowerlifting.
Um, yeah, but having someinformation about the athletes
is always good and it makes itmore relatable, more fun.
You kind of hear their story orhear some things about them,
which is nice.
Um, he also designed theselittle what do you call them?
(15:28):
brochures, pamphlets I don'tknow the right word for them,
but they're like spectatorpamphlets, spectator brochures
yeah, they had just like a smalleducational brochure yeah, it
was like cool they could getthem when they got there, the
people they're watching, and itkind of explained the basics of
a powerlifting meet, like whatyou're looking for, what the
lifts are um what the lightsmeant, I think, things like that
(15:51):
.
Um, and I just thought that wasreally cool, like another really
cool addition that they did atthis meet that I've never seen
done before, to help kind ofdraw in those spectators and
create a little bit more of alike spectator friendly kind of
more of a story too.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Like you don't, it's hard to understand um what's
going on if you don't understandExactly if you don't know.
So it kind of provides a littlebit of color, so to speak, for
what you're watching in front ofyou, because otherwise you
might just be sitting there like, oh my gosh, they're all
yelling lifting weights.
You have no idea how much theyweigh things like this, because
(16:27):
it's in kilos.
So a lot of people don't knowthat, and you know the MC will
usually just announce just thekilos.
Sometimes they do the pounds aswell, but it's kind of
sometimes on the spectator.
So that was also a really cooltouch.
I like that a lot.
So we finished up withweigh-ins, headed right to
McDonald's and then afterwardsfinish off with.
Taco Bell and a milkshake.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
False.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Yeah no, so finish up with weigh-ins.
We had a meal packed with usalready.
A fun fact there's usuallymicrowaves at these things.
If there's not, there'sprobably a microwave somewhere
close.
I've heard they have them atgas stations.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Supposedly.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
I've still yet to do that, but everyone says they
have them at gas stations.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
So, anyways, we came ready with a meal.
Also, if you know there's notgoing to be a microwave, come
ready with a meal and a thermos.
We have done that before Yepthermoses are sold basically
everywhere, so if you'retraveling and you don't have one
, go buy one.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
We have also done that before.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Yep.
So that way, you know, you canjust start kind of like
refeeding the body.
Neither of them cut, so itreally wasn't like about
refeeding as much as it wasabout just making sure we were
fueled and ready to performSaturday, because they did have
a very early day, so it wasactually kind of important to
start eating and drinkingimmediately.
Uh, just because you're lookingat about a 24 hour ish window,
(17:36):
um, and you want to make sureyou're ready to rock and roll.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Yeah, now, if we or anyone were to have cut, it
would look a little different inwhat you would need to do that
day.
But um, we thankfully didn'tcut.
Um, so basically, right away weate our meal, started drinking
water because, again, we'retrying to be as hydrated and
fueled as possible for the nextday.
So my plan was definitely eat alittle bit more than I usually
(18:01):
eat, but not like crazy amountsmore, because I didn't want to
feel like too full or toowhatever on meat day, eating so
much extra that I wasn't used toeating.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Yeah, so had the initial meal.
Then, I think, we went out andgot some gluten-free pancakes,
aka one that Liz ate.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
I had just regular breakfast.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
I was, like most people, had regular breakfast.
It didn't really matter thatthey were gluten-free pancakes.
That's just what makes my tummyhappier.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Yeah, that's what Liz has to have.
So, anyways, got a simplebreakfast, then headed back and
just kind of chilled for a whileand then afterwards we went out
and got some food.
Oh yeah, we went out and wentto get some hibachi, which was
good Again, kind of selectingfoods that we usually eat, so
(18:57):
rice and some sort of meat Placewas good.
Food was great.
We had a nice group of peoplethat came out to support us,
which was super nice, and thenwe basically went home and
rested up because the girls hadan early day.
Uh, the next day we had to getup at 6 am, I think, 5 am, 5 am.
(19:21):
Um, had to get up at 5 am sothat way we could be ready to
roll and ready to startcompetition, which started at 8
am.
Uh, now I I know for Liz,honestly, this might have been
the earliest she's ever squatted363 pounds in her life, like
literally.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Yeah, I'm not a morning person.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Yeah, usually.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Well, no, probably actually that meat prep before
showdown.
We were training at 5 am.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Oh yeah, I forgot about that.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
I had technique that was back in 2021 back in the day
um way back in the day.
Um, not a morning person not amorning lifter, not a morning
awake person at all.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
So that was quite the experience if liz could skip
the morning and just enter atlike noon, that'd be probably
ideal for her.
Uh, anyways, so we had an earlyday, so I had to go to bed.
We literally just like eightand then went back, got ready
for bed yeah, um, and that's soanother just a little tip we
went on lots of walks that daywe did.
We went on lots of walks.
(20:25):
Honestly, we went on more walksthan we go on these weekends,
which is crazy because liz likesto sit on the regular weekends
yeah like today, yeah, okay lotsof sitting but I convinced her
to go on walks then.
So, anyways, we'll see, maybe wecan go on walks here too.
But yeah, we went on lots ofwalks to make sure we're staying
active.
Uh, that is actually superimportant because we generally
(20:48):
are pretty active people andwith the travel we weren't
really doing anything.
Um, I mean, of course you'retraveling, but yeah, so we did a
bunch of walks, which was good,um, and got ready for the next
day, aka meat day.
So for the meat day, um, wewoke up early, which I strongly
(21:09):
recommend.
People do, I don't't?
I never understood that.
It's kind of like this like oldschool mentality of like power
thing.
Some people I guess noteverybody, but some people where
it's just like you try and likesleep as much as possible.
There's like diminishingreturns to that.
It's called stress, so like ifyou wake up late and then you're
stressed and you're like, oh,like, like, it's much better
meat day wake up, like we.
(21:30):
So we had a 40 minute drive, sowe took that into account.
We woke up at 5 am and the meatstarted at 8 am, so that was
about three hours.
So, minus the 40 minute drive,so it's like two hours and 20
minutes of time now, of course,they needed to be there to warm
up, so really they need to bethere seven, so it's about an
hour 20 of excess time thatallowed us to get everything
(21:54):
ready.
Eat, not be rushed, like youknow.
Eat a meal, do whatever theyneeded to do, stop and get some
coffee.
Do our normal routine.
I strongly recommend you dothat.
If you are traveling for meetsor if you're doing a meet
locally, prepare adequately,make sure you guys have enough
time, make sure you go to bedearly, early enough and, to be
honest, because at the end ofthe day, once it's meat day and
(22:17):
the day before, even if youdidn't go to bed early and you
just got to get up a littleearlier, it's better to do that
than to be, you know, sleepingin and rushed and barely make it
to the meat.
It's just going to set up yourday that way.
Uh, you know there's no stress,or as minimal stress as
possible, because let's be,let's be real powerlifting.
Meets are pretty stressfulenvironments, um, so, anyways,
(22:38):
we headed out to the meet.
Um, it was kind of cool.
There was like some thunder inthe background.
It's cool.
Liz probably didn't even see it.
Um, and then trying not tothrow up.
Oh yeah, liz was a littlenervous at this point, but
anyways made it to the meet,which is really I didn't even
see it.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
I was just trying not to throw up.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Oh yeah, Liz was a little nervous at this point,
but anyways made it to the meet.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Which is really funny , because I wasn't nervous at
all the entire time.
And then we got in the car andI yeah, at some point it's going
to hit though.
I thought I was going to loseit.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
That's funny, so anyways.
So made it to the meet and thatis basically it the end.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
So, yeah, made it to the meet and then started
warming up.
They were in the first flight,first few lifters, so started
warming up on the monoliftbecause that's what they were
using and it was available.
So I'm like let's go.
We got a lot more comfortablewith monolifts.
I quick little tidbit, uh, Idon't know like turns out.
As you use them more and more,you get better at them here's my
(23:39):
quick little tidbit if youdon't train on a monolith and
you're competing with a monolith.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
You should still walk out your squat just walk it out
.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Yeah, yeah, let me.
Yeah, good, good clarification.
I did not mean we're warming upwith the monolith, like using
the actual monolith, both of ourlifters, so both liz and lana
both walk out usually.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
So that's exactly what we did if you know how to
use a monolith you candefinitely like take advantage
of that.
There's nothing wrong withusing a monolith, but it is
different and if you don't knowhow to do it, you shouldn't do
it.
On meat day, yeah, and it's notnecessary, you don't need to do
it.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
There's plenty of top squatters that literally just
walk out of their squad, sothat's what we did.
Um, as far as the actual meat,I'll kind of like cruise through
this stuff because I don't know, we've already recapped it a
million times.
If you have not seen the videos, check it out on Liz's
Instagram.
It's also on Ford's FitnessStudios Instagram, but we
recapped them pretty good andwe'll just kind of run through
(24:38):
it.
Squats warmups went nice andsmooth, really no problems at
all.
There Worked in with our friendRonald and his client Tammy.
It was good to see a familiarface and good to have somebody
in the warmup room to work offof, because sometimes I'd be
just out there or Liz is outthere just cruising solo, so it
was always nice to have a friend.
So shout out to Ronald forhelping me run the racks.
(25:01):
But yeah, squat warmups wentnice.
Everyone was looking good,primed and ready to go opener.
What'd you hit?
Speaker 2 (25:10):
I don't remember 341.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
That's what I'm saying what the numbers you guys
check out I can tell you what Iended up with.
I don't remember all of myattempts, though so, anyways,
yeah, the full recaps, like Isaid, they're up, but we'll just
go off of the top numbers.
So liz was able to secure a 363, 165 kilo back squat, um, which
is good.
We had just done 358 at themeet that she did a few weeks
(25:36):
ago, a month ago now, uh, soit's good just to get a little
bit there.
And also, she probably had alittle bit more in the tank, um,
I listened to the live streamguy and he's like a little bit
of a grind there.
He's like, yeah, but she got itlike full confidence and that
was about I would say the exactsame thing like she definitely
had a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
It would have been more grindy fun fact, I am good
at grinding squats though whichmost people don't know about.
Like, if you don't know me, youdon't know that, like, some
people are good at grindingsquats and some people aren't.
Like I'm pretty good at it, soyes, like that was definitely
easier and less of a grind thaneven the 358 was so meaning I
(26:14):
probably could have done likethe next jump up, but we wanted
to.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Well, the goal was to work on securing a total yeah,
the goal was to work on securingthe biggest total, so we want
to save a little bit of energyfor the deadlifts.
Um, lana did good as well.
She missed her on depth.
But I made kind of a tacticaldecision to split the difference
and go up anyways, cause therewas plenty of strength, Um.
(26:39):
But you know, at the end of theday you miss it.
So, uh, you don't want to gotoo crazy when you're jumping
like that.
So I took kind of a tacticaljump, just a five kilo jump.
Um, I was going to take a 10kilo jump but we went with a
five kilo jump and that workednicely.
She was able to smoke that andsave plenty of room for the
deadlift.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Also squatted 363.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Yep Also squatted 363 .
So bench press, which there wasa break.
Where was the break?
Was it break the big break inbetween this?
So there was like a 20 minutebreak.
This is a quick tidbit.
Make sure you guys are incommunication with the meat
director If you're traveling.
Every meat director isdifferent and even within meats
(27:22):
sometimes breaks can bedifferent.
So make sure you guys checkwith the meat director,
especially when it's a smallermeat, like a pro type meat like
this, where it's a smaller, morecondensed meat.
Uh, oftentimes they'll takebreaks in between the squat and
the bench events.
So make sure you guys check,check in with them.
Sometimes they announce it,sometimes they do not.
Uh, so, as a coach or a handleror an athlete, if you're by
(27:44):
yourself, make sure you guyscheck in so that way you time
your warm-ups appropriately.
Um, we did just that and foundout there was a 20-minute break
between squat and bench.
So we had a little bit of time,which was nice, warmed up for
bench, which is super easy forher.
Real quick, real quick Bench isnot that strong Warmed up for
(28:04):
bench real quick and then wentout and did good.
Liz went two for three.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
That's her favorite style of benching, per the usual
.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Yep Lena went three for three.
That's her favorite style ofbenching.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Per the usual, yep Lena went three for three on the
bench.
Did she hit a PR?
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Yep, what was it?
Speaker 2 (28:18):
187.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
All right, 187 PR for Lena.
Very good, we did just kind oflike small jumps for her.
Knocked one down at a time.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Fun fact about her bench which I would never
recommend doing this, but we didit.
We completely changed her benchabout one week before the meet,
maybe 10 days, I don't know,somewhere around there.
Seven to 10 days we completelychanged her grip for bench and
(28:50):
it paid off because she was ableto hit a PR with a brand new
grip, so that's cool.
Again, I wouldn't necessarilyrecommend that, but sometimes
you got to do what you got to doand she was able to make the
adjustment and then was able toget a nice little PR out of it.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Yeah, was able to capitalize on that adjustment
and get a PR.
And that just goes to one ofthe biggest morals of the story
of powerlifting in general,which is if you're strong,
you're strong.
So sometimes you got to makeadjustments.
She did a great job as anathlete, not, like you know,
overthinking or doing like yeah,and also, but also sometimes,
like you just have to lift, likeyeah you got to listen to your
(29:31):
coach, listen to your body andjust lift regardless of you.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
Haven't been training it for months, but maybe it
feels better this way orstronger this way.
For whatever reason, at thatmoment, like sometimes, you just
have to do things.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
That's what I'm saying.
She did a great job, notquestioning it, and was able to
go in full confidence and snagthat PR on the bench press,
which is good.
Liz did we got 87 again.
Um 90 kilos soon, soon.
Um.
This one was, I will say the 90was closer it was weird.
Yeah, I.
Usually she gets stuck likekind of really low off the chest
(30:05):
.
Uh, this like kind of lookedlike she had it and then just
didn't have enough gas in thetank that day.
Um, no problem though, it was2.5 kilos, so we were prepared
for that either way, all right.
So we finished up bench.
Then we had deadlifts, whichwere a little bit less of a
break it was a 10-minute break.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
10-minute break Surprise.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Yeah, that was interesting, but still plenty of
time to warm up, get everythingsquared away.
Deadlift forms were going gooduntil Liz came over and was like
yo, I think I'm going to besick and I was like what?
So at Surge there is no AC.
They got a bunch of fans, butthere's no AC.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
My bougie-ass self is used to air conditioning and I
got hot yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
Liz is used to AC and not used to sports.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
I didn't realize that I was hot and she couldn't.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
She's like I don't know why.
I'm like you're just hot.
Do you need to go outside, ordo you need to stand in front of
a fan or something?
Speaker 2 (30:58):
I didn't really have time to go outside yeah.
So I just went and stood infront of a fan for a minute or
two and it helped.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
And she was magically fine.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
It was a little concerning, though I kind of
thought I was going to throw uplike mid-deadlift.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
At least one of us has played sports and recognizes
the beginning stages of likeheat stroke.
So anyways, but yeah, no,honestly, it wasn't that bad in
there.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
I just think, like Liz said, she's not used to it.
That's why I didn't evenrealize that I was hot, Like I
mean, I knew I was warm, likethat thought didn't really even
like cross my mind that I wasjust like too hot like what is
wrong?
Because, like I didn't reallyfeel that hot, which sounds
really dumb saying.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
I understand that that happens, but clearly I was
hot, yes, um, so sitting infront of the fan, we were good
to go in the warm-ups.
Warm-ups were looking reallygood for both ladies, um, and
we're ready to rock on deadlifts.
Uh, for deadlifts.
You got your favorite number tohit on deadlifts as well.
Oh my God.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
It's so dumb.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
Liz locked in a 424 deadlift, which got her the 981
total, and then we went forbasically what she needed to hit
the 1,000 total, which is likeher tertiary goal and,
unfortunately, exactly.
Toby, Unfortunately it was notthere that day but she didn't
(32:22):
get hurt, lived to fight anotherday and we've definitely like
re-secured that like upper 900total.
You're basically knocking onthe door of 1,000.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
I think which is what I've said afterwards was
obviously it's just a one ofthose coulda woulda like maybe
this like taking different jumpson squats and or a different
jump on deadlifts.
I might have been able to getlike a little bit closer I still
don't think like a thousandcould, like would have been I
agree we probably left likemaybe maybe, possibly if bench
(32:55):
would have like got it shittogether, but that's per the
usual um.
But I think with some differentjumps or different attempts
might have been a little closerto the thousand.
Still don't know that it wasquite there all in one day yet,
but that should be coming soonyes, no, it's for sure coming
soon.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Um, and I do think, yeah, maybe a little bit closer,
but probably just not there onthe day.
Um, but that was good.
Your main two goals were havefun and then beat your total
from last time you went to surgecorrect which you crushed.
Both of those correct.
That's probably the most funliz has ever had at a meet.
You can see a video.
That's also on instagram if youwant a visual of that.
Uh, it starts off with crying,but then it is quite a happy
(33:39):
dance.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Yeah, it's a happy dance.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
I've never seen my wife do that um, anyways.
So this is how to blast fit isstrong.
Uh, accomplished both of hermain goals, and which was have
fun and then beat the total fromlast time she competed on the
Surge Pro platform.
And then Elena had one goalwhich she hit, which was total
1,000 pounds.
Yep, so that's good.
(34:01):
She hit exactly 1,003 pounds,which was that's like basically
the lowest possible you can hit,like the closest to 1,000 you
can hit.
She had to pull 451 to securethat um and she did a great job,
crushed it.
Uh, it was funny she said afterthe fact she was like it was
kind of like slow in the middle,and then she's like I need to
(34:22):
stand this up right now.
Um, and that's about right whenyou're, when you're double
thing those kind of weights thatwas a big pr.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
It was like a 20 pound, yeah huge pr.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
so again, she did a great job, just trusting us on
the coaching and just going outand executing.
And that just goes to show youthe power of that.
Because I could tell you for afact, on specifically the third
squat and the third deadlift,those probably would not have
happened, or it would have beenmuch more difficult if she
didn't have full faith in us andshe just went out and did her
(34:52):
thing.
So basically, if she was outthere second guessing stuff like
this, I don't think either ofthose would have worked.
So she did a great job.
And then with the bench press,like you said, great job just
listening and executing, becausesame thing, I mean you know you
went and changed.
I mean that could have beendisastrous.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
Yes, yes, it could have.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
But we know our athletes.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Well, we know them, and also for people that have
been lifting, at least for alittle while, and I mean she
does a lot of physical thingsfor her job and stuff too.
She's very aware of her bodytoo, so she knows how things
feel, like it feels good, or bad.
Sometimes I'll train people,which is fair.
So I'm not saying this is wrong, necessarily, but I'll be like
(35:34):
how does it feel?
Does this feel better, does itfeel worse?
And like they can't tell methat or they can't articulate
that um, but she was very aware.
And as soon as we like switch tothis new grip, like immediately
, she's like oh, this feels somuch better I feel more engaged.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
I feel like my back is like active and working now,
which is great that you're ableto like understand that about
yourself so no, she did a greatjob with that um, which is good,
so, so, yeah, so both theladies closed out a great day
lifting on a pro stage, and thisis significant for a couple
(36:12):
reasons.
One, they were able toaccomplish their main goals.
They had um with traveling,with competing on the big pro
stage, which has comes with alot more like expectations, a
lot more pressure, um, a lotmore lights, quite literally, uh
, like spotlights.
It's a little bit differentthan just competing at a local
meet.
Uh, and the people that you'resurrounded by.
These are some of the bestlifters in the world, and they
(36:37):
both rose to the occasion anddid a great job.
So you guys killed it.
Yeah, it was fun, and thenafter that was just party time.
We don't really need to recapthat.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
Pizza.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
Yeah, we got pizza, which was fun.
I got some Chicago deep dish.
There was a bunch of peoplethat hadn't had Chicago deep
dish ever, so got to share thatwith them.
My favorite Chicago deep dishis Lou Malnati's.
If you've not had it, check itout.
If you're ever in Chicago,there's many options to go for,
including Giordano's, gino's,east Uno's, things like this.
(37:11):
The best is Luma Matti's.
They have the best crust, thebest pizza.
It was phenomenal, everybodyloved it and it was a good
little refueling for everybody.
So did that?
I somehow ate half a largepizza.
I'm not sure how I did that,but I did.
It's probably the most pizzaI've eaten in my life.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
It was a lot it was.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
And then after that that we headed back and watched
the other sessions or sessionkind of like on and off.
It was really hot in there, uhit was a little toasty yeah, so
we watched some uh other lifts.
uh, most notable in theafternoon was john hack's world
record deadlift.
Uh, that was crazy.
It was like 9.
I think he weighed it likebelow 198.
Like it was like 193 bodyweight Crazy.
(37:56):
So that was insane to watch andI'm trying to think who else in
the afternoon I can't reallythink of anything else Any other
people.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
I don't know.
I mean, there's a ton of peopleyeah there's a lot of lists, I
don't know.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
I mean, there's a ton of people.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
Yeah, there's a lot of lists.
I don't want to go through andname all of them.
It's probably still on YouTubeif you want to go watch it.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
So you guys can check it out.
Power Surge Pro-Am again shoutout to Sergio and his team
really good meet and it was funand well run and it was a good
time.
So, yeah, and I think like theone of the things with this meet
that was really cool to see isjust like the like community
(38:39):
aspect of powerlifting.
Like it was nice to in the warmroom, everyone was kind of like
working together well, which isnice.
Sometimes you go to these meetsand people are not working
together as well.
Yeah, so that was nice to see.
There were also someinteresting complaints about
(39:00):
this meet, which is just wild,but I feel like that happens
with all meets and I think it'simportant as powerlifters to
understand that it's a growingsport.
No meet is going to beabsolutely perfect and as long
as you you're doing your best,that's really all you can do as
an athlete.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
Um yeah, and it's not the end of the world that's
facts.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
There's always another meat, um, so yeah, so it
was a great, it was a greattime, great trip for all of us.
Yep, I could see us going back.
We'll see For Power Surge 10.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Oh and it's good to see some friends too.
Yeah, friends, family, goodtime.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
Good to see some friends, good to see family.
It was a good time overall, soyeah.
So that kind of concludes therecap, and I already talked
about the push-up program whileyou're baking bread I know, I
heard so I'm gonna skip overthat.
But in case you guys didn't know, free push-up program, check it
out.
Uh, you can download it forfree, but you have to uh,
download train heroic, and thenyou got to watch the video and
(40:02):
then you can see the code at theend um, all right.
So last but not least, thenwe'll kind of wrap it up, which
is just want to touch a littlebit on like consistency, our old
consistency over motivation.
I think I need to do a revampof that design for a shirt
because it's just so importantit is important.
And I think for you and yourstory it's kind of relevant.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
Yeah, I mean.
That's essentially the onlyreason I got through these last
two years and was able to stepback onto the platform.
Speaker 1 (40:35):
Um yeah, you weren't like especially this stage, or
like this platform.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
Um well, eventually I was motivated to like go back
and get a little redemption, butfor a good solid, probably year
and a half yeah there was nomotivation, um not really, for
any type of training, competing,doing anything we were just
kind of like going through theprocess, which is not great no
(41:03):
but um, still was consistencythough, because, like, if I
would have stopped that one, Idefinitely wouldn't be back
where I am now absolutely not um, because there was no
motivation at all.
So if I would not have also hadthe consistency, I would not be
where I am now.
Um, I also would probably be ina much worse spot mentally if I
would have stopped, becauseexercise and training is good
(41:25):
for you, regardless of how youfeel at that moment yeah um, but
just continuing to go likemonths and months and months a
couple years of you know, notreally ever feeling great, not
really feeling super excited.
I mean there would be like gooddays here and there of like cool
(41:46):
, like that was, that was a goodwhatever strong lifting day,
but definitely not overlymotivated, um, throughout the
last couple years of training,but just continuing to show up
and do what I need to do.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
And execute yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:02):
Has helped me get back to where I am now, which
means hopefully I will be ableto get past this soon.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
I think so, because as you stack consistency day
after day, month after month,year after year, you are going
to really kind of like cementyour strength and your results.
And I think that's exactly whatyou've done You've gotten back
to kind of like where you were,or close to where you were.
(42:33):
You've gotten back to kind oflike where you were, or close to
where you were, and you're kindof nearing the peak, if you
will again of like hitting,getting close to PR totals,
hitting a PR total and I thinkthat that's something that you
said, like recently.
You're like I can actually likeenvision myself doing that
potentially, versus before.
Like I mean, we talked aboutthat before and it was like a
hard no, like you're likethere's no way, yeah um, and now
(42:55):
you can kind of see yourselfgetting back to that peak
strength that you were at beforeum and perhaps beyond, and I
think that's a big testament tothe power of just consistency,
because that's I mean prettymuch like what you did you know,
I mean like there wasn't therewasn't any secret thing, uh, it
literally was just.
She just kept going day afterday, week after week, didn't
(43:15):
really want to be there, but wehad systems and, like you know,
training programs and nutritionand sleep, all these things on
board and you just kind of stuckto it and I think the results
really paid off for the.
For you the past.
Uh, two meets you did reallygood.
You're able to win a meet, alocal meet that we just kind of
(43:38):
use as a training meet, and thenyou're able to go back to surge
and accomplish both of yourgoals.
Yeah, so it was pretty cool,great example of consistency,
even when you weren't reallymotivated, and how it paid off
in the long run.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
Long, long run.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
Yeah, long, long run, I think that's the thing that
people forget.
Yes.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
So it's not that it was consistent for like a month
or two.
This was literally years.
Speaker 1 (44:02):
Yeah, I was talking.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
Not being overly motivated at all Years.
Yeah, there's not really anyPRs, there's not really anything
like nothing.
Crazy, just staying consistentfor years.
Speaker 1 (44:22):
Yeah, no, I think, I think that's important,
important, uh, just to make thata point, that it was years took
, you know, a lot longer than Ithink.
Most things that people thinkare going to take like, oh, just
just a little bit, just likedouble or triple that time.
Uh, things just take time andif you want to be great, you
want to be strong, it's going totake some time.
Um, so, yeah, liz did a greatjob with that consistency.
(44:44):
And if you're listening to thisand you're like, okay, but
that's Liz, like how do I dothat?
Here's a couple tips.
Number one take a bigger goalthat you have for yourself.
Break it down all the way downto something you can do today.
That's a big thing.
People come up with these goalsbut you have no plan.
If you have no plan, then youjust kind of have like an idea,
okay, so like you need to have aplan and it needs to be down to
(45:06):
the day, not like, oh, nextweek I'm going to do this.
No, no, like what can you dotoday?
So that's number one, if you'restruggling with consistency.
Number one take a bigger goal.
Break it down into a bunch oflittle goals.
It might be 10 little goals.
It might be five, it might be500 little goals, but the point
is is that you have like anactionable step that you can do
today to get you towards thatgoal.
(45:27):
Maybe tomorrow, whatever Um,that would be number one.
Number two is, uh, doing them.
So that's another thing is, Ifeel, like a lot of people, I
feel like a 2025 with the um.
I don't know how long chat GPThas actually been around, but
with the popularization of chatGPT any GPT, whatever, um there
(45:48):
is a lot of people out therethat are talking about their
goals and talking to ChatsGPTabout their goals, and not a lot
of people that are doing, and Ithink that that is something
that needs to be I don't know,brought back into society.
So, if you're struggling to hityour goals and you're
struggling to be consistent, yougot to start doing doing.
(46:10):
So talking is great, butwithout action, again, it's just
ideas floating around.
So, start doing.
See what you can do today.
Um, like I said, it might not be.
Maybe you're trying to do thepushup thing, maybe you can't do
the full workout because yougot to pick up your kid or
whatever.
Uh, that's fine, just do alittle bit of it and then
tomorrow, maybe, you can do thefull workout.
(46:30):
So stuff like that Do what youcan.
That way, you can get the ballrolling, and then, slowly but
surely, you're going to buildmomentum, and that's going to
create consistency, and then,all of a sudden, you're going to
be achieving goals.
So, if you're listening to this, you're like Liz is doing this.
How can I do it, though?
Those are two ways to get youkickstarted, and then the third
(46:51):
one, literally, is just likelike.
The third thing I was gonna sayis just momentum, like.
Momentum is real.
So you know, if you can juststart stacking wins one after
another, after another, yourbody and your brain is going to
get used to that, and it's goingto be easier for you to head
into the gym the next time thatmaybe you don't feel motivated,
you're like, well, like, becauseyou start seeing the results.
You know what I mean.
Like, if you go off the push-upthing, since that's all I've
(47:13):
been talking about this episodelike you know, week one you can
only do three push-ups, and thenyou kind of follow the plan and
you do what you can, eventhough you got to maybe alter it
here and there for life andwork, and then next week you do
five push-ups.
Well, then you're like, hmm, Iguess I'll just keep going,
because most of us are prettyrational beings, and you're
(47:34):
going to think, well, I didthree, I could do five.
I guess, if I keep going, maybeI could do six.
And then you keep going fromthere.
And that's kind of how momentumworks.
Same thing in powerlifting andyou know everyday life as well.
So those three things would bethree ways that I would suggest
that you check out if you wantto build some consistency in
your life.
And then the other, just likekind of pro tip consistency,
(47:58):
does not feel like, yes, oh mygosh, I'm hitting my goals.
That's not how it feels.
Sometimes it's like, okay, Idid it.
Speaker 2 (48:12):
What.
Speaker 1 (48:13):
Yeah, sometimes that's how it feels when you're
busy, but yeah, so anyways, Ithink that kind of wraps up this
episode.
You got anything else you wantto talk about?
Speaker 2 (48:25):
I think that's good.
Speaker 1 (48:26):
Yeah, I think so as well.
Hopefully you guys enjoyed thislittle recap of our trip up to
Chicago.
Oh yeah, I forgot to talk aboutthe fact we went to Denver.
Really it's not that big of adeal, but we flew to Denver on
the way back so weird.
And then we flew to Florida.
Speaker 2 (48:42):
We just had to lay over there.
We didn't purposely fly toDenver, yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:45):
I know, but it was still weird.
Speaker 2 (48:46):
It was weird.
Speaker 1 (48:47):
We flew three hours one way and then three hours the
other way.
I was like what?
It was very weird, it wasstrange, but anyways, we made it
back safe.
So that's all I really careabout when I'm flying, and yeah.
So, anyways, hopefully you guysenjoyed this episode.
If you did, please remember tosubscribe to the podcast.
Leave us a comment, leave us alike, share it with your friends
so we can continue to grow thepodcast.
We should be back next weekwith another episode.
(49:10):
Should be back on track, shouldbe.
We got more traveling coming uplater this year, but for now it
should be good to go.
So we'll see you guys next weekfor another episode of the
Fortis After Hours podcast.
Hopefully you guys have anawesome week and we'll see you
then.
Peace.
Speaker 2 (49:24):
Bye.
What's going on, you guys?
Welcome to another episode ofthe Fortis After Hours podcast.
I'm your co-host, nate, joinedby my wife, liz hey, and we have
another awesome episode playingfor you guys, episode 5 Since
our rebrand, and today we'regonna be checking in on where
we've been past couple weeks.
Hint, we've not just beensitting here doing nothing.
Quite the opposite.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Not quite.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
We've been all around the earth, specifically the
united states sort of.
I mean, we went to denver.
That was so weird.
That was um, so we're gonnabreak that down.
Um, along with which was ourtrip to power surge pro, where
liz competed.
Uh, liz and lana competed and Icompeted for the best hair.
(00:45):
Uh, it was a competition, uh,one on one myself, and I won.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
So crazy day for me as well, uh competed against a
whole bunch of people thatdidn't know they were competing
against exactly it was just mein the competition actually, so
yeah perfect um, but anyways,yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
So we're going to talk about that.
We also are going to talk aboutour free push-up program.
That is live now.
You can get access to that.
I will explain how to do thatlater on in the episode, so
stick around.
This is a great program foreverybody.
So if you're listening to thatand you're like Nate push-ups
are so easy try this program.
You will not be disappointedand you will be sore, I
guarantee it.
If you're like Nate, I cannotdo one push up.
(01:26):
Or maybe you're just stuck andyou're like almost at a push up
or almost at five push ups, thisprogram will be perfect for you
as well.
So stay tuned for that.
We'll talk a little bit aboutthat, and then we're also just
going to touch on whyconsistency is important, and I
can kind of like pull youthrough those lulls in
motivation.
We've talked about that manytimes on the podcast before, but
(01:47):
it is a big kind of like themethat's important to us.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
It is, and it kind of ties in with the meat too.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
It does.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
For me.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
It does indeed.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
And on that note, let's go ahead and get started.
So, first things first, talkingabout our Power Surge Pro
adventure.
So we're just going to kind ofgo chronologically.
So we flew out there, which weflew out there with Lena, which
was cool.
I kind of thought of it as wewere like flying like.
(02:18):
We were like flying like a team, you know.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
I just thought we were friends hanging out.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Yeah, okay.
So I was like, oh cool, like noone else hanging out, yeah,
okay.
So I was like cool, like we'reall flying out and I like
literally did think of someonebrought this up the other day
Cause we're going to do it uh, abig trip to nationals next year
, like flying as a team, withlike jerseys and stuff or like
you know, shirts, which Iactually thought of.
I'm like, ooh, we should havehad these on when we were flying
.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
But so much.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Yeah, Liz is not a fan of that, but anyways, we
flew out there, flew up toChicago, flight there Flight
service super easy and chill.
And then we landed, gotourselves settled.
Did we go to Walmart that day?
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Jewel Osco.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Whatever?
Speaker 2 (03:01):
But yes.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Oh yeah, we went to Jewel Osco which, like man, my
wallet wasn't prepared for that.
That shit was expensive, Likeeverything.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
It was expensive.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
This is why I shop at Walmart.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
There was no Walmart.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Yeah, apparently there's no Walmart where we were
in Illinois but we went toJewel Osco.
Fun fact, I used to work thereand I didn't like it then and I
still don't like it because Imean they had everything we
needed.
so they did and I will say thesteaks were pretty good.
So, anyways, we stocked upimmediately, which is an
important part of our journeybecause we don't stop.
(03:34):
So had to get ready to gobecause the ladies needed their
meal prep that following day andI needed some meals because I
was going to train the next day.
So right off the plane, rightjules osco snagged the groceries
.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
This is kind of important, like if you are
someone who ever does want totravel for a meet to maybe like
listen to what we did and takenote of what we did, because
what we did is actually prettyimportant for having a
successful travel meet day.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Well, that's kind of wanted to like walk it, walk
through.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
I know that's why them through it, yeah, but you
didn't say that, so I'm justmaking it very clear that if you
are someone who either isplanning on traveling or wants
to travel, or maybe you'vetraveled and had not great times
with traveling, um, there mightbe some things that you could
like.
I don't know learn some tipsyou could pick up along the way
(04:31):
of listening just by listeningto what we did yeah and there
might be things you can learnalso my first thing that you
need to learn if you're planningon traveling and flying um,
bring all of your meat stuff inyour carry-on yeah, that is step
one.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Oh yeah, we did that also.
I didn't get stop by security,which I talked about before in
one of the other podcasts.
It didn't get stopped this timewore the same pants and stuff,
so I don't know who knows?
anyways, um so, yeah, so we gotthe food.
I want to continue this forwardmomentum got the food.
That's very important.
Uh, overlooked thing of travel.
I see people all the time whenthey travel for powerlifting
meets oh, I ate here, I atethere.
(05:06):
We did eat out, but it was allcarefully selected, especially
until meat day carefullyselected and then, after the
meat was more, yeah, justwhatever, yeah, until meat day,
um, so, yeah, so that isdefinitely, I feel, like
overrated.
So got ourselves food water aswell, um, just so that we had
everything that we needed before, even like settling down for
(05:30):
sleep that first night.
That made the next day supereasy.
Got up Thursday, I think wecooked some breakfast, got some
coffee and then I meal preppedand just did some basic meals,
stuff that we were all used toeating.
That's also important.
Don't really want to changethat.
I don't know why, but I'mtelling you a lot of people when
(05:52):
they travel I don't know aboutother sports, but specifically
for powerlifting, people like tochange, like, what they're
eating.
I don't know why you should notdo that.
If you're cutting, that's awhole different thing.
We're not talking about thattoday.
But if you can try and stay asconsistent with your meals as
possible, um, it's a little bitof like a, I want to say.
I mean, there's a little bit ofscience, um, making sure that
(06:15):
you have the exact same kind ofenergy that you've been having
throughout all your training.
But there's also a little bitof bro science and that is their
body just kind of gets used tolike digesting.
Let me rephrase this isactually science but I just
don't know the specifics so I'mgoing to explain it on a very
bro science level.
And that is your body does getused to digesting the foods and
(06:36):
nutrients and water and liquids,everything.
So like it's easier literallyfor your body to recover and do
everything else If you keepeverything the same, if you
introduce, you know, let's say,you never eat fish and you're
like I'm going to eat fish forsome reason, like that's just
going to make it harder on yourbody.
So you want to make it easy onyour body, Do that by meal
prepping, selecting the foodsyou're used to.
That's what we did.
Then we headed over to surgefor quick training day.
(06:59):
I did deadlifts, you guys didSPD Yep and photoshoot Impromptu
, photoshoot, yep.
And Liz forgot something kindof important, but less important
because she switched to.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
I forgot my shoes.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
She switched to flats .
Speaker 2 (07:20):
So I did all of my lifts in just my socks.
Yeah, but it's fine because myshoes are super flat and super
thin and I mean they're grippy,which is nice, but I also wasn't
going heavy.
So it wasn't really likeslipping or sliding anywhere.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
And I will say so again, just for like learning
sake.
Devil's advocate, let's justsay she even was, you know,
squatting in, not flats, and sheneeded those shoes.
I would still have just said togo ahead and do the day without
the shoes, because that day wasmore for you guys.
Just a little bit of blood flow, kind of just like a, almost
(07:56):
like a shakeout run If you'relike running, you know, like
just a quick shakeout, get someblood flow would have been a
little more annoying if you wereused to the squat shoes, Sure,
but it would not have been worthin this case.
Like the drive back, the driveback to the gym, uh, that like
time stress, whatever.
Um, so you know, just becausewe're talking about like keeping
(08:18):
everything the same in thiscase, like in that example, I
would actually just say movingis better than not moving and or
than like all of that yeah, Imean.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Obviously it depends on what your programming is if
you have not us as a coach theymight program your last week
differently, so it might makemore of a difference or less of
a difference just depending onwhat you're doing, but if it is
just a lighter, like blood flowday, you're probably good.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Yeah, so that was Thursday, that was good.
What did we do Thursday night?
I?
Speaker 2 (08:53):
think we just chilled .
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Yeah, we just chilled .
Went back to the house chilled.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
I was hungry.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Yep.
Oh yeah, I was a little hungry,but we had weigh-ins the next
morning, so we kind of justdrank water and chilled.
We didn't have to do a watercut or anything.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
so it was nice I wasn't cutting, but I was also
like right on the borderline andI wasn't 100% sure how my body
was going to respond with flying, because that can cause water
retention, things like that.
So I was not 100% sure.
So we were trying to not eattoo much or anything extra that
night, so I was a wee bit hungryyeah, uh, she was a wee bit
(09:31):
hungry.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
I think I was just eating everything under the sun,
but that's honestly usually howour life works, um, so yeah, so
thursday, we just kind of wentback to the house chilled, got
things ready for Friday, whichwas weigh-in day.
And before we start talkingabout weigh-ins, we're going to
take a quick break because Lizis baking.
(09:58):
So quick bread break.
Ooh, I like that.
We're going to call it a quickbread break.
And while this is baking, I'mgoing to go ahead and tell you
guys about our pushup program.
So I'm pretty excited aboutthis, uh, mainly because people
actually downloaded it, which iscrazy.
So I'm super excited, um,because sometimes I make free
programs and people can't figureout how to download it.
(10:20):
I'll be it.
It's been a little bitcomplicated in the past, but I
tried to make it as simple aspossible and if you've not yet
checked it out, I encourage youguys to check it out.
It's completely free.
You get it within the trainheroic app, so that's kind of
nice because we pay for that andyou get the benefit of that so
you can track your progressalong the way.
It's a four week pushup programand it's designed to help
(10:42):
anyone of all different levels,improve their push-ups.
Now, if you're just startingout, this push-up program is
going to take you from zero tohero and or from like an
elevated push-up, maybe with abarbell on a rack, which you can
see in the video thatcorrelates with all this.
That's on our Instagram atFortis Fitness Studio, all the
way down to the floor.
(11:02):
So I kind of lay it out for youguys how you can go from you
know not getting a full push upto getting full random motion
push ups.
No problem, if you're alreadyreally good at push ups, you can
use this program to challengeyourself and improve the
strength and the push ups thatyou may already have.
So it's really designed foreverybody.
(11:24):
Like, different levels doesn'tmatter.
Some of you'll see how I didthat.
I use time actually as a metricinstead of reps.
So, for example, if I'm, youknow, pretty good at push ups
and maybe I want to challengemyself and I'm doing for 30
seconds, maybe I'm trying to getlike 30 and 30 seconds or
something crazy like that.
Or maybe I add weight and get,you know, 15 or 20 or something
(11:45):
like that.
If you're just starting out,you might just get like one or
three or four, that's fine.
So, anyways, check it out.
It's got something foreverybody.
This pushup program is perfectto run alongside with, you know,
any other workout plan that youmay be doing, and you can also
do, like, just the main part ofit, if you have.
(12:06):
You know, if you run anotherprogram, you can do just the
main part of it and saveyourself a little bit of time.
So check it out.
You guys Head to our Instagramat Fortis Fitness Studio and I
think I'm going to pin it to thetop by the time this goes live.
But yeah, there's a push-upvideo.
Watch the whole video.
I explain more in depth how toproperly do full range of motion
push-ups and then at the endthere is a code.
(12:29):
Enter that into train heroicand boom, you've unlocked your
free push-up program and we'reback from our bread break, um,
and back to our power surgerecap.
So so friday, weigh-in dayliz's favorite day because she
gets to eat all the treatsafterwards I don't really eat a
lot of treats.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
I I just eat a lot of food.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
That's true.
Let's walk through it.
So we rolled up to Wayne's andgot to see.
My parents were there atWayne's, said hello to them.
They were ready to go.
Hopefully they weren'texpecting any lifting to happen.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Who knows?
Speaker 1 (13:08):
They're just trying to be part of the action, I
think so said hi to them andthen we uh just checked in, got
the cool posters and cards whichwe'll use this little part to
talk about.
That uh, really awesome idea bysergio and his team, uh, to do
these trading cards and posterkind of like promoting the meet.
(13:29):
Uh, I thought it was prettycool, really cool way to get the
athletes involved and itactually worked.
So they there was like a lot ofathletes that got kickbacks
from ticket sales, which isfantastic.
Uh, really cool way to justkind of like grow the sport and
to get the athletes involved alittle bit in, you know, getting
fans to the actual meet itselfand getting fans to watch on the
(13:54):
live stream.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Yeah, builds up some spectators, makes it more fun
for them too, Like oh, I gotthis cool trading card of either
my favorite athlete or whoever.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
I don't know where they are.
I need to find them Right there, I gotta start a trading card
book, powerlifting trading cardsOf me, yep, and anyways.
So yeah, so we got those.
That was super cool.
How'd weigh-ins go?
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Good, nice and easy.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Blayna was, like, well below her weight, so she
was good to go you were.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
That was fine.
I don't remember.
I think it was like a pound anda half under.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Yeah, none of us or our clients have ever missed
weight, so we are on like a 100%streak on that.
Good to go yeah, so that's noproblem for us.
So weighed in and then I thinkyou guys did some athlete
interviews.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Yeah, they had the guy who is going to be the emcee
for the meet the next day.
He was doing some interviewswith all the athletes just to
kind of try and find out alittle bit more about him.
So he had some things to talkabout on the meet day while he
was emceeing, just to kind ofagain relate a little bit more
to the spectators, make it amore relatable sport.
(15:05):
Because, let's be real,sometimes powerlifting can be
kind of boring, and that's fromsomeone who loves powerlifting.
Yeah, sometimes powerliftingcan be kind of boring, um, and
that's from someone who lovespowerlifting.
Um, yeah, but having someinformation about the athletes
is always good and it makes itmore relatable, more fun.
You kind of hear their story orhear some things about them,
which is nice.
Um, he also designed theselittle what do you call them?
(15:28):
brochures, pamphlets I don'tknow the right word for them,
but they're like spectatorpamphlets, spectator brochures
yeah, they had just like a smalleducational brochure yeah, it
was like cool they could getthem when they got there, the
people they're watching, and itkind of explained the basics of
a powerlifting meet, like whatyou're looking for, what the
lifts are um what the lightsmeant, I think, things like that
(15:51):
.
Um, and I just thought that wasreally cool, like another really
cool addition that they did atthis meet that I've never seen
done before, to help kind ofdraw in those spectators and
create a little bit more of alike spectator friendly kind of
more of a story too.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Like you don't, it's hard to understand um what's
going on if you don't understandExactly if you don't know.
So it kind of provides a littlebit of color, so to speak, for
what you're watching in front ofyou, because otherwise you
might just be sitting there like, oh my gosh, they're all
yelling lifting weights.
You have no idea how much theyweigh things like this, because
(16:27):
it's in kilos.
So a lot of people don't knowthat, and you know the MC will
usually just announce just thekilos.
Sometimes they do the pounds aswell, but it's kind of
sometimes on the spectator.
So that was also a really cooltouch.
I like that a lot.
So we finished up withweigh-ins, headed right to
McDonald's and then afterwardsfinish off with.
Taco Bell and a milkshake.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
False.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Yeah no, so finish up with weigh-ins.
We had a meal packed with usalready.
A fun fact there's usuallymicrowaves at these things.
If there's not, there'sprobably a microwave somewhere
close.
I've heard they have them atgas stations.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Supposedly.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
I've still yet to do that, but everyone says they
have them at gas stations.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
So, anyways, we came ready with a meal.
Also, if you know there's notgoing to be a microwave, come
ready with a meal and a thermos.
We have done that before Yepthermoses are sold basically
everywhere, so if you'retraveling and you don't have one
, go buy one.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
We have also done that before.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Yep.
So that way, you know, you canjust start kind of like
refeeding the body.
Neither of them cut, so itreally wasn't like about
refeeding as much as it wasabout just making sure we were
fueled and ready to performSaturday, because they did have
a very early day, so it wasactually kind of important to
start eating and drinkingimmediately.
Uh, just because you're lookingat about a 24 hour ish window,
(17:36):
um, and you want to make sureyou're ready to rock and roll.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Yeah, now, if we or anyone were to have cut, it
would look a little different inwhat you would need to do that
day.
But um, we thankfully didn'tcut.
Um, so basically, right away weate our meal, started drinking
water because, again, we'retrying to be as hydrated and
fueled as possible for the nextday.
So my plan was definitely eat alittle bit more than I usually
(18:01):
eat, but not like crazy amountsmore, because I didn't want to
feel like too full or toowhatever on meat day, eating so
much extra that I wasn't used toeating.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Yeah, so had the initial meal.
Then, I think, we went out andgot some gluten-free pancakes,
aka one that Liz ate.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
I had just regular breakfast.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
I was, like most people, had regular breakfast.
It didn't really matter thatthey were gluten-free pancakes.
That's just what makes my tummyhappier.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Yeah, that's what Liz has to have.
So, anyways, got a simplebreakfast, then headed back and
just kind of chilled for a whileand then afterwards we went out
and got some food.
Oh yeah, we went out and wentto get some hibachi, which was
good Again, kind of selectingfoods that we usually eat, so
(18:57):
rice and some sort of meat Placewas good.
Food was great.
We had a nice group of peoplethat came out to support us,
which was super nice, and thenwe basically went home and
rested up because the girls hadan early day.
Uh, the next day we had to getup at 6 am, I think, 5 am, 5 am.
(19:21):
Um, had to get up at 5 am sothat way we could be ready to
roll and ready to startcompetition, which started at 8
am.
Uh, now I I know for Liz,honestly, this might have been
the earliest she's ever squatted363 pounds in her life, like
literally.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Yeah, I'm not a morning person.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Yeah, usually.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Well, no, probably actually that meat prep before
showdown.
We were training at 5 am.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Oh yeah, I forgot about that.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
I had technique that was back in 2021 back in the day
um way back in the day.
Um, not a morning person not amorning lifter, not a morning
awake person at all.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
So that was quite the experience if liz could skip
the morning and just enter atlike noon, that'd be probably
ideal for her.
Uh, anyways, so we had an earlyday, so I had to go to bed.
We literally just like eightand then went back, got ready
for bed yeah, um, and that's soanother just a little tip we
went on lots of walks that daywe did.
We went on lots of walks.
(20:25):
Honestly, we went on more walksthan we go on these weekends,
which is crazy because liz likesto sit on the regular weekends
yeah like today, yeah, okay lotsof sitting but I convinced her
to go on walks then.
So, anyways, we'll see, maybe wecan go on walks here too.
But yeah, we went on lots ofwalks to make sure we're staying
active.
Uh, that is actually superimportant because we generally
(20:48):
are pretty active people andwith the travel we weren't
really doing anything.
Um, I mean, of course you'retraveling, but yeah, so we did a
bunch of walks, which was good,um, and got ready for the next
day, aka meat day.
So for the meat day, um, wewoke up early, which I strongly
(21:09):
recommend.
People do, I don't't?
I never understood that.
It's kind of like this like oldschool mentality of like power
thing.
Some people I guess noteverybody, but some people where
it's just like you try and likesleep as much as possible.
There's like diminishingreturns to that.
It's called stress, so like ifyou wake up late and then you're
stressed and you're like, oh,like, like, it's much better
meat day wake up, like we.
(21:30):
So we had a 40 minute drive, sowe took that into account.
We woke up at 5 am and the meatstarted at 8 am, so that was
about three hours.
So, minus the 40 minute drive,so it's like two hours and 20
minutes of time now, of course,they needed to be there to warm
up, so really they need to bethere seven, so it's about an
hour 20 of excess time thatallowed us to get everything
(21:54):
ready.
Eat, not be rushed, like youknow.
Eat a meal, do whatever theyneeded to do, stop and get some
coffee.
Do our normal routine.
I strongly recommend you dothat.
If you are traveling for meetsor if you're doing a meet
locally, prepare adequately,make sure you guys have enough
time, make sure you go to bedearly, early enough and, to be
honest, because at the end ofthe day, once it's meat day and
(22:17):
the day before, even if youdidn't go to bed early and you
just got to get up a littleearlier, it's better to do that
than to be, you know, sleepingin and rushed and barely make it
to the meat.
It's just going to set up yourday that way.
Uh, you know there's no stress,or as minimal stress as
possible, because let's be,let's be real powerlifting.
Meets are pretty stressfulenvironments, um, so, anyways,
(22:38):
we headed out to the meet.
Um, it was kind of cool.
There was like some thunder inthe background.
It's cool.
Liz probably didn't even see it.
Um, and then trying not tothrow up.
Oh yeah, liz was a littlenervous at this point, but
anyways made it to the meet,which is really I didn't even
see it.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
I was just trying not to throw up.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Oh yeah, Liz was a little nervous at this point,
but anyways made it to the meet.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Which is really funny , because I wasn't nervous at
all the entire time.
And then we got in the car andI yeah, at some point it's going
to hit though.
I thought I was going to loseit.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
That's funny, so anyways.
So made it to the meet and thatis basically it the end.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
So, yeah, made it to the meet and then started
warming up.
They were in the first flight,first few lifters, so started
warming up on the monoliftbecause that's what they were
using and it was available.
So I'm like let's go.
We got a lot more comfortablewith monolifts.
I quick little tidbit, uh, Idon't know like turns out.
As you use them more and more,you get better at them here's my
(23:39):
quick little tidbit if youdon't train on a monolith and
you're competing with a monolith.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
You should still walk out your squat just walk it out
.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Yeah, yeah, let me.
Yeah, good, good clarification.
I did not mean we're warming upwith the monolith, like using
the actual monolith, both of ourlifters, so both liz and lana
both walk out usually.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
So that's exactly what we did if you know how to
use a monolith you candefinitely like take advantage
of that.
There's nothing wrong withusing a monolith, but it is
different and if you don't knowhow to do it, you shouldn't do
it.
On meat day, yeah, and it's notnecessary, you don't need to do
it.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
There's plenty of top squatters that literally just
walk out of their squad, sothat's what we did.
Um, as far as the actual meat,I'll kind of like cruise through
this stuff because I don't know, we've already recapped it a
million times.
If you have not seen the videos, check it out on Liz's
Instagram.
It's also on Ford's FitnessStudios Instagram, but we
recapped them pretty good andwe'll just kind of run through
(24:38):
it.
Squats warmups went nice andsmooth, really no problems at
all.
There Worked in with our friendRonald and his client Tammy.
It was good to see a familiarface and good to have somebody
in the warmup room to work offof, because sometimes I'd be
just out there or Liz is outthere just cruising solo, so it
was always nice to have a friend.
So shout out to Ronald forhelping me run the racks.
(25:01):
But yeah, squat warmups wentnice.
Everyone was looking good,primed and ready to go opener.
What'd you hit?
Speaker 2 (25:10):
I don't remember 341.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
That's what I'm saying what the numbers you guys
check out I can tell you what Iended up with.
I don't remember all of myattempts, though so, anyways,
yeah, the full recaps, like Isaid, they're up, but we'll just
go off of the top numbers.
So liz was able to secure a 363, 165 kilo back squat, um, which
is good.
We had just done 358 at themeet that she did a few weeks
(25:36):
ago, a month ago now, uh, soit's good just to get a little
bit there.
And also, she probably had alittle bit more in the tank, um,
I listened to the live streamguy and he's like a little bit
of a grind there.
He's like, yeah, but she got itlike full confidence and that
was about I would say the exactsame thing like she definitely
had a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
It would have been more grindy fun fact, I am good
at grinding squats though whichmost people don't know about.
Like, if you don't know me, youdon't know that, like, some
people are good at grindingsquats and some people aren't.
Like I'm pretty good at it, soyes, like that was definitely
easier and less of a grind thaneven the 358 was so meaning I
(26:14):
probably could have done likethe next jump up, but we wanted
to.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Well, the goal was to work on securing a total yeah,
the goal was to work on securingthe biggest total, so we want
to save a little bit of energyfor the deadlifts.
Um, lana did good as well.
She missed her on depth.
But I made kind of a tacticaldecision to split the difference
and go up anyways, cause therewas plenty of strength, Um.
(26:39):
But you know, at the end of theday you miss it.
So, uh, you don't want to gotoo crazy when you're jumping
like that.
So I took kind of a tacticaljump, just a five kilo jump.
Um, I was going to take a 10kilo jump but we went with a
five kilo jump and that workednicely.
She was able to smoke that andsave plenty of room for the
deadlift.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Also squatted 363.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Yep Also squatted 363 .
So bench press, which there wasa break.
Where was the break?
Was it break the big break inbetween this?
So there was like a 20 minutebreak.
This is a quick tidbit.
Make sure you guys are incommunication with the meat
director If you're traveling.
Every meat director isdifferent and even within meats
(27:22):
sometimes breaks can bedifferent.
So make sure you guys checkwith the meat director,
especially when it's a smallermeat, like a pro type meat like
this, where it's a smaller, morecondensed meat.
Uh, oftentimes they'll takebreaks in between the squat and
the bench events.
So make sure you guys check,check in with them.
Sometimes they announce it,sometimes they do not.
Uh, so, as a coach or a handleror an athlete, if you're by
(27:44):
yourself, make sure you guyscheck in so that way you time
your warm-ups appropriately.
Um, we did just that and foundout there was a 20-minute break
between squat and bench.
So we had a little bit of time,which was nice, warmed up for
bench, which is super easy forher.
Real quick, real quick Bench isnot that strong Warmed up for
(28:04):
bench real quick and then wentout and did good.
Liz went two for three.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
That's her favorite style of benching, per the usual
.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Yep Lena went three for three.
That's her favorite style ofbenching.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Per the usual, yep Lena went three for three on the
bench.
Did she hit a PR?
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Yep, what was it?
Speaker 2 (28:18):
187.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
All right, 187 PR for Lena.
Very good, we did just kind oflike small jumps for her.
Knocked one down at a time.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Fun fact about her bench which I would never
recommend doing this, but we didit.
We completely changed her benchabout one week before the meet,
maybe 10 days, I don't know,somewhere around there.
Seven to 10 days we completelychanged her grip for bench and
(28:50):
it paid off because she was ableto hit a PR with a brand new
grip, so that's cool.
Again, I wouldn't necessarilyrecommend that, but sometimes
you got to do what you got to doand she was able to make the
adjustment and then was able toget a nice little PR out of it.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Yeah, was able to capitalize on that adjustment
and get a PR.
And that just goes to one ofthe biggest morals of the story
of powerlifting in general,which is if you're strong,
you're strong.
So sometimes you got to makeadjustments.
She did a great job as anathlete, not, like you know,
overthinking or doing like yeah,and also, but also sometimes,
like you just have to lift, likeyeah you got to listen to your
(29:31):
coach, listen to your body andjust lift regardless of you.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
Haven't been training it for months, but maybe it
feels better this way orstronger this way.
For whatever reason, at thatmoment, like sometimes, you just
have to do things.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
That's what I'm saying.
She did a great job, notquestioning it, and was able to
go in full confidence and snagthat PR on the bench press,
which is good.
Liz did we got 87 again.
Um 90 kilos soon, soon.
Um.
This one was, I will say the 90was closer it was weird.
Yeah, I.
Usually she gets stuck likekind of really low off the chest
(30:05):
.
Uh, this like kind of lookedlike she had it and then just
didn't have enough gas in thetank that day.
Um, no problem though, it was2.5 kilos, so we were prepared
for that either way, all right.
So we finished up bench.
Then we had deadlifts, whichwere a little bit less of a
break it was a 10-minute break.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
10-minute break Surprise.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Yeah, that was interesting, but still plenty of
time to warm up, get everythingsquared away.
Deadlift forms were going gooduntil Liz came over and was like
yo, I think I'm going to besick and I was like what?
So at Surge there is no AC.
They got a bunch of fans, butthere's no AC.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
My bougie-ass self is used to air conditioning and I
got hot yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
Liz is used to AC and not used to sports.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
I didn't realize that I was hot and she couldn't.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
She's like I don't know why.
I'm like you're just hot.
Do you need to go outside, ordo you need to stand in front of
a fan or something?
Speaker 2 (30:58):
I didn't really have time to go outside yeah.
So I just went and stood infront of a fan for a minute or
two and it helped.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
And she was magically fine.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
It was a little concerning, though I kind of
thought I was going to throw uplike mid-deadlift.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
At least one of us has played sports and recognizes
the beginning stages of likeheat stroke.
So anyways, but yeah, no,honestly, it wasn't that bad in
there.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
I just think, like Liz said, she's not used to it.
That's why I didn't evenrealize that I was hot, Like I
mean, I knew I was warm, likethat thought didn't really even
like cross my mind that I wasjust like too hot like what is
wrong?
Because, like I didn't reallyfeel that hot, which sounds
really dumb saying.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
I understand that that happens, but clearly I was
hot, yes, um, so sitting infront of the fan, we were good
to go in the warm-ups.
Warm-ups were looking reallygood for both ladies, um, and
we're ready to rock on deadlifts.
Uh, for deadlifts.
You got your favorite number tohit on deadlifts as well.
Oh my God.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
It's so dumb.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
Liz locked in a 424 deadlift, which got her the 981
total, and then we went forbasically what she needed to hit
the 1,000 total, which is likeher tertiary goal and,
unfortunately, exactly.
Toby, Unfortunately it was notthere that day but she didn't
(32:22):
get hurt, lived to fight anotherday and we've definitely like
re-secured that like upper 900total.
You're basically knocking onthe door of 1,000.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
I think which is what I've said afterwards was
obviously it's just a one ofthose coulda woulda like maybe
this like taking different jumpson squats and or a different
jump on deadlifts.
I might have been able to getlike a little bit closer I still
don't think like a thousandcould, like would have been I
agree we probably left likemaybe maybe, possibly if bench
(32:55):
would have like got it shittogether, but that's per the
usual um.
But I think with some differentjumps or different attempts
might have been a little closerto the thousand.
Still don't know that it wasquite there all in one day yet,
but that should be coming soonyes, no, it's for sure coming
soon.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Um, and I do think, yeah, maybe a little bit closer,
but probably just not there onthe day.
Um, but that was good.
Your main two goals were havefun and then beat your total
from last time you went to surgecorrect which you crushed.
Both of those correct.
That's probably the most funliz has ever had at a meet.
You can see a video.
That's also on instagram if youwant a visual of that.
Uh, it starts off with crying,but then it is quite a happy
(33:39):
dance.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Yeah, it's a happy dance.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
I've never seen my wife do that um, anyways.
So this is how to blast fit isstrong.
Uh, accomplished both of hermain goals, and which was have
fun and then beat the total fromlast time she competed on the
Surge Pro platform.
And then Elena had one goalwhich she hit, which was total
1,000 pounds.
Yep, so that's good.
(34:01):
She hit exactly 1,003 pounds,which was that's like basically
the lowest possible you can hit,like the closest to 1,000 you
can hit.
She had to pull 451 to securethat um and she did a great job,
crushed it.
Uh, it was funny she said afterthe fact she was like it was
kind of like slow in the middle,and then she's like I need to
(34:22):
stand this up right now.
Um, and that's about right whenyou're, when you're double
thing those kind of weights thatwas a big pr.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
It was like a 20 pound, yeah huge pr.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
so again, she did a great job, just trusting us on
the coaching and just going outand executing.
And that just goes to show youthe power of that.
Because I could tell you for afact, on specifically the third
squat and the third deadlift,those probably would not have
happened, or it would have beenmuch more difficult if she
didn't have full faith in us andshe just went out and did her
(34:52):
thing.
So basically, if she was outthere second guessing stuff like
this, I don't think either ofthose would have worked.
So she did a great job.
And then with the bench press,like you said, great job just
listening and executing, becausesame thing, I mean you know you
went and changed.
I mean that could have beendisastrous.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
Yes, yes, it could have.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
But we know our athletes.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Well, we know them, and also for people that have
been lifting, at least for alittle while, and I mean she
does a lot of physical thingsfor her job and stuff too.
She's very aware of her bodytoo, so she knows how things
feel, like it feels good, or bad.
Sometimes I'll train people,which is fair.
So I'm not saying this is wrong, necessarily, but I'll be like
(35:34):
how does it feel?
Does this feel better, does itfeel worse?
And like they can't tell methat or they can't articulate
that um, but she was very aware.
And as soon as we like switch tothis new grip, like immediately
, she's like oh, this feels somuch better I feel more engaged.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
I feel like my back is like active and working now,
which is great that you're ableto like understand that about
yourself so no, she did a greatjob with that um, which is good,
so, so, yeah, so both theladies closed out a great day
lifting on a pro stage, and thisis significant for a couple
(36:12):
reasons.
One, they were able toaccomplish their main goals.
They had um with traveling,with competing on the big pro
stage, which has comes with alot more like expectations, a
lot more pressure, um, a lotmore lights, quite literally, uh
, like spotlights.
It's a little bit differentthan just competing at a local
meet.
Uh, and the people that you'resurrounded by.
These are some of the bestlifters in the world, and they
(36:37):
both rose to the occasion anddid a great job.
So you guys killed it.
Yeah, it was fun, and thenafter that was just party time.
We don't really need to recapthat.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
Pizza.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
Yeah, we got pizza, which was fun.
I got some Chicago deep dish.
There was a bunch of peoplethat hadn't had Chicago deep
dish ever, so got to share thatwith them.
My favorite Chicago deep dishis Lou Malnati's.
If you've not had it, check itout.
If you're ever in Chicago,there's many options to go for,
including Giordano's, gino's,east Uno's, things like this.
(37:11):
The best is Luma Matti's.
They have the best crust, thebest pizza.
It was phenomenal, everybodyloved it and it was a good
little refueling for everybody.
So did that?
I somehow ate half a largepizza.
I'm not sure how I did that,but I did.
It's probably the most pizzaI've eaten in my life.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
It was a lot it was.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
And then after that that we headed back and watched
the other sessions or sessionkind of like on and off.
It was really hot in there, uhit was a little toasty yeah, so
we watched some uh other lifts.
uh, most notable in theafternoon was john hack's world
record deadlift.
Uh, that was crazy.
It was like 9.
I think he weighed it likebelow 198.
Like it was like 193 bodyweight Crazy.
(37:56):
So that was insane to watch andI'm trying to think who else in
the afternoon I can't reallythink of anything else Any other
people.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
I don't know.
I mean, there's a ton of peopleyeah there's a lot of lists, I
don't know.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
I mean, there's a ton of people.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
Yeah, there's a lot of lists.
I don't want to go through andname all of them.
It's probably still on YouTubeif you want to go watch it.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
So you guys can check it out.
Power Surge Pro-Am again shoutout to Sergio and his team
really good meet and it was funand well run and it was a good
time.
So, yeah, and I think like theone of the things with this meet
that was really cool to see isjust like the like community
(38:39):
aspect of powerlifting.
Like it was nice to in the warmroom, everyone was kind of like
working together well, which isnice.
Sometimes you go to these meetsand people are not working
together as well.
Yeah, so that was nice to see.
There were also someinteresting complaints about
(39:00):
this meet, which is just wild,but I feel like that happens
with all meets and I think it'simportant as powerlifters to
understand that it's a growingsport.
No meet is going to beabsolutely perfect and as long
as you you're doing your best,that's really all you can do as
an athlete.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
Um yeah, and it's not the end of the world that's
facts.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
There's always another meat, um, so yeah, so it
was a great, it was a greattime, great trip for all of us.
Yep, I could see us going back.
We'll see For Power Surge 10.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Oh and it's good to see some friends too.
Yeah, friends, family, goodtime.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
Good to see some friends, good to see family.
It was a good time overall, soyeah.
So that kind of concludes therecap, and I already talked
about the push-up program whileyou're baking bread I know, I
heard so I'm gonna skip overthat.
But in case you guys didn't know, free push-up program, check it
out.
Uh, you can download it forfree, but you have to uh,
download train heroic, and thenyou got to watch the video and
(40:02):
then you can see the code at theend um, all right.
So last but not least, thenwe'll kind of wrap it up, which
is just want to touch a littlebit on like consistency, our old
consistency over motivation.
I think I need to do a revampof that design for a shirt
because it's just so importantit is important.
And I think for you and yourstory it's kind of relevant.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
Yeah, I mean.
That's essentially the onlyreason I got through these last
two years and was able to stepback onto the platform.
Speaker 1 (40:35):
Um yeah, you weren't like especially this stage, or
like this platform.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
Um well, eventually I was motivated to like go back
and get a little redemption, butfor a good solid, probably year
and a half yeah there was nomotivation, um not really, for
any type of training, competing,doing anything we were just
kind of like going through theprocess, which is not great no
(41:03):
but um, still was consistencythough, because, like, if I
would have stopped that one, Idefinitely wouldn't be back
where I am now absolutely not um, because there was no
motivation at all.
So if I would not have also hadthe consistency, I would not be
where I am now.
Um, I also would probably be ina much worse spot mentally if I
would have stopped, becauseexercise and training is good
(41:25):
for you, regardless of how youfeel at that moment yeah um, but
just continuing to go likemonths and months and months a
couple years of you know, notreally ever feeling great, not
really feeling super excited.
I mean there would be like gooddays here and there of like cool
(41:46):
, like that was, that was a goodwhatever strong lifting day,
but definitely not overlymotivated, um, throughout the
last couple years of training,but just continuing to show up
and do what I need to do.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
And execute yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:02):
Has helped me get back to where I am now, which
means hopefully I will be ableto get past this soon.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
I think so, because as you stack consistency day
after day, month after month,year after year, you are going
to really kind of like cementyour strength and your results.
And I think that's exactly whatyou've done You've gotten back
to kind of like where you were,or close to where you were.
(42:33):
You've gotten back to kind oflike where you were, or close to
where you were, and you're kindof nearing the peak, if you
will again of like hitting,getting close to PR totals,
hitting a PR total and I thinkthat that's something that you
said, like recently.
You're like I can actually likeenvision myself doing that
potentially, versus before.
Like I mean, we talked aboutthat before and it was like a
hard no, like you're likethere's no way, yeah um, and now
(42:55):
you can kind of see yourselfgetting back to that peak
strength that you were at beforeum and perhaps beyond, and I
think that's a big testament tothe power of just consistency,
because that's I mean prettymuch like what you did you know,
I mean like there wasn't therewasn't any secret thing, uh, it
literally was just.
She just kept going day afterday, week after week, didn't
(43:15):
really want to be there, but wehad systems and, like you know,
training programs and nutritionand sleep, all these things on
board and you just kind of stuckto it and I think the results
really paid off for the.
For you the past.
Uh, two meets you did reallygood.
You're able to win a meet, alocal meet that we just kind of
(43:38):
use as a training meet, and thenyou're able to go back to surge
and accomplish both of yourgoals.
Yeah, so it was pretty cool,great example of consistency,
even when you weren't reallymotivated, and how it paid off
in the long run.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
Long, long run.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
Yeah, long, long run, I think that's the thing that
people forget.
Yes.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
So it's not that it was consistent for like a month
or two.
This was literally years.
Speaker 1 (44:02):
Yeah, I was talking.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
Not being overly motivated at all Years.
Yeah, there's not really anyPRs, there's not really anything
like nothing.
Crazy, just staying consistentfor years.
Speaker 1 (44:22):
Yeah, no, I think, I think that's important,
important, uh, just to make thata point, that it was years took
, you know, a lot longer than Ithink.
Most things that people thinkare going to take like, oh, just
just a little bit, just likedouble or triple that time.
Uh, things just take time andif you want to be great, you
want to be strong, it's going totake some time.
Um, so, yeah, liz did a greatjob with that consistency.
(44:44):
And if you're listening to thisand you're like, okay, but
that's Liz, like how do I dothat?
Here's a couple tips.
Number one take a bigger goalthat you have for yourself.
Break it down all the way downto something you can do today.
That's a big thing.
People come up with these goalsbut you have no plan.
If you have no plan, then youjust kind of have like an idea,
okay, so like you need to have aplan and it needs to be down to
(45:06):
the day, not like, oh, nextweek I'm going to do this.
No, no, like what can you dotoday?
So that's number one, if you'restruggling with consistency.
Number one take a bigger goal.
Break it down into a bunch oflittle goals.
It might be 10 little goals.
It might be five, it might be500 little goals, but the point
is is that you have like anactionable step that you can do
today to get you towards thatgoal.
(45:27):
Maybe tomorrow, whatever Um,that would be number one.
Number two is, uh, doing them.
So that's another thing is, Ifeel, like a lot of people, I
feel like a 2025 with the um.
I don't know how long chat GPThas actually been around, but
with the popularization of chatGPT any GPT, whatever, um there
(45:48):
is a lot of people out therethat are talking about their
goals and talking to ChatsGPTabout their goals, and not a lot
of people that are doing, and Ithink that that is something
that needs to be I don't know,brought back into society.
So, if you're struggling to hityour goals and you're
struggling to be consistent, yougot to start doing doing.
(46:10):
So talking is great, butwithout action, again, it's just
ideas floating around.
So, start doing.
See what you can do today.
Um, like I said, it might not be.
Maybe you're trying to do thepushup thing, maybe you can't do
the full workout because yougot to pick up your kid or
whatever.
Uh, that's fine, just do alittle bit of it and then
tomorrow, maybe, you can do thefull workout.
(46:30):
So stuff like that Do what youcan.
That way, you can get the ballrolling, and then, slowly but
surely, you're going to buildmomentum, and that's going to
create consistency, and then,all of a sudden, you're going to
be achieving goals.
So, if you're listening to this, you're like Liz is doing this.
How can I do it, though?
Those are two ways to get youkickstarted, and then the third
(46:51):
one, literally, is just likelike.
The third thing I was gonna sayis just momentum, like.
Momentum is real.
So you know, if you can juststart stacking wins one after
another, after another, yourbody and your brain is going to
get used to that, and it's goingto be easier for you to head
into the gym the next time thatmaybe you don't feel motivated,
you're like, well, like, becauseyou start seeing the results.
You know what I mean.
Like, if you go off the push-upthing, since that's all I've
(47:13):
been talking about this episodelike you know, week one you can
only do three push-ups, and thenyou kind of follow the plan and
you do what you can, eventhough you got to maybe alter it
here and there for life andwork, and then next week you do
five push-ups.
Well, then you're like, hmm, Iguess I'll just keep going,
because most of us are prettyrational beings, and you're
(47:34):
going to think, well, I didthree, I could do five.
I guess, if I keep going, maybeI could do six.
And then you keep going fromthere.
And that's kind of how momentumworks.
Same thing in powerlifting andyou know everyday life as well.
So those three things would bethree ways that I would suggest
that you check out if you wantto build some consistency in
your life.
And then the other, just likekind of pro tip consistency,
(47:58):
does not feel like, yes, oh mygosh, I'm hitting my goals.
That's not how it feels.
Sometimes it's like, okay, Idid it.
Speaker 2 (48:12):
What.
Speaker 1 (48:13):
Yeah, sometimes that's how it feels when you're
busy, but yeah, so anyways, Ithink that kind of wraps up this
episode.
You got anything else you wantto talk about?
Speaker 2 (48:25):
I think that's good.
Speaker 1 (48:26):
Yeah, I think so as well.
Hopefully you guys enjoyed thislittle recap of our trip up to
Chicago.
Oh yeah, I forgot to talk aboutthe fact we went to Denver.
Really it's not that big of adeal, but we flew to Denver on
the way back so weird.
And then we flew to Florida.
Speaker 2 (48:42):
We just had to lay over there.
We didn't purposely fly toDenver, yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:45):
I know, but it was still weird.
Speaker 2 (48:46):
It was weird.
Speaker 1 (48:47):
We flew three hours one way and then three hours the
other way.
I was like what?
It was very weird, it wasstrange, but anyways, we made it
back safe.
So that's all I really careabout when I'm flying, and yeah.
So, anyways, hopefully you guysenjoyed this episode.
If you did, please remember tosubscribe to the podcast.
Leave us a comment, leave us alike, share it with your friends
so we can continue to grow thepodcast.
We should be back next weekwith another episode.
(49:10):
Should be back on track, shouldbe.
We got more traveling coming uplater this year, but for now it
should be good to go.
So we'll see you guys next weekfor another episode of the
Fortis After Hours podcast.
Hopefully you guys have anawesome week and we'll see you
then.
Peace.
Speaker 2 (49:24):
Bye.
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