February 24, 2025 • 32 mins
The episode explores the transformative power of strength training, particularly through powerlifting. Matt shares insights about its growing popularity, the benefits for both competitors and non-competitors, and offers practical advice for anyone interested in enhancing their fitness journey.
• Definition and principles of powerlifting
• Benefits of powerlifting training outside competition
• Importance of structured lifting and skill development
• Nutrition tips for optimizing powerlifting performance
• Training schedules for beginners preparing for their first meet
• How powerlifting can enhance everyday life strength and resilience
Learn More at: www.Redefine-Fitness.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
what's up, guys and welcome to health of fitness
redefined.
I'm your host, anthony manning.
We have another great episodefor all of you.
Before we introduce, lovelymatt, who's here with me, I have
to say, told you, within sixdays of the episode coming out,
top four predictions for januaryof what's going to happen in
(00:27):
2025 in the health and fitnessworld, and I put that I made
that episode two and a halfweeks before it even came out,
and so we're talking.
I knew three weeks ahead, reddye number three and called it
so very interesting, got myprediction, but literally the
first one I said got provenright.
(00:47):
So hopefully, by the time thatthis episode comes out, you're
like, wow, anthony, I listenedto that show again where your
top four predictions and you gotall four right.
Yeah, that's what I'm talkingabout, but happy to brag a
little bit, sometimes you needto.
Anyway, matt, welcome to theshow.
It's a pleasure to have you ontoday.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Hey, thanks for having me, anthony, I appreciate
it.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Yeah, so this is obviously not about Red Diner,
whether we're going to talkabout today, but still love that
things are moving in the slightright direction.
Tell us a little bit of how yougot into the health and fitness
realm and why you're here.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yeah, so getting into the health and fitness world.
So I've officially beencoaching for over a decade now.
I started coachingprofessionally in 2014.
And it was basically my secondattempt at trying to transform a
passion into a career.
First one, I was cooking.
I was cooking at, actually, oneof the top fine dining
(01:40):
restaurants in Toronto at thetime and big fiery burnout
turned out.
I really didn't like it doingit as a career anyways, and so I
said you know what?
Let's not learn any lessons.
Let's, let's try to turn thisother passion of mine, which is
lifting weights, and try to helppeople with that and see if
that, you know, is a betterpursuit.
And here we are a decade later.
(02:01):
It's been a whole lot betterand I think a lot of it has to
do with just being able todirectly see that result of like
the work and feeling likethere's some agency behind it,
less anonymity, like I can helppeople and I can see that I help
people instead of just I'mmaking something and I don't see
how it affects anybody.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
With cooking, yeah, totally get it.
And what steered you towardsmore directly at the
powerlifting ranks?
I know that's what you do, sowhat kind of inspired you to say
, hey, I'm really going to liftheavy weights?
Was it just being a kid?
Speaker 2 (02:31):
and like, yeah, muscles, yeah, uh, kind of so in
.
I think a lot of why I likecoaching powerlifting is it lets
me share my joy forpowerlifting with others.
Um, and maybe a bit ofbackstory on how I got into this
sport initially right, and this, this is why I'm still
powerlifting and looking atcompeting again 17 years later
(02:56):
now, after I started, um, or 13years after I started competing,
17 years back to lifting, um,so I was really bad at sports
growing up as a kid.
My parents put me in, you know,soccer, baseball, martial arts,
and they're like I kind of dideverything, hated all of them,
um, and I ended up just kind ofat a certain point, very skinny
(03:17):
in gym class and the gym teacherwas like, hey, you're, you know
, clearly not in the best shapeof your life right now, and I
was 12, something like that atthe time and, you know, full of
teenage angst and be like, oh,screw you, man.
Like you know, I don't evenremember what the rest of the
conversation was.
I just remember going home thatday and being like I'm gonna
figure out how to get jack.
I'm gonna show this guy, youknow what the deal is here.
(03:39):
I'm gonna, I'm gonna go turnthis ship around and screw you,
mr Lemoine.
And so I started liftingweights basically the next day
and I was like I'm going to gobodybuilding, get huge muscles,
rah, rah, and it was cool, likeit felt nice to lift some
weights.
But I found very quickly thattwo things happened.
(04:00):
One is the lifting weights forsomebody else, or to prove
somebody else wrong, or, youknow, you know, show the haters.
All that stuff was definitelynot for me like that.
That.
The external motivation isapparently not how I do anything
in my life.
And the second is as anextension of that.
You know, lifting to improve myphysique was.
It felt almost neurotic to me,like it just put me in a very
(04:23):
strange mental space.
But I loved the feeling ofsaying I did 60 pounds last time
, I'm going to do 65 pounds thistime, and seeing that really
measurable increase, for reallyone of the first times in my
life it was a physical pursuitthat I could quantify and say,
yeah, I'm actually doing betterat this.
And you know, I wouldn't saythis is something where I'd
analyze it to that level when Iwas 12, 13, but looking back on
(04:46):
it, that is totally what drew meto it and it's the same thing
with you know why I lovebusiness, why I love running a
business.
Now, on top of that is like youcan distill it down to
objectively are you doing it orare you not?
It's not a feelings, it's anumbers thing.
Um, and I mean from there itwas.
I kept lifting, focused more onthe power lifting side of things
(05:08):
.
Through talking with somedifferent guys in the gym turned
out there was a sport for it.
You could go and squat, benchand deadlift and see who could
do the most and startedcompeting.
And a couple years later I hadset some records, won some
high-level competitions.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
I won Worlds in 2014 and started coaching that same
year.
Actually, I feel likepowerlifting was no one knew
about it six years ago, fiveyears ago even, and now, all of
a sudden, it's just hit themarket and everybody wants to
powerlift.
You're seeing it in our world,like the trainer's trainers
world.
You're seeing clients startingto dabble into it.
They're just the popularity ofpower lifting has really surged,
(05:54):
which is cool, uh.
For those that still don't knowwhat it is, though, what is the
definition of power lifting andwhat is the powerlifting
competition?
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Yeah, so your your comment about five, six years
ago.
Nobody knew what it was.
I just think about you know.
You say powerlifting and peopleare like, oh yeah, like like in
the Olympics, and they puttheir arms over their head and
I'm like, no, definitely notthat, I'm not that explosive,
I'll grind it out.
It'll take me about fiveseconds to finish the lift.
Powerlifting is basically incompetition's, a competition
(06:27):
about a set, you know, in aweight class and in an age class
.
So you know, for example,people under 40 might compete at
anybody who's under 200 pounds.
Who can do the most weight forone rep in a squat, in a bench
press and in a deadlift.
There's different subcategoriesof the sport where you might do
only one of those lifts or twoout of three of the lifts, but
(06:48):
in the classic form it's squat,bench press and deadlift yeah
and yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
And why those three?
Speaker 2 (06:58):
I I can't say I'm into the history of the sport
that much.
My guess is it.
It's just they're superaccessible exercises Like if you
look at um, like Enduro,mountain bike racing, for
example, it used to be very mucha like run what you've run,
kind of thing.
Like people were like I have abike, let's go race the bike.
And 15 years ago that's whatthe sport was and now it's a
totally different thing.
(07:19):
My gut feel with it ispowerlifting, or at least a lot
of the appeal behindpowerlifting is that where you
can go to a gym and, unlessyou're working out at like the
hotel gym with dumbbells up to15 pounds and nothing else, you
can squat, bench, press anddeadlift in that gym, which
gives it a lot of accessibility,like a lot of people can train
(07:41):
for it.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Yeah, I really think that has a lot to do with it.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
It's everything done with a barbell, while trying to
hit every muscle group with thebarbell yeah, and I think
there's a lot of carryover toowith lots of different types of
training.
You look at people who train tojust generally, you know, be
stronger, feel healthy, um,improve their physique, grow
their chest, you know, whatevermay be, there's a lot of
applicability to just getting tobe proficient in a squat, bench
(08:07):
press and deadlift, and sothere's some carryover there, or
some overlap, I should say yeah, definitely, and I know
training, for it's completelydifferent, obviously for
somebody looking for, let's say,hypertrophy or powerlifting or
muscular endurance orcardiovascular health.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
So how would somebody who is interested in squat,
bench, deadlift training for aone rep max, what are some like
general things they should dodifferently as opposed to
everyone else in the gym sure,so I think the best way we can
explain it actually is.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
I'll think back to, like, a couple of the lifters
we've worked with who had neverdone a meet and they were, you
know, lifting pretty regularly.
At this point, um, I'm tryingto think of someone who stands
out in my head.
Yeah, okay, so I'll draw fromone example here.
So this lifter let's call himBen, I don't know.
So Ben had been doing lots ofsets of five, eights, tens.
(09:01):
You know had like a leg day hewas doing um and more general
training, right.
So more hypertrophy, morehigher reps, not necessarily
ever trying to see the most hecould do for one, and a lot of
it boils down to it at afundamental level, there's two
main changes that happen whenyou get into those lower reps,
(09:22):
like threesrees, twos and, forcompetition, one rep sets is
that one.
The potency of the effect of theworkout is very high.
Like if you're going to go do afive by five with your squat,
for example, and you thinkyou're going to go do five all
out singles in a workout session, I wish you luck.
(09:43):
And I really wish you luck whenyou try to do it on the second
workout too.
They hit harder.
You have to manage the fatigueof it a lot differently, and so
that's why you'll commonly seeless sets at those higher
weights.
You know, if for nothing else,then it's just very hard to
recover from it and show upstronger the next time.
(10:04):
And the second is that liftingheavy is is very much a skill
just as much as it is a traitthat you can train for strength.
So one of the biggest thingsthat we saw when we first
started working with ben was hislike five rep max was actually
really close to what he could dofor one.
Because if you think about thatfeeling of doing a set of five
(10:25):
or even a set of 10, that firstrep doesn't really have to be
perfect on a set of 10 and youcan do the second, you the third
, you know, by the third you'relike okay, cool, I know where
I'm at, I'm in a groove, I canget those other seven reps done.
When the first rep is off on aset of one, you miss the rep,
that's just it.
And so developing the skill ofshowing up and having your first
(10:47):
rep be your best rep issomething that's.
It takes a while to train andespecially as the weights get
higher, your margin for errorbecomes tighter as well.
So managing the recovery anddeveloping the skill of actually
having as close to like 100%success rate on the technical
components of the list are thetwo, I think biggest differences
(11:07):
um between more generalstrength training and
powerlifting specifically yeah,and are there any other benefits
to powerlifting for those thatmaybe don't want to do it for
competition purposes, but maybeyou just want to dabble in it
for health purposes?
so specifically improving yourone rep max for the squat bench.
And our other scenario is justlike five reps, 10 reps.
(11:31):
What are we comparing it as Our?
Speaker 1 (11:32):
scenario is Susie's coming to the gym and she's
doing a circuit with super,setting 10 to 15 reps, bouncing
back and forth, and doesn't wantto touch a heavy weight because
she's just going to throw aback.
She feels like gotcha, okay.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
So I, I, I want to.
I want to adjust a little on onthe scale or kind of, or the
question that I'm answering,maybe.
So this, this is in part, thisis my personal opinion on it, um
, but you've probably heard somepeople say like they might go
to a boxing gym and hit theheavy bag, but they wouldn't
really call themselves like aboxer and they wouldn't say
they're training for boxing.
(12:09):
They might, you know, do someboxing classes, for example, but
until they really step in thering I wouldn't call them a
boxer Right.
In the same way, as you know,you can do powerlifting style
workouts where you're focused onimproving your squat, bench and
deadlift and get a ton ofbenefits from that.
I'll go into a bit more detailin a second what that would look
like, um, but, health benefitwise, testing your all at one
(12:33):
round max probably isn't goingto change much and it's probably
not going to be much better foryou than just generally getting
strong in that four to 10 range.
So, with that in mind, I think,if you're not going to compete,
but what keeps you consistentis knowing that, hey, I've got
(12:56):
this date that I'm workingtowards, where I'm going to test
my new maxes, having that dateto work towards, especially if
you're somebody who's justreally goal driven and it's hard
for you to like just go andwork out three times a week.
You don't love the process, youlove the goal.
It can be really motivating andsomething to keep you on track
and something bigger than justthe next workout to have.
(13:17):
That day you're like I'm goingto go and test this thing.
You know doesn't necessarilyhave to be a one rep max.
It could be that you're goingto test you five rep max or
something.
But that's where I think a lotof the benefits come from.
If you're not competing per seis you can take a lot of the
same things you would have witha competition date and use that
as a way to assign like a mediumterm goal to build towards and
(13:39):
use that as your your kind ofthing, that your center that
keeps you on track, your northstar that you're working towards
in your workouts.
Um, from a health standpoint, Idon't think there's really too
much.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
That's fundamentally going to be better in something
like that versus just generallygetting strong I have a
something that's generally goingto make it better and I think
you're going to agree with me,okay?
So suzy lives at home and has aa couch and needs to move that
couch in order to cleanunderneath it, right?
Sure.
So she has to lift it up or wecall that a deadlift and move it
(14:12):
to the side to get under thecouch and then lift it back.
Susie just did one rep, took afive-minute break, cleaned under
the couch and did another onerep Sure.
So in theory, I thinkpowerlifting or going more
towards the lower rep ranges ismore practical in day-to-day
activities for certainindividuals.
So we have constantly movedfurniture, we pick our kids up,
(14:36):
that's all.
We're not sitting there like Ihave a baby.
I'm not like.
Okay, 12 times, Dustin, I'mgoing to pick you up and down.
No, it's okay, One fell swoop,I'm going to pick them straight
up.
So yeah, training for real lifeis what I think is the most
important type of workouts andgetting your body used to doing
hey, just one quick heavyweightpicking it up, as opposed to
(14:59):
training towards reallyaesthetic, where you're like the
10 to 15 rep ranges kind ofdeal yeah, I would even go one
step further and say if you'regoing to train for real life, a
lot of people will go to the gymand just train.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
You know 12, 15 reps, you know hypertrophy range and
that's better than nothing.
But if you're really if you'rereally trying to train for real
life, I think you should pullfrom everywhere, do some heavy
single reps, some fives, eightsand tens and twelves and
fifteens and, who knows, everynow and then, if you got the
stomach for it, do a set of 30and, uh, hopefully you can still
(15:34):
walk after and stuff that's aseparate issue.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
I generally want to go throw up in a bucket if I do
something like that.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
But uh, there is benefit because you're training
that like muscular endurance andyou know there's some stuff
like with your baby, for example.
That baby is uh probably gonnaget a little bigger and you're
probably gonna encounter somehill and you'll have a stroller
or something at some point inthere and there's a lot of reps
to get up that hill right, ohyeah, don't remind me.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
He's a really big baby, so kids gonna be like five
by the time he's one, I feellike okay, so future nba player
in your, in your midst, hereyeah, yeah, I was, dad, aka me
was horrible at basketball, sohopefully, you possess my same
athletic gifts here yeah, I waslike, yeah, it was unathletic at
(16:17):
all, so the gym was like mysafe haven.
yeah, I was like, all right,this I can kind of figure out
and get good at and learn moreabout and it's fun.
So, yeah, I totally agree withthat.
So let's talk about morespecifically, those that do
compete right, and there'straining, splits and programs
that they should be on In yourgeneral opinion.
(16:38):
Someone going for their firstmeet I'm not going to talk about
the professional side of it,someone just wants to do their
first meet.
What's a typical split someoneshould be on?
What is like generally, whatdoes that look like?
Speaker 2 (16:50):
okay.
So I think that there's a bitof a misconception in that
you're like I'm going to sign upfor my first power lift meet.
Suddenly you have to go spend10 hours a week in the gym and
it's just not realistic like, isthere arguably some benefit to
that compared to four days aweek, you know, working out for
an hour?
Yeah, probably, but it's nottwo and a half times the benefit
(17:14):
.
And so the way that I like tolook at this is, before even
establishing what's the routineyou're going to go through, look
at why you're even trying to doit, right?
Because if you're like, hey,this is a goal that keeps you on
track with my fitness and mytraining, it lets me be
competitive, it lets me get itout, so that I'm not trying to
be competitive with all kinds ofrandom stuff, and you know, I'm
(17:36):
racing everybody on the streetand getting speeding tickets and
I can't go bowling with theboys because I make it over
competitive and they just wantto have a relaxing evening
trying to bowl a 300, you overcompetitive and they just want
to have a relaxing eveningtrying to bowl at 300, you know,
or not.
Having me trying to bowl at 300, um, that's one way to do it,
and you also have to look ateverything else that happens in
your life, right?
If you have a newborn baby,there's some competing
(17:59):
priorities there.
If you're, you know, 20 year old, bachelor and you like
graduated from high school,you've got a job, you work like
30 40 hours a week and you have,like, nothing else going on.
Go train 12 hours a week, um,but most people aren't in that
situation and they have work,they have family, they have
relationships, they probablyhave stuff they want to do
outside the gym, even if it'sjust a one.
(18:20):
It's not even a need.
And if you're going to do thatand you want to have lifting,
contribute to you feeling wholeand not have it become this
burden that you're adding to it.
I think you should be limitingyourself to five hours a week or
less in the gym and to getthere, I'd break it down into
three to four days, generallylooking at having typically a
(18:47):
primary upper body session and aprimary lower body session in
there.
So a day that you're going totrain your bench and you'll go
fairly heavy and you'll have aday where you're going to go
fairly heavy on either yoursquat or your deadlift.
And the reason I say one or theother is, as you get stronger,
managing the fatigue betweenthose two can be really
challenging and, frankly, from atime standpoint, it's kind of
(19:09):
hard to do heavy squats andheavy deadlifts and do them both
within the same session and dothat in less than an hour, right
?
So what I like to do is I'lloften organize it where even if
you could hypothetically squeezeit in say, I'm going to train
my bench every every week, I'mgoing to train my squat heavy on
my odd numbered weeks you know,week 1357, and deadlifts on the
(19:30):
even weeks, and then thoseother two workouts can just be
like a lighter version of whatyou've done on heavy days.
And that's probably the mostsimple, distilled down way I
could describe a entry point forcompeting with powerlifting,
rightlifting, right at a weeklysplit level.
From there, like with a lot ofthings, you want to start a
(19:52):
little lighter build to going alittle heavier, and I try to
look at it like it's just sortof a two converging lines, right
.
So your, your weights go up asyou get closer to your
competition and your reps godown.
So you might start with doingsets of 10 and the eights is
eights, uh, and sixes, and fives, fours, threes, twos, ones
(20:16):
before the competition, to getto feel where you're at.
And then there's meat day.
Now you can go into the weedson how to manage this.
You you can talk about okay,well, what about the weeks you
get sick or travel or all thesethings.
But it starts to get prettysituational at that point with,
like this person, with what theyhave available on X, how they
recover and all these things.
Right, I have this one livedwith, I work with his.
(20:40):
I guess I won't say his name,it's all makes sense in a sec.
But Joe Smith got COVID andhe's a guy who just his external
stressors are so high.
He has two kids, he's separatedfrom his wife, he's engaged
(21:04):
with his new partner, he has afull-time job and he has a
business that he's starting aswell.
This year he got covid andbasically just like, took a week
and a half off of everything.
You know he took care of hiskids.
That was about the extent of itand, purely from the drop in
stress that he had everything.
There I said, all right, let's,let's see where you're at.
(21:25):
You know, as you're gettingback into the gym here, I think
it was three days later he hadeverything there.
I said, all right, let's, let'ssee where you're at.
You know, as you're gettingback into the gym here, I think
it was three days later he hadhis first 500 pound squat.
You know, and, and he's he's mylike case study for when you
stress is stress is stress.
And if you have a ton of stuffgoing on outside the gym, doing
a ton of stuff in the gymprobably is not answer.
On the flip side, I've got somepeople where they might take a
(21:47):
week off for vacation and comeback and it takes them a week to
even get back to where theywere at a baseline.
And that's normal and that'spretty standard for most people.
Just depends very much on whoyou are and understanding
yourself and paying attention tothose details, or having
somebody that and payingattention to those details or
having somebody that can payattention to those details for
(22:09):
you, um, especially the strongeryou get, can be so beneficial
with really helping you findwhere your potential is with the
stuff yeah, I can definitelysee that and definitely see how
it can get situational.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
I love the stress to stress, so true, the first 10
weeks of having a kid, the factthat I showed up and did like
three pound dumbbells because Iwasn't sleeping and managing
that.
Like at least I went and Idon't feel totally shitty that I
didn't do nothing.
I just kind of went, did somelight stuff because I was
(22:45):
laughing with my staff.
I was like you know, I'mworking out and I'm falling
asleep.
I'm getting more tired the moreI work out.
Set three, I was like huh, thisshould wake you up.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Yeah, I'm waiting for some tone deaf influencer to
come in and be like oh so youdon't have the energy to work
out?
Have you tried working out theenergy to work out?
Have you tried working?
Speaker 1 (23:06):
out, you know, ignoring the fact you have a
newborn baby have you triedcoffee.
Yes, yeah, tons, yeah, if youwork out you'll actually have
energy, um, right before, butanyway, yeah.
So it's very curious that yourbody can tell you what to do and
you definitely learn like,especially when you're sick.
After a fever, I always hit thenext day off because you just
(23:26):
your body's drained, yournervous system's shot and I feel
like just going to the gym andtrying to push yourself is the
one we need to do.
And the flip side of that goingfor like super de-stressing
walks, just a mile, slow pace,get your body moving is one of
the most beneficial to de-stressyour body because it's just
getting over a virus like COVID,let's say that is way more
(23:50):
beneficial than even trying togo to the gym and make yourself
sweat and do everything.
But on the flip side, colds Ifeel like you feel better after
you push yourself.
There.
You're sinus yeah, it dependsright.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
So I mean, if I use myself as an example, I know
that my peak strength doesn'treally fall off.
And let's say I was in afour-week training program.
I was on week three and I gotsick and I had a fever or
something.
I know that I can go the nextday and basically start going on
week three again, but mystamina is gone.
I don't have the juice to getlike all those small exercises
(24:24):
at the end of the workout.
But if I had some competitionon week eight and I'm like, well
, I can't change the date ofthat competition and I, you know
, I need this to set a record onthis other thing.
Personally, like, personally,I'm going to go and I'm just
going to get the important stuffdone.
I'm not going to try to geteverything in I don't have the
(24:50):
stamina for that and then keepgoing.
But this is this is, I guess,to that point of everybody is
very different with this, andyou can't do what I do
necessarily and vice versa,without knowing yourself.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Yeah, totally agree.
I'm going to ask you somethingyou probably get from every
single one of your clients Mattinstead of powerlifting, what
supplement should I take?
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Have you?
Have you checked your dietfirst?
How's your diet?
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Tell us what your diet looks like for powerlifting
.
Is there anything differentthan anybody else?
Speaker 2 (25:16):
It's the same advice nobody wants to hear.
You should probably eat someprotein, you know, get that.
You know your 0.9 to 1.1 gramsof protein per pound of body
weight is where you're going tomake, for most people, the best
progress with.
I'm maybe a bit more roboticthan some people are with how I
analyze this, especially withmaybe just some of my background
(25:39):
in this and here.
Being a professional withcoaching powerlifting, I have a
very biased point of view.
Professional with coachingpowerlifting, I have a very
biased point of view, but I'llalways look at diet as look.
Your worst case scenario isyou're about two scoops of
protein away on just about anyday.
Assuming you're not eating likea child and having cake for
breakfast.
You're generally about twoscoops of protein a day away
(26:00):
from actually hitting what yourprotein target should be.
And you're going to go and putthis five hours of free time,
four hours of free time that youhave a week and use all that
towards bettering yourself.
And you're not gonna go pay toplay by just making sure you
have protein checked out.
Really, because to me thatfeels like a giant waste of time
when it's as simple as likegonna put some protein powder in
(26:20):
my water or eat a little moremeat at the barbecue, or
whatever it may be.
It's not the most inclusivemindset, but I'm always looking
at it from a performancestandpoint.
Right, I'm very like I don'twant to know that there was
something super easy I couldhave done for pennies a day, for
seconds of investment thatcould take me to the next level.
(26:42):
I don't want to be leaving thaton the table.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
I totally agree.
People do not eat enoughprotein.
I had this conversationyesterday with the client that I
signed up.
She was mad at her kid forhaving six eggs in the morning
and I was like why I want thatkid.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
That's not eggos, that's, that's eggs I was like
that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
And she's like, yeah, but it raises his cholesterol.
And I was just like not quite,no, no, um, anyway, we know it
doesn't at this point.
But it's like that's great.
And the other the other sidekid's like I have one egg every
morning.
And I was like, and you're thefootball player, like let's take
your one egg to eight.
And yeah, that we're hittingthe amount of protein that we
(27:24):
need to get in.
And I always feel like it'sreally hard if you're not with
protein shakes, but if you don'thave protein shakes or any
protein powders or anything, toover-consume protein unless
you're really, really trying Imean like all-you-can-eat
steakhouse and you're justpounding meat down.
(27:44):
Besides that, I just don'tthink an average person will
ever over-exceed if they'rewaiting to power, going for
powerless to meet, or evenworking out at the gym four days
a week what the protein shouldbe.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Yeah, what I find the biggest tripping point like,
like struggle point with theprotein is there's this
perception that it has to bejust such a diversity of things,
like it's so often.
I was talking with um, a lifterI worked with called justin the
other week and like he was 30grams short per day on his
(28:23):
intake.
I'm looking at this.
I'm like it's nothing like youweigh 180 pounds, we're
targeting about 170 to 180 andyou're sitting around that kind
of 145 kind of range right nowpretty routinely and he's
already having the usual.
He has three to four meals aday.
Cool, that makes sense.
Does his meal prep plans ahead?
He's like I just feel so full.
(28:45):
I don't feel like I have theappetite for more protein.
I can't add another meal inhere.
I'm like just take one meal anddouble the protein at that meal.
If you have like one chickenthigh, have two chicken thighs
and maybe a little bit of yourplate shrinks from some other
things.
There's your protein.
It's simple, that's all it hasto be Just take one thing you're
(29:07):
doing and double it, and that'sit Zero time investment.
There's to be just take onething you're doing and double it
, and that's it zero timeinvestment.
There's your protein and you'reprobably going to feel like a
rock star and this is going tobe a bit of a feed forward
behavioral loop for you here,because your workouts are going
to start feeling pretty darngreat.
When you get enough protein inyour energy will feel solid.
You're not going to feel hungryin the middle of the afternoon
like all those things will takecare of themselves and you'll be
(29:28):
like, oh, I just changed thatone thing, easy, cool exactly.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
It's simple, sweet and like.
I love that you do.
Everyone's 30 grand to proteinoff.
I don't care who you are,you're a 30 grand to protein off
anyway.
I'm gonna start wrapping thisup, because I do have a 12 week
old, so first question man, ifyou were to summarize this
episode in one or two sentences,what would be your take-home
message?
Speaker 2 (29:49):
take-home message um you don't have to compete to do
power lifting style training andthere's a lot of benefits to
that.
But if you're going to do it,don't just jump into doing one
one rep maxes.
Start lighter and build yourway down to those lower reps I
love it.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
And then the second question how can people find you
get ahold of you learn more andall the good stuff?
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Yeah, so most active on socials at Stronger UPT,
stronger Y-O-U-P-T is inpersonal training and, if any of
your listeners actually want,I've recently launched a big,
basically data analysis, so itgoes through if you're
interested in competing in yourfirst powerlifting meet in the
next year or so.
I analyzed the results fromalmost 3 000 powerlifters and
(30:36):
said, okay, if you wanted tocompete, you wanted to be
competitive.
How much do you actually needto lift to do that and where do
you find competitions that arelocal to you?
And so I've got that justcompiled as a what I call my
first meet guide and, uh, Ithink you've got the link for it
.
If you want to post it in theshow notes, that's completely
free.
It takes a link click and acouple of keystrokes and you'll
(30:59):
have a copy of it for free.
I think those are the two bestways I can help out, and then
everything else is kind oflinked through there.
If you want to find me on otherplatforms, yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Definitely, guys, go check that out.
It's pretty cool because itgives you the exact direction of
where you need to go.
But thank you for coming on.
Thank you, guys, for listeningthis week's episode, health and
fitness redefined.
Don't forget, share, subscribe.
It's the only way this showgrows.
Thank you so much, guys.
Remember this is medicine untilnext time.
(31:47):
Thank you, outro Music.
what's up, guys and welcome to health of fitness
redefined.
I'm your host, anthony manning.
We have another great episodefor all of you.
Before we introduce, lovelymatt, who's here with me, I have
to say, told you, within sixdays of the episode coming out,
top four predictions for januaryof what's going to happen in
(00:27):
2025 in the health and fitnessworld, and I put that I made
that episode two and a halfweeks before it even came out,
and so we're talking.
I knew three weeks ahead, reddye number three and called it
so very interesting, got myprediction, but literally the
first one I said got provenright.
(00:47):
So hopefully, by the time thatthis episode comes out, you're
like, wow, anthony, I listenedto that show again where your
top four predictions and you gotall four right.
Yeah, that's what I'm talkingabout, but happy to brag a
little bit, sometimes you needto.
Anyway, matt, welcome to theshow.
It's a pleasure to have you ontoday.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Hey, thanks for having me, anthony, I appreciate
it.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Yeah, so this is obviously not about Red Diner,
whether we're going to talkabout today, but still love that
things are moving in the slightright direction.
Tell us a little bit of how yougot into the health and fitness
realm and why you're here.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yeah, so getting into the health and fitness world.
So I've officially beencoaching for over a decade now.
I started coachingprofessionally in 2014.
And it was basically my secondattempt at trying to transform a
passion into a career.
First one, I was cooking.
I was cooking at, actually, oneof the top fine dining
(01:40):
restaurants in Toronto at thetime and big fiery burnout
turned out.
I really didn't like it doingit as a career anyways, and so I
said you know what?
Let's not learn any lessons.
Let's, let's try to turn thisother passion of mine, which is
lifting weights, and try to helppeople with that and see if
that, you know, is a betterpursuit.
And here we are a decade later.
(02:01):
It's been a whole lot betterand I think a lot of it has to
do with just being able todirectly see that result of like
the work and feeling likethere's some agency behind it,
less anonymity, like I can helppeople and I can see that I help
people instead of just I'mmaking something and I don't see
how it affects anybody.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
With cooking, yeah, totally get it.
And what steered you towardsmore directly at the
powerlifting ranks?
I know that's what you do, sowhat kind of inspired you to say
, hey, I'm really going to liftheavy weights?
Was it just being a kid?
Speaker 2 (02:31):
and like, yeah, muscles, yeah, uh, kind of so in
.
I think a lot of why I likecoaching powerlifting is it lets
me share my joy forpowerlifting with others.
Um, and maybe a bit ofbackstory on how I got into this
sport initially right, and this, this is why I'm still
powerlifting and looking atcompeting again 17 years later
(02:56):
now, after I started, um, or 13years after I started competing,
17 years back to lifting, um,so I was really bad at sports
growing up as a kid.
My parents put me in, you know,soccer, baseball, martial arts,
and they're like I kind of dideverything, hated all of them,
um, and I ended up just kind ofat a certain point, very skinny
(03:17):
in gym class and the gym teacherwas like, hey, you're, you know
, clearly not in the best shapeof your life right now, and I
was 12, something like that atthe time and, you know, full of
teenage angst and be like, oh,screw you, man.
Like you know, I don't evenremember what the rest of the
conversation was.
I just remember going home thatday and being like I'm gonna
figure out how to get jack.
I'm gonna show this guy, youknow what the deal is here.
(03:39):
I'm gonna, I'm gonna go turnthis ship around and screw you,
mr Lemoine.
And so I started liftingweights basically the next day
and I was like I'm going to gobodybuilding, get huge muscles,
rah, rah, and it was cool, likeit felt nice to lift some
weights.
But I found very quickly thattwo things happened.
(04:00):
One is the lifting weights forsomebody else, or to prove
somebody else wrong, or, youknow, you know, show the haters.
All that stuff was definitelynot for me like that.
That.
The external motivation isapparently not how I do anything
in my life.
And the second is as anextension of that.
You know, lifting to improve myphysique was.
It felt almost neurotic to me,like it just put me in a very
(04:23):
strange mental space.
But I loved the feeling ofsaying I did 60 pounds last time
, I'm going to do 65 pounds thistime, and seeing that really
measurable increase, for reallyone of the first times in my
life it was a physical pursuitthat I could quantify and say,
yeah, I'm actually doing betterat this.
And you know, I wouldn't saythis is something where I'd
analyze it to that level when Iwas 12, 13, but looking back on
(04:46):
it, that is totally what drew meto it and it's the same thing
with you know why I lovebusiness, why I love running a
business.
Now, on top of that is like youcan distill it down to
objectively are you doing it orare you not?
It's not a feelings, it's anumbers thing.
Um, and I mean from there itwas.
I kept lifting, focused more onthe power lifting side of things
(05:08):
.
Through talking with somedifferent guys in the gym turned
out there was a sport for it.
You could go and squat, benchand deadlift and see who could
do the most and startedcompeting.
And a couple years later I hadset some records, won some
high-level competitions.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
I won Worlds in 2014 and started coaching that same
year.
Actually, I feel likepowerlifting was no one knew
about it six years ago, fiveyears ago even, and now, all of
a sudden, it's just hit themarket and everybody wants to
powerlift.
You're seeing it in our world,like the trainer's trainers
world.
You're seeing clients startingto dabble into it.
They're just the popularity ofpower lifting has really surged,
(05:54):
which is cool, uh.
For those that still don't knowwhat it is, though, what is the
definition of power lifting andwhat is the powerlifting
competition?
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Yeah, so your your comment about five, six years
ago.
Nobody knew what it was.
I just think about you know.
You say powerlifting and peopleare like, oh yeah, like like in
the Olympics, and they puttheir arms over their head and
I'm like, no, definitely notthat, I'm not that explosive,
I'll grind it out.
It'll take me about fiveseconds to finish the lift.
Powerlifting is basically incompetition's, a competition
(06:27):
about a set, you know, in aweight class and in an age class
.
So you know, for example,people under 40 might compete at
anybody who's under 200 pounds.
Who can do the most weight forone rep in a squat, in a bench
press and in a deadlift.
There's different subcategoriesof the sport where you might do
only one of those lifts or twoout of three of the lifts, but
(06:48):
in the classic form it's squat,bench press and deadlift yeah
and yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
And why those three?
Speaker 2 (06:58):
I I can't say I'm into the history of the sport
that much.
My guess is it.
It's just they're superaccessible exercises Like if you
look at um, like Enduro,mountain bike racing, for
example, it used to be very mucha like run what you've run,
kind of thing.
Like people were like I have abike, let's go race the bike.
And 15 years ago that's whatthe sport was and now it's a
totally different thing.
(07:19):
My gut feel with it ispowerlifting, or at least a lot
of the appeal behindpowerlifting is that where you
can go to a gym and, unlessyou're working out at like the
hotel gym with dumbbells up to15 pounds and nothing else, you
can squat, bench, press anddeadlift in that gym, which
gives it a lot of accessibility,like a lot of people can train
(07:41):
for it.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Yeah, I really think that has a lot to do with it.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
It's everything done with a barbell, while trying to
hit every muscle group with thebarbell yeah, and I think
there's a lot of carryover toowith lots of different types of
training.
You look at people who train tojust generally, you know, be
stronger, feel healthy, um,improve their physique, grow
their chest, you know, whatevermay be, there's a lot of
applicability to just getting tobe proficient in a squat, bench
(08:07):
press and deadlift, and sothere's some carryover there, or
some overlap, I should say yeah, definitely, and I know
training, for it's completelydifferent, obviously for
somebody looking for, let's say,hypertrophy or powerlifting or
muscular endurance orcardiovascular health.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
So how would somebody who is interested in squat,
bench, deadlift training for aone rep max, what are some like
general things they should dodifferently as opposed to
everyone else in the gym sure,so I think the best way we can
explain it actually is.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
I'll think back to, like, a couple of the lifters
we've worked with who had neverdone a meet and they were, you
know, lifting pretty regularly.
At this point, um, I'm tryingto think of someone who stands
out in my head.
Yeah, okay, so I'll draw fromone example here.
So this lifter let's call himBen, I don't know.
So Ben had been doing lots ofsets of five, eights, tens.
(09:01):
You know had like a leg day hewas doing um and more general
training, right.
So more hypertrophy, morehigher reps, not necessarily
ever trying to see the most hecould do for one, and a lot of
it boils down to it at afundamental level, there's two
main changes that happen whenyou get into those lower reps,
(09:22):
like threesrees, twos and, forcompetition, one rep sets is
that one.
The potency of the effect of theworkout is very high.
Like if you're going to go do afive by five with your squat,
for example, and you thinkyou're going to go do five all
out singles in a workout session, I wish you luck.
(09:43):
And I really wish you luck whenyou try to do it on the second
workout too.
They hit harder.
You have to manage the fatigueof it a lot differently, and so
that's why you'll commonly seeless sets at those higher
weights.
You know, if for nothing else,then it's just very hard to
recover from it and show upstronger the next time.
(10:04):
And the second is that liftingheavy is is very much a skill
just as much as it is a traitthat you can train for strength.
So one of the biggest thingsthat we saw when we first
started working with ben was hislike five rep max was actually
really close to what he could dofor one.
Because if you think about thatfeeling of doing a set of five
(10:25):
or even a set of 10, that firstrep doesn't really have to be
perfect on a set of 10 and youcan do the second, you the third
, you know, by the third you'relike okay, cool, I know where
I'm at, I'm in a groove, I canget those other seven reps done.
When the first rep is off on aset of one, you miss the rep,
that's just it.
And so developing the skill ofshowing up and having your first
(10:47):
rep be your best rep issomething that's.
It takes a while to train andespecially as the weights get
higher, your margin for errorbecomes tighter as well.
So managing the recovery anddeveloping the skill of actually
having as close to like 100%success rate on the technical
components of the list are thetwo, I think biggest differences
(11:07):
um between more generalstrength training and
powerlifting specifically yeah,and are there any other benefits
to powerlifting for those thatmaybe don't want to do it for
competition purposes, but maybeyou just want to dabble in it
for health purposes?
so specifically improving yourone rep max for the squat bench.
And our other scenario is justlike five reps, 10 reps.
(11:31):
What are we comparing it as Our?
Speaker 1 (11:32):
scenario is Susie's coming to the gym and she's
doing a circuit with super,setting 10 to 15 reps, bouncing
back and forth, and doesn't wantto touch a heavy weight because
she's just going to throw aback.
She feels like gotcha, okay.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
So I, I, I want to.
I want to adjust a little on onthe scale or kind of, or the
question that I'm answering,maybe.
So this, this is in part, thisis my personal opinion on it, um
, but you've probably heard somepeople say like they might go
to a boxing gym and hit theheavy bag, but they wouldn't
really call themselves like aboxer and they wouldn't say
they're training for boxing.
(12:09):
They might, you know, do someboxing classes, for example, but
until they really step in thering I wouldn't call them a
boxer Right.
In the same way, as you know,you can do powerlifting style
workouts where you're focused onimproving your squat, bench and
deadlift and get a ton ofbenefits from that.
I'll go into a bit more detailin a second what that would look
like, um, but, health benefitwise, testing your all at one
(12:33):
round max probably isn't goingto change much and it's probably
not going to be much better foryou than just generally getting
strong in that four to 10 range.
So, with that in mind, I think,if you're not going to compete,
but what keeps you consistentis knowing that, hey, I've got
(12:56):
this date that I'm workingtowards, where I'm going to test
my new maxes, having that dateto work towards, especially if
you're somebody who's justreally goal driven and it's hard
for you to like just go andwork out three times a week.
You don't love the process, youlove the goal.
It can be really motivating andsomething to keep you on track
and something bigger than justthe next workout to have.
(13:17):
That day you're like I'm goingto go and test this thing.
You know doesn't necessarilyhave to be a one rep max.
It could be that you're goingto test you five rep max or
something.
But that's where I think a lotof the benefits come from.
If you're not competing per seis you can take a lot of the
same things you would have witha competition date and use that
as a way to assign like a mediumterm goal to build towards and
(13:39):
use that as your your kind ofthing, that your center that
keeps you on track, your northstar that you're working towards
in your workouts.
Um, from a health standpoint, Idon't think there's really too
much.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
That's fundamentally going to be better in something
like that versus just generallygetting strong I have a
something that's generally goingto make it better and I think
you're going to agree with me,okay?
So suzy lives at home and has aa couch and needs to move that
couch in order to cleanunderneath it, right?
Sure.
So she has to lift it up or wecall that a deadlift and move it
(14:12):
to the side to get under thecouch and then lift it back.
Susie just did one rep, took afive-minute break, cleaned under
the couch and did another onerep Sure.
So in theory, I thinkpowerlifting or going more
towards the lower rep ranges ismore practical in day-to-day
activities for certainindividuals.
So we have constantly movedfurniture, we pick our kids up,
(14:36):
that's all.
We're not sitting there like Ihave a baby.
I'm not like.
Okay, 12 times, Dustin, I'mgoing to pick you up and down.
No, it's okay, One fell swoop,I'm going to pick them straight
up.
So yeah, training for real lifeis what I think is the most
important type of workouts andgetting your body used to doing
hey, just one quick heavyweightpicking it up, as opposed to
(14:59):
training towards reallyaesthetic, where you're like the
10 to 15 rep ranges kind ofdeal yeah, I would even go one
step further and say if you'regoing to train for real life, a
lot of people will go to the gymand just train.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
You know 12, 15 reps, you know hypertrophy range and
that's better than nothing.
But if you're really if you'rereally trying to train for real
life, I think you should pullfrom everywhere, do some heavy
single reps, some fives, eightsand tens and twelves and
fifteens and, who knows, everynow and then, if you got the
stomach for it, do a set of 30and, uh, hopefully you can still
(15:34):
walk after and stuff that's aseparate issue.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
I generally want to go throw up in a bucket if I do
something like that.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
But uh, there is benefit because you're training
that like muscular endurance andyou know there's some stuff
like with your baby, for example.
That baby is uh probably gonnaget a little bigger and you're
probably gonna encounter somehill and you'll have a stroller
or something at some point inthere and there's a lot of reps
to get up that hill right, ohyeah, don't remind me.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
He's a really big baby, so kids gonna be like five
by the time he's one, I feellike okay, so future nba player
in your, in your midst, hereyeah, yeah, I was, dad, aka me
was horrible at basketball, sohopefully, you possess my same
athletic gifts here yeah, I waslike, yeah, it was unathletic at
(16:17):
all, so the gym was like mysafe haven.
yeah, I was like, all right,this I can kind of figure out
and get good at and learn moreabout and it's fun.
So, yeah, I totally agree withthat.
So let's talk about morespecifically, those that do
compete right, and there'straining, splits and programs
that they should be on In yourgeneral opinion.
(16:38):
Someone going for their firstmeet I'm not going to talk about
the professional side of it,someone just wants to do their
first meet.
What's a typical split someoneshould be on?
What is like generally, whatdoes that look like?
Speaker 2 (16:50):
okay.
So I think that there's a bitof a misconception in that
you're like I'm going to sign upfor my first power lift meet.
Suddenly you have to go spend10 hours a week in the gym and
it's just not realistic like, isthere arguably some benefit to
that compared to four days aweek, you know, working out for
an hour?
Yeah, probably, but it's nottwo and a half times the benefit
(17:14):
.
And so the way that I like tolook at this is, before even
establishing what's the routineyou're going to go through, look
at why you're even trying to doit, right?
Because if you're like, hey,this is a goal that keeps you on
track with my fitness and mytraining, it lets me be
competitive, it lets me get itout, so that I'm not trying to
be competitive with all kinds ofrandom stuff, and you know, I'm
(17:36):
racing everybody on the streetand getting speeding tickets and
I can't go bowling with theboys because I make it over
competitive and they just wantto have a relaxing evening
trying to bowl a 300, you overcompetitive and they just want
to have a relaxing eveningtrying to bowl at 300, you know,
or not.
Having me trying to bowl at 300, um, that's one way to do it,
and you also have to look ateverything else that happens in
your life, right?
If you have a newborn baby,there's some competing
(17:59):
priorities there.
If you're, you know, 20 year old, bachelor and you like
graduated from high school,you've got a job, you work like
30 40 hours a week and you have,like, nothing else going on.
Go train 12 hours a week, um,but most people aren't in that
situation and they have work,they have family, they have
relationships, they probablyhave stuff they want to do
outside the gym, even if it'sjust a one.
(18:20):
It's not even a need.
And if you're going to do thatand you want to have lifting,
contribute to you feeling wholeand not have it become this
burden that you're adding to it.
I think you should be limitingyourself to five hours a week or
less in the gym and to getthere, I'd break it down into
three to four days, generallylooking at having typically a
(18:47):
primary upper body session and aprimary lower body session in
there.
So a day that you're going totrain your bench and you'll go
fairly heavy and you'll have aday where you're going to go
fairly heavy on either yoursquat or your deadlift.
And the reason I say one or theother is, as you get stronger,
managing the fatigue betweenthose two can be really
challenging and, frankly, from atime standpoint, it's kind of
(19:09):
hard to do heavy squats andheavy deadlifts and do them both
within the same session and dothat in less than an hour, right
?
So what I like to do is I'lloften organize it where even if
you could hypothetically squeezeit in say, I'm going to train
my bench every every week, I'mgoing to train my squat heavy on
my odd numbered weeks you know,week 1357, and deadlifts on the
(19:30):
even weeks, and then thoseother two workouts can just be
like a lighter version of whatyou've done on heavy days.
And that's probably the mostsimple, distilled down way I
could describe a entry point forcompeting with powerlifting,
rightlifting, right at a weeklysplit level.
From there, like with a lot ofthings, you want to start a
(19:52):
little lighter build to going alittle heavier, and I try to
look at it like it's just sortof a two converging lines, right
.
So your, your weights go up asyou get closer to your
competition and your reps godown.
So you might start with doingsets of 10 and the eights is
eights, uh, and sixes, and fives, fours, threes, twos, ones
(20:16):
before the competition, to getto feel where you're at.
And then there's meat day.
Now you can go into the weedson how to manage this.
You you can talk about okay,well, what about the weeks you
get sick or travel or all thesethings.
But it starts to get prettysituational at that point with,
like this person, with what theyhave available on X, how they
recover and all these things.
Right, I have this one livedwith, I work with his.
(20:40):
I guess I won't say his name,it's all makes sense in a sec.
But Joe Smith got COVID andhe's a guy who just his external
stressors are so high.
He has two kids, he's separatedfrom his wife, he's engaged
(21:04):
with his new partner, he has afull-time job and he has a
business that he's starting aswell.
This year he got covid andbasically just like, took a week
and a half off of everything.
You know he took care of hiskids.
That was about the extent of itand, purely from the drop in
stress that he had everything.
There I said, all right, let's,let's see where you're at.
(21:25):
You know, as you're gettingback into the gym here, I think
it was three days later he hadeverything there.
I said, all right, let's, let'ssee where you're at.
You know, as you're gettingback into the gym here, I think
it was three days later he hadhis first 500 pound squat.
You know, and, and he's he's mylike case study for when you
stress is stress is stress.
And if you have a ton of stuffgoing on outside the gym, doing
a ton of stuff in the gymprobably is not answer.
On the flip side, I've got somepeople where they might take a
(21:47):
week off for vacation and comeback and it takes them a week to
even get back to where theywere at a baseline.
And that's normal and that'spretty standard for most people.
Just depends very much on whoyou are and understanding
yourself and paying attention tothose details, or having
somebody that and payingattention to those details or
having somebody that can payattention to those details for
(22:09):
you, um, especially the strongeryou get, can be so beneficial
with really helping you findwhere your potential is with the
stuff yeah, I can definitelysee that and definitely see how
it can get situational.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
I love the stress to stress, so true, the first 10
weeks of having a kid, the factthat I showed up and did like
three pound dumbbells because Iwasn't sleeping and managing
that.
Like at least I went and Idon't feel totally shitty that I
didn't do nothing.
I just kind of went, did somelight stuff because I was
(22:45):
laughing with my staff.
I was like you know, I'mworking out and I'm falling
asleep.
I'm getting more tired the moreI work out.
Set three, I was like huh, thisshould wake you up.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Yeah, I'm waiting for some tone deaf influencer to
come in and be like oh so youdon't have the energy to work
out?
Have you tried working out theenergy to work out?
Have you tried working?
Speaker 1 (23:06):
out, you know, ignoring the fact you have a
newborn baby have you triedcoffee.
Yes, yeah, tons, yeah, if youwork out you'll actually have
energy, um, right before, butanyway, yeah.
So it's very curious that yourbody can tell you what to do and
you definitely learn like,especially when you're sick.
After a fever, I always hit thenext day off because you just
(23:26):
your body's drained, yournervous system's shot and I feel
like just going to the gym andtrying to push yourself is the
one we need to do.
And the flip side of that goingfor like super de-stressing
walks, just a mile, slow pace,get your body moving is one of
the most beneficial to de-stressyour body because it's just
getting over a virus like COVID,let's say that is way more
(23:50):
beneficial than even trying togo to the gym and make yourself
sweat and do everything.
But on the flip side, colds Ifeel like you feel better after
you push yourself.
There.
You're sinus yeah, it dependsright.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
So I mean, if I use myself as an example, I know
that my peak strength doesn'treally fall off.
And let's say I was in afour-week training program.
I was on week three and I gotsick and I had a fever or
something.
I know that I can go the nextday and basically start going on
week three again, but mystamina is gone.
I don't have the juice to getlike all those small exercises
(24:24):
at the end of the workout.
But if I had some competitionon week eight and I'm like, well
, I can't change the date ofthat competition and I, you know
, I need this to set a record onthis other thing.
Personally, like, personally,I'm going to go and I'm just
going to get the important stuffdone.
I'm not going to try to geteverything in I don't have the
(24:50):
stamina for that and then keepgoing.
But this is this is, I guess,to that point of everybody is
very different with this, andyou can't do what I do
necessarily and vice versa,without knowing yourself.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Yeah, totally agree.
I'm going to ask you somethingyou probably get from every
single one of your clients Mattinstead of powerlifting, what
supplement should I take?
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Have you?
Have you checked your dietfirst?
How's your diet?
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Tell us what your diet looks like for powerlifting
.
Is there anything differentthan anybody else?
Speaker 2 (25:16):
It's the same advice nobody wants to hear.
You should probably eat someprotein, you know, get that.
You know your 0.9 to 1.1 gramsof protein per pound of body
weight is where you're going tomake, for most people, the best
progress with.
I'm maybe a bit more roboticthan some people are with how I
analyze this, especially withmaybe just some of my background
(25:39):
in this and here.
Being a professional withcoaching powerlifting, I have a
very biased point of view.
Professional with coachingpowerlifting, I have a very
biased point of view, but I'llalways look at diet as look.
Your worst case scenario isyou're about two scoops of
protein away on just about anyday.
Assuming you're not eating likea child and having cake for
breakfast.
You're generally about twoscoops of protein a day away
(26:00):
from actually hitting what yourprotein target should be.
And you're going to go and putthis five hours of free time,
four hours of free time that youhave a week and use all that
towards bettering yourself.
And you're not gonna go pay toplay by just making sure you
have protein checked out.
Really, because to me thatfeels like a giant waste of time
when it's as simple as likegonna put some protein powder in
(26:20):
my water or eat a little moremeat at the barbecue, or
whatever it may be.
It's not the most inclusivemindset, but I'm always looking
at it from a performancestandpoint.
Right, I'm very like I don'twant to know that there was
something super easy I couldhave done for pennies a day, for
seconds of investment thatcould take me to the next level.
(26:42):
I don't want to be leaving thaton the table.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
I totally agree.
People do not eat enoughprotein.
I had this conversationyesterday with the client that I
signed up.
She was mad at her kid forhaving six eggs in the morning
and I was like why I want thatkid.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
That's not eggos, that's, that's eggs I was like
that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
And she's like, yeah, but it raises his cholesterol.
And I was just like not quite,no, no, um, anyway, we know it
doesn't at this point.
But it's like that's great.
And the other the other sidekid's like I have one egg every
morning.
And I was like, and you're thefootball player, like let's take
your one egg to eight.
And yeah, that we're hittingthe amount of protein that we
(27:24):
need to get in.
And I always feel like it'sreally hard if you're not with
protein shakes, but if you don'thave protein shakes or any
protein powders or anything, toover-consume protein unless
you're really, really trying Imean like all-you-can-eat
steakhouse and you're justpounding meat down.
(27:44):
Besides that, I just don'tthink an average person will
ever over-exceed if they'rewaiting to power, going for
powerless to meet, or evenworking out at the gym four days
a week what the protein shouldbe.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Yeah, what I find the biggest tripping point like,
like struggle point with theprotein is there's this
perception that it has to bejust such a diversity of things,
like it's so often.
I was talking with um, a lifterI worked with called justin the
other week and like he was 30grams short per day on his
(28:23):
intake.
I'm looking at this.
I'm like it's nothing like youweigh 180 pounds, we're
targeting about 170 to 180 andyou're sitting around that kind
of 145 kind of range right nowpretty routinely and he's
already having the usual.
He has three to four meals aday.
Cool, that makes sense.
Does his meal prep plans ahead?
He's like I just feel so full.
(28:45):
I don't feel like I have theappetite for more protein.
I can't add another meal inhere.
I'm like just take one meal anddouble the protein at that meal.
If you have like one chickenthigh, have two chicken thighs
and maybe a little bit of yourplate shrinks from some other
things.
There's your protein.
It's simple, that's all it hasto be Just take one thing you're
(29:07):
doing and double it, and that'sit Zero time investment.
There's to be just take onething you're doing and double it
, and that's it zero timeinvestment.
There's your protein and you'reprobably going to feel like a
rock star and this is going tobe a bit of a feed forward
behavioral loop for you here,because your workouts are going
to start feeling pretty darngreat.
When you get enough protein inyour energy will feel solid.
You're not going to feel hungryin the middle of the afternoon
like all those things will takecare of themselves and you'll be
(29:28):
like, oh, I just changed thatone thing, easy, cool exactly.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
It's simple, sweet and like.
I love that you do.
Everyone's 30 grand to proteinoff.
I don't care who you are,you're a 30 grand to protein off
anyway.
I'm gonna start wrapping thisup, because I do have a 12 week
old, so first question man, ifyou were to summarize this
episode in one or two sentences,what would be your take-home
message?
Speaker 2 (29:49):
take-home message um you don't have to compete to do
power lifting style training andthere's a lot of benefits to
that.
But if you're going to do it,don't just jump into doing one
one rep maxes.
Start lighter and build yourway down to those lower reps I
love it.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
And then the second question how can people find you
get ahold of you learn more andall the good stuff?
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Yeah, so most active on socials at Stronger UPT,
stronger Y-O-U-P-T is inpersonal training and, if any of
your listeners actually want,I've recently launched a big,
basically data analysis, so itgoes through if you're
interested in competing in yourfirst powerlifting meet in the
next year or so.
I analyzed the results fromalmost 3 000 powerlifters and
(30:36):
said, okay, if you wanted tocompete, you wanted to be
competitive.
How much do you actually needto lift to do that and where do
you find competitions that arelocal to you?
And so I've got that justcompiled as a what I call my
first meet guide and, uh, Ithink you've got the link for it
.
If you want to post it in theshow notes, that's completely
free.
It takes a link click and acouple of keystrokes and you'll
(30:59):
have a copy of it for free.
I think those are the two bestways I can help out, and then
everything else is kind oflinked through there.
If you want to find me on otherplatforms, yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Definitely, guys, go check that out.
It's pretty cool because itgives you the exact direction of
where you need to go.
But thank you for coming on.
Thank you, guys, for listeningthis week's episode, health and
fitness redefined.
Don't forget, share, subscribe.
It's the only way this showgrows.
Thank you so much, guys.
Remember this is medicine untilnext time.
(31:47):
Thank you, outro Music.
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