The strongest kid on my block.
My goal has always been to be the strongest kid on my block. I heard that in a movie once – Full Metal Jacket I believe. It really stuck with me.
After doing CrossFit for a few years, I decided that I wanted to purely focus on building some mass (get bulky). My workouts changed quite a bit. I went from lots of running, jumping, picking things up off the floor, pressing them over my head, twisting, turning, and throwing to just lifting things up.
I started paying attention to the sport of powerlifting, and the body types of guys like Mark Bell, Larry Wheels. As I learned more about the history of the sport and its athletes I realized.. these dudes are JACKED! And that is exactly what I wanted to be.
I dove into a powerlifting program head first. Powerlifting is the sport of being really big and strong. If you’ve never seen a powerlifting meet, you should watch one. You’ll see several very impressive feats of strength. There are three events in powerlifting; the barbell squat, bench press, and deadlift. That’s it. Powerlifters spend all of their time building their strength to be able to lift a maximal load in each of the three lifts during a meet.
The Program
I used a program called Wendler 5/3/1. It was simple and easy to follow. Monday was squat day, Tuesday bench day, Wednesday rest, Thursday deadlift day, and Friday shoulder press day. I put all of my focus on training the lifts only. Each day I started with the lift of the day, put as much weight as the program called for on the bar – and lifted! When I was done with the main lift, I did accessory lifts that would help get me stronger in the big lifts, and build some muscle along the way. My workouts went from 1 hour long to 1 hour and thirty minutes, to two hours! I trained this way for a long, long time. And I really enjoyed it!
I got a heck of a lot stronger! My deadlift went up 30 pounds, my squat nearly 40, my bench press went up around 20 pounds. But, I had to cut out all of the “CrossFit” to do it. My focus during that time was on nothing but lifting. Straight up banging weight. No running, no jumping rope or box jumps, no burpees.
Guess what? I still don’t look like Mark Bell or any of the old school powerlifters ☹
Getting big and bulky is really, really hard. It takes laser focus on not just your training program, but also your nutrition, sleep, recovery, and a myriad of other factors that most of us normal people just don’t have time to pay attention to.
You won’t get bulky, unless you want to.
Sure, sometimes in class, we lift weights. We believe that lifting weights is part of what keeps us young. We want you to build the type of strength that will keep you independent into your twilight years. But, that’s not all we do. We do workouts that are really fun, they change every day, and you get to do them with your friends. We run, jump, twist and turn, and do all the things the good Lord designed us to do. Sometimes we use weights, sometimes we don’t.
Lifting weights won’t make you big and bulky, unless that what you want to do. We can help build a plan that’ll help you reach your body composition goals. You’ll also want to take advantage of 1:1 coaching because our group program isn’t for you.
Lifting weights is great for building strong bones and joints.
Lifting weights will help you move your body more easily.
Lifting weights will keep your back from hurting while you work in the yard or play with your kids.
Lifting weights will help you drop a club and add 20 yards to your drive.
Lifting weights will build strong tendons and ligaments that will keep you from needing surgeries.
Lifting weights will keep you from needing your husband to open the pickle jar.
Lifting weights will not make you big and bulky. Sitting on the couch and eating Cheetos will.