I tried powerlifting for 100 days

I joined a professional powerlifting competition with only 100 days to prepare the only problem I've never power lifted before I have no Technical Training and I kind of don't even know what it is what but that's not going to stop me okay maybe it will so I set out to learn everything I could about becoming an elite powerlifter from the mechanics of lifting to diving into strength training science and perfecting my nutrition plan I'm dedicating the next 3 months to becoming a professional powerlifter is crazy bit more bit more bit more okay nice we like

be able to compete at the highest level or injure myself and jeopardize the entire process so he said it's like a it's probably a first or second degree tear oh my God this video is sponsored by Squarespace first things first what is powerlifting in its simplest terms powerlifting is a sport designed to find the strongest person in the room its Origins date all the way back to ancient Greece when men would lift stones to demonstrate their strength and prove their manlihood it wasn't until the 1960s that the first official competitions were held and powerlifting started

to look a bit closer to what it resembles today there are hundreds of different lifts you could do to prove how strong you are but for a powerlifting competition there are just three that are performed the squat the bench press and the deadlift each of these lifts require a different set of skills technique muscle and strength competitors who are divided into different weight classes get three attempts to perform their one rep max that's lifting the heaviest weight you possibly can just one time and the person who lifts the most combined across their squat bench press

and deadlift is deemed the strongest and the winner of a lovely dinner plate when you put yourself under this kind of weight there is the potential for Dangerous outcomes torn muscles Serious injury and even death have resulted from powerlifting so let's sign up for a competition all right so I'm preparing to sign up for my very first powerlifting competition like a legitimate competition where you wear a leotard you get up on a platform and you lift the heaviest weight you've ever lifted in your life I I have to declare my weight class 75 Kg equipment

there's only one choice it's raw and that's it I just signed up for my first powerlifting competition what the before I start training I want to weigh in and get my body measurements I want to get an accurate look at what I look like before and after powerlifting so I'm not going to flex this is me not flexing and I know that there are going to be some people that are saying I'm only doing this video so I can take my shirt off yeah I don't have a response to that I'm currently 58 and weigh

158 lb and here's the full rundown of all my body measurements I'll be doing a comparison at the end of the experiment to see how big I actually get if you're wondering my biceps measure in at 15 in while I have zero experience powerlifting I have been going to the gym since college and I'm pretty confident in my bench press the two exercises that intimidate me the most at the gym though are the deadlift and the squat which is why I almost always avoid them I want to safely test my strength on day one so

I did my best five rep set of each lift then I threw that number into a one rep max calculator to determine what I could hypothetically lift in a competition if I had to do it today here's what I got my squat was 185 lb my bench was 200 lb and my deadlift was 256 lb this is a far from perfect way to calculate your strength but it'll have to do so this is the official USA powerlifting rule book it includes hundreds of rules and guidelines for performing each lift disqualifications can come from dozens of

different technicalities a double bounce at the bottom of a squat failing to hold the bar still at the top of a bench press not locking your knees at the top of a deadlift and so on the more I look into it the more I realize I am completely out of my depth so I want to talk with an expert who can help give me some guidance about how to best get started with training so I reached out to someone who goes by the Australian strength coach online his real name is Sebastian orb I gave him

the Spiel I told him about what I was trying to do and he agreed to train me for a day so I guess we're doing this Sebastian's resume is impressive to say the least as an elite powerlifter he's held several National records and can lift some serious weight this is him squatting 881 lb cool cool cool cool cool cool cool cool cool but not only is he insanely strong he's also the strength coach for Thor bjornson widely regarded as one of the greatest strength athletes of all time with 30 International competition wins and as the

current world record holder of the deadlift at 1,15 lb many strength analysts and strongman experts consider Thor as the strongest man to have ever lived so yeah maybe I can learn a thing or two from this guy Sebastian thanks so much for joining me today uh you're one one of the best strength coaches in the world so uh question number one can you actually help me open this jar of pickles oh okay I've got just 3 hours with Sebastian who goes by bass to learn everything I can about power lifting most importantly I want to

walk out of here with the proper lifting technique that I'll be using in my competition shoes off shoes off yeah no shoes is the best Footwear for a deadlift okay right now I've got you some knee sleeves as well but instead of putting them on your knees I'm going to put them on your shins okay because a good strong deadlift needs to be in contact with your shins from start to finish okay and without those you get pretty bruised up shins Y and bleed on my bar Bel okay yeah don't want to do that okay

so first things first I'm just going to ask you to show me how you deadlift yeah if it's perfect I don't change a thing okay let's do it okay you want to place bats mhm all right I like this because we're going to see a really great before and after y good good in general that was pretty good so a lot of people look at you know back position that's probably the highest priority that you have a really nice strong brace to protect your back okay but now I want to consider efficiency of movement walk

up to the bar so the barbell is in line with the center of your foot your stance should be hip width and the barbell should be about 1 in away from your shins yeah now what I want you to do is grab the bar on the outside of your legs perfect now sitting into position I want to push your knees gently outwards against the inside of your arms now I want you to pull the barbell into your shins reach the crown of your head towards the ceiling take a big breath okay you jumped the gun

a little bit yes I did yeah okay so don't so don't lift it yet just a few minutes into my coaching session with bass two things were clear he's a stickler for technique and I have a lot to learn I'm excited about bench I think this is where I'm most confident uh but I'm sure you're going to have a lot of ways to improve my form I'm I'm pretty sure I will so it's not that it's not that I think you were doing it wrong before it's just powerlifting technique is is pretty unique so I'm

going to put you in a position you might look at and go wo what are you doing here so it's an arch back oh okay yeah yeah right already knew exactly so I just know that so it's not that you were doing it incorrectly before um but it's just going to be different now slide back so your head is Off the Bench more more more more more good now from here push the heels downwards more this is crazy bit more bit more bit more okay nice breath hold is a reflex yeah so if you were

to lift it heavy object off a loved one that got into an accident that's just something that would naturally happen before you live so this is a natural instinct take a big breath to brace push the world away excellent excellent take a big breath control knes out up fast two Ah that's easy hold the weight hold the weight let's go heels down heels down one yeah you got three two one more one more easy peasy man easy peasy that was better than the set before yeah you were a lot tighter a lot more stable and

therefore that weight was easy to be honest with you I don't really care how strong anyone is I've trained very very strong people my highest priority is movement and I did not think I'd get someone to be able to move that well oh thanks so that makes my job so much easier so training with bass for the day was overwhelming but I learned so much and the best part is that after we finished filming he pulled me to the side and offered to train me for the entire 100 days and when I asked him what

that meant he's like literally come into my gym whenever you want I'll train you as much and as often as you'd like which is as exciting as it is terrifying he scares me a little bit he's he's an intimidating guy there were a couple things I needed to get as I started powerlifting for squats knee sleeves provide comfort and can be a good cue to let you know when you've reached the right depth flat Soul shoes for gyms that don't let you go barefoot which is most of them you don't want to squat in running

shoes for the same reason you don't want to squat on your bed and for deadlifts long socks help protect your shins from getting cut up on the barbell what do you think are they a weightlifting yeah you got com and the socks too no you're not yeah no you're not yeah yeah no you're not no you look peticulous it turns out that these socks aren't long enough or thick enough so Nat's going to be happy when she hears about that instead I'm just going to reuse my knee sleeves like bass recommend I also got some

lifting chalk this helps improve grip for deadlifts Pro tip don't apply Chalk in your office and last and most importantly a lifting belt these belts help support your form they make lifting a little bit safer and they even allow you to lift a little bit more weight than you otherwise could have okay now for the fun part I need to get my program and get started with training okay so my ideal split is 4 days per week mainly because more days than that you need recovery so more days isn't necessarily better I think 4 days

is a sweet spot if you have the time for that and this is how I like to set it up 2 days upper body 2 days lower body we have a squat day a bench press day a deadlift day and then another accessory day the sport of powerlifting I do need to teach you how to do a really heavy weight for one rep it is a skill so a lot of people love to do their standard three sets of 10 for any exercise and that's a really nice approach to training but you can't just do

lots of you know sets of 10 and then come into a powerlifting movement and expect to be really good at a heavy one rep max we need to gradually get you prepared for the weight coming under a barbell and a squat of your absolute Max can really shock your body this program is designed for a beginner so the first priorities are the squat bench press and deadlift after that each day includes accessory lifts that Target muscles more specifically including one arm row and hamstring curls every week I add more weight to the bar and every

four weeks my program changes to include new lifts each targeting different muscles and different movement patterns this will go on until my competition date which is over 100 days away technically 117 days away from my very first training session because that's the soonest competition I could find the goal in my first phase of training is to start with a comfortable weight and focus on my technique instead of going closer to failure that means five sets of three Reps for each of the competition lifts massive back knees out bom back and dve perect white big breath

knees out bom back knees out BM back Drive yeah right big breath knees out BM back knees out BM back yeah really good so this is all about skill acquisition okay so it's three reps of these really complex powerlifting movements okay so the reason for this if we do High Reps for these squats and bench press and Deft while you're learning them the risk of technical breakdown is high as you get further into the set if you do a high rep set if you do a set of 10 uh what I know from experience is

when we're working with people that are are learning the movement they'll get the first few reps really nicely and then the form will start breaking down and just you know it's a domino effect it just gets worse and worse as we get uh later on in the in the set so the first exercise of the day when you're the freshest you have the most energy it's about really mastering that skill there are a dozen things you need to think about for each lift take squats you need to place your hands on the bar as close

as comfortably possible place the bar on the delt so it has a shelf of muscle to lie on take one step back and two steps to the side elbows and shoulders back and down head slightly down but looking straight ahead big breath in controlled rep down slight spring at the bottom of the rep exploding with Force breathe out and repeat so a lot of the times when we're lifting a very heavy weight it can be a very daunting task but if you stop thinking about the weight that's on the bar and start thinking about hand

here hand here back here foot position go it's that same routine that makes lifting heavy weights a lot easier yeah if you want the exact program that I'm doing in this video then go to strength system /at that's where bass is going to be selling the program you'll get every phase of the program you'll get walkthroughs of every exercise and you'll get the full interviews and full training that I did with bass myself that goes into so much more detail than I could possibly get into in this video full transparency we're going to be splitting

the revenue as a way to hopefully recoup some of the costs of the nearly six months this project is probably going to take from start to finish but it's a genuinely amazing program and I think you'll love it if you have any doubts about whether the program is actually good or not keep watching what kind of results do you think somebody like myself could see over the course of 100 days of powerlifting I can make a prediction now okay so I think we could probably get you to 160 kilo squat wow really yeah yeah uh

I think after 100 days I think we can get you to 120 kg bench press yeah and then with your deadlift I'd say we can get you to about 180 kg wow yeah so you know I love saying these these numbers and then I love uh you know putting it to the test so one week in my program how have things been going I mean honestly it's almost too easy like this is just it's a breeze you know Cakewalk yeah I'd say that okay yeah no this routine has absolutely destroyed me I think the reason

that I'm so sore is because these are mostly lifts that I've never done before and I'm also putting in so much more effort than I otherwise would because I'm working towards a goal one of the reasons why I'm doing this to begin with is because I'm a new dad oh am I boring you and I have so many more obligations and commitments and I have so much less time than I normally would that I felt like I needed to create an even bigger goal to stay committed to my fitness routine I find that I respond

really well to Big goals I need to find something that's going to be big enough to motivate me into action but not be so big that it overwhelms me into inaction and I I think I found it I think I don't know this might be a little [Music] [Music] [Applause] crazy a month into training I was feeling feeling stronger than I've ever felt before I was lifting more weight than I'd ever lifted and I was getting more confident that I could show up and give a great performance in my competition then this happened you got

more let's go four and again and again five you got one more one more one more heels down heals down heels down heels down not have done that that might not have looked like much probably because my big dumb face was smiling but here's what it felt like inside my PEC it didn't hurt necessarily but I knew something was wrong and that this could potentially jeopardize my entire competition I think it's fair to say that I'm pretty much a fitness influencer now which means that I need to start promoting performance-enhancing products that's why I'm really

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natural meaning no Shady ingredients or cheap shortcuts just pure effective performance enhancement for your brand visit squarespace.com to start your free Tri and then when you're ready to sign up go to squarespace.com to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain these statements have not been reviewed by the FDA some users have reported disrupted sleep and decreased sexual performance always consult with a healthcare professional first so he said it's like a it's probably a first or second degree tear oh my God which is not good what does that mean he said probably

four to 6 weeks before I can bench press again get out yeah yeah it sucks I can't believe it's that long I know I'm like crushed I think you should say another fys until you get the answer you want yeah exactly this was a huge setback for me but it's just one of the risks of powerlifting especially when you're training at a very high level with high weights trying to maximize every single workout I can't do basically any chest stuff but he's like you can do other upper body like you can do shoulders you can

do back you can do your dead lifts and squats and lower body so it doesn't completely halt all of my training which is good that's like the Silver Lining to it but it still sucks to have to be out of like my full program for this long training is only one part of the puzzle if I want to build strength and muscle I need to get serious about what I'm eating so from day one I've been counting every calorie and tracking all my macros this will help me stay more accountable and it'll also ensure that

I'm getting enough of the right Foods specifically I need to hit about 1 g of protein per pound and I've had to start eating more a lot more so I signed up for a meal delivery service here in Sydney called Bondi meal prep to make sure I never fall short on my calories would it be better to eat nothing but freshly prepared organic food from a professional chef yeah sure but with the demands of my work the amount of time I spent training and the new commitments that I have as a parent this service has

become essential for me at this point in my life despite my injury I got back to train training and eating and training and eating I was putting everything I had into each session and it was starting to pay off I'm going for three plates on deadlift which means that there's going to be 3 20 kg weights on both sides of the barbell it's a lot of weight I have never lifted this much [Music] before I am feeling so much more confident in my squat deadlift and bench press my PEC has fully recovered I've seen some

really Incredible strength gains but the one thing that I haven't even had a chance to think about yet is the competition itself so I'm heading back to base gym one more time to train with bass this will be my one and only competition training so preparing for being under a one rep max something by the way which I have yet to do okay so we're a few weeks out from competition and we haven't done a single one rep max and competition is all about one rep max so there's two things we need to learn one

what a heavy one R Max feels like and two what it's like to lift in front of somebody who's giving you competition commands USA there's two types of lifters in my experience one that gets really nervous and and messes up their performance and two there's people that rise to the occasion and can actually lift more on competition day because of that competition pressure either way we don't know what you're going to be like up until the day but the biggest problem that people have on their first competition is understanding they can't just squat when they're

ready or bench press when they're ready or perform the lift when they're ready like they would in training they have to wait for the ref to give them the specific command and if you jump the gun and you don't wait for the ref call it's a no lift let's start with the squat the first thing that's going to happen is you have to unrack that weight uh once you've unrack that weight and walk back into the position you're going to wait for the ref to say start Squat and then you have to squat to full

depth which is crease of the hip needs to be below the top of the knee and then you wait for the ref to say wreck that was me not waiting for my command when you're lifting the most weight you ever have in your life it's kind of hard to focus on anything else go hold at the end of my session I failed four out of nine lifts I don't think I was low enough for that I don't think you did though not the best way to build my confidence but I did finish the day with

a few of my PBS that's a personal bests wrapping up my last session with bass there was just one more thing I needed to prepare me for the [Music] [Music] day I think I'm ready let me take my shirt off one more time here's day one of powerlifting and here's day 108 to be fair the lighting is a bit more favorable on the final day but honestly even for me it's kind of hard to Spot the Difference the big reason is because I bulked for a large part of this transformation so you're not going to

see as much of a difference as you would if I cut the entire time also it's just 100 days so this is what change realistically looks like over that time when it comes to my body measurements though there was a noticeable difference from day one most importantly my bicep increased by a/ an inch the final test and most important for a powerlifter strength gains and there's only one true way to test that it's 516 the day of the competition has finally arrived I'm a little bit nervous but I'm excited zoom in on the uh on

the weight oh okay the weight yeah the weight you're going to make it yeah I weighed myself this morning and I probably cut a little bit too much better dots man okay yeah right in there great cool thanks man awesome yeah thank you it's going to make this whole place smell yeah I'm going to eat this outside is that weird there's a lot that can go wrong in this competition I might have an off day I might have cut too much weight I might mtime my warm-ups or screw up the judge's commands now in order

to to receive that SP what command your knees have to be completely locked and you must be standing straight and to make it even more difficult if I miss an attempt I'm stuck at that weight I'm not allowed to lower my weight once I submit it to the judges because of this there's a lot of strategy that goes into each attempt my first attempt should be easy and get me on the board my second attempt should be a stretch and my third attempt well that's when I'm going for broke and lifting way more weight than

I've ever attempted before aiming for 110% effort so Zach how far out are we probably say about 20ish minutes yeah yeah about about 20 minutes from my first attempt in my first ever power lifting competition right now I'm just getting warmed up and trying to make sure we time it perfectly so that way I finish my warm-ups get in line and then do my first [Music] attempt [Music] [Applause] I nailed my first two squats and then something clicked I didn't want to go out there without pushing myself to my true limit I was inspired seeing

so many other athletes competing attempting their best and failing I didn't want fear to hold me back from truly going for it so I decided instead of playing it safe I changed my original plan and increased my attempt to 353 lb this would smash my previous best in training and it would be two times the weight I started with over 3 months [Music] [Applause] [Music] ago what [Applause] wo nailed it 160 next up bench [Music] press what do you think 12 120 [Music] [Applause] [Music] and last but not least probably one of the most intense

lifts of all the [Music] [Applause] [Music] deadlift [Music] [Applause] [Music] On's go all right next up bro we de not so the results are in and I finished in third place or depending how you look at it second to last there were only four people in my weight class that competed but honestly this was never about winning for me I truly didn't expect to win a powerlifting competition after only training for 3 months for me this was really about pushing myself getting out of my comfort zone trying something new and I'm just proud of what

I accomplished and Blown Away by the progress I've made over the past few months using my rough one rep max calculator from a few months ago I increased my one rep max on my squat from 185 lb to 352 lb my bench press went from 200 lb to 264 lb yes with a torn PEC thrown in the middle and my deadlift went from 256 lb to 441 lb insane which means bass's predictions from day one were on the money except for the deadlift in which I lifted an extra 44 lb the coolest part about this

entire experience for me I did all this at the same time I turned 36 and became a parent for the first time I challenge my own assumptions of what's capable if you dedicate yourself to a goal consistently and if you have a strong support system around you here's to the process whether you finish first or second to last