Barbells, books and…

Recently I was watching a video from one of my favorite content creators, Xiaomanyc, that really spoke to me. If you don’t know Xiaomanyc, he’s a youngish Jewish New Yorker whose content centers around languages; learning them and going out in using the language in real-world situations. As anybody who has started learning a language will tell you, it’s very humbling for a beginner to attempt to speak a new language. So, this young man has a certain amount of chutzpah and charisma. And if you’ve been watching his videos over the past few years, it was hard to ignore that he got fatter and fatter over the years. Then, over a period of a few months, he began to visibly shed the pounds. In this video https://wp.me/p8EvL6-Do he describes how and why he gained so much weight…and what he did to lose it. PSA for all my powerlifting readers: he lost the weight by eating as many vegetables as possible with every meal, avoiding all processed foods, sweets, and alcohol, and walking a lot. No miracle solution – just tried and true methods. The same, I might add, that I use in the weeks leading up to competitions to make sure I don’t arrive ‘overweight’ on comp day. It’s amazing how much weight one can lose simply by deciding to track everything one eats.

Anyway, this gentlemen described how, as a previously “skinny kid” he began to pile on the weight by moving less, working more and eating whatever the hell he wanted, whenever he wanted. This is similar to my story, but what he said next really struck a chord. He described that as he became more sedentary he began to train in powerlifting – and to a certain extent he attributed his bulkier body to the increased muscle tissue! This is a phenomenon most powerlifters are familiar with and it’s largely true – with one caveat which we will discuss later. Xiaoma went on to describe that he began to make some serious strength gains (we’ve all been there) so dieting was probably the farthest thing from his mind.

I loved this description as it 100% mirrors my experience and it sums up perhaps the worst aspect of powerlifting culture. No, powerlifting doesn’t make one fat, that is patently ridiculous. However, the nature of serious powerlifting training lends itself to overeating. As we all know, you cannot get stronger or add muscle if you are in a caloric deficit (i.e. dieting). Powerlifters prize strength above all else. It’s a very simple sport; you either lift that weight, or you don’t. No excuses. The ONLY time you will hear a powerlifter talk about dieting is a few weeks before a competition and only then if he or she are potentially on the cusp of being heavier than their declared weight category. This ain’t bodybuilding or an average commercial gym, which are much more focused on how one looks.

So are all powerlifters fat? Some are, to the extent that you wonder if they are really trained athletes. Most, however, are “fuscular” (e.g., fat and muscular) which is a term coined by and for the powerlifting community. Some, it must be said, are “jacked and shredded” but they are a minority and, let’s face it, some of those are probably taking the same supplements as the Liver King, if you get my drift. One of the things I’ve also chuckled about is how many powerlifters bring loads of food to competition and eat it before and during the competition! Yes, some of the food is healthy but there’s a lot of energy drinks, gummy bears and other crap being consumed as well. I have never felt the need to shovel vast quantities of chow into my face during a competition. A good breakfast before, and perhaps some bananas and maybe a protein bar during the day. (It should be noted that powerlifting competitions can be relatively long events – 6 to 8 hours or more.)

As I said previously, Xiaomanyc’s story was 100 percent my story as well. I was always skinny to normal and, during many periods of my life, in pretty good shape. I did martial arts, ran several times a week as well as “dabbled” at the gym. In my teens, 20s and until my mid 30s I had visible abs. From about 35 to 45 I was in prime “child rearing” years so had less time for myself. I didn’t get fat yet, but physical activity at that point was limited to running during the week and and perhaps a long hike or 2 during the weekend (for fun). In my 40s, however, I started to notice that I started to gain weight faster than before but I wasn’t too concerned because I thought I could lose it easily (spoiler alert: man, was I ever wrong.).

By age 45, I had comprehensively injured my knee and had to give up running. As I’ve recounted more than once in this blog, it was during this time that I discovered powerlifting quite by accident. Yes, and since then I’ve used the “I’m bulky but it’s mostly muscle, bro” excuse for years. It’s become increasingly hard to buy clothes, especially shirts. Not just because of my gut (although that is borderline) but especially because my shoulders and upper arms sometimes don’t fit into “normal” XL shirts. That sounds like a humble brag, but believe me it’s sort of a bummer as well. Recently, (pre-dating said video) I’ve began to call bullshit on the notion that this was a condition that I had to put up with. It’s true that I have much more muscle than the average, but I also have more fat than I should as well. I know this sounds crazy to non-powerlifters, but I had inculcated that being sort of fat was part of the bargain if I wanted to lift heavy weights. I don’t know if I have more fat than the “average Joe” as we’ve all seemingly become absolute porkers as of late. All I do know is that I’m well and truly sick of the fat – and the only way to lose it will be to seriously track my eating from now on. The good news that I cook at home 90 percent of the time, from scratch, and tend to eat healthily. But I also eat out whenever I feel like it and don’t say “no” to pastries at work, a few beers after work, etc. Will dieting impact my strength? Yes – it will. Mass moves mass, that is an absolute rule in strength sports and especially in the bench press.

Powerlifting has definitely improved my life overall. However, I’ve come to the conclusion that my long-term health and positive self-image is more important than lifting some pretty serious weight a few times a year. I’ve begun to track my meals again and avoid crap food and this has brought some very modest weight loss with no real impact on strength so far. I will do two more competitions this year, but after that I will focus primarily on a weight loss/maintenance diet and training for general health. This means continuing to train powerlifting, but also cardio and yoga. If those activities eat into my powerlifting time – and my strength decreases somewhat – so be it.