 What's happening guys, Sal and Mike back on the couch, haven't been on this couch in a while, appreciate you guys if you're new, subscribe, give this thing a thumbs up. Today I want to talk about powerlifting. The growth of powerlifting over the last couple years, I'd say three to five years has been absolutely insane, especially over here in the IPF and the US APL, the drug tested side, but there's also non drug tested powerlifting, the USPA, the UPA, the SPF, very popular as well, they're both growing and I guess today because I've been watching the US APL, raw nationals, USA powerlifting, drug tested and some of the insane numbers I've been seeing lifted in all weight classes, guys and girls, it's been crazy impressive and I want to just kind of talk and compare and contrast some of the records I guess in the non drug tested compared to the tested, give you some of my opinions, give you some of the facts. Now I just got these numbers, these records off of powerlifting watch, it's a popular website that has some information on powerlifting, different gyms, different meats, things like that, pretty good resource. It also has records, but I don't know how recently updated they are, but for the case of this video and for general discussion it'll do, so if I mention a name and a number that's not the record right now, don't blow me up, I'm going off them and I am aware that records are broken fairly often now that people are getting stronger. Moving on to the total, in the 123 class the best drug tested total is 1306, while the best non drug tested is 1339, the best 165 drug tested is 1609 and the best non drug tested at 165 is 1669. So what I'm seeing here is because of the IPF and the US APL is put into 231 pounds, technically it's a 105 kilo and in the non drug tested federations it's typically 220 or 242, they're putting the 231 guys up with the 242 which is fine, it's splitting the difference, but let's go there. So we're at the 242 pound weight class which is my homie Bryce Lewis and he's totaled 1918, 2016 which I believe he just crushed this last weekend, not sure his total but he beat that and the 242 non drug tested is Larry Williams with the 2171. So at the 275 pound weight class again in the IPF it's a 264 and non drug tested it's 275, we have Stan Efforting with the 2226 total in 2011 and right now we have Dennis Cornelius at the 264 with the 2175. Ray Williams is the biggest total ever in super heavyweights with sleeves drug tested and non with 2436. Going to the 181 class so far we have which may again not be accurate it is Brett Gibbs with 1766 and the IPF drug tested 2016 and we have Malik Durstein with 1901 USPA non drug tested 2016. Now I bring up all these numbers and I wanted to just give you some examples of the current records in the drug tested and non drug tested to bring up the point not to talk about steroids and not to talk about performance enhancing drugs and how much they may or may not help you but just to talk about how far the sport has grown and how fast it's still growing a lot of these records besides some of the most insane ones are with done within the last three or four years and I feel like over this last weekend I saw more and more 700 pound deadlifts by guys that weigh under 200 pounds more and more 500 pound benches by guys that weigh 200 and more all in this drug tested category and a lot of these numbers I feel like over the last 20 years 30 years have gotten closer and closer together the non drug tested numbers and the drug tested numbers. Now there's many different things we can point to and there's many different things that you can say and you're more than welcome to formulate your own opinion and leave it in the comments below let's not fight let's not be brash let's not throw daggers at anybody it's not about that it's for me it's just about analyzing how crazy some of this training and athletes have become and you know there's a couple things in my opinion that do help bring these numbers closer together as well as just bring all these numbers up and you know number one is just that it's more popular in our genetic pool the amount of good athletes we're getting into powerlifting is going up some of the ladies numbers are going through the roof I can't name how many girls six years ago pulled over 300 pounds you know it's just a handful and now there's girls smashing on 400 450 500 pound deadlifts in the drug tested category in almost every weight class it's absolutely insane and that's just because more strong people are finding out about the sport powerlifting hopefully because of this channel hopefully because of instagram hopefully because of all my awesome friends that also put up content on the internet and that they're finding the right way to train so our genetic pool is going up more people you get involved the higher it goes right that's why we have the most genetic freaks in football and basketball professionally one because there's money and there's exposure and there's a lifestyle so at a young age the best athletes are funneled to the top and that's starting to happen on a smaller scale here in powerlifting number two i would say it's just the the general information out there is of better quality you know even when i started doing youtube not my own channel which is only you know two and a half years old but on other channels which i've been on for about five six years there was less channels putting out real information in my opinion there's a lot of people throwing out buzzwords and bogus words and and five easy tips to get a six pack and get jacked and get veiny at least now some of the channels have the same idea and the same information whether it's experience-based or science-based or a combination of both that will actually are good tips that help you lead to get a stronger more aesthetic body along with that same nature of the general sport growing because of the internet because of instagram because of all these popular people programming in general i feel has all been elevated so people are more aware of their program whether they're following adult program whether they have a good coach or they're programming for themselves they have a better plan to get somewhere and of course if you have a plan you're going to get somewhere faster you know that's why people use gps that's why people go to school that's you need a game plan if you want to get somewhere and more and more people are understanding that and they're building better plans building better plans and they're staying in the game longer you know if you power lift for a year you can get stronger for sure but if you start power lifting for five six seven ten fifteen years you're going to be your strongest you know my homie brice lewis has been doing this for a long time he's done bodybuilding and things when he was younger but now he's been strictly powerlifting uh around the same time as i have eight maybe even nine years and you see his numbers absolutely going through the roof he decided to stay at a little heavier body weight and he's just been as consistent as can be on his training and his programming and now he's you know knocking on the door becoming an ipf champion in 2018 there's my prediction now obviously drugs and things are playing a role in all strength sports it's part of the fitness industry it's part of the olympics i love the movie i carry uh icarus i talked about it before and it's part of professional sports and not to say that drugs do not help you but looking at some of these numbers myself analyzing them is one thing that uh i think is apparent to most people is that the difference between a natural pro bodybuilder and a pro bodybuilder is absolutely insane some of the pro i of bb guys are stepping on stage upwards of 250 pounds at you know under four percent body fat or a natural pro bodybuilder if they're stepping on stage at sub four percent body fat they're typically 150 160 170 pounds so that you know just logic is telling me that performance enhancing drugs or steroids will help you put on more mass and that's a huge discrepancy we're almost talking about 100 pounds of lean body tissue we're in the strength world we're not seeing quite the discrepancy so i'm not saying that steroids do or do not help more for strength or or putting on mass although i do think that they help putting on mass now i'm no steroid guru i don't know that much about it i've been around it just as much as many people that have been in this industry i've never used any of it um but the numbers that are coming together closer and closer and closer in the non drug testing drug tested power lifting federations i think show a little bit that the usa pl and ipf um genetic pool may also be bigger than the the people that decide to use performance enhancing drugs or that decide to compete in the performance enhancing drug competition and again all of these one way or the other are not saying that because you compete in a non drug tested federation that you use performance enhancing drugs and it's also to say that if you're in a drug tested federation that you're not using performance enhancing drugs i'm sure there's crossover in both there's a lot of critique in the ipf and the usa pl about how stringent their drug testing is i i don't know firsthand i know they do a urine test at competitions and they do some out of competition testing it's not as same as uh the olympic level or even uh usa w usa weightlifting it might not be as stringent but again there's people in the in the olympics if you watch the movie icris and there's people in the nba nfl that are also using performance enhancing drugs being very stringent on their testing and still getting by the system somehow and that's also not to say that on the other end because there's other factors and rules involved like a deadlift bar or a mono lift where people that choose to not use performance enhancing drugs compete in the non drug tested federation which i have many a time i really like pulling with the deadlift bar it feels good in my hands it feels good on my back and in the most popular drug tested federation they don't use one they use a stiff bar so then often i've chosen to compete in a non drug tested federation although i don't use any performance enhancing drugs so there's way too many complicated factors there is no answer to this video i'm glad you stuck around and listened to me ramble it's just some thoughts have been popping in my head after listening and watching the awesome lifters of the usa pl all weekend congratulations to all those people that decided to commit to a meet that decided to commit to nationals that hit big prs and had fun with their friends it's an awesome community we're building on all sides that's the main thing i want to point out is that because there's barbells involved because we're all in it to get better and to do our best and become our best that it is a weird brotherhood of you know the pain of a really hard deadlift workout and you know the pain of squatting two or three times a week for the last five years so we can all kind of bond and uh love one another based on our pains appreciate you guys if you like the style of video be sure to give it a thumbs up i'm out of here catching the next one drop a video every other day appreciate you guys i'm like i'm out