 Ladies and gentlemen, Salah Mike, man, welcome to the video. We're hopping into a power lifting meet without any practice with our boy, Will Tennyson. I don't know if that comes off rude. I don't mean to say my boy like rude. I mean like we're homies, but I actually don't know him. But I've watched a lot of his content. I've seen him pop up over the years now, awesome content creator. And I've seen him connect with some of my friends. You know, I think he's done videos with Patty and Steffy Cohen and others. So he's definitely been on my radar. And I love when big creators hop into the sport of powerlifting. I don't really know a lot of his background. I know he's got a little muscle on him. So he obviously lifts and he's been in the game a while, but I'm not sure if he has any powerlifting background. So we're going to dive in the video and see what it's like for him to enter a powerlifting meet. I assume it's first without any practice. I'm backstage at my first ever powerlifting meet, but there's just one thing. I didn't prepare for it. Let's see how I do. Yeah, like if you don't have a coach and stuff, bench and deadlift where you'll compete against other lifters to see who has the highest combined total between the three of us, Mike and Will Tennyson, 6 a.m. Time for check-ins. So I'm doing the 90 kilogram men's open raw off the bat. He's talking like he knows what the hell is going on. Don't lie to us, Mr. Tennyson, you maybe are playing dumb because he's talking about kilos and he's there on time. It looks like he's just there with this cameraman. So either he did good research and so he knows about check-ins and way ins. So I feel like if you're an outsider, it's complicated. Once you're an insider, it's simple. But if you have no clue, the what's a check in, what's a weigh in, different federations have different times you have to do it. It does get a little complex if you're a total noob. But I feel like this dude's got a little foundation of the sport itself. The thing I was most nervous about. Chaos Lab. This weigh ins. I mean, the truth about weigh ins, it does get a little nerve wrecking. But if you. Don't weigh into the weight. They'll just bump you up a weight class. Like it's really not that big of a deal. It's got to be 90 kilo rams and I was 89.8. So just made it right here. Yeah, like if you're trying to be competitive and stuff, obviously you want to hit in your weight class, but otherwise it doesn't matter. So you guys have a coach, it'll be fine. I have no idea what I'm doing. So I'm happy he came along. Hopefully he can squat to death. That's probably the hardest one he's got going on now. Happy to be here, man. We're going to get warm up started. Yeah, we're going to start with the bar and we're going to get about five warm-ups out and get you on your first attempt. It does get nerve wrecking, though. I felt this kind of nerves since I was like a kid playing hockey in the playoffs. It's it's a nice feeling to feel again, but I'm really anxious right now to get out there. I'm terrified right now. It is nerve wrecking. If you guys have never put yourself on the line to see the judges, to not know the order, to not know the gym, different barbells, all this weird stuff really started to kick in. You've got to use that energy. It's the most technical. There's the most commands. He's got a coach, though. He can calm him down. He's a pretty jack guy actually. It's kind of a bill like a powerlifter. And might I say a 450 attempt opener is no joke. Definitely not a beginner weight. And you're looking pretty good in a single wheel. Looking pretty good, buddy. Most of the time, most of us look pretty bad. Oh, my gosh. The command waited for it. That looks good. Pretty high bar really upright. You know, if we had a long time... It was good. 475 back up, or 2nd attempt. I hope we made it to PRT. If I coached him, I'd probably get a little more forward lean going. Sometimes being too upright can actually be a detriment to your strength. You want to get your low back involved. And now you're so worried about balance and you're so dependent on your quads that it can actually take away some of your top end strength. Obviously, it sounds like you just hopped into this thing and top end strength isn't his number one goal. But that being said, a 475 squat is no joke. You know, two depth, two regulation. So in the USAPL, you have a start command. You got to pull out. They'll say the weight, the bar's ready. Then you get to pull out whenever you want. You walk out. Then you have to show stability and control. They'll give you a start command. Then you hit depth, just like that. And you have to wait for the rack command. So you have to stand tall and lock it out before you're allowed to rack it. That all looks really clean though. He moves really well. That was easy too. He's probably got five hundo in him today. I don't know if we're going there, Willie. We got five hundo. I was going to say, my weight was 25. It feels like half the baths out there. That felt better than my first attempt. Yeah, once you get the nerves out. 10 extra kilos. Second attempt starts to feel good. 10, 9 for 9. It's really got to be there. A lot of it depends on goals too. When you start to choose what your attempts are, like you guys will see coming up here, I'm about to go down to Anaheim. And I'm handling Bart, so I'm helping him choose his attempts. We've been texting the last couple of weeks. And choosing attempts depends on your ultimate goal. I just got in my head. This was the lift where I thought I had the most potential for failure. And instead of telling myself I can do it. These edits are crazy. Shout out to his editor. I could. And I've done that ever since I was a kid, because I was scared. And it's easier that way. They're making this emotional. These are good edits, man. Shout out to him and his team. It's a good video. Little round edits. Loaded the bar. Little round edits with the attempts. 496, like I said. He's probably got 501 in him. In the sport of powerlifting, you've got to go by kilos that are capable of 2.5 jumps based on the plates and stuff you have. Look it up. Yeah, that's kind of it. Yeah, see, that's where that uprightness gets a little weird. If it was a little less upright over time with practice, he would smash that. Duke of Price got 600 pounds. If he dove into powerlifting, honestly, he's a really good athlete. The attempt selection comes down so much to like, are you trying to chase the total? Are you trying to beat somebody head to head there? Are you just trying to go 9 for 9? Where do we sit in these things? Is he stoked? You should be stoked. I don't know if it's all the time PR, but that's hard to do when I'm eating. He's a little nervous. Shit does feel weird. I competed high level basketball my entire life, but competing in powerlifting does feel a little different. Feels a little weird. My one has so bad. It's interesting to see how invested he is, despite looking like he just showed up without practice. This does seem real, although YouTube's a lot of fakeness. I'm proud of myself because back in the day, we never have done this. Don't limit your challenges. Challenge your limits. Go out there and do it. Who cares about the competition? Just go out and have fun. Every powerlifting I've been to, maybe not as much as an athlete, and that's why I don't compete, but as a coach or a spectator or a meat director or a host, which I've done all of them many times, a handler, it is kind of emotional. It's kind of an emotional journey. I'm thinking about my dog right now. Is it his dog? His dog is a squad coach? Time to get back to work. Hey, now you gotta get some food in here, man. Up next, the bench press. The one of the three lists that I'm most confident in, the plan, opening attempt, 145 kilograms. What's that, like 315? The beautiful thing about powerlifting is that I don't have to rack my own weights. You got this beautiful man right here. Weight Sherpas, they're doing a great job. Weight Sherpas. I just got a feeling. You call him the Caddy. My last attempt was 496, which I'm super proud about, but it's gonna haunt me for the rest of my life. This is not 500. Yeah, it's 496. You got Chase? Is that Chase? Sour Patch Kids? Yeah, I guess they'll move. Yeah, dude. Do you want one of these? Yeah, man. You seen Swedish Fish? The fuck we doing, Will? Who the hell goes to a full candy store and buys a Swedish Fish? I like Swedish Fish, but I want to fucking bring it to the potluck, the powerlifting candy potluck. What the fuck is going on, dude? You say you want some of these? Kids are like, I'm good. Nah, I'm good. Nah, I'm good. Oh, you want cherry plastic rubber? Nah, pass. At least the dogs. He's open to 308. My confidence is slowly going up. Maybe we'll head up to 330, 340. All right, you're up. It is cool going nine for nine or breaking a couple's first and second attempts on your squat and smashing them. You really do start to get some momentum, which is something you don't often think about in lifting, like momentum. Oh, it's 320, dude, my math sucks. We might end up at like 360 then. You're a strong kid. I say kid respectfully. That's hard if you haven't paused like that. I feel like he's practiced. Will, don't lie to me, dog. That's a big pause. And most benchers, gym bros, don't pause that long. That guy had to be pausing for a minute, though. That was a really good pause. That was like a slow motion pause. That was a long pause. Yeah, but that's the sport of powerlifting. So like, if he never prepped, I don't know if that's true. Will, I don't want to call you out, buddy. But that's really hard to do. It's really hard to not practice a pause, which no one does, if you're not prepared, and then to pause like that. They basically want the bar to come still and show control and then they'll give you a press command and a rack. So a bench has three commands, and you'll say, yeah, you got a start, a press, and a rack. That's really strong pressing. I'm glad he's got his apple watch on, in case he needs to check his heart for a minute. How many steps will he get? Oh, yeah, that's 152. Yeah, I mean, it's a pretty long pause even for you to go save the elbow. It was good. It was good. You're going to hit 160? What's your target? 160. You said 352? All right. All right, you're gone. This meat looks pretty good. It's 160. Show it up to the meat director, too. We're rolling the dice on the next one. We're rolling the dice. It's pretty composed, especially if this is his first meat. I kind of feel like it's not. I don't want to put them on blast. Yeah, 353. I think it's 352.8, but we're not counting this. It's a pretty big bench, too. You see all your favorite lifters, like a Russell Orhee or Jamal Browner. Clean. Good fight. Yeah, good fight. Definitely work on some of his positioning, too. You get some stability going. Not that an arch is going to make you press a lot of weight, but you get a little bit more stability in your upper back when you drive your legs up into them. His legs are probably, you know, a little limp. That lady pauses for like a century, dude. Oh, yeah. That was good. Pretty raw. My cute little deadlift slippies. Look at these. They're most like, I like the deadlift with socks. You can't wear socks on the stage. Yeah, if you have deadlift slippies, you prep for me, bro. Sorry, Will, I'm calling you out. There's no way you have deadlift slippers and you're not ready to power lift. A power lift is 15 years, and I don't have deadlift slippers. What's this on deck here? It's sauna. Oh, it's outsourced. Baby powder. It smells so nice. I know. All right. So baby powder and power lift things. I actually want to put it out there. I think it's a little overrated, but baby powder is basically just to make the quads a little smoother. So when you're deadlifting, you're trying to keep that barbell on your body really tight and less friction. No, what are you doing? What are you doing? Don't get chalk now. Yeah, you need water on it. He just rubbed in his own baby powder. Baby powder is much tougher on your hands. Like that'll make the bar so slippery. You just pound it in with the back of the bottle. There's the trick for you. It's clean. The bar was a little bit further away from there. You just get his momentum backwards. It's still strong. You pull like that and your techniques a little off, you're a strong cat. Yeah, if he gets his weight backwards and pulls that bar into him, you can see how much his shoulders are over the bar. He's still moving it super fast. But yeah, the point is to keep that bar really close to your shins and body. Obviously, the closer to your center of gravity, it's going to be a lot lighter. 502 for a second attempt. And then the baby powder allows the steel to run a little smoother up the quads. Yeah, you can see how far he is. It's still really clean. I mean, he's a strong dude, but he makes some small tweaks. He could be very, very strong. It is kind of rare for like more of a intermediate or... I don't want to call him beginner because he's obviously got a bunch of muscle on him. But like a newer lifter that your squat is near your deadlift. Typically in the first couple years, it's so easy to move your deadlift and it's really hard to get your squat strength up. It's just so much more balance and technique, finding depth scary. 245, yeah, we're probably about 550. Maybe a little more. I'm jamming to the music though. Like a modern-day Jimmy Hendricks... Oh, 529. I'll let you guys down with my math. He's just smoked this too. Yeah, clean. You can see the gap between his body and the bar. That just makes it literally exponentially heavier and he still smashes it. If he pulled that thing into his shins, he'd pull 600. He'd pull 600 in two weeks. Let's see if we've got to wrap up. What is this first meet? Yes, cool. I mean, that's what it's about. Hopefully he still likes it too. He might have caught a little iron bug. Congrats, Will. Good video, buddy. Good total. Thanks for spreading positivity in the sport and the community is all about it. And you can see it there in the video. They're sharing food. They're having fun. They're going head-to-head, but they're not going head-to-head. So let me know if you all enjoyed the React. We're dropping in new content. Maybe I'll catch a session with another guy. Thanks for watching. I'll see you guys in the next video. Bye. Thanks for watching. I'll see you guys in the next video.