 What's up y'all, I'm Salah Mike and if you want to be a powerlifter, if you want to start powerlifting, beginning powerlifting, this is a video for you. I've been coaching and competing in powerlifting since 2011 or 2010 and we've got my girl Abby, she's going to give some input. She's a pro powerlifter, pulls over 400 pounds at a 123 pound weight class. We're going to give you some advice to get started in powerlifting, 3sb.co if you want the apparel. Let's dig in. How do you start? I've probably been guilty of it in terms of sneakers or clothes or that musical artist I don't tell nobody about and then when it hits the radio I stop listening to them but gatekeeping for the barbell ain't cool. I don't really care what you consider a powerlifter whether you compete or you need a certain total or you have to do it for a certain amount of years. For me to keep things simple, I think you're a powerlifter if your goal is to train for strength and then you test your strength. If you can be in a sanctioned meat, non sanctioned meat, I don't care. I do think there's beauty in powerlifting because these three lifts are compromised or composed excuse me to allow you to lift the most amount of weight. Now there's people that will clean and jerk more than I squat because that guy is stronger than me but in terms of how much total load a human can move, these three lifts are the combination of that and that's why powerlifting is cool it's the squat, bench and the deadlift and there's certain standards of those lifts that must be accomplished to compete in powerlifting to keep a standard of what that lift means from start to completion. How do you get started? You start training with the barbell. Number one. Dude if you want a powerlift just working a powerlift as in like get stronger and squat bench and deadlift. That's it. I didn't even know what powerlifting was when I learned that I wanted to get stronger in these lifts. I just started squatting, benching and deadlifting because I went to the gym with my friends and he did these things so I just did them and I was like oh this is fun. I don't know how much I can put on the bar. From there it was just like that's it and then you get into a community that's just like oh we also want to get stronger in these lifts too. I feel like people want to label themselves or they're afraid to be like oh I'm not going to group myself in with this community because like they're intimidating or they have this I don't want people to judge me based off of it if I say I'm a powerlifter or not because I don't either go to a powerlifting gym or I don't wear the powerlifting gear or whatever but it's like if you just want to get stronger and build your strength especially in these three compound lifts then like that's kind of what a powerlifter is. It doesn't have to be a certain image or a certain like personality or whatever. It's like we all want to get stronger and everyone's really supportive in the community. They'll teach you, they'll guide you, people will show you how to use certain bars or like how to use wrist straps properly, how to how to wear a belt, what belts to get or mislead if you want but you don't have to like you could be whatever kind of a powerlifter you want it's kind of like as long as you want to get strong then I guess you're a powerlifter. Yeah so tip number two and I think it's like anything in life is like you can learn by doing research and diving head into something but you have to start. Step one is move a barbell. You can obviously learn by watching YouTube and podcast and how-tos and tutorials and Instagram there's a lot of great information out there but to accelerate all that if you want to skip a bunch of steps you can grab a coach, grab a program, grab a mentor and you will go leaps and bounds faster. There's someone who first had to treads the way and trail blaze and break all this grass down so other people can follow that path much faster. I'm up here chopping weeds for the last 12 years so y'all can just cruise on through on your skateboard right? So find a coach, find a good YouTube channel, soak up the info but number one whether you have a coach or not you have to move a barbell to get better to get stronger. Some of my lines of finding a mentor and stuff you're going to accelerate faster being around like-minded humans so if you find yourself a powerlifting gym find yourself a strength training gym go to powerlifting meets as a spectator make some friends do the coolest thing about this sport I personally don't compete anymore I never got like a lot of fulfillment from competing I get from fulfillment from the culture from the people from coaching for providing for the sport in other ways with you know business sponsorship the perils we run our own meets but most importantly in the culture is how welcoming everyone is and how everyone's from every place you can imagine different financial backgrounds different religious backgrounds different ethnicities different it doesn't matter what you do who you are what your core is you move a barbell we do it together we all know the struggle of lifting something really heavy we all know the struggle of missing reps we all know the day-to-day struggle of doing the monotonous repetition upon repetition three-by-sixes for ten years you know the pain you know the grind and that's what allows us to be friends nothing else matters what it's just hard work and showing up if you show up you're coachable you want to learn and you work hard you're part of the powerlifting community and that's the beauty in it so go spectate a meet go ask some questions go make some friends and that's probably the most valuable tip I give you I don't think you ever have to get a coach hypothetically but again if you want to make progress as efficiently as possible probably get a coach from day one obviously it depends on budget and commitment I get it any sport or hobby that starts to take over your life becomes a financial issue or responsibility right you want to buy a belt the quality belts a couple hundred bucks quality knee sleeves the last few years but they're all tools in this sport and so first I suggest again just getting under a barbell do that for a couple months see if you like it see if you can get yourself in a habit of growing mentally and physically by grinding out the gym three five sessions a week consistently if you enjoy the progress of strength which I again the other beautiful thing about powerlifting is that the results and the progress are tangible it'll take you six months of measuring your arm every single day to feel like you're making progress by growing eighth of an inch powerlifting you can hit PRs and different variations in different rep schemes in different volume schemes efficiency speed let alone your one rep max week to week even as an advanced lifter I could find ways to progress on variations etc etc so find out if you like it obviously it's a financial commitment so if you have it in you that's great if you don't again it's not necessary there's a lot of free information and podcasts YouTube we've done for 10 years now you can find your ways around it one of the biggest things that is like a pet peeve to my is people asking me questions like hey I squat 400 and I'm 400 pounds body weight and I'm 400 years old is that good no one cares it doesn't matter there's no such thing as good who are you comparing yourself to no one cares out of me no one cares online the point is to get better and if you're squatting 400 now hopefully in six months or 12 months you're squatting for 20 425 435 that's all that matters that we're working hard we're showing up and we're making progress when someone started now what should they look for in a coach that is really difficult that is so difficult to say because people who don't understand the concept of training and I've coached people before when I was like beginning to coach people I coached people that I met at the gym who didn't have any structure to the workouts they trained consistently and they wanted to get stronger that was their goal and they wanted to do get stronger in these compound lifts but I see them day to day and it's like they don't have a structured workout or like a structured plan for the month you know so then I was starting off I coached some people for free and I just wanted them to understand like what building up your strength looks like within a four week period and to understand the concept of like doing the same sets and reps you know per week for each lift but then increasing your RP you know something as simple as that and then having a structure and understanding like how beneficial it is to track your progress as you go to see though like how the weight is moving and to see changes made throughout the month versus like without any of that they were just kind of walking in circles they didn't understand like how to whether they were progressing or not I feel like we're just walking in circles without a program nowadays so I just wanted to give them that kind of structure and tracking like their progress so with that I was a coach who just kind of taught them the concept of how to structure your workouts in the long run and make progress that way but I wasn't necessarily like at that point I couldn't I couldn't coach someone who was a national powerlifter you know at that level so it's like I think at different levels in your training you can find a coach accordingly and if you outgrow that coach and you're not no longer a beginner find a more advanced coach to help you get to that level but obviously as a beginner you can also find an advanced coach too and there's just so many different things involves trying on different coaches and seeing like what how like their style of training fits yours and also getting along with them being able to communicate with them the way that you want to the way that you feel comfortable is also important whether the coach listens to you and takes your feedback or they just like talk to you and give you a program and then never see you for a few weeks like it's also based on how you train as a person and as your own athlete so there's just a lot to consider definitely ask around and then just start start start somewhere and just know like you should be able to communicate comfortably with your coach you should be able to recover welcome your lips and make progress and ask questions and your coach should be able to like be there to help you and guide you through all of that so again like number one suggest to find a coach to accelerate your progress but like how do you find a coach or how do you qualify a coach and that's a really hard thing to figure out it's just like anything else like people can go through education they can have experience they could have a talent but there's good doctors there's bad doctors there's good mechanics there's bad mechanics there's really great coaches and there's really bad coaches I can try to help you guys know for you to some I have my own programs that are cheap guys and training calm there's guys like game day barbell who does a bunch of one-on-one coaching that I recommend there's a team 3dmj who are some of the smartest guys ever come in the industry that I think are really great if you guys are looking for one-on-one coaching Mike Tashir and his company does a really good job Calgary barbell the list goes on forever what I recommend is doing a lot of research and then asking them questions like you would any other time if you slightly interview your coach on how they communicate what they give you you know the different price points the different packages they sell as coaches and then also try to communicate them with yourself to see if you guys even vibe because if you take this seriously and if you want to learn obviously how you communicate with your teacher or your coach goes a very long way if you don't understand how they communicate they use words you don't like or they don't respond promptly etc etc it's going to hinder your progress and you want to get the most for your money I understand it obviously from a businessman I want to give you the most value I can and still charge what I believe is fair but as a consumer you want to pay what you think the value is and you want to receive that value in return so it is a difficult thing to do sometimes it takes time but again the biggest teacher is gonna be reps and showing up reps and showing up appreciate you guys hopefully that helps a little bit if you ask your comments below ask your questions about powerlifting about beginning powerlifting we can start to teach you guys a little bit more as we go this channel has tons of resources if it's something you're into search around I've been putting out how to's and little tidbits for years but we'll start to get some more stuff first thing I'm not competing anymore now I'm just trying to get jacked we're on a little bit of a diet break and I think we're gonna start a little bit of a shred series in a while after a couple of weeks maybe months of allow my brain to relax and I'll check my food so stay tuned for that more gym vlogs new videos twice a week I appreciate you guys 50% facts podcast you want to check that out I dropped two podcasts a week around fitness and the culture thanks guys so much catch the next one