Ep. 24 | PLU Powerlifting Nationals Team Recap

 We just got back from PLU Nationals in San Antonio, and we’re breaking down how we brought a full Fortis Powerlifting crew to a national stage.

We talk through why we picked this meet in the first place: location, qualifying totals, and a condensed two-day format that keeps the competition feeling like a competition instead of a week-long convention. Then we get into the details that lifters and coaches actually care about, like weigh-in flow, warm-up room logistics, and how to handle timing, rack heights, and weight calls when two platforms start drifting out of sync. If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed on meet day, this is the behind-the-scenes playbook.

From there, it’s all about the lifters. We highlight PRs, state records, national records, national champions, and multiple 1,000-pound totals from our Fortis ladies, plus the moments that didn’t go to plan and what we learned anyway. We also share the mindset piece: when to push, when to chip, when to retake, and how to keep the long game in view even when one lift goes sideways.

If you want to qualify for nationals next year, we also lay out the simplest next step: look up the qualifying totals, pick a target, and start training with a real timeline. 

Subscribe, share this with a training partner, and leave a review if the Fortis After Hours recap helps you level up your next meet.

Transcript

Welcome Back And Nationals Recap

SPEAKER_00 0:00

What's going on, everybody? Welcome to another episode of the Fortis After Hours podcast. I'm your co-host, Nate, joined by my wife, Liz. Hey. And today we have another awesome episode for you guys.

unknown 0:09

Shocking.

SPEAKER_00 0:10

What's new? And we're going to be talking about nationals and kind of recapping our experience at PLU Nationals. We just got back earlier this week from San Antonio. And we had a fantastic time, I have to say.

SPEAKER_02 0:23

It was a good one.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

My birthday was on this weekend, and I had some people, you know, wonder like if I was having fun or whatever. I had a great time. I enjoy competing. It's one of my favorite parts of the sport. I've said it's on the podcast before. I wish I could compete every weekend. That'd be fun. I enjoy it.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

I don't know about that.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

But yeah, overall, it was a fantastic trip. And today we are going to break down some of the details, kind of where we came up with the idea of bringing a bigger team to nationals, um, and how we made it happen and the experience and what what what it was like and what San Antonio was like. Yeah. So yeah, we'll kind of get right into it here. Um, so we have done a fair amount of like traveling, I think, over the years with powerlifting. Um but more like smaller trips. One to five, did you say people? Yeah. One to five.

SPEAKER_04 1:21

Yeah, yeah. And I mean, nothing like super far. I feel like other than like for me. Well, like we didn't, I guess we brought Lena Um and then you. But so like as far as flying meets go, I think that's the only one we've like flown traveled for. All the other ones have been like drivable within five, six hours plus. Yeah. Well, I guess we drove to Miami, but we weren't competing. I don't know. Anyways, we've traveled many times, but with smaller groups. We've traveled, yeah. It's usually just like a couple people here and there. Um, I think the biggest one outside of this was like the five, I think that we did in Tampa last year. But usually for travel meets, it's just a couple people at the most who are competing. So this was a little different than that.

SPEAKER_00 2:05

Yeah, this was a little different. And it was actually Liz's idea when PLU announced the location uh because it's relatively close to us. Um, and I don't know, Texas seemed like a cool place to visit.

SPEAKER_04 2:17

Well, we I'd had a bunch of people talking to me about doing like bigger meets or doing nationals. Like a lot of the people that I coach had like were wanting to kind of have their like opportunity to go lift on a bigger platform. Because like some people uh not everyone wants to do that, and that's fine, but a lot of the people that I coached and were talking to about it, they really wanted to do some kind of like bigger meet, nationals, bigger platform, like something like more like I don't know, uh just a bigger presentation than just like a local

Why We Chose PLU Nationals

SPEAKER_04 2:46

meet. Um, not there's anything wrong with local meeting so yeah, it's just different, like the competition is a little bit higher, like all of that. So I was kind of looking around at some different like options of how we could get everybody to, you know, go to a bigger meet, like what could we do? And then nationals seemed like a good option. Well, then there's multiple federations that do nationals, so then we kind of had to, you know, take it, take some time to like look at, you know, where they were all located at, how many days the nationals were lasting, what the qualifying totals were, how we could get people to qualify for them. Um, and basically all of that, the PLU ones in San Antonio seemed to make the most sense for everyone, um, traveling wise, qualifying wise, being able to get to a meet to qualify for it. Um it was a two-day meet while we were there, so it you know made it a little more manageable as far as like how long we needed to be gone for.

SPEAKER_00 3:44

Yeah, very efficient. They were able to have 300 lifters over two days. Um, super efficient meet setup. We'll be more, we'll talk more about that later. Yeah. But yeah, I think it's funny because over the past, really over the past year, I feel like you've really taken over the planning and a couple of years maybe planning and like research part of our relationship. Like Liz has always done that.

SPEAKER_04 4:05

That would be what I do.

SPEAKER_00 4:06

Yeah, Liz has always done that for us, like personally, I feel like, but like she's really like stepped into that role kind of for the gym and our business as well, uh, which is super helpful because I I can think of ideas, but much less rapidly than Liz, and I am more of like a doer type person. Um my ideas flow into the design of the shirts and the things like this. This is this is where I have the ideas. Yeah, not me. Um stuff like this, I'm more like, I don't, like, I just I it's just like very hard for me to like lock in, and Liz is really good at it.

SPEAKER_04 4:37

So um it takes me a while to come up with it. Like, I gotta weigh all the angles and research all the things. Yeah, but the thing is is that But when I make a decision, yeah, the decision has been made.

SPEAKER_00 4:47

Yeah, and then it's like and then she's like, okay, that's it. Now we're gonna do this. We need to make it happen. I'm like, okay. And like I'm like, it's just a really good, I feel like, symbiotic relationship that we are have established where like Liz and it's nice too because I feel like you don't need help with it. Like you'll just be like doing it in the background and be like, okay, uh, I have this idea, I think we should do it. I'm like, all right. Yep. Like, nice. Um, so, anyways, yeah, I think it's been super cool. That's just a small sidebar. Sidebar compliment to you because it's it's been cool to see because that's something that like I don't really feel I didn't really realize maybe like I was like missing, you know what I mean, as far as like in the business. And you've made it like way better over the past like couple years.

SPEAKER_04 5:34

So a lot of the cool things my brain works better, guys.

SPEAKER_00 5:37

Yeah, a lot of the cool things that we have been able to accomplish over the past couple years have originated from Liz's brain, um, including a lot of the videos, low-key. She comes up with a lot of good video ideas, which is hilarious because when I said this, she's like, I just can't come up with video ideas. That is false. Here we are. It turns out it's just actually recording the videos, but I like doing that. So it's a great partnership. And yeah, anyways, it's been super cool to see because yeah, Liz just like she knows like all these things. She'll like detail all it out. I'm like, all right, cool, makes sense. And then I just go do it because like I'm good at that. I'm I'm good at making stuff happen.

SPEAKER_03 6:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:10

Um I like planning. Yeah. So, anyway, so yeah, that came about. And we did have to the big thing, the only thing really was we had a lot of people that were competing last fall already, and then all of a sudden we're like, hey, uh, y'all need to do this one too.

SPEAKER_04 6:26

Actually, we're gonna do this meet or this national TV.

SPEAKER_00 6:29

A few people competed back-to-back weekends, um, and it was a little bit busy, but we were able to make it happen. Yeah. Um, and I think it was definitely well worth it. I really enjoyed it. It was a great time, and I think, like you said, it worked out well for a lot of different people.

SPEAKER_04 6:43

Yeah, and as far as I know, everyone that I talked to on the team had a great time as well. So I guess I'm speaking for them also. But everyone seemed to have a really good time, um, enjoyed the meet. I I made a post something about like saying, should we like run it back again next year? And I think everyone is like all for doing another nationals meet next year.

SPEAKER_00 7:02

Yeah. Um, so which which one will we be at?

SPEAKER_04 7:06

That's a surprise.

SPEAKER_00 7:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:08

That is the I gotta research Liz the Planner.

SPEAKER_00 7:10

Yeah, Liz the Planner.

SPEAKER_04 7:11

They haven't told me where they're gonna be yet, so that's part of it. That's a big part of it is location.

SPEAKER_00 7:16

Location.

SPEAKER_04 7:16

And also how many days, because that's also a big part of it.

SPEAKER_00 7:19

No, I do I do agree with you a hundred percent. Having uh I've helped out, uh done some work for some live streaming and emceeing and some other stuff for some of the longer meets, and it's definitely a way better format, in my opinion, to have it just over a weekend, um, whether it's Saturday, Sunday, Friday, Saturday, whatever. Uh, but just like over a weekend.

SPEAKER_04 7:38

Three days, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

Yeah. I just think it is such uh excuse me, a much more efficient, and honestly, it's just better for you know us as athletes. Like, even though which we'll get into it was like very busy and there was a lot of energy expended, I mean, you feel similar and then you're just spreading it out over even more days.

SPEAKER_04 7:56

Well, because like one of the other options was like it's like five or six days of nationals um with like different weight classes each day. And I kind of mapped it out, and we literally had athletes that would have to compete on every single day.

SPEAKER_03 8:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:12

Like if we took the same people that we took to nationals to a different nationals, we would have literally had to be coaching at meets for it's either five or six days straight, yeah. Which that's just a lot of time competing. And then, you know, having or wanting or expecting, I don't know the right word, like everyone from the team to stay there and like support the rest of the team. Like, that's just a super big commitment where like a weekend just makes more sense.

SPEAKER_00 8:40

So yeah, and like really as we're talking about it, it's kind of just like the difference between like a powerlifting competition and a powerlifting convention. Like it's a competition, it's you know, nationals, like a couple days makes sense when you're like reaching past that. I just I really feel like it just one kind of dilutes the competition and the energy and everything. Like, you know, there is like even in this AI world that we're living in now, there is like a big like component of that is human energy, and like it's awesome to be around, like other people, super fun to like compete with and against other people. Um, and I just think having it a little more condensed builds that energy up a little bit. Um, so yeah, so that was kind of how we figured that out, and yeah, we had a great time. I feel like uh I had a great time. Everybody seemed to have a great time.

SPEAKER_04 9:28

Most people flew in, we had a few people drive in, so it was all within like a relatively not too crazy far distance for traveling proposals.

SPEAKER_00 9:37

No, it wasn't bad. And that was kind of nice because people had the option they could drive or fly. Yeah. Uh also I can't remember if we talked about Turo on here or just maybe to other clients in real life, but um Turo is awesome. I rented a we rented like our car through them. 10 out of 10. Would recommend pretty cool. It's like Airbnb for uh cars. Yeah, so yeah, everything worked out good. Uh HEB is a pretty cool store. If you've never been to Texas or wherever they have HEBs, I think they're only in Texas. I don't know. They did not have the cookies Liz wanted, but that's very sad. Uh yeah, that that was a pretty cool store. Trying to think of other things that were cool in Texas. The Riverwalk was cool. That was all we saw.

SPEAKER_02 10:17

Yeah, we didn't really do too much.

SPEAKER_00 10:19

Yeah, we didn't really do too much. We didn't even go to In N Out. I forgot about that. Katie was talking about that. I was like, oh forgot.

Travel Wins And San Antonio Notes

SPEAKER_00 10:26

Um but, anyways, all right, so let's kind of get into the competition itself, uh, the layout, how it went. Um, we're gonna try and highlight everybody on the team, at least briefly. Let's do some research over there. Uh, we've got it all down, which is a good thing because if I try to do this, we would be here for hours.

SPEAKER_04 10:44

Yeah, I asked him if he wanted to try and decipher what I wrote down. I got a very big no.

SPEAKER_00 10:49

That's gonna be a no from me. Um, but yeah, so okay, so the competition itself. So we got there a little bit early, uh, which was definitely the right move. Did some meal prepping, kind of chilled, went on some walks. Um, and then we had Wayne's on Friday for Liz and some of the other ladies, uh, which was pretty smooth process, nice and smooth. Uh they had I I really like this. They had uh small thing, but still. They had like a little clipboard with a pencil for like everyone. That was cool. Um to fill out your little sheets so you're ready to go.

SPEAKER_04 11:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:24

Uh trying to think.

SPEAKER_04 11:26

Yeah, the combo racks, you picked a number, like it all just kind of ran fairly smoothly.

SPEAKER_00 11:30

Yeah, it ran smoothly, weigh ins were good. Um the while we're on the topic of weigh-ins, kind of do it in order, even though this is going out of order. But uh the weigns the following day were I think good, but maybe a little bit less smooth, but you had like so many things going on. Uh, they were still able to get a remove weight in, which is good. And I wasn't having to wait that long, even though I had to wait a little bit. I prepared myself to wait a little longer just because the weigh-in started at eight. Liz's flight also started at eight.

SPEAKER_04 12:04

Started warming up at eight.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

Yeah, started warming up at eight. So I just had a feeling that I wasn't gonna be able to make my way in, which I was not. Uh I was not able to. Um, but that was no problem because I was prepared for it, and they were super nice once uh you know I was done handling Liz. I was able to run over there and weigh in. And yeah, overall, weigh in super simple, super smooth. Easy peasy. Um competition itself, the setup, 10 out of 10. It was awesome. It was a sick setup. Um, they had video walls, they had cool lights, they had uh all the platform gear, everything looked clean, looked nice.

SPEAKER_04 12:44

Yeah, two platform meet, so they had like a cool little like walkway that you came out on. Yeah, it was cool. Um, definitely a good setup, the good energy. I will say the music, let me so the music was good, like for most of the meet. Yeah, but I will say when they very first started, like during my squats specifically, it was so quiet. Like the music was quiet, the people were quiet. I mean, to be fair, it's Saturday morning at eight o'clock in the morning. Like, I get it. But I was like, oh man, this is this is kind of quiet. Like, I don't know. But then shortly thereafter, music got a little louder, there was a little more energy, which that was nice.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

Yeah, which happens. Um, but yeah, the setup was awesome. Warm room was well equipped. Um, maybe could have been a little bit spaced out differently, but I I understand what they were doing with it. Uh, they had everything in a big ballroom, and basically there was like six platforms, then kind of the video walls and walkway, then the two platforms for competition, then some spectator seats, and then some vendors in the back. So they had kind of like everything in one. Um, maybe could have spaced out the warm up room a little bit more, but to be honest, it was once people left. I was just gonna say that it was like perfect for like the amount of people that should have been in the warm up room. Uh, which I I felt like they did a decent job. They came around a few times.

SPEAKER_04 14:03

They kept coming in and announcing like if you're not warming up, get out, basically.

SPEAKER_00 14:07

Which I like. I actually like that uh better. We've we did a couple times, we had like a warm up room marshal person, and I actually like having like the ref because they had like their shirt on, so it kind of looked a little more official. It's a little more official, like, hey, get out. You know what I mean? Like it's it seemed a lot better. Uh, because you know, like at every powerlifting me, sometimes you got people, it's like, what flight are you in? Uh flight C. Okay, like flight A is warming up, dude. Like, what are you doing? Um, and there was plenty of space. I was gonna say, as far as the venue, super nice venue. Yeah, uh, would definitely go back there, and there was plenty of space for you to kind of like auxiliary space, so to speak, where you can just chill in the hallway, go outside, go.

SPEAKER_04 14:44

There's multiple hallways.

SPEAKER_00 14:45

There was I said by a little fountain multiple times.

SPEAKER_04 14:49

There's a lobby if people wanted to like with chairs and stuff, people could sit out there. So, like there was plenty of room to be not in the warm-up room if you didn't need to be in there. And once they like left, I felt like it was fine.

SPEAKER_02 14:58

Yeah, agreed.

SPEAKER_04 14:58

I mean, a couple times I had to like dodge and weave a few people, but that's just a warm-up room.

SPEAKER_00 15:02

So, and on the warm-up room aspect, which I made a video about this. If you haven't checked it out, go check it out. Um, and I basically just boiled down three things that could help you as a coach or handler. Um, because it is evident, even at a national level meet, that some people do not know these three things. Um, now there's a lot of people there that we worked with that were super friendly and awesome to work with. Um and that's always nice to see. Uh, definitely, I would say compared to more of the local level meets, this was a much smoother experience. You could tell these coaches have done it before, you could tell they've been, you know, handling or coaching at least once before. Um, and everyone was super helpful, you know. Like I felt like anyone that we work with, like, um, which we've done, I think we did the last podcast on this, um, you know, on Meet Day in the warmth room, like, you know, sometimes sometimes we'd be moving a lot of plates. I'll just put it that way. This one I felt was very nice, very balanced, uh, moving plates. Um, I tried to stick to doing a lot of the rack heights and whatnot on the day before I lifted, just so I wasn't getting super, super tired. But I like moving around. So to be honest, I think I was good. Um, but yeah, the warm prom I felt moved nice, and it was cool to see a bunch of other like-minded coaches. Because like I said, I think unfortunately sometimes not sometimes, I think unfortunately at more local meets, I just don't really see that as much. Yeah. So it was cool.

SPEAKER_04 16:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:29

Um, and I appreciated that, and I appreciate all the coaches that we got to work with.

SPEAKER_04 16:32

Yeah. And it was cool too that we had some of our people come out to help in the warm-up room. Um, Key Ryan, Cadron specifically all came out to help um in the warm-up room and handle, and then we had some of our lifters would come in and out, like if they if we needed an extra hand or needed some help, like a couple of them would come in and kind of help as uh as needed too. So it was a good little like team effort to help keep everybody on track, make sure they were ready to go when it was like time to warm up, make sure that we could do what we needed to do as coaches and lifters, and you know, handle people that were on the platform while people were warming up because two platforms, people in like multiple flights, it's a lot. So having that help was a big uh a big help.

SPEAKER_00 17:15

Yeah, no, I think I mean I think without that help, I don't think we could have done uh what we did as seamlessly as we did it. Period. I think our you know our team has grown um to the point now, you know, we're handling like we got 12 people over the multiple different days. Like you said, multiple different platforms, everyone's warming up at different times. Uh so we needed to have some help. And we specifically Sunday. Yeah, we had some awesome help Saturday and Sunday.

SPEAKER_04 17:40

But yes, Sunday was Sunday was crazy, especially when the platforms got off on timing too. So like one was ready to start bench and the other one was still squatting, and then my timing got all thrown off of where I was supposed to be because all of a sudden someone was ready to to bench, and some I was yeah, that was a lot once the timing got off. But then they they fixed it for deadlifts, and then they got the timing back, and then it made things way better. But just having like different flights and then the timing just being different, I was like, whoo!

SPEAKER_00 18:09

Yeah, and I think specifically the thing with having some help and why it's so awesome is because you know, like for us, we need to make sure the timing, I think, you know, some of the most important things we need to make sure the timing is on point, the wait calls are on point. And then, of course, like you want to make sure the warm-up room and the racks are being taken care of, but you can have like, you know, we can kind of share the load with these amazing people that came to help us, um, where it's a little trickier to be like, hey, can you go make this weight call and whatnot? And uh, we even had help like a few people help with that, I think, right? With the wait calls.

SPEAKER_04 18:42

Yeah, like we had a nice little communication system worked out because I had thumbs up, thumbs up. I had like two lifters back to back in one meet and it was or one flight and it was bench. And so like I had a plan for what like they were gonna do, but I did not have time to like lift her off, run around, like watch the lift, go make a wait call, come back, be ready for the next person. So I had Nikki, I was like, okay, this is my plan. These are the two options. Like, I'm gonna give you a thumbs up if I want like the top option, I'm gonna give you a thumbs down if I want like the bottom option of like the two. And then, you know, if it's a complete miss, then just retake it. So I kind of told her like where my brain was for like what the plan was, and then it worked flawlessly. She was able to like run back to the table so she could get the weight put in, and then I could continue coaching like the next person who is coming up to bench. So yeah, it was nice how that that worked out.

SPEAKER_00 19:33

Yeah, and that's just another example of just like kind of sharing the load and really working as a team to make this happen. Um, so yeah, we really we really, really appreciate everybody that came out. Uh, Nikki, Cadrian, Ryan specifically coming out. We had, like Liz said, some other athletes come out and help us as well, of course. Um, but those three came out, volunteered their time to help us out, and that was super, super appreciated. And I don't think we would have been able to do it at least as well without them. So yeah, we really appreciate all your guys' help and and just the positive energy, guys. Like, it's really cool to see like our community at work at these bigger events where like we just have like more of a positive vibe. Uh, and it's just cool to see.

SPEAKER_03 20:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:15

So we appreciate all of you.

SPEAKER_02 20:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:17

Um, all right. Let's go ahead. I think we're just gonna take a quick break now. Okay, and then we're gonna lock in and do a recap on these athletes.

SPEAKER_02 20:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 20:26

We're

Meet Setup And Warm-Up Room Rules

SPEAKER_00 20:27

back just like that. Um, now we're gonna get into the specifics of how our athletes did, uh, which Liz has, whatever she has over there. Lots of numbers, lots of numbers, kind of share everyone's successes. We had almost everyone hit a PR of some sort, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:43

Yes. Um, I think so.

SPEAKER_00 20:46

Which is cool.

SPEAKER_04 20:47

PR or PR match or a PR in some version variation of something.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

I don't know if you went into this, but I know generally we had a a fair amount of national records, yep. A lot of state records. Yep. Um, and then we had you and Gene, national champions.

SPEAKER_04 21:05

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 21:06

So let's start there.

SPEAKER_04 21:08

Yeah. Um, I'm just gonna kind of go through the day and like the order itch-ish of which people competed in, but we're gonna save me and you for the end because I figure we'll have a little more to like talk about than just this. Yeah, I would imagine. So um the day started with Elena. She is our youngest lifter. She's uh 14, she's gonna be 15 in like a couple weeks, I think it was her birthday, June something.

SPEAKER_02 21:31

Wild.

SPEAKER_04 21:32

Um, she just competed at high school nationals in March, but wanted to do this one with the team too.

SPEAKER_00 21:39

So um and she broke her back last year.

SPEAKER_04 21:42

Yeah, she did. She has a broke had a broken back almost exactly a year ago. It was in April. Um, so that's crazy that she's already back competing at a national level. Um so she unfortunately woke up the night before the meet in the middle of the night, like feeling super sick. Um, really not good. Took some medicine, thought she was feeling better when she woke up, but as she started warming up for squats, like I could just see it like all in her face. She was not not having it. Um she was like fighting tears like the entire time, like, did not feel good. Um, so we did lower her opener, um, but she crushed it. Like she still went out there like through tears. Um, she still squatted 220 pounds, which is only uh five kilos, like 10 pounds less than her meat PR that she just hit in March. And I would say she could have hit that the way 220 moved. I think she still had like room in the tank, but I also reminded her that she had a whole day left ahead of her.

SPEAKER_00 22:43

We did use that energy.

SPEAKER_04 22:44

Um, yes. So saving some of that energy on squats to like set her up for to be able to try and like finish the day. Cause at that point, I wasn't sure like if she was gonna get better or worse. Like, I wasn't sure. So we wanted to make sure that she was set up for success and save as much energy to get through bench and deadlifts as possible. Um after squats, she went and got an IV because they had the IV people there for the people weighing in. So she got an IV, um, which she says gave her superpowers. Um so and then which I would say it kind of did. She finished today. She got a meat PR on bench with 115 pounds, and then a grind of her life meet PR on deadlift with 270 pounds. Um, that was like a lifetime PR. Like not even like she's hit the 115 at home before, like in training for bench. She's never touched 270 before. So a lifetime PR on that, uh PR total. So even though she didn't PR her squat, still had a lifetime or a whatever PR total. PR total. There we go.

SPEAKER_00 23:45

Um sheet's already confusing her.

SPEAKER_04 23:47

600. I didn't even write the word lifetime down. Uh 606 pounds, and that was up even just from March when she hit her first PR total of 600 pounds.

SPEAKER_00 23:56

So she did a fantastic job.

SPEAKER_04 23:57

Um, yeah, all of them were state and national records, first in her age and weight class. So she did great.

SPEAKER_00 24:03

Um and for her, a quick note on that deadlift, just like a little like coaching insight. Uh so she was deadlifting, I was helping handle her, and Lizard said, like you had said her goal was 270 or 275.

SPEAKER_04 24:17

Yes, where her meat PR was 260. So in my head, I going into it was thinking even just like a 264 would be good, like the next jump. But she said she wanted 270, 275.

SPEAKER_00 24:30

Make sure we get everything out of him. And I think like the thing was the second attempt moved super good. That's what I was gonna say. So how I like processed quickly, like in my brain, because Liza told me everything, like all the information that I needed to know, and then how we ended up landing on the 270 was because number one, she is a super energetic, like hype lifter. Number two, she's destroyed her second attempt, and I think it was 115.

SPEAKER_02 24:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:55

Okay, so it was 115 kilos and like obliterated it.

SPEAKER_02 24:57

253.

SPEAKER_00 24:58

253, obliterated it. Um, and then number three, I knew she'd wanted the 275, but I'm like, 270, pretty close, and I think it's gonna be a grind. And like, because I just wasn't sure if she could do the 275 because of like Liza said, the sickness and just like how she was feeling. But I was very confident that she could do the 270 because I knew she would grind through anything, and the 264 was just gonna be too easy. Like, so we ended up going for that. I'm telling you, you can go watch it if you guys haven't seen already. It was a 14-second lift, confident the entire time, got it.

SPEAKER_04 25:30

She uh, there was one point, like it slowed down so much that you could see the head judge start to say down because she was like almost locked out, but not quite. And I think he thought that's all she was doing. So I yelled very loudly from the sideline, it's still moving with the hopes. Like, I don't know if he heard it or not, but he didn't give the down command. But I kind of saw his hand start to go and I yelled, it's still moving.

SPEAKER_03 25:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:51

And he didn't give her the down command, so she was able to finish it. Because if she would have gotten the down command, it wouldn't have uh counted. She wasn't locked out at that point. So she was able to finish it. Um, super awesome ending to the meet. And yeah, she did a great job.

SPEAKER_00 26:05

Great job, Elena.

Saturday Lifters And First Big PRs

SPEAKER_00 26:06

All right.

SPEAKER_04 26:06

Um, I was the other lifter in the morning, but we'll skip me and save me for the end. Um, Nico and Lena were our two lifters in the afternoon. It was kind of nice. So they were in the second session, they were in the same flight, the same weight class. So it was kind of nice. Like we were able to like warm them up together, keep them together.

SPEAKER_00 26:22

I think that afternoon was the more the most chill part of the.

SPEAKER_04 26:26

Yeah, because you weren't trying to balance like weigh ins, they were just together. Like it was.

SPEAKER_00 26:30

Which low-key worked out, especially like for everybody, including myself, because as far as the handling, like it was more of a like the morning was a little busy, and then I was able to kind of just chill.

SPEAKER_04 26:38

Yeah, and because I was done lifting, so I could also handle them. So um, so we'll just start with Nico. She went eight for nine, so she had a really great day, and she got her huge goal of a thousand pound total. So that was kind of the big, the big deal. Um, she did miss her third squat. It was super close. There was like a teeny tiny bit of downward motion, so then they took it, um, which I understand they got to keep people safe. So that is just what happens. Um, but she still squatted 380 pounds, um benched 209, which was a PR and a state record, and it was a grind, and she stuck with it. Like it was really, really good, like smooth all the way through.

SPEAKER_00 27:16

And then she's got some good heart too. You could tell, like missing the squat, like some people that would really kind of like put them down. But she was like, Oh, I'm gonna lock in. Yeah, like I'm I'm not missing anything. Yeah, uh, she got after it the rest of the meeting. It was cool to see.

SPEAKER_04 27:29

Yeah. So then I told her, like, before deadlifts, I'm like, hey, like if you still want this thousand pound total, like your third deadlift's gonna kind of be YOLO. Like, it's not something you've touched, it's not something like she grinded out 402 in the gym for her last heavy deadlift. Yeah, so I was like, you know, like in order to get it, like, because I wasn't sure exactly where we were gonna be at that point, but I was like, you're gonna need like it's kind of gonna be like YOLO. Like, I don't know. Um, it was a 413, is what she needed. And we loaded it up and she got it. Like it was smooth, like it was really good. So she uh thousand pound total, um, added 17 pounds to her total since November and a 426 dots, which is up eight points since November, which is great. Um, and she was fourth in her weight class of like a super stacked weight class.

SPEAKER_00 28:14

Yeah, yeah. It was really um a lot of people.

SPEAKER_04 28:17

Or no, she was I think she was fifth. Sorry, my bad. Her and Lena were like back and forth.

SPEAKER_00 28:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:21

But I think in her weight class, like there were five or six women, all totaled a thousand pounds.

SPEAKER_02 28:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:28

I think it was six, because I think it was her and someone else had the same total, but she beat her on uh body weight, so she got fifth in the weight class.

SPEAKER_00 28:35

Yeah, Nico killed it, and it was really cool, like I said, it was just cool to see her finish out the day strong after that missed squat. Yeah. Um, because you could tell, you know, I'm frustrated a little bit, of course. Yes. Um, but she like used that energy to like lock in and just like crush it the rest of the day. It was fantastic to see.

SPEAKER_04 28:50

Yep. And then Lena, who was lifting at the same time as her, she squatted a PR of 396, which is really great because she missed her last heavy squat in prep. So to come back and hit like 385. Yep. So to come back and hit more than that for a PR is awesome. Um, and it moved well too. Like, I think she probably had a little bit more, but we were trying to save some of her energy. Like that was a planned, not super hard third attempt squat um to try and save some energy for deadlifts. Um, she benched 187, which was a meet PR match. So she matched her PR. And then she deadlifted 440 on her second attempt. We went for the PR deadlift of 463, I think is what it is. Um, she deadlifted it, but there was some downward motion on the way up. So unfortunately it didn't count. But I told her it counts in my heart because it was still close. It just she still deadlifted it, like fully deadlifted, fully locked out, like everything. There was just a little downward motion. So unfortunately, it doesn't count for the meat, but uh, in my, you know, it's like a gym PR.

SPEAKER_00 29:49

Yeah, she's still ripping it.

SPEAKER_04 29:50

Um she's totaled 1,025, which was a 21-pound PR, and then her dots was 436, which was up six points, but from December. And state record squat and deadlift.

SPEAKER_00 30:02

Yeah, and I do think uh again, just a little like coaching insight. I'll try and like drop some of these throughout this little recap thing. Like uh that's another example of sometimes you gotta take a little less on a squat to make sure you have the energy for the deadlift. Uh, unfortunately, it was not enough on that day. Like, I think maybe just a little, like if you want to break it down, maybe like a two or three percent more energy, she would have been fine. But that kind of goes to show, like, if we had gone for you know 402, 407, which she definitely I think she could have done it, yeah. But it's like then is this taking away from the deadlift, and we want to make sure you're there for the entire day. Uh, because that's an important thing.

SPEAKER_04 30:39

It's kind of the same thing with Elena, like save some energy.

SPEAKER_00 30:41

Yep, same thing with me. See how that turned out. Yeah. We'll talk about that later. Anyways, um all right. So that was Saturday, yep.

SPEAKER_04 30:49

And then so Sunday was.

SPEAKER_00 30:51

And by this time, we already had two 1k totals. Three. Three, three 1k totals from the Fortis Ladies, um, which is just a fantastic feat of strength to have uh, you know, even one athlete totaling a thousand pounds, but to have three, uh, it was pretty cool to do, especially because we had talked about that and then we made it happen.

SPEAKER_04 31:12

Yes. Um, so Sunday made it happen.

Sunday Women And 1,000-Pound Totals

SPEAKER_04 31:16

Sunday started with um the first flight was Liz and Jean. So again, they were super nice. They were in the same flight, they're the same, they're the same weight class. Like it was so it was really nice having them together because it just helped with like warming up, making attempts, all of that. Um, so Liz, she started with me training with me honestly like six weeks ago, seven weeks ago. Like it wasn't very far before the meet. So we just kind of my goal was to just kind of get her feeling good and lifts moving good so she could have fun and like a good, confident meet at this meet um was kind of my like really ultimate goal for her. Because sometimes if you're not really feeling it and powerlifting's hard, like competing is hard. She said that um for a while she was afraid that this was gonna be her last meet ever, just because she was not really enjoying it. So the goal was to yeah, the goal was to kind of get her to start enjoying powerlifting again. Um, have fun, move good, feel good. Um so she squatted, so she squatted 336. She took it on her second attempt, and unfortunately, there was like a little dip in it. Like it moved really good, but it was the same thing, downward motion. So she didn't get it. They let her finish it though, they didn't take the bar from her. Um, so she finished the lift. Um, but there was a little downward motion in it. So unfortunately, she didn't get it. She came back, absolutely crushed it on the third one though. So I didn't have her go up because again, the goal is just to like make lifts. So had her retake it, moved great, perfectly fine, good to go. Got 336. Definitely room in the tank. Like, definitely. It moved like a second attempt, should move to where we if you know, whatever. Little things happen, it's is what it is, we move on. Um, but still 336 pounds. She benched 203, which and she said, and I would agree, was like the smoothest and easiest easiest it has moved in forever, basically. She said, and I she has always benched on like the boosters, like the bench blocks, like under your feet at Meets. And I literally boosters.

SPEAKER_00 33:16

Is that what you just said? Yeah, like the booster, like a booster seat.

SPEAKER_04 33:20

No, for the feet, they're like feet boosters.

SPEAKER_00 33:22

Like a block.

SPEAKER_04 33:23

Yeah, but it's not a bench block because that's what I think when you're benching, you bench to a bench block.

SPEAKER_00 33:27

The boosters, whatever.

SPEAKER_04 33:28

I don't I don't know what you call them. That's basic that's what they are. They boost your feet. Yeah, they're boosting your feet up.

SPEAKER_02 33:34

All right, all right.

SPEAKER_04 33:34

Um, so anyway, she's always benched with those, but a couple weeks ago, like literally a couple weeks ago, when they came down to visit, I had recommended that at some point we were gonna try to not use them. But I told her she could keep using them through nationals because it's so close. I'm not gonna make a big change like that. But she practiced every day for like the last couple weeks without them and said she actually felt better, actually could feel some more leg drive with them, and she was comfortable competing without them. And then we got a nice smooth solid 203. So super happy with that. And then her deadlift, um, she easily deadlifted 363. Um, when she came to me like the first week that we were working together, I think she failed 352, had like a grindy double at 319, like definitely really hard. And then just in those few short weeks, we got her to easily, easily hit 363 with room in the tank. Um, her lifetime PR on deadlift is 380, and she asked if I thought she had that. And I told her, like, I would say for sure the 374, maybe the 380 that day, just kind of depending on, you know, because she can fight through a lift too.

SPEAKER_03 34:44

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:45

Um, so definitely PR coming soon on deadlift. I will say that like for sure. Um, she totaled 903 pounds, and her dots was 374, um, which is technically a PR dots by like 0.2 from all the way back in 2022. So she hasn't dots that since 2022.

SPEAKER_00 35:06

Um, it's a PR, a little more.

SPEAKER_04 35:08

Technically, it's a little bit more. A little extra. Um, she was second in her weight class, and then she did not sign up for open. She just signed up for master's, but because I'm just gonna look anyways, if she did sign up for open, she would have been third in her weight class for open. So super good. Um, so yeah, if she would have signed up for open, she would have placed third just based on total. Um, so yeah, great day for her. And she told me it was the most fun she's ever had. So, goal achieved of having a great meet and enjoying powerlifting again. So that makes me happy.

SPEAKER_00 35:36

And I think like I think having fun is a big thing that people overlook in a long-term approach to fitness in general. Uh, because you know, like working out is pretty simple, powerlifting, pretty simple, but doing it for a long time, a little more complicated. And a big thing with that is making sure you're having fun, you know. Um, you're not gonna keep coming back to something that you hate. I mean, you might for a while and be like, oh, I'm gonna keep doing it. But like eventually, you gotta have some fun. You're not gonna be coming back. Um, so I think having fun, I think that's a really important goal. And to see someone that's been in the game for a while kind of get that fire like reignited is very good. Very good to see.

SPEAKER_04 36:12

It's cool. Um, next up, so then we're going to the second flight of lifters. We had Chase.

SPEAKER_00 36:18

Wait, wait, you didn't talk about Gene.

SPEAKER_04 36:19

Oh my goodness, I didn't. Just kidding. Sorry, Gene. Hold on. Because I know you listened to this.

SPEAKER_00 36:25

Look at this.

SPEAKER_04 36:26

Um Jean had a great day, also. She went nine for nine. I think she was our only lifter that went nine for nine.

SPEAKER_00 36:37

So at least someone did. Someone got to carry the mantle.

SPEAKER_04 36:40

Yeah. So she went nine for nine. Um, all of her lifts were PRs. All of them were state and national records. And she totaled a thousand pounds. She was our fourth female to total a thousand pounds. Um so we kind of like threw that goal out there, like towards the end. Because she told me she always wanted to do that, like when we first started training together. And so, like, as we were kind of getting closer to this meet, I was like, Gene, you know, this is like actually kind of a possibility, right? Yeah. And she's like, uh, you know, kind of like, I don't know about that. That's crazy. And it was we were, I still remember we were like driving from the airport in uh Texas when I went to high school nationals, and we were kind of talking about it. I was like, it's definitely a possibility, like depending on how the rest of training goes and like how you're feeling, like it'll be hard, but like I definitely think it's possible. And I kind of told her, like going into the meet, like after like we were like prepping. I was like, basically, I'm gonna load whatever I need to load on your third attend deadlift, and we're just gonna see if the thousand pounds is there. I don't know. Yeah, um, but so she squatted 352, um, which was a meet PR. She benched 225, so which was a national record, and I I chipped to make it 225, not 226. We chipped it to make it 225. Yep. Um, just because I was like, I want every little pound that I can get to be like perfect for this. Because I knew the more pounds that we could get, the easier it's gonna be to get the total.

SPEAKER_00 38:07

Um, so we went 225, and then quick uh note, quick coaching note again. That's a concept a lot of people just don't seem to understand. Very simple concept. Uh the more pounds you can actually lift, the bigger your total.

SPEAKER_04 38:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:21

Anyways, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 38:21

So that's where we're gonna, because she did, I think it was 215, yeah. 216 something for her call then for her second attempt. And I kind of asked her, I was like, how'd it feel? And she she said a little heavy, and I was like, okay, then like we're gonna go with like the bare minimum of what we need to still like do the best that we can do. Um, or the bare minimum of like what I thought she had for that moment in that time. So whatever crushed it, we're warming up for deadlifts, and she's like, Oh man, everything feels really heavy. Like, I was like, get it together, Gene. Yeah. Um, so she did it. She on her second attempt, she deadlifted 407, which was the national record. That was one of her big goals, like the open national record. And then also gave her her very first 400 dots on her second attempt, which was a big goal for her, too. She really wanted a 400 dots. So we loaded it up for a third attempt. It was 424. Um, again, we chipped it. So I went 192 because that was exactly what we needed to get to like a thousand, it's like a thousand point nine or something. So we did that. Um, crushed it. I mean, it was hard, but she like she got it. Um, good lift. She got first in her weight class for open and masters, and she won overall best lifter for masters. So she had a great day.

SPEAKER_00 39:40

Yeah, she crushed it. Um great day. Yeah, no, she she did absolutely fantastic going nine for nine, and really good example, I think, for her, just like kind of trusting the process and the system, full faith in you as a coach, and just she just went out and executed.

SPEAKER_04 39:55

She's added 51 pounds to her total since December, and uh her dots went up 25 points from December. Very nice. And we've been working together for a little less than a year. I should look at where she was when I started. Anyways, anyways, so okay.

SPEAKER_00 40:13

Moving on.

SPEAKER_04 40:14

That's all of our ladies, except me.

SPEAKER_00 40:16

All the ladies, all the ladies. Okay, and now we're moving on to the guys.

Sunday Men PR Totals And Records

SPEAKER_04 40:21

The guys. Um, so we'll start with young Chase, who's not so young anymore.

SPEAKER_00 40:26

But uh growing up, he's growing up.

SPEAKER_04 40:28

Uh he had a fantastic day. He went eight for nine, um, state records in all of his lifts, and he added, I think, 71 pounds from his total from November and 13 dots points from his dots in November, which is awesome. Um, he squatted 451, which was huge PR. It was a 33-pound meat PR.

SPEAKER_02 40:50

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 40:50

Um, he benched 303, which was a 17-pound meat PR, and then he deadlifted 435, which was an 11-pound meat PR. I think with different jumps, he would have also had a little bit more on his deadlift. Yeah, because he was also like just he was 10 pounds shy of his goal of a 1200-pound total. And I know he said this, but he really, really wanted like full send on that deadlift. So we went full send on the third one.

SPEAKER_00 41:15

You're having a great day like that. Like it's like, I mean, if you want to try it, try it. Yeah, yeah. I have no That's already a successful day. 70 pounds on the total, eight for nine.

SPEAKER_04 41:23

Yeah, and it was already a PR deadlift, anyways. Like a second attempt is already a PR deadlift. So sometimes you just want to full send, you full send. Yeah. Um, and he did, wasn't quite there. But like I said, I think if with different jumps, he's he would have very easily had that 1200 pound total, just needed like a little different jumps for the deadlift. But um I'd agree. Either way, 70 pound PR, like PRs, yeah, with traveling, and he's like finishing school right now, so he's got finals and school and all of the other things. So definitely super busy time for him, and still did amazing.

SPEAKER_00 41:56

He did a fantastic job. And in in training, he did a great job communicating to me like different things because he's a senior in high school, so he has a lot of just you know, end of high school things going on. And I felt like he did a great job communicating, great job executing, doing what he needed to do, nothing more. Just coming in and executing what I needed from him, and uh he really paid off, obviously. Um, was able to get after it, and he always brings good energy too. He's there to have a good time, and um, you know, cheering everyone on. He was cheering everyone on the entire day on day one, uh, then came ready to lift and absolutely crushed it on day two. So it's really cool to see all of his hard work in the gym pay off on the platform.

SPEAKER_04 42:37

Yeah, it's very cool. Um, next up was Joel. He had a a big squat PR. Yeah. He squatted 418, which was a big squat PR for him. Very good.

SPEAKER_00 42:50

Before it was 402, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 42:51

It was 407, but that was from like a couple years ago. So it's been a while or a year and a half. I don't know, something. It was from it's been a little while since he hit that. Um and it was, I remember when he hit it, it was really, really hard.

SPEAKER_00 43:03

Whereas this one, like, I mean, it was hard, but like for him, it was not hard, like compared to the other two. He was able to like in the middle, he's like, Don't take it. Like, I got like he's able to like talk to the spotters.

SPEAKER_04 43:13

Yeah, so but that's a huge PR for him, 418. That was awesome to see. Um, he benched 281. He did miss his third attempt bench at 297. It was close. He like literally like ISO held that bar for a very long time and just couldn't quite get past that turning point. Um, but still not bad. And then he deadlifted 474. He took a stab at the 502 for the national record for his third attempt. It just wasn't there that day. I know he said he felt kind of a little something, something not feeling right. So better to not push through when you're feeling things that are not worth really injuring yourself.

SPEAKER_00 43:48

So agreed. And as like he did, I feel like a great job as uh like the peak kind of approach. We made some excuse me, as the peak was coming, we had to make A little bit of adjustments to his programming.

SPEAKER_02 44:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:03

Um, to kind of like move the fatigue around a little bit. So make sure he was feeling as good as he could. He failed 460, I think. 464 or 474, what was that?

SPEAKER_04 44:14

I can't remember.

SPEAKER_00 44:15

It was either 464 or 474 uh that he failed in the gym, like just a few weeks back.

SPEAKER_04 44:20

Yeah, his deadlifts definitely he was still recovering, I think, probably from a little injury that he had last year, a little hamstring. And it just kind of took a little bit longer, I think, than anyone really anticipated for it to like fully heal. Um, I would say he's doing good now, though. Like everything's looking really good. Um, and still got the 474, which is great. He's totaled 1173, and then his dots was 338, which was a PR dots for him. Nice.

SPEAKER_00 44:45

So yeah, and I think he I think with a good like offseason, fully let the hamstring recover, uh, put a little bit more muscle on. That's what his goals are. I think he's gonna come back and post his biggest total of all time at his next meet.

SPEAKER_04 44:57

And I think this was only a few pounds, like literally only a couple pounds off his best, but it was a PR dots, too.

SPEAKER_00 45:02

So no, Joel did a fantastic job, and same thing as Chase, like he was uh you know delivering the energy day one, making sure he was encouraging everybody, um, which was fantastic. Also, he recorded a bunch of the lifts on his phone, and I'm telling you, his phone is good. I that that thing looked good, you know. Like, I think he said he put it in 4K mode. I don't know. It looked great. Yeah, I thought it was a professional camera.

SPEAKER_04 45:26

Yeah, it looked really good.

SPEAKER_00 45:27

Um, but yeah, Joel killed it. Yep, he did a great job and excited to see like him fully healthy what he can do.

SPEAKER_04 45:34

Yeah. Um, you are next, but we'll skip you for now. Then we got John. Um John flew in from New York. New York. Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:43

He's in the middle of getting his PhD.

SPEAKER_04 45:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:45

Uh so we John.

SPEAKER_04 45:47

John used to live here and we trained him in person, and then he has since traveled, moved all over the place, and continues to coach with uh Nate continues to coach him.

SPEAKER_00 45:56

Um all over the world, really.

SPEAKER_04 45:58

Yeah. So he had he squatted 451. He went for a PR. He told me before he started this, his real goal was just not to pass out. That was like his big goal. So we went for a PR squat on the third, wasn't quite there, but he didn't pass out. So we successfully made it through squats without passing out.

SPEAKER_00 46:18

Did it pass out on squats?

SPEAKER_04 46:20

Um that was that was um a big goal for this meet was not to pass out. So, but it was funny. Um, I don't even know if he remembers asking me this, but like after his squat, he's like, Did I even stand up like at all? Like he like had no idea where he failed. And he got, I would say, probably about halfway up, like, but he didn't know if he failed like in the bottom of the squat. Like he had no idea where he failed it. I was just like, Did you get up? I was like, Yeah, you got up. He's like, I have no idea what happened. I was like, okay. Which is funny. But so it was close. Um, he didn't like get totally buried at the bottom. Like he did come up, just didn't come up all the way. That was good, but he didn't pass out.

SPEAKER_00 46:56

He did a good job like posting the 451, and then uh we've already made some adjustments that I had kind of in the in the hopper, but sometimes when you're close to a meet, you can't really make those adjustments, but we've already made some adjustments. I actually got some of those earlier today, and I think we'll be we'll be in that 500 realm very shortly for the squad.

SPEAKER_04 47:16

And the 451 was only it was only a little bit under his PR, too. So like that's still still good. Um, and then he benched 314. He technically benched 342, or no, oh, 324. 324. He benched it and like it moved pretty good, but his butt came up, so it didn't count. So again, it's kind of like a a whatever, a gym PR at heart kind of thing. Like you did it on the platform, it just didn't count because the butt came up, but yeah, he it moved very smooth. So, um, and also he I know was having some where he was gripping issues like before the meet. Apparently, he was like gripping too wide, so like literally four sessions before the meet, he moved his hands in. So the fact that he even benched 314 and technically benched the 324, just it didn't count. Like, that's pretty good for having to move your hands in like a whole handling. Um and then deadlift, he deadlifted 540 for a PR match, so it matched his meet PR. Um went for a bigger, big, big uh full send PR at the end, wasn't there yet, but um I think that's coming soon for him too.

SPEAKER_00 48:23

Yeah, no, he's he's made a lot of progress. He had a lot of uh he had a lot of stuff like for his job that was kind of cutting into recovery, shall we say? Uh so we've kind of built back to where he was at before, strength-wise, and now we're setting up a nice foundation to really take off.

SPEAKER_04 48:39

Yeah, he tied his meet PR of 1306, which was from 2022.

SPEAKER_00 48:44

Yeah. So he hasn't, yeah, and he's competed in between there and not hit that. Yeah, so he did a great job. We're back on track um to really like achieve some big things over the next couple years. We were already kind of talking about that, uh, planning for that in the future. But yeah, I thought he did a great job and executing uh the squat, not passing out anything like that. Uh the reference point of that is he passed out on the qualifier to qualify for this meet. So to come back, hit it, and even like nerve-wise, like that can get to your head a little bit. So I think he did a great job executing on that day.

SPEAKER_04 49:16

Yeah, he did great.

SPEAKER_00 49:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 49:18

Um, all right, next we have Ty, who he had a big PR day. Um, he had it was up 106 pounds from his meet he just did in November.

SPEAKER_02 49:29

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 49:30

Um, five a 1500 pound total and a 405 dots, which was his first 400 dots, also. So super good.

SPEAKER_00 49:36

And also, he did in fact gain weight, but yet his dots went up. Correct.

SPEAKER_04 49:41

It went up 21 points.

SPEAKER_00 49:42

21 points on the dots.

SPEAKER_04 49:44

Um he squatted 562, which was a 33-pound PR, benched 369, which was a 17-pound PR, and deadlifted 567, which was a 50-pound PR. Um, and he was fourth in his weight class of a very stacked weight class, too.

SPEAKER_00 50:01

No, he did it, he did a fantastic job. And, you know, I just gotta say, for him to uh do as well as he did, he had some, he posted about this, he had some uh issues with his hip, uh, and then he ended up getting diagnosed with some sort of it's like a chronic injury type thing. But like yeah, I don't know. Um but uh chronic thing that he's gonna have to kind of like work through for the rest of his life. Uh but he really uh you know, we talked, we sat down, we came up with a plan, and I have to say, over the past few months or so, he has really just like stuck to really it's like been yeah, the past like three months or so, he's really just like stuck to the plan. He's done all the boring stuff that I've asked him to. Like, there's you know, there was a lot of like, I don't know, just kind of lame, boring stuff that power of there's you know, we like to lift heavy, and like it was not heavy. Um, and he did all of it, and you know, then quote unquote, all of a sudden in this last peaking block, I'm PRing. I'm doing this, like you know, people oh yeah, like this out of nowhere. It's like, oh no, like that's the past eight, twelve weeks of like rehab work, making sure everything's in the right spot, making sure we're feeling good, body strong, mind strong, momentum's building, and he just did a fantastic job. I was super proud of him, um, especially kind of coming back from that hip injury that he had had, uh, and just the uh diagnosis. Like he he absolutely uh destroyed. So he did he did a great job. Uh adding a hundred pounds under your total since November is crazy.

SPEAKER_03 51:31

Crazy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:32

So he did a great job. Great job, Ty. Excited to see. I think I think we're getting shredded in the summer, but then uh then we'll get even stronger. Exactly. So I think it'd be pretty cool.

SPEAKER_04 51:41

Um, last lifter was Anthony. Now we don't coach Anthony, but he's still part of our team, part of he which trains here. Um we still you know helped him out throughout the day.

SPEAKER_03 51:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 51:52

Um he had a great meet too. He actually, I'm pretty sure actually went nine for nine, also. So him and Gene were the two that went nine for nine. Um he squatted 617 pounds, which was an 11-pound PR. He benched 424, which was a 33-pound meat PR. Yeah, which is crazy. And then deadlifted 617, which was a six-pound PR. Um, his total 1659, and it was up 50 pounds from December, and he dots 447, which was also up 13 pounds from December. And he placed third in his weight class just over Ty, um because they were in the same weight class. So he placed third. Um, again, super stacked weight class for that one.

SPEAKER_00 52:30

So no, he did a great job, and also another person just good energy, um, you know, making sure he's encouraging others, and he's always encouraging people in the gym. So it's good.

SPEAKER_04 52:41

He helped carry my bags on Saturday when you just would leave them places.

unknown 52:45

What?

SPEAKER_00 52:46

What do you mean?

SPEAKER_04 52:47

Don't worry about it.

SPEAKER_00 52:48

Leaving bags?

SPEAKER_04 52:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 52:50

What bags?

SPEAKER_04 52:51

Like my the bags I needed for the meet. You just like walk off and he'd be like, I guess I'm carrying this.

SPEAKER_00 52:57

Sometimes I'm a little oblivious. I'd be out here.

SPEAKER_04 52:59

It's okay. I had two two people taking care of me on Saturday. It was great.

SPEAKER_00 53:03

Yeah. I'm just moving around on the thing sometimes.

SPEAKER_04 53:06

It was great.

SPEAKER_00 53:07

Um but yeah, alright. So now we'll go into me

Nate’s Meet Day Highs And Lows

SPEAKER_00 53:11

and you.

SPEAKER_04 53:11

That sounds good. Um we can start with you. That's fine.

SPEAKER_00 53:17

So you might be real quick.

SPEAKER_04 53:21

So you had no okay. I'm gonna have to say the other things because you're just gonna um just like that, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:28

All right.

SPEAKER_04 53:29

So, first of all, he coached all day on Saturday, so we're just gonna go with that, and then competed on Sunday. He had a PR squat of 595, which lifetime PR, like never even hit that in the gym.

SPEAKER_03 53:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 53:42

Um, he had a little more in the tank, but the goal was, like we talked about with a couple other people, save some room for deadlifts. So we didn't want anything like too crazy, too grindy, too hard. So um I know I wasn't making weight calls for you, but Kadrian made the weight call. But the goal was to not like overshoot on squats basically. Um, so still got a PR, 595, definitely knowing that like 600, 606 for sure was like in the tank that day. Um, so that's really cool.

SPEAKER_00 54:11

Yeah, and that was a big confidence booster for me because I was like, I don't know. He's very scared of squats. Yeah, squats have been like a little taking me a while to like get as strong as I am on squats right now, and like it's taken a lot of like setbacks, I guess. So therefore, I'm just very like, I don't know. I'm just still pretty hesitant sometimes on certain squats. And but that day I felt good and I I knew I could do it. Um, I said this, you can you can see me do this. I like got under the bar like right before I like unwracked it. I just told myself I'm like, you can do this, and like sometimes like you just gotta do that for yourself. Like, just like you can do this, like because like if you don't believe that you can do it, um you're cooked. So like you gotta believe in yourself. So I just did it and I was able to do that. I was pretty proud of that. That was good.

SPEAKER_04 54:54

Yeah. Um, bench, he benched 391, which is technically only five pounds less than his meat PR. And this is which he just seems to, I think, forget. Like a month ago, he couldn't bench an empty bar to his chest without pain.

SPEAKER_03 55:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 55:08

So we like to forget that apparently was just a few weeks ago, and we still managed to bench 391.

SPEAKER_00 55:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 55:15

Um, so there's that.

SPEAKER_00 55:16

Yeah, that was pretty good. Yeah, uh I would have liked 402, but I felt uh, I mean, yeah, like Liz said, I like the bench chest or the peck strain tear, whatever I ended up doing, uh, was definitely pretty nerve-wracking more than anything. It was pretty painful the first two days, and I wasn't really sure exactly how much I was gonna be benching. Then it became evident as more rehab that I did and everything, I was like, okay, like I think I'll be able to bench something. Um, and then I benched 391 a week out or so, I think, or a little bit more than that, like maybe nine days out. Um, and it felt pretty good. So I was like, okay, maybe 402. Then I hit it on the meet. I was like, uh felt okay. Um, and I was just unsure that 402 was there. I was pretty sure it wasn't there basically. Um, and I considered passing on the third, but I decided to do the third 180, which is what I injured myself with. Um and it was just it just wasn't there. Um not quite. And then my butt came up a little bit, so I'm like, I'm not pushing through this one.

SPEAKER_04 56:17

But still, we benched 391 after a few weeks prior, an empty bar couldn't be benched to your chest. This is true. We're just gonna continue to remind you that that happened.

SPEAKER_00 56:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 56:28

Because I think your whole day is overshadowed by deadlifts.

SPEAKER_00 56:31

Really, and not 400 bench. 400 bench on the platform coming soon. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 56:35

Uh maybe just don't strain your peck before I meet.

SPEAKER_00 56:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 56:39

Um, so deadlifts, you deadlifted 617 for an opener.

SPEAKER_00 56:44

That was it.

SPEAKER_04 56:47

Uh, yep. Still totaled 1600, 1603, 450 dots still, and uh you got a stay record deadlift.

SPEAKER_00 56:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 56:55

And fourth in your weight class.

SPEAKER_00 56:57

Yeah, so it was a good day overall. And I mean, like, to be honest, like, I'm pretty thrilled with the PR squat because like that was a big, like I said, kind of like mental hurdle for me. So to be able to do that and do it on a platform in front of all the people, like that was that was pretty awesome, not gonna lie. Um, like overall, I honestly am pretty thrilled with the day. Uh, was I thrilled to miss my second and third deadlift? Absolutely not. Um, I love deadlifting, and I just gotta say, they've just been feeling off a little bit the past month or so, kind of like ever since the whole peck thing. I don't know. I don't know. Like, I don't know if that was it. I don't know if I have over the year, I think, basically gotten a little bit bigger. Um I I according to the weigh-ins, I probably maybe like put on maybe about a pound or so of more muscle. Like, I don't know. But I've definitely I I think got a little bigger than I had realized, and my grip was pretty in, uh, pretty, pretty close. And I couldn't, I just couldn't figure it out like the past month or so, the past month, six weeks or so. Um, but you know, I try my best, and then a big thing for me, like form and technique stuff aside, is like for those bigger deadlifts, I really gotta get into like a pretty serious like focus zone. And I just could not do it. Um, so you know, I had there's no like specific thing, like almost every single person that has talked to me about it, like wants this like, what did you do? Like this thing, and there's not there's just no. I mean, sometimes there's just not. That's at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_04 58:28

The longer you power lift, the longer the more you learn. There's just sometimes that's just it's just not on.

SPEAKER_00 58:32

And just for me, like I needed to be on uh to lift the weights, and I just I I could I just could tell that I was not, and then I tried. Um, I actually felt like I was, you know, I missed the second. That kind of my my grip kind of slipped a little bit and off the floor, which kind of got in my head a little bit. And then I really did a decent job getting myself like back to try a third, but I just think at that point I just kind of out of gas. Um so yeah, it was a I don't I don't know. I like I would have liked to hit it, but I'm not really sure I would have done anything like necessarily different. I just think it wasn't there that day, yeah. Uh which does happen, and especially if you're in the sport long enough, um, you know, days like that can happen.

SPEAKER_04 59:12

And you didn't bomb out.

SPEAKER_00 59:13

I didn't bomb out, didn't hurt myself, and I squatted almost 600 pounds. So for me, it was a good day.

SPEAKER_04 59:19

And benched almost 400 pounds.

SPEAKER_00 59:20

And yeah, and deadlifts honestly are my strength. So for those not to show up, it's like it's kind of like double-edged. It's like, yeah, it's kind of annoying, but also like I know I can I know I can do better. You know what I mean? Like, I know it's not it wasn't like you know, some thing. I was just off on that day. Um, but I still had a great time to be honest, and yeah, I don't know. Like in the moment I was a little upset at myself, but then I got over that quickly and moved on with my life because that is what happens in sports.

SPEAKER_01 59:48

It is.

SPEAKER_00 59:49

Um, quick little break.

Liz’s 1,000-Pound Total Comeback

SPEAKER_00 59:52

Now let's go over your meet recap. Okay. Liz did a fantastic job. Um, she totaled a thousand pounds for the first time in four years.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:03

Over four years.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:04

Uh got a meat PR squat and a meat PR bench, both of those locked in.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:11

We we got a little, so fun fact when you're old, like me, yeah, and you can set national records, you can chip everything because it's a national record.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:20

So we utilize that.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:21

So we utilize some chipping. So one to total a thousand pounds and two to get some PRs. So we chipped both my squat and bench PR. But I this squat PR I haven't hit. I mean, I hit the PR that I chipped was from over four years ago.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:38

So like I haven't been able to put that any kind of squat near that weight um in four years. Yeah. So to chip that, that was super cool. So it was 387, I think, with the chip.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:49

Um, so that was cool because I have not been able to do that in four years. Yeah, long time. Yeah. And then same thing with the bench. I haven't hit that. It was uh I did 205. My current PR was or whatever, before that was 203, which was also from over four years ago. Both of those were from March of 2022. Um so just over four years. But I know when I hit the specifically the bench back then in 2022, it was like a grind. Like, and I remember I took it on a second attempt because I think I wanted like two shots just in case was how we like planned that one. And it was a grind of us of a bench back in 2022, and um it definitely passed on my third. We didn't even try a third. But this one, like it was nice, it was smooth, like it moved really good. It was 205. So, like, super happy with that because I've not been able to hit uh 205 uh forever, 203 forever.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:43

No, that was good.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:44

I have failed, like even just last September, I failed 198 at the meet I did. Um, so to be able to come back and hit 205 as like a second attempt was very, very nice. Um very happy with that. So um I did unfortunately miss my third attempt on both squat and bench, but um sometimes when you're a girl, yeah, your core does not function properly, and the timing of this was just not ideal.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:11

So um Yeah, but overall you did really good because we kind of identified that that was an issue for you a few years ago. Um two years ago, maybe.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:22

Yeah, it's been a little while. Like we kind of so basically like anytime, like either right before or like the first couple days of my period, I my core just like literally one, I'm like weaker feeling overall, but like I actually didn't feel weak, which was nice. But my core was just like, nah, we're not helping you today, um, which is always happens in training as well. Um so I kind of knew that and like I could feel it warming up for squats, but I was like, it's fine, it's fine. I just kind of like ignored it because I'm gonna like gaslight myself into thinking that it's fine until it's not fine. Um and what we have learned, which and this meet kind of like really reinforced that, which I think going forward is I really have like one heavy squat, like in that like heavy-ish range during this time.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:02

During that time of the month, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:03

So like some like I can usually do have two. I can usually do two, yeah. But during whatever my core decides to piece out, I basically get one heavy squat.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:12

In that 95 to 100% range, we'll call it.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:15

Which just leads me to uh for like future meets and like what we have like a plan is basically we're just going to alter the attempts because I think I could have squatted a little bit more that day, but not with the attempts that I made. So, which is fine.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:29

Like, I think you were probably good for uh that day, probably a 391. Um, but it would have needed to be different attempts to get there.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:37

So, which is fine. So, like that's just something that we learn, and then we can actually because like in the past we were never really sure like if that was the case or what was impacting it, or was it my brain, or was it my body, or was it a cut that I did?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:49

Like, well, also in the past, like we had there's a few meets where this would land sometime during that time of the month, and like you weren't able to be touching even like above 90% type thing.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:01

Yeah, we changed training so I could do that, which is nice.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:03

So um I feel you did a great job.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:05

Yeah, so we loaded the 400 for the third. I was like, you know what? I'm here, like I'm gonna try it. I knew the second was hard, so I was like, and I told myself if I could hold my brace, I could squat it because I knew that that was the case.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:18

If I could the legs were feeling strong or looks look strong, they felt strong.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:22

That's why like I knew like in my gut, which I can feel that when I am lifting in here too. Like, if I can hold my brace, I can get through the squat usually. But 400 pounds and uh yeah, so unfortunately it didn't happen, but still squatted 387 pounds, which is really cool. Yeah, um, so there's that bench, same thing we loaded 209. It just I don't even really know why. Like just the strength thing overall, sometimes a little bit weaker during that time. So I think that's really about it. Because the 205 moved really well.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:52

Well, I also think just mentally, like you hit 205 a lot more times than you hit 209 in training, even. Yeah, so it's just you're just gonna be more comfortable. It's like kind of like for me, like I know I can hit 374, like I don't know, pretty much any day. Yeah, 374, 385, like around there. Like I wasn't missing the 200. If you're like 391, I'm like, who that's scary? So it's like it's close, but it's just funny how that works.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:12

Just a little bit more, but it makes it a little bit scarier. Yeah, so yeah, probably all. And in a meet, that's when they put the green plate on too, which I've been trying to like train with it in here so like it doesn't scare me as much, but I also know that that's like a bigger number. Yeah, but so I don't know, whatever. We didn't get it. It's coming soon in a meet, like for sure coming soon in a meet.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:29

Um for deadlifts.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:32

Deadlifts made me a little bit sad, I'm not gonna lie. Um, so my opener, easy. Like, no problem. I was like, cool, I figured out how to deadlift, guys. Like, this is awesome.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:42

Um, so we went if you haven't checked out, check out the YouTube video. It's actually one of our most watched longer ones where I tried to fix my deadlift. And tried to fix it, yeah. I was gonna say it works. Check it out.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:53

So my opener, super easy. I think I opened it like 385, which is usually easy, although I feel like a couple months ago. Failed that so you did.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:01

That was like the day or that I helped you with that.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:04

Um, so there's that, but so open with that, it was easy, like super easy. Um, went to my second attempt. We put on 413, which is exactly what I needed to total. It was like a thousand and five, is what the total was, but that's just what made sense to get to where we needed to be. And like I was very confident in the 413, like making that jump, like super confident. But I was like, I got I'm gonna get this, and like, but then after 413, I get a little nervous because like anything over that has been like iffy for the past years. I don't even know. So I go out there, I'm deadlifting, I'm like literally in the middle of my deadlift, I'm like, yo, this is cool. I can go up. Like it felt really good. It was easy. I was I felt like it was really fast too. And I think I perhaps smoked it a little too good because I lost my balance at the top.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:49

Um, I felt like I was locked out. Like I felt like I was standing there locked out, but I never got a down command. And I kind of felt myself starting to tip while I was like trying to hold it.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:59

And I just I could not hold it anymore. And so I think basically, like, because sometimes if you hit a sumo deadlift too fast, it will kind of like pull you back forward a little bit, which very rarely happens to me. It has happened to me in the past, but like very rarely, because I'm not usually like a fast lifter. But I don't know if maybe just like I was like on that day on my deadlifts, like everything was moving good in the right position, like, and it just moved really good for me. And also the first, my opener felt like off balance. Like, I don't know if it was like not like backwards off balance, like side aside. Like one side felt heavier than the other. So I don't know if maybe I was like almost like mentally like overcompensating for like feeling weird. I don't know. But either way, I did not get my second attempt deadlift. Um, and that is what I needed to total a thousand pounds. So you really wanted me to go up. He's like, just go up, just go up, you can go up, you can do more. And like in my heart, I knew I could do more, like strength-wise. I was like, I feel great. Like, I don't know, I couldn't tell you the last time. You definitely had a lot of things. Actually, I felt good.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:02

I would I would have imagined, like, I was gonna feel comfortable going up to 192. Um, I definitely would have put 195 to 197.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:10

I think when I think actually, like, if I would have gotten the second one, I probably would have had you load 195.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:15

Was like in my head what we were gonna load until I fell forward and was really mad. Um, anyways, we uh we decided we talked a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:24

This is I will say this is where it's a little different with like uh when you're working with someone that's been doing it a little bit longer. Like, cause some people just want you to like make the attempts and whatever. Yeah. And I definitely just would have made a bigger attempt, like I just would have done a bigger jump because she is experienced. But, you know, there's also another aspect when you're working with a more experienced lifter and someone that's of Liz's caliber, you want to take into consideration what they're thinking. And she has been working her ass off to get this thousand-pound total back on the platform. Um, so we talked a little bit and just came to the conclusion that, like, if for some even weird reason she missed even if it was 190 instead of 187, like she just could not live with herself. Probably not me either.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:04

Um I would have been so mad if I gone up. Because like I knew like more than anything that I could deadlift what I just did again. Like 100% no questions asked. I knew I could deadlift that. But any more than that, like there was a slight thing in my brain that was like, well, what if you can't? Yeah, like I I I knew I could, but also it was a what if you can't, and you went up and then you miss it for whatever reason. Like so I had to make this I had to make the smart like athlete decision, like the genuinely smart, I'm here to total a thousand pounds. That is what I was here to do. Like, did my ego want to deadlift more? Yes, it did, because I knew I could. But like the smart decision was to retake the lift and get the thousand pound total.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:49

And as far as the athlete, uh, that was the right call because as far as like competing and competing for like first place or whatever, it was already out of reach at that point, based off like she would have had to load something insane that I wouldn't ever put on the bar. So, really, the only thing we were doing at that point, and she had already hit the PR squad, already hit the PR bench. So, like the last thing was that thousand-pound total uh for your main goals. And because I'd already won my weight class too.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:14

Like weight class was secured, submasters weight class was secured. I knew I couldn't reach boxes. I knew I couldn't reach to best lifter because the dots was like way too much more than where I was at. So the only thing that hadn't happened was the thousand pounds. So the 100% smart choice was to retake it. So which I am still just glad that that's what we did. I agree.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:36

No, I agree 100%.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:38

Would it have been cool to have a little bit more? Would it have been cool to have a bigger total and a better dot? Yes, but this is what needed to happen because now it's also happened. Like the thousand pounds has happened. So now it's like I can actually believe that I can do that again. Because for like the past four years, I have not believed that I could do that again.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:55

Just me.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:55

Because, yeah, just you, just you. Because every time I've like come so close to it, falling short. I fall short, which is it's always been on me. What typically it's my brain falling short. But we fixed that now.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:07

Yeah, but I think like, and I think that just you know, to wrap it up, like I feel like that is why that was the correct decision and why I agreed with you and everything. Because it's like I knew, I mean, just like Liz is saying, I knew in my heart of heart she could hit 195, like for sure. I was pretty sure she had 197 or 200, but like I knew for sure she could hit 195. But, you know, as I listened to her, and then I know obviously I know my wife very well, like I just know she's not wrong. Like, she's not lying when it's like if she misses and we had gone up, she literally would have like lost her mind.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:38

I'd probably never compete again, guys.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:40

Yeah, like legitimately after all this, like coming back from you know a bunch of different things in life, like I'm not sure. So, like that just would not have been basically the risk was quite simply not worth the reward in this situation.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:53

Um now if it was to like pull for the win, I would have let you load it. Yeah, that would have been because that was like a it would be a two-part why I'm gonna do this.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:01

And because then like if you do end up missing, it's like, well, like you know, I mean I tried to win. Yeah, but I I feel like the thousand-pound total, locking that in back on the platform is just very important goals for you. Yes. And I just think you did a great job executing it because we went back out there and she just absolutely smoked that third um nice little hold of the top.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:19

I pulled my hair up on top of my head, and I had multiple people be like deadlift without that.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:24

I I haven't talked about it.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:25

I always lifted my hair down, like pretty much everything with my hair down. But I had multiple people like whatever post the picture or the screenshot or the video of me lifting. They're like, oh, you know, she's serious, her hair's up now. It was up on top of my head. We were real serious.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:39

You look pretty locked in. I was like, okay, here we go. I was like, this is what we need.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:43

That was all just vibes. No headphones, we just chilling.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:45

We were ready to go.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:46

And the best part, I think, out of all of it is like one, I actually had fun, which was the whole goal. And multiple people told me, like, that I looked like I was having fun, like actually having fun, which I don't think anyone's ever told me how to meet before. So that's cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:00

No, you look like you definitely look like you are having a good time, and you finally put put back that thousand pound total on the platform where it belongs. Um, and now coming next 400 pound squad. I was just gonna say, and now we can move on to achieving uh PR total. Yeah, which will be fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:16

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:17

Um so yeah, so that's kind of like a recap of everyone and our own days, which I think both went really well. I

What’s Next And How To Qualify

SPEAKER_00 1:13:26

think um, real quickly, we just kind of talk about like uh what's next for the team, and then if we are gonna be doing another nationals. Um so up coming up next, we have one athlete competing in USPA nationals next week. Those will be there. Uh Lolly, she's gonna be looking to post it, looks like a PR total. Um she's looking on track, looking strong right now.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:50

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:50

Um, so that's gonna be fantastic to watch. I believe she lives on Wednesday.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:53

Wednesday, she is I think the orange platform.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:58

We'll post all the information in the story. There will be a live stream. Yeah, we'll post all that soon. Um, and then for coming up next, after that, we have a meet June 20th, I believe. Uh we have a lot of people competing, I think over 10 at this point, or close to it. Um, and that's here in Floralla, pretty close by. Um, so we'll be posting about that. Um, and then from there, we're looking ahead to December, which is the meet that we're hosting. Um, and then as far as nationals next year, I think, I think, like Liz said, she touched on it earlier. I think we're definitely gonna do it again. Um, we had a fantastic time, and seems like everybody else did too. As far as which nationals, we will see.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:35

I'm also which because I've talked to a few people about this, I'm not opposed to doing multiple nationals either. Like if because some people are very like set on certain federations, which is fine. Um like I'm not opposed to doing like bringing teams to multiple federations if that's what you know, if that's what they want to do. If there's enough people that qualify for it, we definitely are more than open and willing to bring like our team, our presence, whatever, to multiple nationals if that's what's if that's what works.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:06

That's what's cool about what we've built. Um, and I definitely something I take pride in for sure is that we've built a standalone team for this powerlifting, and you know, we are about redefining strong for everybody and delivering like a positive message and positive atmosphere to our athletes, and we can take that and bring it to any nationals, any federation, anytime, any place, uh, wherever you know we as a team decide to go.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:30

Except the one that doesn't allow you to compete in other federations.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:33

Yeah, that's wild. Oh that needs to be done. They do like a lot of stuff that's pretty cool, but I don't that's just wild. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:41

Um unfortunately.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:42

But yeah. So yeah, we'll definitely be on the national stage next year. Stay tuned for more details. Um, and yeah, overall it was a fantastic time, you guys.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:50

If you're listening to this and you're like, man, I hope that I can compete in nationals with them sometime. And like you didn't this year, like I would take a second to like maybe look at what the qualifying totals are for both like federations and give yourself something to work towards. Like, if that's your goal of like coming and doing nationals with everybody, like go look and see what it is you have to qualify to compete at nationals. Um, they sometimes do change every year, but it'll at least give you an idea of what they were this year to give you an idea of something to start like working towards. Um, or maybe you already qualify for it and then you already qualify, and then you can be like, hey, cool, I want to make sure I do a meet in this federation so I can qualify to do nationals. So just a little tidbit.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:32

Yeah, so do a little research. Because there are qualifying totals and see what kind of qualifications you need uh to hit that qualifying total or what numbers you need to hit that qualifying total rather, and then reach out to us and we'll make sure you're prepared and ready to go. Absolutely ready to rock. Um so yeah, I think this is probably our longest podcast we've ever recorded. Sorry, guys. So if you made it this far, thank you so much. But we really wanted to highlight all the hard work and all the hard work from our team that went into this, you guys, because this was not just a Nate and Liz thing, this was a Fortis thing, and it was pretty cool to see it all come together. Um, so big thank you to everyone. Also, big thank you to uh Chris and Tanner for and Cadron for all their hard work at the studio. Cadron was here on one day, Texas the next day. Um, so huge thank you to the entire Fortis team for making this a possibility because I really think uh this event and everything kind of meant a lot to a lot of people. So um big thank you to uh all of them and big thank you to you guys.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:30

I have another thank you. Oh a big thank you to my mom for watching Toby. Because we literally could not have gone and done this without her watching him. So like Toby could not have survived this weekend. No, we could not have survived this weekend with Toby. So literally, we couldn't have done this. So if anyone knows my mom or sees my mom and you were part of this, you should probably tell her thank you, also, because that is how we were able to do this.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:58

The alternative was one of us was staying at home.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:00

Yeah, and there would have only been one of us because Toby literally would not have survived with his dementia seizure old man state that he's currently in.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:08

So getting our our guys get a little older.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:10

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:10

Uh so yeah, no, definitely shout out to Teresa. She came through and watched him, and he did pretty good. That was fantastic. Yeah. Um, but yeah, thank you guys so much for listening to another episode of the podcast. If you haven't already, make sure you guys are subscribed. Uh, we'll be back uh next week, yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:26

I think so.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:27

Should be good to rock and roll. So we'll be back next week. Make sure you guys subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, wherever you listen to your podcast, and check out the YouTube. If you're listening, watching on YouTube, thank you so much for tuning in. And we'll see you guys in the next one. Later. Bye.