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UpLIFT You: Strong Body, Strong Mind
Join host Leanne Knox for an in-depth look at the stories behind the barbell, lifting and life. We give you the tools and resources and chat with the leading experts to help you build physical and mental fortitude for whatever stage of life you're at. Tune in every Saturday at 7 AM AEST and prepare to be Up Lifted.
UpLIFT You: Strong Body, Strong Mind
26 | Post-Competition Recap with Damien Horne
Ever wondered how a data geek can turn into a top-notch powerlifting coach? Tune in to this episode of Uplift You, where we unpack the exhilarating experience of the Deep North Powerlifting Competition in Cairns with my longtime friend and coach, Damien Horne. From his athletic childhood to his professional role in data modeling and curriculum management, Damien offers a unique perspective on how analytical skills and adaptive communication styles revolutionize his coaching approach. Discover the meticulous balance between preparation and adaptability that defines success in powerlifting competitions.
Experience the mental game of powerlifting as we discuss the strategies that make or break a competition. Learn how stepping back and maintaining a calm demeanor can enhance performance, and how coaching others can surprisingly diffuse personal pressure. Hear about the strategic adjustments and the pivotal role pre-prepared numbers play in ensuring stability. With a special motivational boost from Elias, the emcee, this episode unveils the intricate interplay of physical readiness and mental fortitude required to excel in powerlifting.
Join us as we journey through personal stories of triumphs and setbacks, from the early days of forming a local powerlifting club in North Queensland to overcoming severe injuries and returning to the sport after years of absence. Supported by a network of friends and fellow lifters, we delve into the themes of resilience, community spirit, and self-belief. Whether you’re a seasoned lifter or new to the world of strength sports, this episode is a heartfelt look into the empowering nature of the powerlifting community and the transformative impact of believing in oneself and others.
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Welcome to Uplift you, creating strong bodies and mind. Get ready to power up your day with practical strength training tools, inspiring stories and build resilience of body and mind. It's time to Uplift you, together with your host, leanne Knox. Welcome to the next episode of Uplift you, the podcast that helps you build a stronger body and a stronger mind through practical tips, powerful tools and inspiring stories. Today's episode is coming in hot, fresh off the Deep North Powerlifting Competition in Cairns, north Queensland, which took place last weekend.
Speaker 1:For those of you who haven't tuned into last week's episode, let me fill you in quickly. My good friend and producer, mike Schwartz, flipped the script and interviewed me about my experience at the competition, not just as a coach but also as a competitor. Now, for those who are into barbell sports, you might know that I've been focusing on Olympic lifting for the past couple of years. Last week's podcast gave a deep dive into why I decided to enter a powerlifting competition with just a couple of months of preparation. We talked about my goals for the event, the challenges of balancing my roles as both a lifter and a coach to seven other lifters, and the mindset shift I got to embrace along the way.
Speaker 1:If you missed that episode. I highly recommend checking it out, because today we're taking it a step further. Joining me is none other than my longtime powerlifting coach and friend, damien Horne. Together, we're going to break down exactly what went down at the Deep North competition. Did everything go to plan? What do we learn from the experience? Also, we are going to delve into Damien's own participation and insights in the same competition and, most importantly, teach you how you can apply these insights to your own fitness, strength and life journey. So, without further ado, welcome to Uplift U, damien.
Speaker 2:Thanks, Leanne.
Speaker 1:Finally got you here. I've been trying for months.
Speaker 2:It's taken a while, sorry.
Speaker 1:That's quite okay. So before we dive into the details of the Deep North, let's take a moment to set the stage. Damien, you were one of the first powerlifters I ever met, way back in Bowen North, Queensland.
Speaker 2:Can you please share? You know it's actually been a year, so it's actually to the year 2014 when Martin ran the thousand pound competition at his gym.
Speaker 1:today popped up on my Facebook wow, now that that's got to mean something special, for sure serendipitous, isn't it?
Speaker 2:yeah?
Speaker 1:so can you share with the audience what first drew you into the world of powerlifting and give us a little bit of background of what you do every single day?
Speaker 2:Okay, good question. So I guess as a kid I was always active. So I played a lot of junior AFL, played cricket, played baseball, then moved to Townsville for well, for love, and uni and subsequently I didn't really do a lot of sport, I didn't have a lot of time, but I took up golf. So I spent that long at the golf shop that they gave me a job, became a qualified club fitter and instructor and I had ideas that I'd maybe even go and work on a on a cruise ship and teach golf and fix golf clubs and do that for a while.
Speaker 2:But unfortunately, hitting six, seven hundred golf balls a week herniated a disc in my back and and that was pretty much the end of that. So I had to go to the gym. I just floundered around reading men's health magazines, spending way too much on supplements, and a couple of people from my home state were into this sport called powerlifting. I thought, oh, that looks interesting, I quite like lifting weight. From there I just sort of started absorbing it, got a coach from overseas, tried it, did a little novice comp and, yeah, it basically started from there. I guess that's where that journey was In terms of what I do day to day. I work at a university, so I've collectively been there for probably 20 years. I do a lot of data modelling, forecasting, computational maths, and I manage curriculums for courses like medicine and veterinary science. My days are always different and interesting, but they're always analytical and self-reflective and those sorts of things. I think those skills of working for a large organisation can help you coaching.
Speaker 1:So that's interesting that you say that those skills are transferable. How do you see how those particular skills transfer into the sport, into strength sports and particularly powerlifting in this case?
Speaker 2:Look, I think the first thing you've got to look at is where is your athlete? Are they a beginner? Have they played sport before? Are they coachable? Let's face it, some athletes are coachable and others aren't, and you've just got to coach them differently.
Speaker 2:So I guess, for me, working in a big organization has taught me that sometimes the process can be good and you still don't get the result that you want, and that's probably powerlifting in a nutshell. But I think it just teaches you how to deal with different people and how to communicate differently. And I know you hear coaches say this is my communication strategy or this is my, you know, communication style. Well, to me, I actually have maybe 20 different styles of communication, because I can't talk to you like I talk to Megan. It's different. So I kind of look at things a little bit differently from that aspect. And I think the analytical side is well, I love data, love analysis and, look, you can deep dive, probably too much too. But I think what it stops me doing is making quick basic assumptions like I've plateaued well, have we got enough data? You know that that's a. That's probably a whole podcast in itself.
Speaker 1:So so so, delving a little bit more into what you just said about the, the having the data and the different communication styles, can you sort of lead us down the path of what you believe is commonalities in your coaching style, regardless of who you're coaching? I know you coach women and men different ages, but there's definitely some commonalities. And what do you love about that coaching communication process? I?
Speaker 2:think you learn a lot about yourself as well. So one of the first things I learned really early was there's always someone smarter than you. So when you work in the field of physics and maths, you can 100% guarantee that there is someone smarter than you, and sometimes they're a hell of a lot younger than you too. So, um, I think there's a humbleness. I think about it sometimes and go the way or the way I tell lifters to do things I necessarily wouldn't, actually, if I was an athlete, handle that very well at times because of whether it's my ego or my self-esteem or my confidence. So there's quite a trust with the coach and the athlete. And so the thing that I learned really early was there's always someone smarter. But one of the things that you have to try and do is what can I learn?
Speaker 2:So there was a scientist who was working. He got a contract job for the defense. He was a physicist and the first thing he did with a whole bunch of air marshals and air force staff was to tell them everything that he's done. I did this, I've got this qualification, I've got experience in this. I'm going to show you this. We're going to do that. He said it was the worst conference that he ever had. He got no buy-in, absolutely. People were rude to him and it was really unexpected. So he did a survey and asked like what could he do better? How do people feel that sort of thing? And the feedback that he got was that half the people in the room were more qualified than him, had more experience and probably could have done the conference themselves.
Speaker 2:So the next time he did a conference, the first thing he did was basically sit down in a chair and say what can I learn from you? Tell me about you, what can you teach me? And that sort of set a context for where he could go. And I think that's sort of where my coaching strategy is. I think it's building trust, enough trust where I can say, liam, you need to take the week off, and that psychological need for you to lift just something stops you and goes okay, I can trust where he's coming from, he's not sabotaging me or it's not going to set me back, and that sort of thing. And I think it's a lifestyle balance. None of us are professionals.
Speaker 1:We're not playing for the chips.
Speaker 2:You know I say it often and sometimes we've got to get back to that reason why we first stepped into the gym and got excited about it, and if you can keep that you'll probably do a lot better than the whole grind and beast mode and that sort of thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So it seems to me that what you're saying is your communication style, or any coach's communication style, is highly reliant on understanding the person that they're coaching on many different levels. It's one thing to know what their schedule is. They're training five days a week for two hours each session. They're peaking for this competition. Their physical weaknesses are here, here and here, but as time goes on, that's what I believe superficial knowledge sometimes doesn't cut it as a coach.
Speaker 1:So this is a perfect segue for us to delve back into the deep north and, following on from my last episode, if you've listened to it then you'll know, and if the audience has listened to it, you'll know what my focus going into that was quite different to my normal focus going into a competition, and the one thing that I was really really aiming for was to be present in the moment, to enjoy the moment and be able to be there not just for myself but for other people. Now, that's a hard ask for a coach when you're also a competitor and you're dividing your attention between your warm-up, running out, handing bars off for bench press. You know yelling out. You know words of encouragement.
Speaker 2:Making sure Rod hasn't wandered off to get a cup of tea.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so my focus there was to be present in the moment and to really enjoy the experience. Exactly what you said just before, remembering why we stepped into the gym, and the last 12 months for me has been a really big reversal. It's like full circle circle thinking I've achieved the goals that I'd always wanted to achieve, which was breaking world records, and now, coming full circle back around, it's like I want to be able to enjoy my training and enjoy competition like I did when I first started out. So that was my mindset. Going into the competition and what did? I'll stop right there now and ask what your impression was of the way I approached that competition.
Speaker 2:Okay, Comparative analysis, you weren't as nervous. Remember the Leanne that would just sit in the chair and the legs would, and I'd go, oh, do you want a monster? And you're like, oh God, I don't know, like that'll make me worse, but you know. And the legs, so you're a lot more relaxed and I don't know if that's because you were distracted by the other lifters. I think maybe because you've been able to take the time to not wear the athlete hat and on the coaching hat, your athlete, your athletes performance has probably meant a little bit more to you than yours. You were just there for the ride, which actually relaxed you, maybe to to take risks that you wouldn't necessarily normally risk, like the last deadlift. That was a bit laissez-faire, like let's just, let's just give it a go, like I would have pushed it to 172 and a half if we, if, but you know we didn't have to.
Speaker 2:So I just wondered, like when you talk about the focus was about breaking records, then moving to other goals, are they both intrinsic motivations or was the breaking of records an external motivation? And you've sort of have you transitioned to just being content and happy? And I'll talk about about being grateful in my own experience, because I've never seen you as wanting to break records for anyone else other than yourself. So normally, you see, people have this. You know this shift from an extroverted to an introverted motivation. But you've kind of shifted internally and that's an interesting, because people don't. So I guess you have to unpack how you get there. Does that make sense?
Speaker 1:yeah, absolutely. And you have hit the nail on the head, because, for the people that don't know how the competition went, you know what my mindset was. I just ran through that, going into it, being present, enjoying the experience. And in order for me to enjoy the experience, I look at it like bird's eye view. So, instead of being really intensely focused on that outcome, what my next lift was going to be, how I was feeling I took a step back and looked at what was going on around me and, yes, you're absolutely correct.
Speaker 1:I originally thought that being a coach in the same session as what I was lifting in would hinder my performance. However, what it did was allowed me to stop focus, getting that laser focus, which, for me, raises the adrenaline. It raises the pressure because I'm so hyper-focused and because I was focusing on other people. It kept my adrenaline levels down. I was calmer, and a calmer lifter will always lift better over the course of a competition.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I didn't have time to think about, you know, am I going to get the next lift or what numbers should I be doing? I had my numbers pre-prepared, mind you, because I was out there lifting, unracking bars and yelling out, patting people on the back as they walked out to the competition. So in retrospect that was actually a really good strategy for me to lift better. Also, when I did go in, I had pre-prepared numbers and I wasn't shifting from those numbers. I thought I'm doing these numbers no matter what and that's where you step in. That's where you step in, and in fact, not just you but elias, because as I was about to walk out for my very first squat, elias came up to me off the microphone. Now for the for the audience. Elias was the emcee and he's also the owner and head coach of Iron Strength in.
Speaker 2:Cairns, my arch nemesis.
Speaker 1:Pardon.
Speaker 2:My arch nemesis.
Speaker 1:Yes and Damien's yes. We'll get into that, by the way. I don't know, most of you won't know, but Damien out-titled Elias and I'm sure we're going to hear that story. So the first thing that Elias said to me, just as I was about to step onto the platform, was are you going to break all the records today? And that straight away.
Speaker 1:I thought here we go, here's the narrative, because, people, although I was there to just lift whatever the numbers I was lifting, what I knew I was capable of, I'd already done them in the gym. Okay, and for Elias to come to me I'm thinking other people's narrative is Leanne's always putting in that extra effort to try and break records. Okay, and if you had said to me before that competition that Elias was going to come and say that to me, I'd be like, oh no, no, that'll sabotage my mindset. And what it actually did, in fact, was fire me up in a controlled way. Because then I thought, yep, actually I am a world champion and I am going to show everyone. You know, I'm going to show people how it's done. That was interesting, that was one of the things that took me by surprise. And so I get through the squats. I opted to only do two bench press to save my shoulder. I thought a third one wasn't worth tweaking my shoulder and then we get to deadlift.
Speaker 1:Okay, so my plan for the deadlift was 145, 155, 160. I wasn't watching the board. I had no idea who I was up against. I deliberately did not even look at the competitor list before the competition, so I didn't know who I was up against. And, damien, this is where I want you to step in and take the story over, because you're part of this story and I didn't see this coming either.
Speaker 2:Yes, look, every coach that coaches at a powerlifting competition. They'll be lying if they say they don't. But deadlifts start and you start doing math Because every coach wants to be the one that's changing the deadlifts up and down and rereading the rule book just to make sure they've got the rules right about the lot number and when you can take an attempt and that sort of thing. But I just remember going up to you going do you want to win this? And you just, almost surprised, went well, yeah, well, we're gonna have to, we're gonna have to play the game. So I knew in my head I actually thought that maybe about 170 was where you're at. Who's a great lifter was was just five kilos behind you. So she had to lift five kilos, seven and a half kilos more than you to to beat you.
Speaker 2:So there was that little bit of a game of the cards. What do we do? Do we go high and drop, or do we start low and go high? And I pushed you to 165 and you seemed really confident about it. But you were really adamant that that's all you had. So I had to be honest with you to go, that's fine, these guys might change their attempt. So if they go, do you want me to push them higher or do you push me? And then at the end of the day you went no, I'm happy. So we hit 165, that means they need seven and a half to beat you and I've always been of the feeling that you set them.
Speaker 2:You've got to stretch that lifter that's coming behind you. If they're going to, they want to take first place. They've got to earn it. But I'm also a big believer of you know what, if they do it well, done like that, that's, that's in the hands of the of the lifting god. So yeah, I think we hit 165. I probably think it was the right number. I think you could hit 170 physically, but mentally I think that number just would have been too too daunting and simply, who was behind you was really happy with just hitting a milestone 170. So she lifted five kilos more, both on the same weight. But you're the lighter lifter and they're the little things that you always got to be mindful for as a coach.
Speaker 1:Lot draw body weight, subtotal and, and, and the math is pretty easy from there yeah, and you being a mathematician, I'm sure you were in your element in that particular scenario.
Speaker 2:We've all been wrong, but yeah.
Speaker 1:So if you hadn't been there, damien, I'm going to let you in, and you probably already know this. There is no way I would. I didn't even know what was happening, so I would have just lifted 160 and come second and been happy with that, because I didn't intentionally go into that competition to think that I was. I didn't even know where I stood.
Speaker 2:Well, I think it was the way we did it. You know, like you were going to do the comp. I was like I'm going to do the comp and you're like awesome, some programming would be good. There's a bit of a lag. And I'm like Leigh-Anne, I'm really busy. And you're like don't be silly, just I can do it. And I'm like I know you can just send me some vids.
Speaker 2:So you send a few videos and if you watch the webcam where it would split from the platform to waiting area, because I was at the back looking after I had a lifter in the morning but I had orphans everywhere that someone just needed a hand off or the plates were loaded after squats, so I would strip it all down and put the benches on because I was just looking for something to do before I lifted. Like a lot of people like to rest, I just wanted to keep busy. So there were certain lifts where you would be called out and you're walking and I'd be like running to get to the coach's box and I don't know. I think that sort of casual nature helped till deadlifts and I was pretty much there full time.
Speaker 1:So I guess it was being where I needed to be at the right time and just knowing what you needed and this is something I really wanted to focus in on audience, because I know that my audience there's some experienced lifters, there's some people who don't lift at all and there's some people who are interested in starting. And this is what I wanted to highlight is if you can find someone that you work well with, who you can work with over a period of time and they learn to understand you as a person and what works for you and what doesn't work for you, and continuing to change your approach with someone so that something may not work so we try something else that didn't that. That that worked well, but that will only work well for a certain period of time. But it's more about that connection, okay, it's more about having that trust in someone and finding that person.
Speaker 1:That's not even an easy thing these days because of the plethora, plethora of online coaches and experts, and I just I am so thankful that when I started powerlifting and Olympic weightlifting, that was not, that wasn't available, and I actually got to know the person face-to-face and developed that relationship. Got to know the person face-to-face and developed that relationship. But that particular 165 deadlift, the reason I was confident, the very reason I was confident was because you said to me I'm confident you can do it. If you hadn't uttered those words to me, I can't do 165, because I'd already tried pulling 160 in training. It didn't even budge off the floor, okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So you know, it's having that trust in that coach or trust in even if it's not a coach another training partner, so important if you want to keep progressing in the strength world, having that connection Like I'm a coach, I could coach myself and I don't want to coach myself, because what happens when you coach yourself is you choose all the things that you like doing and you can also get stuck in your own head and not look at things objectively, like if you hadn't been there and said to me I'm confident you can do it. I went, I can't do 165. So that was a really powerful learning moment for myself as well and I thank you for that, because I got the first medal. And when you said to me do you want to win? I still laugh at that because, like, do I want to win? That's not even a question, of course. If there's a chance of me winning, I want to win.
Speaker 2:And you got a deadlift 165, right.
Speaker 1:So, moving on to, really am curious about your preparation and your experience of the same competition. Can you lead us through what was going through your mindset and what happened for?
Speaker 2:you. I can take you on a short journey, like after once I got into powerlifting there wasn't a lot around. There was no competitions in North Queensland, most of it was all online a couple of people who I'd met and that sort of thing. Then it started to sort of, I think, because of CrossFit. There was a few people in Townsville that were interested in it. So we had a small group of us at the local uni gym that would lift and just organically we started a powerlifting club. It was a not-for-profit. I guess that's something that maybe for this not this web podcast. But when you just spoke about coaching strategies and and things because, like, I don't need to coach to live, so my relationship with coaching is very different. It's not not a job, it's about community, it's about connection. So I think that's why the strategy is different too and I think that's why I got back into lifting as well. So we started the not-for-profit.
Speaker 2:I sustained a pretty serious injury. I tore my rectum quad off the bone in 2014, so before I really even got to be able to lift. So I kind of settled with the not assumption. But I guess position of coach, that's what I can do because I can't train and just floundered a bit, did little bits of training, re-injured, got into a little bit of strongman training, got injured. I did a smattering of little comps and then, just before the COVID hit, the kids grew to a point where they wanted to play sport and they both decided to play cricket my one true love. So I went back and played great cricket three or four years and I'm an opening bowler. So if you think powerlifting is hard on your body, probably being 40 years of age and bowling six to eight over spells in Townsville heat.
Speaker 2:So once I decided that cricket was done I was a bit lost. My work's pretty busy, my responsibility, lots of stress, you know if I do something wrong. 150 vets can't be vets for a year or something like that. So you know you've got to be on your game. So I was sort of lifting was always my escape. So I did some indoor rowing, some kettlebells and towards the end of the last year I thought I haven't actually done a three lift, like I haven't trained for powerlifting in five years. I hadn't done a three lift in seven years. And that was a nightmare because a week and a half out I re-did my back and I only had two discs. I had to do a comp with that. I was just training and I was sending some videos to Elias and, as per usual, he was just like bro, just go in the May, just go in the May comp. And something in my head just went yes, yeah, I will. So I just started training Again.
Speaker 2:Bad knees, bad hemmies, bad foot. I couldn't squat, so I just did push-pull. I'm a master's now. So I had a look. There was a deadlift record which was just above standard and I went I could probably get that. So I hit 245.5, and while it was good, it was just one of those things where I was like it went pretty quick and I was like it wasn't something I was exactly proud of. Like it's great that you get something like that, but just a little needle in the back of my head.
Speaker 2:So spoke to alice and started another prep into september and I was determined to do three lifts. So went to, went to a sports physio who's out at the out of the cowboys, and we had a look at a few things and got a few things sorted and actually had a really good prep. So I got about 12 weeks of uninterrupted squat, bench and deadlift Towards the end of that I couldn't really bench because I had a bit of a sore pec. But I think the biggest thing for me was being able to reconnect with everyone again and that was motivating. I know we joke about Elias and that sort of thing, but I don't know. I do love the guy because we're just able to talk so freely and he's the one that's probably motivated me the most just to get back into it. And we do have a friendly competition. But we do joke and go well, look what it gets results. We injure ourselves trying to outbeat each other sometimes, but it does push us forward. It keeps us young.
Speaker 2:So in terms of the prep, I just wanted to do a solid three lift. I said to Elias I'll be happy with a 200-kilo squat. Considering all the issues with my leg, 200 will be good. I'd like to finally bench 140 kilos because Elias says you're not really a bencher until you bench 140, and I'd like to extend the deadlift a little. So training was pretty good.
Speaker 2:I honestly hit probably 200 kilos for doubles. I probably hit that weight four or five times in training leading up to it. But it comes back to being grateful and showing gratitude to yourself. I was pretty certain in my head I wasn't going to go over 200 in the comp you were coming up with your team had some of the old ironclad crew coming up from victoria, people coming up from a car who we hadn't seen. So it was actually like a bit of like you know, we coined it the reunion lift and and I'm that's what it was like. It was so much fun like it would to me and I remember you would tell me you would have heard me telling people like this is just another training session, like it's just an opportunity to get out there and have a lift in front of your friends, and I think that really helps.
Speaker 1:What was the highlight of the competition for you?
Speaker 2:Well, I can tell the story. One of the people that I got to catch up with is Tom Bro, so Thomas Lilly from Zero W. We met in the morning, had a chat. He couldn't believe I was doing a three lift. We joked around, how you know it's been seven years and I said, look, believe I was doing a three lift. We joked around, how you know been seven years and I said, look, I'll just be happy, I'll hit 200, do this and extend my deadlift record a little bit.
Speaker 2:And he kind of went, oh, do you still have that? I was like, well, I think I do. He goes. Are you using the web? And I was like, yeah, he goes. Oh, we're just about to change over to the new website. It's got all the updated records on it. And I was like, okay. So, uh, we had a look and it was 272 and a half kilos and I was just like geez. And he was like, simple, just deadlift 273. Now, mind you, the the best deadlift I've done in training this prep was 250, these velocity training. So it's probably around 0.28, maybe 6.
Speaker 1:Probably around 8, 8.5.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's getting there Slow off the ground, but it was really quick from the knee. And anyway, thomas went and the guys were like, oh, what are you going to do? And I just jokingly sort of said you know, if I hit this, if I hit 273 in comp comp, I'll get a full back piece, like joel and joel was there getting changed big back piece. Didn't think much of it throughout the day, my mind just flipped around from going do I give this a good crack? Do I stay grateful? And you know.
Speaker 2:So I went from just taking a token, one squat, one bench and having a good go and I thought no, the whole process was about a 200 kilo squat, 140 bench. So I just I was going in to do one squat. I hit 177 and a half and I just it moved really well. I just went. Oh well, I might as well do one. 190 moved really well. Maybe could have should have got red lighted because the bar came off my back and then Josh goes are you doing another? I said yeah, chuck 200 on. I was really happy and I went. I actually feel really good. I can't feel any of the niggles and you know this is pretty good.
Speaker 2:So I only took two benches because I hit 132.5. I was really cramping up and I knew 140 wasn't there. It was too slow. So I also had to be realistic there. And that was kind of the turning point where I was like I want this 173, I've got to work for it, and it was probably one of those first times I stood back and went. You're going to have to be really selfish. So I don't know if you saw me at the back, but I didn't really talk to anyone, I just paced and got my head in a space that yeah, that I don't normally get into.
Speaker 2:I'm pretty approachable and stuff, but I think most people avoided me during that time. But it was different and it was about taking myself from here to here because I knew from my own lifting that if I get the bar off the ground I'll lock it out. But I've got to get it off the ground and the only way I'm going to do that is to apply as much force as possible I can. And it's not a technique thing, it's not about finding the special foot position. It was just about finding something inside and just recruiting as many muscle fibers as quickly as I could to just get it moving.
Speaker 1:Is there a specific thing that you were focusing on to find that thing?
Speaker 2:inside. We joked around that it was the Cowboys lost the night before. No, not really. I think I almost put on a persona of just someone who just wanted to just look deep within themselves and just do it. Two things come to mind In the podcast. The first part of this you spoke about goals and I didn't really have a deadlift goal as such. It was just extending and it was what it was. It wasn't until Thomas said just deadlift 273, and I just think about that Driving up in the car. I never would have fathomed I could lift that way. It was the fact that someone dangled the carrot in front of me.
Speaker 1:So there's a definite parallel between our last deadlifts. It was, it was it's amazing, because I had the 160, which I would have been very happy with, and you had your 145,. 245, was it? Yeah, 245, which-4-5, was it?
Speaker 1:Yeah 2-4-5, which you would have been happy with, until someone raises the bar for you. That's right and makes you aware that you know there's more that you can achieve if you just focus in on this one lift. Yeah, so when you say you went inside and you know you were thinking about putting on a different persona, what was it?
Speaker 2:Maybe it was just a different side of me that most people don't see. Last night you wanted me to fill out a bit of a questionnaire and you asked like who inspires you? And I wrote myself, and most people wouldn't believe it, but I'm actually really heavily introverted. I lift because I want to myself, and most people wouldn't believe it, but I'm actually really heavily introverted. I lift because I want to. I've never really competed because I've never needed to, because it's the exploration, it's the journey, it's the data, it's the science behind it. For me, that's always held the value and that's just mine.
Speaker 2:Um, you know, going from being a social scientist and going into into science fields and learning about that was, all you know, intrinsically motivated.
Speaker 2:I taught myself multi-variable calculus because I just wanted to learn it, so I guess that was probably an outward projection of another part of me that most people don't see. There was a vulnerability there too, I think, because you kind of do act like a bit of a dickhead, just walking around not talking to anyone, because a lot of people aren't used to that, especially at north queensland comps, because we're all friends and we're so supportive. But I just needed to back off and I think there's also a bit about just because I've been involved in the sport for so long but haven't lifted a lot and haven't been able to for a multitude of reasons. To me, 173 and hitting that record just legitimised me as a lifter, not as a coach, not as a volunteer, not as the tech guy, not as the referee. It was a go to actually this guy's hit a really good lift. I hit the lift, so I guess that was just a little bit of self-pride.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was going to say what does that actually mean? About what do you think that that? What does that say about you in your own head?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it also just shows that age is, you know, just a number at this stage, isn't it Like it's going to hit us all but it's not there yet. Like I think we're a lot capable of a lot more as we age. You know stuff that we were talking because we had a lot of time to chat. You know Joel and Josh and I we drove up from Townsville to Cairns and we all stayed in Airbnb with Jan and Megan and you know we had a chance to talk about stuff.
Speaker 2:And again, the theme is gratitude and it is gratitude and it's one of one of the key components for good, good mental health in in general is being grateful. And you know I always joke about. You know I said these young guys are going to smash me in this competition, like I could potentially total over 600 and come last, but I've got to be grateful that I'm entering mid-40s and I'm still able to lift these sorts of weights. And the fact that you can still get the young guys going oh, but he's still not bad for an old fella or blah, blah, blah those are the things that make you feel good. So I guess that's a bit motivating too, that people look up to you for different reasons and I know that my athletes were pretty proud of it because once they got to celebrate in my success because normally you know I celebrate in theirs and it feels really weird talking about it, because normally I'm talking about how good my lifters are and all the stuff we do to give them a good performance.
Speaker 1:I was just about to bring that up, because what surprises me about what you've just said about yourself is if you flip the script and look at, for example, what even what I've achieved over the time that you've been coaching me, never once was the narrative for me that that person is going to it can lift more than me because of the age factor, and never once did I ever hear you say the same thing. Yet you know so you've. You show full belief in your lifters, regardless if they're 40 and they're going against 20 year olds. That's not an issue. That's that's not. That's not an issue. Yet in your own head, you're saying you know that I'm a lot older than them. So there's a bit of a a disconnect there between you. You know the belief that you, that you have in your lifters and the belief that you have in yourself yep, I know myself better, don't I?
Speaker 1:you know like it's.
Speaker 2:I think it's very rare for a coach to know the deepest, darkest thoughts of their lifters. You know, like how many lifters put on a brave face, you know, but you can't hide from yourself. I think the other thing that I want to point out is is Elias's role. So again, I know I joked around that I, you know out, totaled his best ever total and we won't dwell on that too much. But I spoke to him every day, spoke to him about the lifting, spoke to him about the lifts Because of my injuries, squatting to death always a big thing Because I'm a squat Nazi, like people call me Amsterdam because I love giving a red light. So you know, you always project your deepest fear.
Speaker 2:So I was like, and I thought my squat depth was okay and Elias said, no, you need a couple more inches. And probably for a week and a half I said no, don't, no, like that's the old standard, this is the new standard. Send him videos, send him other people's lifts going now, look what this is and he's like man, I don't think it's deep enough and I guess, out of respect for him, just went. I again learning from other people and, and you know, not not like operating in a silo. I I went, yeah, okay, so I worked those last three weeks making sure, hitting depth, hitting depth, you know, and I think it was that last week and a half he was just like, yep, I'd give all of those no dramas. Yeah, like hit depth got my squats through. So I think without his just being there, I probably wouldn't have had the success either.
Speaker 1:So that's exactly what I was talking about with. You know the audience that are listening and there's a lot of people who I've heard this story quite a bit over the last six months. People contact me and go Leanne, I'd really love to start lifting, but you know, I've been on your Instagram or your Whitsunday Weightlifting Instagram and there's all these great lifters and you know I'm just I'm not good enough to. I don't think I feel I don't feel good enough to come to your gym. You know, like people think you know to, if to walk into any type of strength gym, that they already need to know and be able to do. So what would your advice be for? Like people that are really wanting to get into the strength world and they're sitting on that, you know they're sitting on that edge, thinking should I should know how do I do it, you know. Or even someone who's wanting to compete for the first time.
Speaker 2:Um, a good question. Like I always felt like when we had the not-for-profit, the hardest job just getting someone through the door. Once you get them through the door, they won't leave, because the perception of what strength training is to someone who's never done it before it's so different. Like, look at the deep north competitions, there's more female competitors than male competitors. So I think the cultural environment that exists I don't think instagram and the meme culture and social media at times helps portray truly what, like a sport like powerlifting is. I think it's really empowering.
Speaker 2:But again, I think you can choose to be or do whatever, whatever you want.
Speaker 2:You know, like my advice for people is to try it and let's face it, there's a lot of different strength sports out there. I mean, you can quite happily go to a gym and Jackie and Elias will tell you they've got members there that have been members for years, turn up three or four times a week and don't do any strength sport, but they're in the gym and they're around the community and they've got friends and they're connected and maybe and they've got friends and they're connected and maybe they volunteer at a comp. I think you've just got to be vulnerable, don't you? And that's the advice I give my kids sometimes when they're playing sport or they want to do a school activity, is nothing comes from being safe. And even from a professional perspective, you know, sometimes I have to go into meetings and talk with some pretty educated people and you've got to be vulnerable enough to throw some ideas out there just to see what sticks.
Speaker 2:But I think there's a way you do it and that's a coach's job, like there's ways of allowing people to be vulnerable. Yeah, yeah, and that's the key. And vulnerable looks different to different people, doesn't it?
Speaker 1:It does. So what's in the planning book right now for you, Damien?
Speaker 2:I don't know. I don't know. I'm trying to convince Elias to do a bench-only comp, so maybe this will motivate him to to have a crack, be vulnerable so we need to get some iron strength listeners onto this podcast I'll send it to him, don't worry about that and and the members, so that you know they can start giving him a dig here and there to look look, look again.
Speaker 2:it's purely selfish and and I've done it myself with lifters is I've always found that doing short bursts of a bench-only program can be really beneficial for people whose bench lags. For myself, I think I'm in a good spot where, you know, leading into Christmas, if I did a bit of a bench program and did some of my other lower accessory stuff and some of the rehab that I now need to do would be really beneficial, but selfishly, if Elias does it too, that's just more connection, more messages, more videos, more banter, all the stuff that I love. So you know I quite enjoy the camaraderie, you know the tribalism of it all.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I do have a common question that I ask people at the end of, towards the end of my podcast, and you've already answered it, and that is like how do you uplift? Well, you've answered it in a way, but I'm going to phrase it again how do you uplift yourself?
Speaker 2:Finding connections with good people, and that's one half of it. The other half of me is knowledge. I'm a learner, good at quiz notes, so I uplift myself through knowledge, and sometimes that's knowledge of lifting. So the best thing I've done with my prep is using velocity software to track. So I've just got data. I've got magnitudes of data now that I can use to fine-tune, calibrate, recalibrate programs and that sort of thing which I'd love to talk about one day because I think it's the next wave, especially integrating it with AI and getting AI to do all the hard work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I mean it's a tricky one because you don't measure how you uplift people, it just happens. And I think the fact that, even though our little not-for-profit had to stop, but continually, those who are still lifting are still with us. I've got group chats with people for eight or nine years and we don't even talk about powerlifting anymore. I've been to weddings, I've been a best man, I've been an emcee. I guess that's how I I don't know how that's the output and I think that's the diagnostic tool, how I do that. I think it's just being genuine and all the things we've spoken about. I guess, yeah, being genuine and all the things you've spoken about, I guess.
Speaker 1:Yeah, being genuine and being. One thing that I will say about you as a coach is the athletes that you do coach and you don't. Obviously, having the job like you do have, you don't have the amount of time to put into it. It's not your income, let's put it that way, it's not your main job, but you do put the utmost of thought and care into your programming and because of your background I do believe because of your statistical, mathematical, scientific background you've got a double-pronged sword there, so you are able to connect with people in a very genuine, authentic way and your programming is on point, with not only technical knowledge, which is very important. But then you can start talking about data and we can certainly go into a conversation in the future on another podcast on bar speed and velocity-based training, because that's something obviously I'm very interested in too and, as you know, one of my favorite Olympic weightlifting coaches, travis Mash, is the guru, so perhaps we can have a three-way combo there.
Speaker 2:And I'd love to talk about how I've used it, because it's something that's just happened organically. You know, like if I just used purely RPE, there were days where I'm like feeling a bit run down. I won't hit as high of a top set, but when I compare it to the six-week trend, it's 100% and I go, well, that's just how I feel, but the bar's still moving. So what variable? What do we actually use as our measure? Do I go by how I feel or how the bar's going?
Speaker 2:Because if I go by how I feel or how the bar's going, because if I go by how I feel I'm not hitting my top set, I go by how the bar's feeling, because it's predicated on this assumption that your body knows what's best, right. And then there's days where I'm like 10%, 15%, lower than the six-week trend and then I've got that bit of that dog in me and just gone, well'll just move the bar quicker. Then all of a sudden, we're at 100, we're at 102 percent and we've hit top speeds and I feel better for it. And there's some intuition. There's some intuition there where you need to know oh, actually, no, I'm feeling like shit, I need to stop to.
Speaker 1:Well, it just feels a bit heavy yeah but the speed's still there and that's a really interesting conversation on the body mind connection, which which I'm really big on, and obviously this whole podcast is based on strong body, strong mind and the interplay between the two. So you're coming from the scientific, you know measurable side of how fast is that bar moving, regardless of how you're feeling?
Speaker 2:you know and depending on the background of your listeners, but when you develop a first year curriculum for a science program or you teach first year science, the first thing you learn about is accuracy and precision. So if I got students and said, tell me the pros and cons of accuracy or precision when it comes to rpe, compared to measuring a velocity, how you, how can you be accurate and precise for RPE?
Speaker 2:you're talking about objectivity versus subjectivity here and I'm not saying that RPE isn't warranted. I think it's a great tool and the RTS model of hitting a certain RPE leads to a certain recovery time. But when you talk about that in-time comparability of how I feel to how it's moving, that's almost what we'd call a blue ocean. It's a new sphere of two areas converging, you know what that blue ocean theory?
Speaker 1:that's a great way to end this conversation and put that on the agenda for a future conversation which I would love to lead between yourself, as a powerlifting coach, and Travis Mash, as an Olympic weightlifting coach, and how they use that. Both of you use the bar speed in making better lifters because, at the end of the day, that's the goal making better lifters.
Speaker 2:I own some of Travis's books. They're fantastic, because I originally wanted to be an olympic lifter. I didn't even say that in here. But you know, leanne, I'm not that agile, I'm not that flexible all I remember seeing.
Speaker 1:To be honest, all I remember seeing is the continental clean. Now, that is not the same as a clean, but I remember that continental clean that you showed me in the strongman. I was thinking broken wrists and how the hell did you do that?
Speaker 2:the only one. The only thing I can think of is remember when we ran the nq games together. I did the power lifting and we did the weight lifting. We had them together and the ceremony was on and I saw a 40 kilo bar at the back and I tried to one arm snatch it but the collars weren't on. So in the middle of the ceremony the plates and the bar and everything went flying. That's what I remember. So it was a short.
Speaker 1:It was a short career so for the audience very quickly. There used to be and it's certainly not like this anymore, which I, which I celebrate but way back when we, when I ran the NQ games, I really do believe that was one of the first times that Olympic weightlifting met powerlifting. In the same event, we used to say the dark side, stop going to the dark side depend which side you were coming from. The other side was always dark, and now you know, after people have become more open to different styles of training and cross training and hybrid programs, that one can complement the other and I'm happy about that. So there's no more dark side as far as I'm concerned.
Speaker 2:I'm sure we've both had lifters where you've got to be honest and go oh, have you tried Olympic weightlifting? You might be a bit more suited to that. Or someone comes in and you're like well, have you tried running? Because you might be a bit. You know, that might be the sport for you.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, thank you so much for your time today and looking forward to that future conversation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sounds good.
Speaker 1:About that bar speed for our audience that are interested in that, and if you don't know what it is, go check it out. I can put a link in the podcast to Velocity-Based Training Travis Mash's work, and if Damien's got any interesting articles or references, we can put those in too, because it certainly is the way of the future.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've got an app in a company that I use, who I message quite regularly to say, oh, this would be a good feature.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, thanks again and stay strong.