The Masters Athlete Survival Guide
We explore thriving as an athlete after 40. Each episode, we’ll dive into tips, hacks, and inspiring stories from seasoned athletes and our personal experience. Whether you’re a weekend warrior or a competitive pro, this podcast is your playbook for staying fit, strong, and motivated
The Masters Athlete Survival Guide
Iron Therapy, Powerlifting After 40: A Conversation with Coach Kyle Sheridan
Kyle Sheridan, powerlifting coach and gym owner, shares valuable insights on how masters athletes can safely and effectively engage in powerlifting to maintain strength and mobility as they age.
• Mental strength is a common denominator among successful masters athletes
• Recovery is crucial - most masters athletes benefit from training only 3-4 days per week
• One of Kyle's 50+ female athletes broke world records deadlifting 529 pounds
• Powerlifting movements help build skeletal muscle and improve balance to prevent falls
• Protein intake should be 0.8-1g per pound of bodyweight for strength athletes
• Creatine monohydrate (5-10g daily) is recommended for all strength athletes
• Competition provides motivation and goals - the powerlifting community is extremely supportive
• Post-competition recovery should include at least a week off from barbell movements
• Food preparation doesn't need to be complicated but should be sustainable
• Masters athletes shouldn't fear starting powerlifting - it's never too late to begin
Follow Kyle on Instagram @sheridanstrength or visit thestrengtcrew.com to learn more about his coaching services.
@masters_athlete_survival_guide on IG
New episodes come out every other Thursday!
Welcome to the Master's Athlete Survival Guide, where we explore the secrets to thriving in sports after 40. I'm John Catalinas and, along with Scott Feig, we'll dive into training tips, nutrition hacks and inspiring stories from seasoned athletes who defy age limits. Whether you're a weekend warrior or a competitive pro, this podcast is your playbook for staying fit, strong and motivated. Let's get started and we're back. Who's that guy over there? I'm Scott. Who am I?
Speaker 2:You're still John.
Speaker 1:Okay, and who do we have on the phone?
Speaker 2:Today we are very happy to have Kyle Sheridan with us. Say hi, Kyle, How's?
Speaker 3:it going everybody.
Speaker 1:So here's the best part of interviewing Kyle. We don't know Kyle. We've never met Kyle. Kyle came highly recommended from our friend, Mark Taylor. Friend is kind of a loose term. Oh, I thought you were going to say highly recommended was a loose term. I'm like can we not offend the guest right?
Speaker 2:out of the box. No, no, no, I'm happy with the guest. It's the recommendee, not the recommendee. Well, I know Mark as well, I actually and I.
Speaker 3:I wouldn't call him a friend either, but a co-worker, perfect just kidding, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1:No, no, I'm sorry mark's an awesome guy we recorded it. You're gonna need an address to send us the uh, no, the check yeah I love mark that's sweet. No, mark's a good dude that makes one person wow.
Speaker 1:No no two tracy's in in no, no, no, no, no no, no, no, no no no, no, no, no, no, no, no no no no no no no no, no, no, no, no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no.
Speaker 3:No no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Gym in Webster and I actually also work full time as a security supervisor at GANAY, the nuclear power plant in Ontario. But I've worked with a wide variety of athletes and quite a few masters powerlifting competitors who have done quite well. So I assume you guys have brought me on to discuss a little bit of that and kind of some of the nuts and bolts of powerlifting and strength training for older athletes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean honestly that and you know what your favorite breakfast cereal is. But yeah, no, absolutely that. Because you know, scott and I have kind of been testing the waters in a variety of sports and pursuits by people over 40. And I got to tell you I mean I power lifted in the 90s when I still had like connective tissue and hair and, um, very nice. I don't think when you look at like a 60 year old dude that you're thinking power lifter. But I know it happens and you know I encourage it, especially as the research comes out that you putting significant weight on your frame helps with connective tissue and bone density and all that jazz.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:So let's jump right into what kind of athlete you have seen as far as master's athlete. Do you have one? Do you have 400? No, no.
Speaker 3:I've worked with actually a couple fairly high level athletes, a couple female athletes as well as a really good male athlete and, honestly, a common denominator between them all is their mental strength, and I think that kind of plays a big role too. So, like they come to me knowing that they may not be in the best physical shape anymore, or at least like knowing that they're not able to push as hard as frequently, so they want to make sure that they do it the right way and that's kind of where I come in on that. So it's kind of managing recovery, managing fatigue, knowing when to push forward, when to pull back. But a couple of really high level athletes I actually had one athlete, uh, who broke an all-time world record total, uh for the 50 to 54 age group. A female athlete who ended up deadlifting 529. Um, yeah, at under 220 pounds. Uh, she squatted 429, bench 231 and hit 529 on the deadlift and, uh, that was a total all-time world record at the time. Um, back in 2023. But, yeah, colette, colette bates just incredible.
Speaker 2:Shout out to colette most definitely kyle before you go before you go too far, I want to hit on something that my trainer has brought up to me, because, you know, I'm 55 years old, I've got this mentality that the gas tank is there and I can train five days a week at 55 doing strongman. After a few days of that, or maybe a week of that, my body says, hey, dummy, ain't no one holding your beer? You're falling down on your own right now. You brought something up that I absolutely love the idea of rest. How?
Speaker 2:to manage it, how to put it into a sequence? Talk to us about that for a little bit, as a master's athlete.
Speaker 1:I like the fact that the first question for a strength coach is how can I not have to do anything for a while?
Speaker 2:Well, I'm trying to do that because that is John's biggest thing.
Speaker 1:When I was a track athlete, I won warm-ups, and now that I've transitioned to strength sports, I am incredibly good at the space between sets.
Speaker 2:Well, we'll find john lying on the sandbags trying to sleep.
Speaker 1:It's quite comfortable anyway, sorry yeah, no, I mean recovery.
Speaker 3:Recovery is everything Like if you're not recovering properly, you're not going to make progress period. There's no way around that. So as you get older and actually who I was talking about before Colette she was only training three days a week and we found that that's what worked best for her. Generally, like strength athletes, the younger athletes that I work with, a lot of them come to me and, um, they're gung-ho, they want to get stronger and they'll tell me oh yeah, you know, I'm training six days a week.
Speaker 3:And for strength, when you're trying to maximize strength and performance, it's almost like a less is more, like what? What is the least amount that you can do and still recover from? And then you kind of build from there. But, um, you know, typically for like masters athletes, like three to four days a week is pretty optimal and then just kind of addressing, adjusting from there. Um, especially for like strongman stuff like that's so taxing on the cns, five days a week, that seems like a lot especially if it's higher intensity yeah, and now you know I'm just every time I'm with training with scott, I'm gonna be saying you remember what Kyle said?
Speaker 3:This is too much. My CNS is very taxed right now.
Speaker 1:And I know Colette is probably a bad example based on her total that she's probably done it. But has she done? Has she been a powerlifter since she was a kid?
Speaker 3:No, no, no, she actually came to me from Olympic lifting and at that time she had something like a 335 pound max.
Speaker 1:Oh okay um, so you found it.
Speaker 3:You found a freak athlete that could do yes okay yeah, that needle, that needed just a little, a little bit of fine tuning. But um, I mean she.
Speaker 2:I would consider her an outlier.
Speaker 3:Most people aren't. Most, you know, 50 year old women aren't dead lifting 500 pounds Um. Most aren't coming to me dead lifting over 300 pounds, um. But a lot of the principles remain the same.
Speaker 1:Have you uh have you worked with any novice masters athletes, male or female Cause? I mean, it's a, it's a weird. It's a weird pursuit to get into powerlifting old, but earlier.
Speaker 3:I would encourage it powerlifting old, but earlier. Yeah, I would encourage it definitely, definitely. Um, yeah, actually I did for a little bit, uh, yeah, uh, there was one athlete that I worked with, a female um, she was actually based out of syracuse and uh, more just kind of trying to get in shape while also experiment with powerlifting a little bit and she got she definitely got stronger um, but it's very much kind of just for, like, the novice powerlifters who may be interested in getting involved in the sport. It's very much just kind of hitting the basics, making sure that they're performing the movements correctly, um, not giving them too much like supplemental work. So if they want to get better at squat, bench, deadlift, they're going to be squatting and benching and deadlifting. Yeah, um, and and again, limiting you're they're not gonna be doing that days a week, but when they do go to the gym that will kind of be the base basis of what they're running.
Speaker 1:Right and those three or four days to move in multiple planes, but powerlifting being sort of the antithesis of that. But that being said, if I wanted someone to grow some skeletal muscle, which is really key, some leg strength as we get older work on that balance.
Speaker 1:Yeah, three days of powerlifting is possibly not such a bad way to go. You're probably not going to get a world record total. Maybe you are, apparently, but you are. I mean it encompasses a lot of things that Scott and I talk about. You know a loaded carry Well, you know throwing a weight on your back that counts. You know, if you feel unstable it's probably a great way to start. And the other thing, the the one uh stereotype I kind of want to smash right here, is you don't need 600 pounds on your back.
Speaker 1:You know, training with squatting with 135 like learning to squat correctly and opening up your hips and you know being able to bend your knees and load them up. And opening up your hips and you know being able to bend your knees and load them up.
Speaker 2:There is such value in that I actually saw. I read an article the other day that said yeah, it's great when you're young and you can squat five, 600 pounds, for you know multiple repetitions. But put 225 in a bar, you know a couple of 45s on the side and do that for 15 repetitions, 20 repetitions. Start building that depth, that, just that, like john said, that sort of core skeletal muscle that is so invaluable as you get older because I mean, let's think about it, where are most of the injuries? For people that are 50 and up, it's falling because their balance is so poor.
Speaker 1:So, Kyle, let's play the theoretical game. I am a generic male or female athlete, no judgment. I did some collegiate stuff. I am now 52. I haven't been in the gym for 10 years. I come to you how do I start? Where do you start me? Okay?
Speaker 3:no-transcript, that's possible. But making sure you can retract your scaps, depress the shoulders, get the barbell down to your chest and and then from there I mean most people are able to pick up something off the floor Uh, that looked at that was probably one of the easier ones, um, but really it's just kind of seeing, are you capable of doing the lifts and then going from there? From there it's like okay, we don't want to push it, especially week one, um, but it's just kind of getting started and seeing how you, how capable you are of performing the movements, before moving forward yeah, that's.
Speaker 1:That seems reasonable and I know this is mildly unanswerable, but okay, so I am that same athlete. I've come to you, I have reasonable mobility, I could do, I could do the movements, but I'm not particularly strong yet. Do I compete? When do I compete? Do I ever compete?
Speaker 3:I yes, if you have an interest in competing, I say you compete as soon as you can. Okay, um, get your feet wet, jump in. I mean, especially in the sport of powerlifting, like everybody's just so supportive um, everybody's going to be cheering for you, no matter what weight you have on the bar. I mean you could be benching 95 pounds and if you're fighting, like everybody's just so supportive um, everybody's going to be cheering for you, no matter what weight you have on the bar. I mean you could be benching 95 pounds and if you're fighting for it and struggling for it, everybody's cheering for you. And then if you get the lift, everybody's going to celebrate with you.
Speaker 3:So a lot of people and this is usually kind of a younger lifter thing most of the um, most of the masters competitors. They're interested in competing. They're not going to be as hesitant because they're ready to just kind of jump in and do it. For the most part, some of the younger competitors will be oh, you know, I want to wait until I'm strong enough. I couldn't disagree more. I think the sooner you can do it and then you find out that it's fun, you enjoy doing it, it gives you a baseline to work off of going into the future. I really just don't see any cons if you're able to do a squat, a bench, a deadlift, two comp standard, jump in and compete like it's. It's just so much fun.
Speaker 1:It's a great sport and that's why I love it yeah, and I think I asked you that because I I I assume that was kind of going to be your answer. Uh, I think with any sport, I applaud anybody that's reasonably willing to benchmark in some manner. You know, I've got a comp x weeks out so I'm working towards a goal. Uh, you know, there's always that the why, because, as a semi-athletic, lifelong athlete, um, if I've not had a goal, the gym. I've never quite understood that. Going to the gym for the sake of going to the gym. It just doesn't speak to me.
Speaker 3:That's me, that's why I still compete.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I think that's where that mental fortitude that you talked about earlier comes in the Masters athletes. You know you've been around the block, so to speak, because you're in your 40s, you're in your 50s or 60s, or or, or, or 60s, or or or. The brain sort of puts you in that process where it's hey, I've got to do something, I've got to set a goal up for myself, whether it's just to compete or it's. I normally I'm benching 100 pounds, you know, just to keep a round number. My goal at the comp is to get a legit lift at 120 pounds, whatever. But I think that's you know, you hit on that mental side of it earlier and I think that's a huge advantage that Masters athletes have.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think I mean why I brought up the goal thing and Kyle, you touched upon it, so I did a couple powerlifting meets back in the day and you're not exaggerating when you say that it's an incredibly supportive community, regardless of whether you have 600 pounds on a bench or 60 pounds on a bench, for sure Everybody celebrates effort. Everybody celebrates just the fact that you showed up. Everybody celebrates the fact that some of those powerlifting meets last a whole damn long time.
Speaker 3:But yeah, no, I.
Speaker 1:I was excited to have you on here because, again, powerlifting doesn't seem like something that you know your doctor would recommend at 50 years old if you were just kind of starting. But I think one of the takeaways is going to be from this you know, with, with appropriate coaching in a, in a good atmosphere, um, it, it has benefit. You know the health benefits that a doctor might say well, why don't you try riding your bike for 12 minutes a day? Um, again, I I don't know why I focus on this, I guess because when my mom got old she kind of suffered from it. But the loss of leg strength is is sort of the beginning. You know, it's the first rock in the avalanche of getting really old and really immobile well, it's the immobility.
Speaker 2:I think yeah to that point, yeah, yeah, yeah I agree, okay, so I'm still that athlete.
Speaker 1:I got through a week. I did the prime movements or some substitute based on where I am. How do you make a meat? How do you recommend that I eat? How am I fueling this machine that I'm turning into a walking crane on feet?
Speaker 3:Yeah, are you talking about fuel itself Like nutrition? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like what you know. I guess everything I'm going to stick in my gob include, you know, food and if there's any supplementation.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I mean you on, I think everybody should be taking creatine monohydrate that's. I mean it's the most studied supplement out there, um, most widely studied, and there are just no negative negatives to it. Um, you know, I typically take, I typically take 10 grams a day. Uh, five, yeah, five grams is one teaspoon. Um, that's kind of. That's kind of where most, most people take it. Um, but really any excess that you take you will just excrete Um, so there's not much, there's literally and, and I my caveat will be when I do 10 grams my stomach goes.
Speaker 1:Can we consider five like?
Speaker 3:five. Yeah, five would be a little better. I split it up. I split it up, I'll do. I'll do five in the morning and then five post workout or in the evening.
Speaker 1:I'll do that regardless of whether or not I'm training but but I am a career scientist and I don't allow anything to go past my life without looking into it at least a little. And you're right, creatine is super researched, the benefits bizarrely outweigh, uh, any negatives, which I don't even know I've seen that much negative, except for gastric distress if you get too high in dose.
Speaker 3:But yeah, I don't, I don't disagree. I mean, yeah, there, and there's a threshold there too. So I remember I I took 10 grams and I started actually like seeing more results, and this was many years ago, but I so it was like night and day between the five grams. I'm like, okay, I'll try 15. I tried 15, didn't notice any difference whatsoever from from 15 to 10, so I've just been sticking with 10 ever since. Cool, um, but from but from there. Uh, proteins, obviously very important. 0.8 to one gram per pound of body weight seems to be the sweet spot for most strength athletes. Um, and that's kind of just what? Yeah, obviously what your current body weight is.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, and to everybody that just heard that number that can be work. I mean that can be work. I mean I'm walking around at 242, I do that, but that probably means bars and shakes and it's yeah, not easy, yeah, I like the whey protein.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I, I do whey protein. Um, and start early, so get your protein in the morning, do not skip breakfast. That is a mistake that a lot of people make. Or, um, you know, everybody has jobs, so they wake up in the morning, they, you know, they go to go to work, or maybe masters, they don't have jobs. Um, hey, hey, hey if they have, you know, if they're, they're retired which I can't wait someday.
Speaker 3:Um, but yeah, I mean, get the protein in early. You know you want to set yourself up for success. You don't want to. You know, just slack off the first half of the day and be like, oh God, I got to get a hundred grams in and it's 5 PM. Um, yeah, just eat throughout the day.
Speaker 1:Beneficial, yeah, and I could say that it is hard to get. You know, uh, you know 200 grams plus in my body. But the other thing, you know, because, because I have a podcast and because I don't shut up about stuff like this with my cohort of friends, you know I get people that are like, well, you know I eat a lot of protein, but you know I still want to eat something and you know I think the next place to go is to consider some healthy fats. I hate using the term healthy fats, but you know, don't eat. You know, if you're just eating lean chicken breast, which is fine if that works for you, but if you're still hungry, you know some chicken thighs. You know the prototypical. You know avocado, that kind of crap.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, mutts are great.
Speaker 1:That's where it should come from, because I mean, you know I'm sure you've seen it too If I'm starving and I go to make a food choice, I mean, you know, 70% of stuff in the grocery store is a carbohydrate, a simple carbohydrate, probably a sweet, delicious carbohydrate, but it, you know, hungry is the wrong time to be making those kinds of food choices.
Speaker 3:So yeah, and if you're a strength athlete, you should not be hungry. That's one thing I mean. I coach against that all the time, Like if you're trying to get stronger, you're prepping for a powerlifting meet. You do not want to be doing that in a caloric deficit. So that was the next thing I was going to get to is the calories. Like you want to at least be training, at least in a maintenance state or even a little bit above maintenance, depending on. I mean, everybody's body weight is a little bit different. Everybody's goals are a little bit different.
Speaker 1:But if you're trying to gain strength and you want to put on a little bit of muscle, you should be in a caloric surplus. So how much muscle can I put on as a master's athlete? Some, maybe. Honestly, maybe none, but you know what you can do. You can hang on with both hands to what you got, I mean, which which is you know sarcopenia is real, it does fade. So you are fighting against. You know longevity, but it depends.
Speaker 3:I mean, if you're someone who just hasn't lifted weights and then you start lifting weights, you can gain some muscle. Yep, I agree.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure, for sure and this is where we say for our female listeners that you are not going to look like a male bodybuilder. Honestly, even if you do a world record total, you will probably think of yourself as fit and slim, because you're not going to be Chris Bumstead. You're just not going to be gigantic.
Speaker 3:That's one of my favorite quotes. People will be like well, you know what. They'll come to me and be like I want to gain a little bit of muscle, but I don't want to get too big.
Speaker 2:Right, you're not going to Don't worry about it At no point.
Speaker 3:Are you going to wake up in the morning and look in the mirror and be like, oh God, how did I get so massive?
Speaker 1:You know, what I say to people. I'm like, go to your local like big box gym and look at those 20 something boys. How many of them have too much muscle and that is the only reason they are there. They are craving. I'd like to be too big and they're not. It is. It is a science to get too big.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the amount of effort you would need to put into that, to get to that stage, yeah, not a problem to worry about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, are you a food prep guy, like, do you, do you prep food?
Speaker 3:yeah, I do, yeah, so I I usually do, like shredded chicken in the crock pot. I actually have some chicken in the crock pot right now. Nice, um, and that'll last me almost almost a week, a little bit less. Uh, five days or so, four or five days, something like that. Um, so I have my chicken ready at all times. Um, I'll make two big steaks and I'll eat that for a few days. Um, yeah, I mean, I don't prep like every single meal, every portion of every meal every day, but I typically have it pretty much at the ready yeah, um scott.
Speaker 1:How do you eat? Do you prep?
Speaker 2:no, I only point this out, john is picking on me.
Speaker 1:I am not picking on you. Actually, I'm trying to illustrate the fact that, uh, it doesn't necessarily like when people think meal prep, what they think is I'm going to make 20 pounds of chickens, you know 20 pounds of rice. I'm going to get those little plastic containers, I'm going to dole it out and I'm going to put a big pile of them in my refrigerator and i'm'm like I don't do that and just pull the box out, right?
Speaker 2:No, john is asking. One of the things that I do is, you know, I make no hidden agenda with it. I'm pre-diabetic, so I fight staying that way through diet and exercise. So you know it's funny. You said 0.8 to one gram per pound. I'm about 300 pounds, so for me that's a lot of protein and I get it into my body because that's really. I don't eat much more than that.
Speaker 2:But to john's question do I meal prep? Yes, I do, because I think I find it easier to have the stuff and know what I'm going to be eating than to, you know, go into work and I'm sitting there and I get out of a meeting I'm like, oh crap, I don't want, I'm gonna eat. I gotta run to the vending machine or I'm gonna. You know, I've got 20 minutes. I'm gonna run down the street, grab something from joe's pizza slices or whatever. Joe's joe's. But it's the idea that I've got something set up. But no, it's not every single meal. No, it's not the same thing over and over and over again. Like you said, you've got stuff set up. You've got the steak, you've got the chicken, you know you put some rice out in there, as long as you know what you're putting into your body. It's easy enough to set it up for success yeah, and scott will make like.
Speaker 1:Scott doesn't meal prep the way like a bodybuilder would, he doesn't make these lean, new, moderately boring meals. I mean he will make these you know, skillet jambalaya that just have no carbs in them and you know he'll make seven. And I only know this because every time we go to a competition together that we have to like get an airbnb, we we basically make scott cook.
Speaker 1:Uh, scott's an okay cook scott scumbo is is cooked at least one night um now. So I mean that that's an outstanding recommendation for masters athletes too is, uh, I eat so boring. I you know, I eat the same things almost every day. I mean, I'm not religious about it, I mean if and honestly, I will break.
Speaker 1:You know, if I'm out with people and I'm we're having fun and I have to eat something, you know if I have to eat a little bit of pasta, well, you know that that's part of living. But you know, every day is probably a pound of shrimp, some eggs for breakfast, maybe dinner, maybe not even dinner. I mean, it depends how much food I've taken in. So I think food prep is pretty cool, yeah, and I think the key point is it just being sustainable?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it needs to. I think that's the most important factor. You know, I've had athletes ask me like like hey, do you do um, meal recommendation or meal plans? And I say absolutely not, um, I mean, I think that should be something that, uh, you know we're registered dietitians, so that should actually be writing up anyway. But for the most part, if if I give someone a meal plan and say this is what you're eating every day, six times a day, five times a day, it's not sustainable, right, it needs to be something to where. That's why it's like, if you go by numbers, be like all right, I just know that I need to get you know one gram per pound of body weight of protein in a day. However you choose to do, that is fine, right. It's a matter of making sure that it's at least somewhat enjoyable for you and something that's sustainable, that you can do long-term, as opposed to trying to follow you know five of the same meals every single day. A lot of people can't do that. Most can.
Speaker 2:But I think that's where the idea that you know, when John entitled this podcast it's the master's athlete survival guide you know being able to survive saying, all right, I've got to get X hundred grams of protein in. You're right. How do you want to do it? Protein in? You're right. How do you want to do it? You know we're not out to win the olympia, or win world's strongest man, or shout out to john being the world pickleball champion that's me, it's awesome.
Speaker 2:It's the idea that we want you off the couch, we want you to put the bag of cheetos down to sponsor, not a sponsor to to move forward and you've got to have some life, because life happens, you know, and you want to enjoy. We only get one trip around the sun, man, so have a hell of a ride doing it now, kyle, and you're here.
Speaker 1:Here's another pet peeve of mine how do you deal with athletes that have missed a workout or two or three and feel like they've burned all their progress down and don't want to come back to the gym like have you seen that in your? Oh man, yeah, so there you go.
Speaker 3:No, I mean that's good. I mean to me that's crazy. If you miss one or two workouts, that's no big deal. And like, honestly, I, um, the way I do my programs is I, as I write them in weekly segments, so, um, I rate them in, like you know, four or five day periods, but every seven days. So every seven days they get a weekly check-in form. Um that they'll fill out. I I have my own coaching app, actually, so they'll fill that out on my coaching app what is your coaching app called?
Speaker 3:I'm gonna shout to your crew coaching app um crew coaching app yep, I'm going to shout out to your coach Crew coaching app. Nice. Crew coaching app Yep On Apple and Android, yeah. Yeah, yes, yep, it's available, but you got to be. I need to be coaching you for you to actually have access to it.
Speaker 1:I understand that's cool.
Speaker 3:Right, right, so I basically just add them to the app. But yeah, so once they're, once they're added in there actually I completely forgot the question. No, we're talking.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're talking about like like with a lot of habits that you're either trying to maintain or keep um oh, that's right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, if they miss a couple, if they miss a couple I've seen so many people right.
Speaker 1:Like so many people like oh, I missed two workouts.
Speaker 3:I, I can't yeah, so they'll send me a message on the app, be like hey, this is my availability for next week. I can only train two days this week, that's fine, we'll make those two days work. Or if they come back at me, you know, within the check, and they're like hey, I missed this workout, no big deal, I'll just bump that to next week, make it work around your schedule. So if they're overreacting, over you know, missing a day or two here or there, it's no big deal. If it starts to be like every week, hey, I'm, I'm missing three days this week, I'm missing three days this week, then it's like all right, well, we got to figure out what's going on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I mean and that can be an athletes, because you know kids and work life. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but I love what the comments you mean there, we'll make it work. Yeah, I mean that's important. Yeah is just don't stop yeah.
Speaker 1:But I mean, and scott, you and I are, well, you're coach, so you don't count. But I mean we're pretty self-motivating. But I think one of the underlying thing is, uh, having a coach, uh having someone like kyle in your life, that sometimes the only way you can drag yourself off the couch is oh man, kyle's gonna give me shit again.
Speaker 2:I gotta go I gotta do this 100. How many times have you given me shit?
Speaker 2:always well, yeah when you're like, yeah, well, great example. The masters got together this past sunday and you know we were doing kind of a lighter farmer's carry for part of our grind and you're like, what are you doing? I'm gonna do the farmers. No, you're not, you're gonna do it as a suitcase, because what we are carrying in each hand is something that john would yell at me and say, well, you need to be carrying that in one hand. Yeah, so it was. You know, you need that somebody you, to use John's phrase to give you shit, yep.
Speaker 1:Yep, it's a thing. It's a thing, okay. So I'm training three days a week. I'm eating, okay, I'm supplementing Any other supplements. We went from protein and creatine, anything else that you have seen some success.
Speaker 3:No, I mean, those are, yeah, those are the two staples for me. Yeah, I don't disagree, I mean there's some fringy ones.
Speaker 1:Like you know, people speak to magnesium if you can't sleep and yeah, yeah, I take magnesium, yeah, I think if we you know, we all, all of us on here today live in new york where you can't just walk into a lab and get blood work, but but if you're in a state where you can get the men's or women's panel, you can see if you're deficient in iron, b12, d, that kind of thing, then you might want to consider talking to your doctor about supplementation. But I think there's so many better routes through just eating correctly and sleeping and stuff, without trying to make gnc a billion dollar company. They're probably already a billion dollar company, aren't they okay?
Speaker 3:a trillion dollar. Yeah, okay fine fine.
Speaker 1:I've given them my money over the years too, so it's fine whatever.
Speaker 2:so, kyle, you know we've we've talked a little bit about what you're doing now and John's pretending to be a power lifter, and I stress the word. Pretending, john and I are in these phases where we've jumped from Highland to Strongman to Grip to the next transition, is already sort of materialized, when you know our, our goal is to lift the who's a felt and walk with it in 2026. Where, where did you start what you know? Tell us a little bit about your history as an athlete.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I actually I ran track in high school. I was very skinny, I was fast, actually I was a. I was a pretty good sprinter in section five.
Speaker 2:I was very skinny, I was fast, actually I was a pretty good sprinter in Section 5.
Speaker 1:I was neither fat or, I'm sorry, skinny, nor fast. I was fat, oh yeah big.
Speaker 2:Freudian slip there.
Speaker 3:Sorry, man, go ahead. No, yeah, no, I graduated. I was 155 pounds when I graduated high school and after I graduated I didn't do anything for a year. I went to RIT for one semester. That didn't really work out. I was just working full time, um, and I got really bored so I just started doing like pushups and I had the little pull-up stand in my doorway, um, I started doing that and I would just kind of alternate, just doing a couple like max reps every day, and then eventually I saw like a little bump in my bicep and I said, okay, if I can do this just by doing some push-ups and pull-ups.
Speaker 3:What if I actually ate like a bodybuilder and what if I actually went to the gym and like trained like a bodybuilder, doing like squats and benches and deadlift? So I did that and I just went all in and I was just eating like crazy and I got up to 210 pounds. It wasn't muscle, but a lot of it was because I was training really hard and I was deciding whether or not I should do a bodybuilding show or a powerlifting meet. I decided to do a bodybuilding show, so I hired a coach. I did one show in 2011. I did. I ended up doing a second one six months later, in 2012. And, like three weeks before my second bodybuilding show, I hit my first 600 pound deadlift and I remember I was more happy.
Speaker 3:Yeah about that deadlift than I was about competing, um. So then, after that second bodybuilding show, I just switched over to power lifting and I ended up competing from 2013 um, I mean, i'm'm still competing, but my prime I guess you could say 2013 to 2017, I actually became the first in Rochester to total 1,800, 1,900 and 2,000 pounds, yep, yep. So then from there it kind of moved into and my knee was kind of bugging me at that time. I just wanted a total of 2,000. So once I hit that I did that at 242 pounds Um, I decided I wanted to start personal training a little bit, and then that quickly transitioned into just kind of coaching power lifters and strength athletes cause that's who I was drawing.
Speaker 3:So, um, that started the Sheridan strength crew, which ended up kind of moving to the crew, which is what I call my coaching team now, and, uh, you can find us at the strength throughcom and um. And from there, uh, I ended up buying or me and my business partner. We ended up opening up legends 24 seven gym, and that was back in 2022. We moved locations last year and now we're on empire Boulevard and Web webster oh, I know where that is.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, yeah. So you did you mention you also have a like a real job, like a yes, yeah job, job.
Speaker 3:Yes, yep, I work as a security supervisor at guinea, the nuclear power plant in ontario. We care, we care around the big ar-15s all day so it's a pretty cool job.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'd say so oh look, there's a power lifter with a gun. What could go wrong?
Speaker 3:stay well fed, so actually we were yeah, we work 12 hour shifts and uh, so obviously I only work half the days a month, which gives me time to train on my off days, and with my coaching app, I can coach directly from my phone. Um, with legends being a 24 7 gym, I'm able to do a lot of that work just on my computer my phone as well.
Speaker 1:So nice, it works out, nice, nice, um, I I think I think I am part of the crew of muscle heads that have always, or at least occasionally, said wow, it'd probably be cool to own a gym and just be a personal trainer. That seems like cake. It's not cake, is it no?
Speaker 3:no, no and honestly, like I, I have no interest in doing like one-on-one personal training. I really don't. A lot of my athletes I have, um, it's virtual or um, even the athletes that do go to legends, who I coach, they just send me videos right through the coaching app so I can kind of review their videos, give them technical feedback, making sure, make sure they're every doing everything correctly, um, not overshooting and uh, just doing everything safely, as they should be doing, directly from my phone. So, yeah, I think because I I just don't have interest in spending hours and hours at the gym like watching people do tricep push-downs and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:Hey, I got some badass triceps from that no, uh, really no not at all, not even close, but the the reality is, I think that's where the personal training model has sort of shifted to, when it comes to people who are trying to get after the sport. I mean, there's probably like I could probably go into a regular big box gym and find a personal trainer that's completely willing to follow me around and you know, talk about my kids and their soccer game. You know, talk about my kids and their soccer game and you know, because I think there's some people are attracted to the gym for that, for the, the ability to like hang out with their trainer and and have a built-in friend too. But I, I see more and more where it's online and you know. The other thing is that you know, given the right equipment, you know I'm an hour away from you you could coach me right like I. I seen your results. I, you know we mesh well I, I could from you, you could coach me right.
Speaker 3:Like I seen your results, I you know we mesh.
Speaker 1:well, I could use you as a coach and I don't have to like see you, thank God.
Speaker 3:I mean, I don't have to see you at all.
Speaker 1:Uh, no so that. That that's pretty cool. Um, so let's, let's kind of bring this back to masters athletes. Um, I've competed, uh I, if I'm a masters athlete, and I've trained and I'm set up for that first competition, uh, in this era of 800 different powerlifting federations and stuff, uh, what am I wearing? Am I doing single ply bench shirt? Am I going raw?
Speaker 3:probably, yeah, probably not. So I actually that's one thing that I just switched to. I started competing multiply okay, um, just in 2023. So, um, it's a new challenge and, uh, it's basically the. For those who don't know, it's the supportive equipment. Um, that allows you essentially just to lift a lot of weight, but it's also very difficult. You got to make sure it's sized correctly. It's extremely uncomfortable. Um, generally speaking, you need a group of people to either get you in and out of the equipment or, at the very least, be there to spot you and lift off. And, uh, I mean, it's a, it really is a team effort. So it's another, it's another beast, but so, for the most part'm going to say, chances are you will be competing raw yeah, um explain what that is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I guess some people you know.
Speaker 2:Please translate, we understand it but some people don't know what that is.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, so for the competing raw, that means you're allowed to wear a lifting belt. You're naked, you can wear it. Please wear a lifting belt. You have your normal powerlifting singlet and um and then you get to wear knee sleeves and a wrist wraps. So that would be considered raw.
Speaker 1:Yep, okay, yeah, I did like I said. I did a couple of powerlifting meets and I'm old enough that I did it in like the denim bench shirt, yeah, and I got to tell you it's come a long way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and I gotta tell you it's come a long way. Yeah, a, it's come a long way, but b? You know, that's why power lifting was even tighter community back then, because it's basically like, hey, my weight's coming up. Do you guys want to like, like somehow cram me into this 18 sizes too small, force my shoulders forward shirt. Thank you, please, thank you. Or like my friend scott here, uh, owns a pair of I don't know what the real name is, but we call them power pants yeah, they're, uh, they're deadlift.
Speaker 2:Basically it's a half a deadlift suit.
Speaker 1:Yeah and it takes basically hanging them, hanging himself from the power rack, trying to slide into those things. Get this thing on yeah, I'm using it tomorrow yeah, very much. So, yeah, it's it's basically putting 20 pounds of sausage in a five pound casing. It's uh, it's not beautiful to watch, for sure it's not pretty to see after they're on either.
Speaker 2:No, but we were at the olympia. What, uh, year and a half ago two years ago.
Speaker 1:Is that when I set a world record? That was yes, that was when you set a world record. Wow, all right. Who did? Who had ego check, check for 39 minutes into the podcast, okay thank you. God.
Speaker 2:But where we were competing for the arm lifting worlds like right next to us, we're hearing these people that's an 800 pound squat, he's going for a thousand pounds.
Speaker 2:We turn around, we're watching these guys and, to your point, kyle, they're putting on suits. You know singlets, you know partial singlets, whatever that are maybe a half an inch to an inch thick, and it really is cramming a body in there to the point where everything is rolled forward. Or you know, you can't bend your hips, and the only reason your hips are bending is because you got eight, nine hundred a thousand pounds on your shoulders, so it forced them down, but then the fabric is forcing yourself back up yeah, correct but I guess.
Speaker 3:So that's what I'm competing in now. So, yeah, you will wear the power pants, essentially like what they call briefs, so that's two ply, which a lie has half of a squat suit, and then you throw the squat suit on top of that and that's multi and uh, yeah, so that's actually my goal is to be the first in Rochester to squat a thousand pounds. Um, at my last meet in 2023, I hit 900. I'm working with another coach now. I think I'm probably around like nine 50 right now, but I'm competing at uh, rps nationals in Rochester and um, and that's in June.
Speaker 3:So I don't know if I'll hit a thousand there. I'm hoping to get close, it's possible. But, um, that's the goal that I have right now. But yeah, I mean, it is crazy and it's a, it's a and it's an immense amount of pressure. So, even just like standing up with the weight, right it's, you're dealing with weights that you can't lift without the equipment. So it's learning how to use the equipment properly. Um, and honestly, for there there are a lot of masters, competitors who are like serious power lifters, who do move into multiply because it is, it's easier on the hips because of that supportive equipment, um, a little bit easier on the shoulders. It kind of protects the shoulders a little bit when you're benching. That said, you're dealing with a ton of weight, right, uh, there is a trade-off there. But, um, it is just a little safer quote unquote safer on the joints from that aspect.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'm sure there's a bit of a placebo effect, because I, yes, gear works, but the reality is that if I'm an older athlete and I'm, you know, especially if I don't have a deep background in powerlifting and I'm really progressing, at some point I'm going to freak out like, oh my God, I'm putting 400 pounds on my back. Yeah, I kind of want to bind up with something because you know, at the weights you're moving, I understand, like getting out of the groove, what it must be like, like I can't.
Speaker 3:The margin for error is very small.
Speaker 1:Actually, I can't even imagine what it's like getting out of the groove. Um, when the the olympia that scott and I were at, I watched a guy do 1200 pounds in a squat and first of all, like I squatted, you know my power lifting was pre-monolith everywhere, so it was like walking stuff out. Um, this monolith stuff, like the moment it comes it's on you and it's straight down, straight back up, and to watch, to watch 1200 pounds, it looked like meditation because the level of concentration to not get out of the groove and to get to depth was astounding. And you know, and you know if anybody's ever seen a powerlifter.
Speaker 1:You have 27 rhinoceroses around you screaming. Uh, you know encouragement. Uh, it was quite a sight, for for sure. Um, all right, so your, your squad is great. Um, how your other lifts? Are we just a squatter or are we a pretty rounded?
Speaker 3:athlete um, okay, basically, I just met you.
Speaker 1:I'm calling you out already that's how it.
Speaker 3:Is so when I uh, when I totaled 2000, I squatted 770 in wraps, I benched 425 and I deadlifted 805 so those are legit yeah, I believe, yeah, I believe.
Speaker 3:I'm the only one in rochester to have deadlifted 805 in competition, or over 800 pounds in competition. That's outstanding. Deadlift is definitely probably my, probably my, better lift. Now with the, with the multiply gear, you're going to end up squatting more than you deadlift just because you're not going to get as much out of like a deadlift suit Right, whereas the squat you can add up quite a bit.
Speaker 1:So that's pretty standard, yeah yeah, that's cool and it's funny because you know scott all right, at 43 minutes into the podcast we're going to point out the fact that scott was the silver medalist, that masters strongman, and the one thing that's always kind of blown my mind about mass of, about strongman deadlifting, is the whole hitching thing. Um, it kind of blows my mind that you can kind of drag it up your thighs and keep bouncing.
Speaker 1:Just keep, yeah, just keep, keep on, and I know it's hard, I get it, it's hard, but it just it doesn't feel like a power lifting, deadlift. You know what I mean? I don't know, maybe I'm just a fool?
Speaker 3:it's not, but I don't think I could even hitch a deadlift if I tried at this point. Right, of course not, of course. I really don't think I could yeah, you probably couldn't.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's just not how your body's well, that's it, you know, so used to doing it the right way. Yeah, correct, yeah okay.
Speaker 1:So I am this theoretical power lifting athlete that came to you. I did some lifts, hopefully. I came three days a week. I put on some muscle. I had a goal. I went to a meet. I did okay, I pushed myself, I I got. I got nine white lights, I I hit everything, I got my goals and I made my stretch goal. Uh, it is a week after and I feel like dog poo. Let's talk about recovery and recharging.
Speaker 2:We talked a little bit about it.
Speaker 1:Silly in the beginning, but how do you treat your athletes as far as rest and recovery?
Speaker 3:So, like immediately after a meet, are we talking about?
Speaker 1:Just in general, yeah, but basically I'm assuming that that's the most taxing thing you put your athletes through is meet day.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. So meet day I mean typically masters or not, I will have them just take a week. If they want a full week completely off, take that week completely off. If they really feel the need to go to the gym, then do machines like I want your joints, your body, your ligaments to get a break. So even psychologically you might feel like you're good to go. You're not.
Speaker 3:Uh, your body still needs to recover because you just went through a prep of you know, typically preps for like eight weeks where you've just been doing barbell squats, barbell bench, barbell deadlift, everything just so specific to the meet.
Speaker 3:That's taxing. So I like, usually after a meet, even when they do get back to the gym, do like some leg press or like belt squat, get the barbell off your back, because all that barbell work it definitely takes a toll, especially for master's athletes. So for me it's doing a couple weeks of just some lighter stuff, machine work, more stability kind of work and then from there, if you are choosing to still compete or even not, even if you're just kind of, you know, doing general strength training, then after a few weeks post-meet is when you can kind of get back into the squats, barbell squats or maybe even like variations, like safety squat bar, stuff like that. That may be a little bit easier on the shoulders. Um, there's a lot of different ways you can kind of go about that. But yeah, I mean, recovering from meat is crucial and I'm recovering in general is crucial.
Speaker 1:So yeah, and do you? I mean I know there's a bazillion trillion modalities out there. I mean, do you use theragun, roller stick, graston massage, any of that stuff like?
Speaker 3:I, I, I typically don't. I mean I'm not. I'm not against, by any means. If someone feels like they're benefiting from it, then by all means do it. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna tell them not to how old?
Speaker 1:I sorry, you're a boy, so I can ask you this how old are you? I'm 35. 35.
Speaker 3:Although I don't know, I will say I will say getting out of bed in the morning and I am starting to notice this. Nice, welcome to it I am getting stiff and I'm in denial right now because every morning I wake up I'm like oh man, I'm stiff.
Speaker 2:Every morning I'll wake up.
Speaker 3:I'm like, oh man, I'm stiff. I'm like, oh, it must have been the squat I did last week, but the problem is it's every morning and even just bending down, like picking things up off the ground, I'm like, oh God, no, I'm not out of shape at all. I'm actually a pretty lean powerlifter. But I can tell the difference between myself now and myself back, you know, in 2015, 16, when I was 25, 26, 27,. Getting those bigger numbers, like it's there. So, Scott what do?
Speaker 1:you think? You think he's like five years away from dropping something and just going?
Speaker 2:yeah, I'll just leave it there. I'll just leave it there, sort of kicking it to the stair. Walk down the stairs a couple so you can reach over to get it. Yeah, I'll get it at some point.
Speaker 1:So you can reach over to get it. Yeah, I'll get it at some point. It's important, it's fine. Yeah, scott and I are in what we'd like to call the Rice Krispie stage, where most movement has a 21 gun salute along with it.
Speaker 2:Or when you actually do injure yourself a little bit. What might have taken a week to get back from?
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, it's a solid month, or you just add it to the list of aches pains all right, how old are you guys? Because I'm not familiar oh, I'm 57, scott is. I'll be 55 this year.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, okay when's your birthday, september, okay, yeah, we've got a couple of years on you there, bud. Um, I mean, and to be honest with you, one of the things that I deal with is I've got a really goofy left shoulder and after a couple of MRIs and you know seeing some of the really the specialists in the area, they just said, hey, it's, everything is getting tighter up in there, the arthritis is there. You've got some minor tears. So it was funny because I said, well, I got one more comp, I got nationals this year in june.
Speaker 2:And you know, my doctor says and he's a meathead like us he says, all right, you know, well, maybe we need to start considering going some different directions. I said, well, it's funny to say that that's the last one. Then my you know, my lifting partner and I are going to start doing this. And he says, well, you know, how far do you pick the stones up? I'm like, well, just to your chest. And he says, all right, I recommend it. So I now have a doctor's orders to do natural stone to do natural stone lifting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you know most doctors will be like okay, maybe you need to stop strongman and consider like mahjong or pickleball. Yeah, hey, now, hey, now, I know 300 people kick your ass okay kyle uh, I think this is, this is a, this is good. We did well, um, I think. I think we're kind of at the end of things. Is there anything? We missed you know, give, give a holler out to again to your gym and your app and where where people can find you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, so my gym is legends 24 7 gym in webster. Uh, we primarily cater to, um, just serious athletes bodybuilders, powerlifters um, but my coaching, uh, you can find us, the strength crewcom, the strength crewcom and I am findable on instagram at sheridan strength s-h-e-r-i-d-a-n strength. So yeah, I'm, I got I'm. I work with 30 athletes right now. Um, I'm more than happy to take on more. So if anyone's interested in powerlifting, reach out.
Speaker 1:Cool, excellent, cool. Well, kyle, thank you for your time. Um, as always, that was Kyle. Who are you again? I still think I'm Scott. Think I'm Scott, he's wearing his underwear. It must be Scott and I am John. See you guys, kyle thanks, man Really appreciate it.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:Have a good one Bye. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support the podcast, please share it with others, post it on your social media or leave a review. To catch all the latest from us, you can follow us on Instagram at Masters Athlete Surv.