Grab your pre workout and turn up that volume.
It is time for a new episode of The Power Lifters, then with
your host Cam Smith. Hello everybody.
Welcome back to another episode of The Power Lifters.
Then I'm your host Cam Smith and today I wanted to bring on one
of the best female raw ventures of all time in an overall great
power lifter. Jen wants to introduce yourself.
Well, hello, thank you for including the power lifter part.
I'm Jen Thompson. Coming here from Charlotte, NC.
Happy to be on here. Thank you.
Awesome. So I know recently you just had
a competition. I heard things went pretty well.
So once you tell everybody what what your best lifts are,
including your bench. Well, only one thing went well,
and that was my bench press. Everything else was shit.
Just so you know, I had one one glimmering moment.
But overall my best competition squat so 352.
My best bench is a 327 1/2 and my best deadlift is a 457.
That's awesome. Yeah, I feel like a lot of
people just you're obviously well known for your bench, but
people don't realize that you're also a pretty well-rounded power
lifter. You have great lifts and other
lists too, so. I got 4 world titles.
Powerlifting, You know, you gotta have something more than a
bench to have that. And so I guess we'll start off
by asking you about what kind of got you into powerlifting and
when was your first competition? I more just got into
powerlifting. Honestly, when I graduated high
school and got into college, I just didn't want to get fat and
out of shape. Because high school was over.
That's basically how it happened.
I was a distance runner in high school and I used to run Rd.
Races with my dad, but I never really loved running.
But I kind of just did it as a keep and shape thing.
So when I was introduced to weights I was like, Oh my God,
this is so much better. So I really just fell in love
with it, and just as a girl I was.
Real thin. It was stick, stick, kind of
girl runner, you know, no shape. And so when I was being
introduced to powerlifting or just really weight training,
they were like, well, if you do this, you know, you'll get some
shoulders and a butt and some pecs and some some boobs.
So you should try this. And that was kind of like,
alright, let's, let's give that a go.
And so I just kind of mucked around with it honestly from
like 18 to mid 20s, you know, just sort of.
Trained with some friends. Our roommates had a a home gym
in our our basement before home. Gyms were like, cool.
This was back in the 90s, you know, so and it was just kind of
like every every evening at 5:00, everyone showed up and we
hung out and trained and it was just a lot of fun.
But it wasn't like training for anything particular.
I just sort of enjoyed it and I kind of fell in and out of it.
But then in 1999 was my very first competition.
I was 27 I think, and what federation was that in?
It was USA Powerlifting. I think it was right when they
had just split from the ADFPA. Honestly didn't know anything
about powerlifting or the feds. I just you went into the
magazine, there was a Powerlifting USA magazine and
you just looked in the back for upcoming competitions and then
you would like fill out entry form and mail it in with your
check. I mean, honestly, it's probably
easier than nowadays when there's so many federations you
have no clue where to even look for some people like.
Yeah, so I just looked at all, a lot of them were all letters and
stuff and that one said USA Powerlifting.
I thought, well that sounds legit.
I really honestly was just just luck on me.
I just picked it and it was, you know, we lived up in Michigan
and I think they had more of a presence up there.
So just. Just kind of happen.
So when when you went to that first meet, was it a solo
mission or did you kind of roll in with a group of people or did
you have a coach at the time? Oh, no.
Like, I totally had no idea what was going on.
My husband went with me, Donovan, and, and we didn't
really know anything. I mean, he'd been weight
training for years. He'd learned how to train weight
training the military. And so, but, like, I learned to
deadlift like the night before. I've never even done it before.
Like, it was definitely like, let's, let's.
Well, we had gone to California for our honeymoon and there was
a bench press competition on Venice Beach.
And so I went up and talked to some of the people up there and
I was like, hey, this sounds, this is really cool.
Like how do I get into this? And so they were, you know,
telling me what to do. And so then we just a year
later, just, I just signed up for it and I thought, well, I'll
give it a go, see how how much fun this is.
And it was, you know, obviously a big learning curve.
I almost bombed out of my squats like the first one, like I
missed high. The second one, I fell backwards
into the spotter. He had to catch me.
And then the third one, I think they were just being really
nice. He gave it to me because it was
like, you know, it was in a high school gym, you know, it was
like. I think there was two women in
the whole competition, you know, it was just very low key.
So it was probably a good first one, Yeah.
And then so for going into your first meet was like was bench at
the time still like one of your best lifts or like what?
Yeah, I think I benched 250 something, maybe, Or two.
Yeah, 2 something. Yeah.
Squatted 186. I got my opener and I think I
done lifted like, I don't know, 3305 or 315, something like
that. But yeah, it was, I mean when
when we started training, it was all about how much you bench.
I mean that was like the marker of how strong you were and like
legs were like a secondary thought.
You know, they were like the accessories and then maybe you
would get some like hack squats in or something or use the
machines. There was no squatting involved.
So I mean, it was so my bench was definitely way better than
everything because. It's all we really.
It was fun. And it's all, we really worked
very hard. Yeah.
So I guess kind of into your journey, like along the years
when did you obviously you knew bench was like one of your best
lifts. What kind of was like one of
your first major goals? I'm assuming maybe it was 300 or
maybe a record at the time. Yeah.
Like I was doing just I did my first me.
It was a pout to me, but I got into the bench only stuff right
away because I was. I was good at it.
I didn't know the other things and you know going to World got
to go to Worlds my very first year, which was pretty neat.
I don't, I don't know like I always thought if I could get to
300 that would be really cool. But that seemed like.
Like a 20 years down the road kind of deal, you know, like one
day, you know, I think more. I was just focused on breaking
the current records and winning a World Championships.
That was really my goals. I didn't actually have a number
and mine back then. It was all shirted stuff.
There was no raw. Yeah, I was actually going to
ask you, have you ever considered throwing on like a
single plier and multiply shirt? So did you ever compete in one
back in the day? That's all there was.
Yeah. So like, my very first me
obviously was rock because I didn't know anything about it.
But then we met some people and they're like, yeah, I was
because I was kind of like, why are these people walking around
like mummies? Like, I don't get, I don't care
what's going on here. And then they, you know, then
they put, I remember I got my very first Inzer shirt and I
sent it back. So I was like, this is fucked
up, dude. Like, it cut off my arms.
Like I couldn't feel them, you know, like, what the hell?
I mean, I'm sure the customer service was like.
This lady's nuts. Like I returned it for like a
bigger size because I'm like people can't honestly want to
wear this, you know? But I got schooled pretty early
in it. So like, I think my first floor
titles were in in bench equipped.
I did it till I did equip lifting.
I eventually got into all three. I did that all the way till I
think 2012. And then I gave it up for good
once the RAW movement came. Because that was way better.
Yeah. So what was your what was your
best bench in a in a shirt? Oh, I was never really great at
it, honestly. At 3:30 one oh wow.
Was the best. I was only getting you know, 30
ish pounds onto my shirt £35 and I knew like the other girls were
getting like 100. But they had half my arm size,
they were half my height, and they're a little squishier.
So like, I really was. I was really not getting a lot
out of it. And part of it was my fault.
I just didn't enjoy wearing it. So I didn't spend a lot of time
and I was like, this bullshit, this sucks.
So I put it on like a couple days before the meet and then
see how it went. Yeah, that's funny.
So I know the thing. If I've read, I was looking up.
So you're also you in your career.
You're also a math teacher. Correct.
Yeah, actually doing science now.
But yeah, my first probably, well, this is my 27th year
teaching. My first I think 18 or 19 years
were in math. So like as a as a teacher, like
how many of your student or what grade you teach.
It kind of changes from year to year.
I go all the way from middle school up to high school.
Last year I had like 10th, 11th and 12th.
This year I have 678. Do you ever have students that,
like, recognize you for, like, your powerlifting?
Oh yeah, yeah. Well, I run like, you know, I
run a powerlifting club, OK? At our school I, you know, coach
kids in competition. So, I mean, they know that I was
gonna say it would be kind of funny to be, yeah, My teacher is
Jen Thompson, so. Yeah, I get a little bit of
that. Not a ton, like, not as much as
you probably would think. It's sort of like an
afterthought. Or if they know I'm like, you
know, when they knew I was going off to run that, you know, they
wanted to know about it and thought it was cool.
The best thing was like my new principal I have this year.
She's like. My sister is such a fan of
yours. Like, she is so fangirl and you
and she knew everything about me and they fell off my Instagram
and stuff and that was kind of wild.
I was like, OK, yeah. And then, so I guess we can talk
a little bit about the power Cliff in your run there.
How long have you been doing that?
Oh gosh, a long time. I don't know.
I think you do it for so long. Like the years just sort of
roll. I mean, it's probably been at
least ten years or so. And so I know, like high school
powerlifting is big in Texas. Is it also relatively big?
And no. No, I keep trying.
I'm trying very hard. But, and Texas is probably
anomaly. But like in the South, it's all
about football. And I find like anytime I try to
get stuff going, like the football coaches like, don't
want it. They're afraid you're going to
steal their players or hurt them or teach them something.
They don't want you to teach them or they just don't want to
listen to some woman tell them what to do.
So it's been, I've hit a lot of roadblocks, Yeah.
So it's funny because my so, my, my defensive line coach from
college, he's like, he's big into lifting.
He's a very big advocate for it. And I was trying to like prep
for a competition, like to do. I think it was my first meet and
it was like right after the season, right before he got into
our like training season of like when you actually try to grow
And he was like, if you get hurt, I swear to God, I'm going
to kill you. So it is funny to.
Disconnect, yeah. But in reality, it probably made
you the the better player that you were.
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think, I think one of
the biggest things I can pull from that is like the the people
who enjoy being in the weight room the most of the most
successful football players. So yeah, yeah, so at Ron Nats,
like what was, how was the prep going into it?
Did you have any setbacks or any any big like Pr's or anything
that you were really excited for?
Yeah, I mean the the training part was probably one of the
most disjointed ones I've ever had.
My mom got had some health problems and got sick and she
lives in Maine, I live in North Carolina.
So I spent a lot of time flying back and forth helping her.
So that's always you know messes with your training because
you're not in your your home space and you're you know you're
not with your people and your training in a a weird gym that
doesn't necessarily have what you need and.
So that that was a tough and I had picked up, I did some
seminars and stuff but I hadn't planned on being gone you know
all that time prior and after. So it was really kind of all
over the place. We had tried something
different. Normally we were doing a an 8
day system where we do 2 days on, two days off for and then.
So my oldest son is a senior this year and this was an
important baseball summer for his.
Collegiate future. So we spent a lot of time
traveling around with him to different baseballs and scouting
and you know all that sort of stuff.
So that we decided to change it to a seven day system where we
had weekends off so that we could kind of accommodate his
schedule. It turns out that doesn't work
well for me. I just got a little bit
overtrained. It was all too much.
We're trying to make some adjustments.
So in reality the training was not great, but I was hitting
some massive Pr's in my squat. So that because we were actually
getting our thought process was we're getting actually more
workouts within the seven days opposed to the eight.
You know, we're hitting legs more often than the other way.
So. So actually did see some good
increase in my squat, but then my bench sort of suffered from
overtraining. With that.
So there was kind of some, some give and take in it, but we
ended up going right back to the eight day and it's way better
for me. Yeah.
So I guess over the years, like have you had to kind of adjust
your training as you got older or do you think you've kind of
like spaced it out in a way that the longevity held up?
I think I've always been just a little bit smart about it and
really listening to my body, but I've definitely made a lot of
adjustments and I don't know if part of it is age or part of it
is just injury related and working around injuries and
understanding what my body's capable post those injuries.
So we've definitely like, we do a lot less singles in our
training and do a lot more double s and triples now.
The eight day just seems to work really well.
I still work the same intensity, I feel like and we pretty much
go, you know, almost all out every training cycle session,
you know, like I don't like RP5689 or shit like that.
I just, I might get a constant 9.
So I don't, you know, that hasn't changed as I gotten
older. Maybe it's just a mechanism of
that's how we've always trained so my body can handle it that
like that. But I mean, we've definitely
switched around like Rep schemes, days, like accessories,
things like that, always trying to improve and tweak.
And then I think too, you know, you're just life changes.
You know when you're a parent, you have a career, you know your
job changes, your kids are getting older.
You just have different responsibilities as you get
older and your training's got to adjust with that, Yeah.
And so I guess more on training is I remember seeing a video
kind of about be doing static holds on bench.
I'm still kind of unfamiliar, exactly like the methods to
apply them. You wanna tell us about how you
apply them to your training? Yeah, I mean, we felt when we
were in college, one of our friends was going through
chiropractic school and he spent a lot of time studying
isometrics and he was way into weight training.
He never competed, but he loved weight training.
And he's like, I really think we can apply this to our training.
I think we'll see. You know, there there wasn't a
ton of studies at the time. Now there's more where
isometrics have a positive influence over your constructive
strength, especially with the bench press, especially part
female. But I think it helps with the
male too. It's a lot of helping with those
stability muscles and the taking it out.
Positive is, you know, when you're in a competition, if you
get a shitty handoff, you can handle it pretty well because
you're used to doing those, you know, heavy holds.
So that's a. And for scene plus, but the idea
was to overload but then use that method of a static hold to
increase concentric strength but also working stability muscles.
So we started just implementing that every other week.
I used to do them. Actually, when I first started
competing, I would do it right before lifting.
Because just and not for like 15 seconds, but just for a few,
just so that I could trick myself into thinking the weight
wasn't as heavy, you know, as it was when I was in the beginning.
I had a lot of mental like I was, I was really struggling
with the mental aspect of competing, you know, And so that
helped. So I actually used to do it like
right before we would go out there just to kind of rest my
brain like I can handle this much weight.
So this isn't that bad. So there's a lot of, you know,
mental trick in that. But we've, yeah, we've been
doing them for years. And anyone that's tried them,
they always message me and say this is, and I think for like, I
don't know. That helps when you're a
beginner because there's so much form and stuff.
But once you're in it, you're always kind of looking for small
things that can kind of give you a bench of boost or give
yourself a gain. And this is definitely, I think,
something easy to do that you see some good carryover.
Yeah. And like for me, I'm kind of a
head case sometimes. And so I think it would be a
decent thing to try to apply and kind of the, I guess the logic
behind it is kind of like a using a donut for a baseball
bat. Kind of, yes.
So, yeah, so. Exactly.
I guess my next question would be like, I know you're supposed
to overload it, but like what percentages usually do you go
for? Yeah, we do it on squat also.
We call them walkouts, you know, so you're walking out super
heavyweight and then doing the hold as well.
I always say to start like 120% over your one Rep Max and that's
weight that you can usually easily handle no problem.
But it's a good starting point. And then some of it, you know
you get better the more you do it, you can handle more weight.
So usually we say about 120% over and then you know I will
try to hold it for a good 15 seconds and then if you can make
that then you increase next time and just keep going to you, to
you to camp. So I guess do you ever use the
the weight releasers and bench training as well?
I haven't, just because no one's given me any.
We've got bands and, you know, different stability things that
we do. I do find that interesting
though, but I just haven't. I haven't gotten into it now.
Have you? I've used them I think once, but
I don't. I don't use them as like a tool.
The gym I go to we have just the weight banglers so I didn't
release at the bottom, but I'm sure I could figure out a way to
make them fall off. Yeah, I mean, we do a lot with
the bands and it's a similar concept because we do the
reverse bands also where we hang on from a squat rack and then
down around it. So you know it's getting heavier
as you pressing it and you're overloading it with a crap ton
away and the ideas working your speed.
So I mean, it's kind of the same concept, Yeah, I I feel like, I
I do know reverse bands can be helpful.
I feel like usually I I'll do like board presses with bands at
the top. So it's just like a heavy
lockout focus. Yeah.
And then occasionally I'll use like a slingshot.
And I think now I'm gonna try to get into learning like a a
shirt, just so I can overload that, so when I go back to a raw
meat and I can handle that weight.
Yeah, shirts are funny. I mean, I guess it depends on
the shirt you get now, but they're so like way more than
when I, you know, did I actually did put one on a few years ago.
You know, my husband's like just put it on and just just see and
I did like half wrap and I was like, Nope, the pressure.
And then you have to, you know, you to make it work for you have
to take it through the path of most resistance, you know, and
that's all a lot of pressure. Sometimes there's a lot of pain
in your armpit or, you know, your tricep.
And it's, yeah, pressure. Yeah, that's good.
So I'm like, you know what? I gave this upset and enjoy it.
And I think I'm just gonna keep it that way.
Yeah, I tried on like a loose single ply shirt once and I
couldn't even touch 3:15. No.
And it was crazy. And then?
Like, yeah, they got the all the band shirts like the FAA oh,
that stuff's just crazy. And I I'm, I'm hoping it doesn't
happen. But just there's I might gut
feeling that tells me something very bad is going to happen
because I mean they they're doing, you know hundreds of
pounds over what their body can normally handle.
Yeah. And granted, the shirt is taking
quite a bit of it, but not all of it.
Yeah, I mean for like Jimmy Cold, like £14.00, like that's
just, it's just not. And he's like passing out and
shit. What are you doing?
It's. It's so funny.
That's like the the different mindsets people have of training
like that. You can't even put, you can't
even put your hands on the bar yourself if someone put your
hand on the bar because you can't physically do it yourself.
I mean to me it just is mind boggling, but you know,
whatever, it's fun, you know, it's amazing, honestly.
I mean he is holding that weight for sure.
Yeah, that. Along crazy.
I just hope that you know nothing bad happens to him.
Sending positive thoughts. Yeah.
So I know you just competed, but what's kind of like your your
next step or next big goal for you?
So I'm signed right up for the Olympia November 4th because I
actually signed up before before Ron Ads.
Ron Ads was real disappointing for me outside of my my bench
and but when I first started lifting weights, bodybuilding
was what you looked at, you know, that you didn't really
hear about parlifting. So in Muscle Fitness magazine,
that was really the only fitness workout magazine.
And I found it religiously. You know, they would put
workouts in there and you would try them.
And the female bodybuilders at the time, Corey Everson and
London Murray, were like my idols growing up because they
were still like they kept their femininity, but they were badass
and muscular, you know. And I just, I just, I know I
named my dog after them. Like I just thought they were
amazing and it was all, you know and you would wait for the
Olympia episode to come out in the magazine, you know to see
who won. And so when they, you know, put
powerlifting in it, I thought, I want to do that because I've
always wanted to go just because it just looked so cool and it
was like it was the IT. So even though it was only five
weeks after Ron, I was like I signed up for it and then I had
such a shitty squat and deadlift.
I'm like, I'm it's my redemption meet.
I don't care. I I only got 5 lifts and I run
that. So I'm like, if I get 7:00 or
8:00 and it's going to be a better meet, so let's go.
So for the for that meet, do you have any like specific goals
just or just want to hit some new Pr's?
I want to hit some squat. I'm really more about my squat,
my my done lift. I, you know, I aged up into the
next masters age group so there's there's new records to
be had. But I really want in my open,
I'm really want to get like a five, 15520 kg total and I think
I'm capable of doing that. So it's those are goals but
honestly for this one it's like I think I'll, I think I'll do it
because I'm going to have fun and there's no pressure.
You know just go out there and and make sure you hit lifts is
really it. And then you know, it's always
neat to do it on a stage in front of a ton of people with
the crowd and the, you know, that always gets me really amped
up. So and I have bunch of friends
that are coming, so it should be, it should be just fun.
That's awesome. Yeah.
I've only done like local meets so far, so I'd like to try to
get to a point where I can go on some sort of stage.
I was thinking like a XBC at the Arnold.
There's just something like that.
Or just get my total up enough to where I can start getting
invited to meet. So yeah, there's nothing like I
always say, it's like it's like the closest I'll probably ever
get to like being a rock star or something like that.
Because you're especially the Arnold, you know, you look out
and it's just a sea of people, like people from miles, you
know, and they're the got the music and the announcer is going
crazy and people are yelling and people are yelling your name.
Like, I'm like they know my name and they're yelling go, Jan, you
got this. And I'm like, it's just the most
amazing feeling, you know? You feel like you got everyone
in your your corner, you know, you know, cheering you on.
It's a special, special thing for sure, to get to experience
that. Yeah, that's why I love about
the sport too, because it's one of the only sports where every
single person in the room is cheering you on, where every
other sport there's always it's always split.
Or like bodybuilding can be a little like little feisty
sometimes, sure. Well, even your competitors are
cheering you on. Yeah.
You're going for a record. They're cheering you on to get
that. You know, they may be secretly
in their head, but they're not gonna say it out loud.
Yeah. It's always like a, well, I
wanna win, but I also wanna see them succeed.
So yeah, like if they hit this it would be amazing.
So you wanna, you know, celebrate in that with them?
Yeah, So what, Obviously you've done some pretty big meets.
Do you do you have a favorite meet?
Oh well, I always love the Arnold, of course.
I mean, years ago we went to New Zealand and we lived it in the
worlds there and it was for sure is one of my most favorite
times. It was probably the only time
that we are treated as like like professional type athletes where
we put up in a nice place. We were in a main town.
We lifted in front of the town in a theater like we were on
radio shows and stuff. So that and then the IT was just
an amazing place to visit anyway.
And I-1 of course. So that made it good.
I I just, it was one of the a lot of times lifting in the IPF,
especially the earlier years, Like you'd fly somewhere and
you'd be in the middle of nowhere and like you'd be your
hotel conditions were not good, you know, And it was just it was
not what you would expect like a World Championships to be.
And so that was the first time where it was what you thought
something like that would have been like, you know, so that was
awesome. And then our, you know, USA
Power Dig raw Nationals are just amazing because they're huge,
you know? So like for me 67 1/2, there was
100 girls in my weight class And so it took up an entire day of
lifting and then the prime time and at night and so you're at
prime time and it's all the lifters during the day they're
cheering you on. Like it's like it's just so cool
like to And then people recognize you and they you know
they want their picture with you and it just makes you feel so
special and so and they're so well run.
I mean the graphics and stuff going on behind you.
The live stream, I mean, they really put a lot of money into
making it a professional event, so I always thought our national
events were way better than the world events.
That's cool. Yeah, yeah.
I mean, so I've never competed in US APL.
I've mostly done RPS and I just did an IPA meet.
So what kind of drifted you towards competing US APL into
IPF? Mostly just cuz I felt like it
sounded like you were lifting for your country and it was the
biggest one. And then with the ICIPFI mean
there's hundreds of countries. So you're not going to a world
and lifting against like people from Canada and Mexico, you
know, like you're lifting legit against people from the top,
people from all over the world. You know, there's like 50
different countries that, you know, the world's a lot of the
European countries. They don't.
They're not allowed to live in LIFT in multiple federations.
They only get one, you know, there's only one International
Federation and there's only one national.
So you are lifting against the best of that country because
they don't have like multiple ones like we do, you know.
So most of it was just being able to put myself in the most
competitive position and see how well I can do there.
Yeah. So I guess.
So the US APL just disconnected from the IPF not too long ago,
right. Well, we got kicked out, but I
would say too, the drug testing was a big draw.
The fact that they drug test a lot and their goal is to try to,
you know, there's always whatever, but their goal is to
try to keep it as clean as possible and they put a lot of
money towards that. So that was important to me.
Yeah, also. I guess kind of going off that a
little bit, what did you kind of have it set in stone like?
When you first started, like, I'm gonna stay a natural lifter
in my whole career or yeah, it never encouraged me to do
anything else. And mostly because I probably
because I was never in a position where it was even
accessible or available. We lived in our basement gym my
whole life. Like, it's not like we were at a
gym and people were like, hey, you know, if you tried this, you
would get stronger or anything. I just was never in that
environment and I was doing pretty good without it.
So like it just and then I think too like when I was growing up
it was a very much stay say no to drugs.
It was really hidden to us hard that you shouldn't be doing that
now. Now like the landscape is much
different. You know there's tested and
untested and it's not as like seen as being something like
illegal and you know like like it was when I when I grew up,
like you were like writing the wrong side of the law like if
you were getting into that stuff, you know, so showing my
age some on that one. But just it just never occurred
to me do it and it just wasn't it just wasn't in my face.
It like it wasn't around me anywhere.
So no. And then so you mentioned you
were training out of your basement.
So tell tell us a little bit about where you train out of.
I don't know. It's just our our home gym that
my husband put together in the 80s, you know, like.
And we still have some of the same equipment.
But you know, back when he, he's a bit older than I am.
He's about seven years older than I am.
So when he got out of the Army and came back home, there
weren't big box gyms like we have now.
There wasn't like, you know, there wasn't a gym on every
corner. Every town had like a
racquetball club with like, maybe like a universal machine
and a set of dumbbells. Like there was no accessibility.
So he and his buddies all worked and put their money together and
made some of their equipment and so so we've always had that and
we've been able to obviously add to it.
You know as we've gotten older and you know this stuff is way
more you can buy stuff now like he's he will tell me like when
they first got it, you would walk into a store and they would
have like floor samples of the machines and you would point to
which one you would want and they would make it for you.
Like there wasn't like Pre. We didn't just take it home, you
know, so different, different sort of scenario there.
So we've always and it's always been that we've always had
friends that lived with us like every day.
Like not necessarily people that are competing, but just
neighbors and friends. It's always been like a a fun
time. We get together and get strong.
So that's just, I think probably why I stayed in it for so long
as it's enjoyable. Yeah, I feel like so I have like
a I guess a mini garage gym. I don't have a lot of have some
stuff because like if I it was in a pinch and I needed to.
Lift. I could do it.
It's mostly just like if I don't have spotters, that's why I
don't train at home, so I feel that's cool.
I think like having that, at least that safety aspect of it
is obviously really important. So yeah, yeah, we did a lot of
training at other gyms this summer because of our crazy
schedule and it really made other was fun.
It made me appreciate, you know, our equipment that we have is
fairly good and just being able to pick your own music and not
having to wait for stuff or working with people, you know,
it's all about you and it's, it's it's nice.
It really made me have a whole new appreciation level for what
we have available to us. For sure.
If you could pick like one piece of equipment from your gym
that's like your absolute favorite, what would it be?
Well, outside the bench, of course.
I really just. I love our belt squat machine.
I feel like that's probably contributed to a lot of my
longevity is the fact that I can squat a lot and not load up my
spine. You know and you know we've we
we change our footing positions to hit different areas you know
of it. And so I feel like that's
probably one of the the best things that that we've got.
We have like a reverse hyper. I like that also, but the the
belt squat I think is what's going to keep me in it in the
long run. What job belt squat do you have?
We actually had one made. It was from a company out of
South Carolina called State of the Arc ARAR.
Have you heard of them? OK, so you know belt spot
machines are generally huge and we are our basement wasn't old,
it was it's a converted garage is basically what it is.
So and it was a one and one car garage.
So it's not big. So we were able just to give him
the dimensions of the size that we could handle and he just made
it right to that. So that was pretty cool.
So with the. You said you would change foot
positions. Do you do any other like do you
ever do a variation on it? Do you have like band pegs on
it? Do you ever utilize that or
anything? No.
Usually we save the bands for the straight bar.
Like I said, it's pretty small. The Scott Belt squad regime.
And then it obviously, so obviously the bench is your
favorite and the belt squads it would be like your second.
What's What's your least favorite is?
It the GHR, it is. I hate that thing.
Oh my God, it's horrible. It's just so painful.
Like, every Rep sucks about it. And then I try to, you know,
load them up with the weights and stuff and I'm like, Oh yeah,
horrible. And like you do a lot of reps on
them too. Like it's not like three or
four. You're doing like 8.
You get to like 4. You're like, shit.
I got four more and I have to talk myself out of quitting
early. When So I did.
When I did a meet back in April, I at the beginning of the prep,
I tried to start doing them and I couldn't do a single one.
Yeah, and. Then I mean, the learning curve
was quick and then I kind of got up there, but you never get over
that feeling of your hamstring feeling like it's gonna tear it
any moment. Yeah.
And weirdly, my my calves always cramp up when we're doing those.
And I can't wear knee sleeves. If I wear knee sleeves while I
do it, like it's just game over, like my calves are cramped and I
can't move. So it is kind of funny because
normally we do them after squats and things like that, so you're
usually pre fatigued by the time you get to them.
So you do them after squat day do.
So what do your accessories look like on a deadlift day then?
Are they more back focused? Yeah, we do back and biceps and
then we'll do like Romanians rack pulls, some overweighted
stuff or wagon wheels, things like that.
Yeah, it's off. It's all back and bicep focused
outside of like some deadlift variations.
So on the the eight day schedule, what is what is the
two on, two off look like? Well we'll start with bench cuz
that's the best one. You always start with the best
one. That's why I know I'm completely
reversed cuz the bench gets me to the squat day.
I had to start with squats. I may never make it.
So usually like the bench day, the squat day, 2 days off and
then we do like probably like a bench accessory.
We call it our tricep shoulder day, but it's usually when we're
doing like lockouts or boards or close grips, things like that
with some other tricep shoulder. And then our last day is a
deadlift back and by day. Yeah, so yeah, I usually do the
four day, so I'm doing Sunday squad Monday bench and then I'll
deadlift on Wednesday. And then bench again on Friday,
because my bench is my worst lift I've been.
I was stuck at like 340 for like probably the past two or three
years, had some shoulder and chest injuries so and then
finally just broke that hit 360 in my meet a few weeks ago.
So there you go, I'm. Hoping it's up from there
because I keep going. Yeah, I'm really trying to get
to the 400 because like my squat and my dead, well, my deadlifts
kind of. Shit show right now, but my
squat's just been going up and up for years, so I'm not worried
about that. That's why even during COVID, I
had a squat rack in my dad's basement.
And have you ever heard of the Small Love program?
Sounds familiar, but I don't know what it is.
So it's like a high volume squat program and I was squatting in
my dad's basement like three days a week.
Just all during quarantine. So it was just, yeah, it was a
dark time, but it definitely brought.
Up this, I think it brought up my squat and deadlift, like £50
each over us. Wow.
Yeah. So I almost want to do that for
bench, but not sure if my shoulders can hang in there.
Yeah, the upper body is tough cuz it just can't really handle.
I feel like the volume that your lower body can handle.
I feel like I'm the opposite. I feel like, well, for me,
deadlifts just fry me like crazy.
Squats I could do all day, but bench?
I could also do three or four times a week probably.
Or maybe I'm just not training heavy enough.
So maybe I certainly couldn't do that.
So. Or another thing I saw was that
you have the airwave mouth guard, yeah.
I wanna talk about that kind of explain.
Was it something that you were using before and then kind of
got approached by the company or vice versa?
Yeah, I always used a mouth guard, particularly on the three
lifts I used to wear the Under Armour bite that I think they
stopped making it. But I had cracked through those
a couple of times and the Airwave just messaged me.
And they're like, hey, can we send you, you know, our
mouthpieces? And when you just tell us what
you think. And so honestly, they sent it to
me and it, it probably sat on my shelf for three months before I
even like, I was like, OK, I'll give this a try.
So yeah, it is very much like the Under Armour bike, but just
a little bit better. It's there's just a little more
substance to it. They have a couple different
kinds. They have one that kind of the
Cross Fitters use. But it's to me, like, I don't
even know why you bother with it, because there's barely
anything to it but the endurance when I like just because it
gives you enough support but doesn't feel like something like
you have. Like your mouth is overflowing
with a mouth guard you can bear, you know, you can tell it's
there, but it's not giant, which is what I like.
It's just the bottom piece. I like that.
And so actually I I started using it like on all my lifts
now because like it creates so much good tension in my jaw into
my neck and helps me create pressure that I noticed when I
started using it on like my incline bench, my decline bench,
even in my curls. They were better.
I had more pressure and more power, so actually we are on
every single lift now. Is it?
Is it legal in all federations or as far as I know, yeah.
I mean there's, I mean it's just, I mean the dentist will
thank you for cracking your teeth, having something in
there. But it just, I mean it's just
like it's such an easy thing to do to have a little bit of
return for doing barely anything.
Yeah. And I feel like, I don't know
why you wouldn't do it. Yeah.
Really strong men have been using it for years too, yeah.
Feel like I've honestly, I've really ever seen any power
lifters using it. So maybe I'll get one.
You should. You should see people use like
the new Wave or new age or New Age One, I think.
But I don't. It's to me, it's big.
I don't like. I don't.
I don't want anything
distracting me from the task at hand, you know, and there.
And I just like, I don't ever, I don't ever take sponsorship from
a company that like, I'm aren't aligned with like my morals and
ethics and beliefs. And I spent some time meeting
them, getting to know them and wanting to know what their goals
were in their paths and they're just good people.
So like I I don't, I don't. I'm not sponsored by anyone that
like, I feel good about. Like I feel like they're either
helping our sport or helping our community or just you know,
their vision is there. They're not there just to make
money. I mean of course that's the end
game, but the the the quality portion is there and so that's
why I I signed on with them is because I really like what
they're doing. I mean, they're really trying to
improve what they have. They're really giving back to
CrossFit. They're getting into
powerlifting and then of course strongman and so and they treat
you with respect, so that's awesome.
Yeah, I think brand loyalty is important only when the morals
align. And I think that's for someone
of your caliber who, like, has a pretty big audience.
It's definitely important to make sure you're preaching the
right stuff, right? Well, I get offers every day.
People want me to do wear their stuff or do this shit or that,
and I do think about that. And I'm like, I would feel so
bad if I promoted something and someone tried it and was like,
this is shit. Jen told me to buy it.
Like, and I always think too, like, this is not my main job.
I do it because I enjoy it and it's fun.
I don't, I don't need it. So I don't need to sell my soul
for a few bucks. You know it's not worth it.
Yeah, and kind of touching on your influence.
So it's kind of been like your experience maybe with female
power lifters kind of, I don't know, maybe reaching out to you
or helping helping get them into the sport or Oh yeah, it's been,
I mean I rise in powerlifting, we're rising big in numbers, but
in particularly in the female and honestly I'm surprisingly in
like the older female category. Like we have tons of women in
their 40s and 50s getting into the sport.
I think some of it is like when we first started.
When I first started, it was still very much a male dominated
sport and everyone was really afraid if you picked up that
weight you would turn in this gargantuan man, you know, like
you wouldn't lose all feminine, you know, aspects to your body
and that, you know, it's all over.
So now we've really kind of, I think smashed the walls of of
that that concept with all the wonderful examples we see on
social media of strong women. So I think it's neat because I
think finally like the women my age are like, oh, I can do this
and get strong at my age and not, you know, lose, lose my
femininity. So I think that's pretty cool
that we're seeing that. But I do do some seminars.
We, I had a group called Iron Sisters that we were doing some
female like girl weekends, all centered around powerlifting,
but also just the community aspect of it and identifying,
you know, women, important things, power of doing.
Men and women are different, you know.
So there are definitely some things that affects females that
don't affect males and I'm sure vice versa.
But that kind of dwindled and now I've done a few things with
Sisters of Iron, which is not the same thing.
Ironically, it's a whole different company with different
people. Yeah, I do do a lot of that.
Like University of Michigan's powerlifting team just reached
out to me and want me to come up and and work with them a little
bit. And then of course I work with
Midland University at the collegiate level.
So I don't specifically work with females because I think it
is a Coed sport. But I do enjoy and enjoy helping
empower women and getting them into it, you know, and letting
them know that they they can do it and you will be welcome.
Yeah, that's awesome because I remember one of my earlier
guests she was talking about when she first started lifting
is and you. A lot of weight rooms just would
have signs that said no women allowed.
So, so obviously it's great to see the sport growing as a
whole, but I think it's really important to make sure it is
truly a Coed sport. So yeah, it is.
And you see that even, like, I kind of feel like powerlifting,
similar to tennis, like our prize packs are the same.
It doesn't matter if you're a male or woman, and I think
they're highlighted equally, you know, where you're talking about
prime time or with the prime positions or when they're
lifting, the women get an equal card to to to men because we
have an equal draw, you know? And I can understand if nobody
was watching it, you know, maybe that would be the case.
But I think the last I check, I think our membership for USA
Powerlifting is getting close to 5050 men and women.
It's still a little bit more on the men, but I think it was like
5545 or something like that. Oh, wow.
I didn't even know there was a difference.
Yeah. So, I mean, when I first
started, there was barely any of us.
So like to see it transform into.
That is pretty darn cool. And it is kind of funny too.
And it's nice that the stigma of like.
Women getting bulky is like kind of dying because it's funny, you
look at it, you're like, well it's hard for us to get bulky.
So it is great to see the evolution of the sport.
So and you're a great advocate for it.
Thank you. I think too like what's nice
about power thing is you sort of embrace all body types, you
know. So there's no, you know we're we
embrace the thick with the two seats you know, and the and the
Peach and you know all that sort of stuff is as we can talk about
it now and celebrate it and and be happy about it.
Where before you know you just women were supposed to get
really thin and look kind of like those thin models walking
down the runways and now we can embrace that all shapes and
sizes are pretty darn awesome. So I love that.
Yeah. That's great.
So I guess we'll kind of wrap things up here.
I like to ask all my guests before we end if you could give
one piece of advice to a new power lifter or someone entering
their first meet one, what would it be?
I think most of it is, I think right now because of social
media and just technology and stuff, we're at A1 it now sort
of society and I think powerlifting particular is a
long game sport. You know the longer you put
longer you into it, the better you get.
You know no matter how long that is, you're never going to be
your best on that first meet or when you first start.
So you kind of have to tamp that attitude down right away and
realize that this is a learning is a learning game.
So put a lot of time into correct form that will serve you
for the rest of your career if you can.
Get the basics and and understand that.
I think also like auto regulation, understanding your
body and its limits, when to push, when to not now.
That just becomes with experience and time and
training, but then surrounding yourself by positive people,
people that are going to encourage you but also hold you
accountable. You know if you're squatting
high, they're going to tell you, you know, but like, as far as
getting into your first me, like, I hear so many people,
like, I'm not ready yet. My numbers aren't where they
want them to be. Your first me is never going to
be a great one ever because they're so they're such a huge
learning curve. So I encourage like a mock me in
the gym and then even your very first one, like give yourself a
break, like go into it for fun, have some low level goals and
maybe some higher level goals. But understand that you're just,
you're being a student of the sport at this point and you're
learning what the referees are looking for, the timing, how to
plan your first, second, third lift.
I mean there's just so much to it.
And then you know even your second meet will be a little
better than the 1st. And then I, and I do think it's
good to do quite a few because you just learned so much every
time you do it, you know, and then space them out as you kind
of get better and more into it. But no, it's it's long term.
It's not a right now and it's not you know your training isn't
about what you can post on social media the next day.
I mean that shouldn't be your your goal to hitting certain
numbers or certain things. You know, once you start
wrapping yourself and identifying yourself with who
you are on social media and posts is when you're not going
to be your best self, your best athletes.
So kind of tamping that down is always good idea.
That's awesome. That's some great advice.
So I guess before we end things, if you could just let them know
where they can find you on Instagram or if you have
anything else where you want to plug, Sure.
Well, Instagram's Jen Thompson, 132.
I have a subscriber program also, which I'd like to try.
I post a lot of good things on my Instagram and then I kind of
post things that I kind of side thoughts to my subscribers or
they can ask me to post them stuff.
You know, it's 499 a month, but I am really working on my
YouTube channel which is 132 pounds of power.
I finished a quick bench series where I just basically broke
down the bench into tiny pieces like a little 3 minute videos.
So if you just want to know about Grip, if you just want to
know about arts, if you want to know Takedown, you can just
watch a quick video. And I'm working on the squat
series now, so that's good. I have a TikTok, mostly.
That's Jen Thompson one day too. I usually post funny shit on
there, not most of that, not most of that's educational.
Most of that's just trying weird shit in the gym or stuff like
that. And then I have a program.
Tom is Thompson's gym dot program dot app.
I'm getting ready to load it onto Apple, but you can go to
the website. But any program I use, I have it
on there. So you can use what I use to get
strong. But I also have like my youth
programs on there, beginning program.
I'm starting to work on a masters program, training
program on there. And then if you're on my
program, you're in my community. And I have like an amazing
community of almost 200 people that post videos and give
feedback and celebrate, you know, our ups and our downs.
And so pretty much on everywhere Twitter, name it.
And there Jen Thompson wanted to.
Awesome. Well, I want to thank you for
taking the time for coming on today.
It was a pleasure. Oh, thanks for having me.
I really enjoyed our conversation.
Thank you. Have a good one.
You too.