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Literally. Hello, everybody.
Welcome back to another episode of the Power Lifters Den.
I'm your host, Cam Smith, and today I wanted to bring on Tommy
Arnold, owner of Perfect Storm down in Florida.
Tommy, why don't you introduce yourself?
Tommy Arnold, Like you said, my husband Gary and I own Perfect
Storm in Holly Hill, FL and I also work for University of
Virginia. I've been there almost 30 years
and that's not it. Used to be a competitive tennis
player. Down powerlifting.
Yeah. So I think like getting a good
background and everyone, obviously you had a tennis
background and then kind of went into bodybuilding and joined
powerlifting, quote UN quote late, but you've been able to do
some great things. So tell us about what kind of
got you from going into that bodybuilding sphere into the
powerlifting world. I did bodybuilding for about 10
years. I really got into it as an
effort to get my husband back into jail.
He'd been a powerlifter when we met and I did it for 10 years.
I was mediocre at best. I look at my pictures I'm like I
just look emaciated with muscle bumps.
This is ridiculous. I was in prep for masters
nationals and nothing was going on.
Couldn't lose an ounce doing hours of cardio.
Daniel happened to come in and I was already kind of powerlifting
on the weekends to make or doing 3 main lifts instead of
bodybuilding like I should have done.
And he came in, he was coaching the client, he was getting ready
for Worlds and Jacksonville. I watched it and it was just
like we went to dinner with a bunch on my birthday, my 53rd
birthday, and I asked him, would you want to coach an old woman?
Yeah, and I switched that night. Yeah, I think that's awesome.
I think before we kind of dive into your powerlifting career,
we can talk about the gym Perfect Storm and kind of how
you kind of accidentally created that.
We had a gym that we were going to.
We liked it, but it was in a building that was just run down.
Didn't know a whole lot of the inner workings of it.
They asked members initially, you know, if you'll buy this
much stock in it and we'll give you lifetime membership.
And then the next thing I know, I'm on a business trip.
My husband's like they're asking us if we want to be a partner
somehow. On this business trip, I ordered
a ton of equipment. We were going to move the the
gym was going to move. The building wasn't really
realistic be open. Then we got back, I got the
financials. I looked at it and I was like,
no. And we actually diverted the
truck from road to a friend's warehouse and then started
looking for a place to really open something that we would
like. Even to me then I had in my mind
a powerlifting gym would be less expensive than a bodybuilding
gym. We started with more of the
bodybuilding stuff and less of the powerlifting stuff, and by
about 8 months in we expanded the powerlifting.
Yeah, that's great. And I think that gym is it's an
awesome gym. I got the chance to go down
there for the the meet. Was it last year?
I don't even know time spent, but it was.
It's a really nice gym. And obviously you've been able
to get some of the the greatest lifters in the sports, including
you obviously Dan Bell and Danny Tanhiro, 2 of the very dominant
guys in the separate sides of pile lifting.
So maybe tell us about kind of how you got introduced to them
and how they found their way to your gym.
Daniel, like I said, he was looking for a place.
His client lived in Palm Coast, which is closer to Jacksonville,
north of us. He was living in Orlando at the
time and they were looking for somewhere in between.
They had a mana left that they could train on and we just
happened to be what they found and wandered into the gym one
day. Dan actually was dating his now
wife Kristen. And was he one day he messaged
me and he was like, I just want to check that drop insurance and
and something in the name. I didn't really follow raw all
that much. Something in the name was just
like, why do I know his name? He wasn't Dan Bell yet.
And this was pre the world records and stuff.
And I just mentioned to Daniel, it's like I heard this guy
message me and he's like, yeah, that's Dan Bell.
He already know it, so for a while it was just, you know,
weekends when he was down with Kristen and then when he married
each one. Yeah.
And so kind of going forward a bit into what kind of got you
one of the platform, obviously you and Danny have a very close
relationship. I've seen tons of things back
and forth between you guys and obviously have kind of developed
a great relationship with each other.
But maybe tell us about that first time of kind of having him
be your coach and getting ready for a meet.
We started in June of 2017 and I had my head.
I couldn't squat. I just I was the bodybuilder.
We didn't squat to death. I was like, oh, never be able to
do that. I actually benched very well for
bodybuilder, which is ironic because I can't bench worth
anything and deadlift. I've been chasing a 315 deadlift
flat and it just I would do it on the weekends.
I'd get like right to three O 5 and 3:15 Just no.
So we were maybe less than a month in and he asked if I
wanted to think about a meet really.
And we had two guys in the gym. They're about 10 years younger
than me, but they're on the older side of our our gym
population. They were going to do a meet in
Orlando that year. That was the local meet to
qualify for nationals. It was APF which was going to be
in Florida and then Worlds was also in Florida that year.
So they were like we don't have to leave the state and we hit
all three. Do it with us.
So I did the first local knee and was going to do nationals.
What none of us realized was that APF classifieds putting
anything on your knees equipped and equipped nationals that year
was in Chicago. So Chris and Doug decided they
would just go naked knee and do the local nationals.
And I was like, I'm not going to kidney.
So we went to nationals up there and then worlds, which is where
two weeks I had from worlds an old neck injury popped up and
couldn't feel my arm, couldn't bench.
Ended up benching the bar which but I did me and then I had stem
cell maybe a month later. Yeah.
I mean, I guess we can talk about that a little bit.
Some cell research is something that is very new in the world of
just health in general and very kind of groundbreaking, so tell
us about what your experience with that has been.
At Worlds, I met Tom and Lisa Fahey, and Tom had apparently
had a very similar neck injury and then treated by a guy up
there in Minnesota, Doctor Hansen, and he just, you know,
sold it. You basically you got the guy
for a week. It was not inexpensive and he
did a chiropractic care with the chiropractor up there, a math
therapist. He did the bone cell marrow
drawers from your hip and he did fat, fat from your glute cells.
Like mislection. Thank you.
And that's what they use in the neck because the bone is too
cranny apparently actually doing a neck.
So he treated that, he did PRP, he did some other stuff.
He basically said we'll scan your entire body and anywhere
you need it, we will treat. So they treated my neck, they
treated a shoulder, they treated low back, which was an old
entry. And actually I think it
aggravated low back being treated.
I think we should have left it one because it was what gave me
the most trouble in the back end of it.
Yeah. So I mean, as far as that kind
of goes from from that, is that something that needs to be
redone every few years or is that something that kind of has
lasted you? No, I had it done the one time.
Haven't had. I've had incidences but they've
been more of the tweak type of things.
Nothing that really kept me down.
And no, it's one of those if I tried to rehab it on my own and
given it a good 6-7 months, maybe it would have gotten to
the same place, maybe it wouldn't.
It's one of those you just don't know.
But it was worth the chance for me knowing someone else that
used it successfully. Yeah, absolutely.
And I think kind of going off the the topic of kind of coming
through setbacks and adversaries.
I know you had a little stint of kind of bombing out a few times
in a row and even someone my age would that would do that would
maybe question their ability, but it kind of gets amplified as
you kind of get older. So what were some of the things
that either someone else said to you or you kind of thought that
we're like, all right, I'm going to keep going?
Going into it. So I did my first meet the end
of 2019 and benched raw squat in suits, pull in suit and it was a
decent meet. Not great but it was decent and
I'd only been back from the neck injury five months and I got
into gear post the neck injury. The first three were all raw
mates. So we got ready to, we were
going to do actually I think maybe it was the program
something we were going to do like April time frame of course
2020 and it was just meat delay after meat delay after meat
delay. And I didn't end up competing
until WPO that year was in Chicago and they tried it in the
world. So I did Worlds that year and
actually got a very good total that was 12 O 6 at that one and
kind of set my own expectations too high.
I was like oh you know this is going to be easy.
I did the program, went three for 9 but didn't bomb.
I was sick as a dog for that program and then I got a WPO
invite and I'm blind and clumsy. Turned my ankle in the warm up
brand and I couldn't squat. Saved my life.
I tried three times and bombed and I was like all right you
know there was a reason for this one.
No big deal. Turned around, did Midwest
equipped. It was probably my best training
cycle ever. Squats didn't go as great but I
got I think 2:00 and then bombed on bench.
The next one was pro AM and I remember I got through squats
and I was benching and it was the third bench and I just
remember this voice like coaching me through the lift and
I'm like, that doesn't sound like Daniel's voice.
Well it was half trying to coach me through the lift as they had
a judge. Anyway, didn't work so we bombed
there. I regrouped, I said I'm going to
do a single party, I'm just going to do something.
I have no expectations. Then we had a local meet down
here. Jordan Wall put it on.
He did a master's only meet and he was paying a $25 for any
state RPS record, 50 for any national and 500 for any RPS
world record, even if there were no records in your age category
in class. So there really were no records.
There were some nationals and stuff but they were easily
obtained. Same with the world.
The world was actually not RPS specific and it was by each lift
so you got paid on each lift. So I made like $1800 this week.
That's awesome. But so I looking at your open
power thing, I've seen you've only done one single pie meter.
Is that something that was like a one and done for you or is
that something that you think you might be able to touch
again? I did one Saturday, I did the I4
summer siege this past Saturday and or landed in Singapore.
My goal, I said at the beginning of the year was top 10 raw over
60. And that was going to be the
toughest one I got #10 at the program.
And so I did the single fly this weekend and it'll be #8 when it
first and then I'm already #2 multi love a shot at Debbie's
number one. Yeah.
And kind of going off that, I'm assuming that's why you kind of
went back to do the raw meet or do raw at the Pro Am this year
with that goal in mind, right? Yes, yeah, it was also nice.
I've been on the pro day each of the years because the second
meet got me a pro total. I actually think that hurt me in
some ways. I would probably have been
better off being able to do an amateur day one.
Amateur day is just more laid back.
It's it's a different feel. It's a great meet those days,
but one of them carries more pressure and the other one is
just more fun. Yeah.
Or at least I've let it carry more pressure than it should
probably. Yeah.
And I think that's something that will be interesting for
with me having my first pro meet coming up to be able to see how
like the the pressure rather it affects me, it helps me whether
I even notice it. So I think that's something that
is just another variable that we have to deal with.
Yeah, it's comes down to expectations.
You know, I've just set my expectations way high, probably
unrealistic, although when I look at the numbers, they really
shouldn't have been, but they tend to.
They trended that way for those three since then.
We going to meet where I got the 12 or 6, can't remember which
one, but at the 148 versus 165 class and then topped it at Hell
Bent this year by 6 lbs. Yeah.
And then as far as Hell Bent, I know obviously Holy Wars is kind
of carrying up to be another great meet this year or next
year technically. But I know that's one of the
meats that you want to maybe take another shot at Debbie's
record. So what are what are some of the
things that you think it's going to take to get you to that
point? So I came within 22 lbs of it
this year, but it's the first time I ever had full
conventional enemy. I had an abductor injury and
early in the prep I knew it just it, it was going to take a hit
on squat if I kept trying to do so.
So we switched to conventional. I was going to pull raw Daniels.
Like see, it just doesn't give you much.
One day I put it on, I was like, well, it gives me a knock.
It didn't, you know, and I put 22 lbs on what I got for the
deadlift. It would have been easy.
Same with a healthy adapter. I almost actually went out and
tried to pull the third. I was like I can't get it
conventional. I put in the number I need it
and I was like that's not there to stay almost sit up consumer
and I was like that would be dumb.
Now I kind of wish I had at least tried it.
Yeah. And it's kind of like one of
those things where it's like, I know I might get hard on this,
but I might also pull it so. And I'd actually, someone had
done it in a meet very recently that I'd watched and they pulled
to conventional and then tried to switch to SIM that and it did
not work. And that was also in the head of
no I just watched this and I said it was dumb when I watched
it. Yeah.
And I guess we can kind of dive into a little bit about the the
longevity. Obviously you started at 53 and
you're very passionate about women in the sport as a whole,
but obviously having more emphasis on older women joining
the sport. And so maybe tell us about,
obviously we kind of went over what got you into it, but maybe
tell us about some of the things that it's helped you with and
maybe daily life or just kind of the community, just an overall.
To me, it's the community. I'm more of an introvert.
Tennis is the, you know, singular sport.
I really thought powerlifting sort of was too, and then
discovered that it's specially equipped, but even raw in our
environment wasn't. It's closed off the Sumrall.
You say it's not like Powerlifting USA.
That seems very straight cut, but that was nice for me.
They kind of became my family. And I remember the first time
probably Daniel or Dan called me Jim Mom and I was just like, no.
And I'm like now I'm like, yes, I'm Jim Mom.
Yeah, and and like obviously that community is like you said,
very one of the best things about pile lifting.
I think anyone would agree with that, especially the equipped
community because you have to rely on others and all that.
And I know you guys not a perfect storm, just like a bunch
of other big name gyms kind of in our world have our Sunday
squats. That's kind of like our our holy
day, our favorite day with the most the day that most people
show up in terms of reliabilities.
Maybe sometimes people won't show up on a Friday or whatever
like that, but tell us about some of your not some of the
experiences, but just how you guys operate on Sundays and what
makes it your favorite day. Sundays it's lower body force so
it could be dead left or it could be spot just depending on
where you are in your cycle and how you train because we don't
train as a group like Helmet does.
Daniel coaches a lot of us and we all tend to have similar
stuff. But you know, one of us might be
in prep and another not. I actually programmed myself now
with this overview. And but we're all there.
We'll even have a few that come in and bench because it's the
one day they can bench and know there's a definite, you know,
good crews fires there. But we come in around noon and
most of us, I'm there to six when we close, but most are
there until 4. You know we'll order in.
Jeremiah's ice cream and stuff afterwards and you know, it's
just, it's a fun day. Yeah.
And I think the the Sundays are the the best days.
And obviously that's kind of, I feel like just in general the in
the multiply world, single ply world doesn't really matter.
The the squats are kind of the separator left in that world.
Like, obviously you have some people that are better at bench
and whatever, but I feel like that environment and that
training day is what kind of allows people to push to these
crazy numbers. And we've had our equipped
numbers of lifters go up and down, and we're actually seeing
a little bit of an uptick right now, which is nice.
Unfortunately, Joe Jordan's retired, but he's there every
Sunday pulling the lever for us and he can now load 40 fives.
We're actually doing a pulling for Hope this weekend to benefit
her kids, and Joe's going to pull with straps, which was I'm
actually going to pull a week out from a meet, three days per
surgery. Probably not the brightest
thing, but. Yeah.
And I think Joe is a great example of like, yeah, even you
may not. You may be on AD load, you may
be injured, you may not be in prep or whatever, but you're
still showing up for your team. And that's something that I
think a lot of people often overlooked, that it's very
similar to a sports team. You still got to show up for
your team. Yeah, Dan's the same way.
I mean, right now he was prepping for our meet, I think
it was maybe the second or third deadlift day, and he tweaked his
back up again. But he's.
And so he has not been training a lot, but he comes in on
Sundays. Yeah.
And there's nothing quite like having Joe Jordan and Dan Bell
yell for you when you're squatting or deadlifting or
whatever you're doing that day. Yeah, it's just a great
environment. And and Speaking of Dan Bell, I
know you mentioned in your in your questionnaire about you and
him kind of got into gear at the same time.
I know he had a a little attempt at that.
And you mentioned how he might be the only person that hates
the bench shirt more than you. So kind of tell us about some of
the experiences with that and kind of how that went.
Hey, the 2020 we did the meet and it was the first meet really
back and he wanted it's like make it a draw.
And he knew Dan Bell being in gear would be a draw.
I don't feel like he was ever like fully wanting to be in
gear, but you know, he was willing to do that for me, for
the gym and for our community. And he ended up he squatted and
breathe finally. But the shirt he had a shirt
that, if you can imagine it was a large shirt on Dan Bell, a
single pack of tile. And he would be benching next to
me. And I think I had, I don't know
what I was mentioning and maybe another kill or it was an old
metal sharp, I'm not sure which one.
Both of us hated it. And both of us were, you know,
he was like, I don't want to hold that much weight over my
face. And I'm like, neither do I and
men want near as much weight. But somehow his being willing to
like, show that side of himself was encouraging to me.
I was like, alright, it's everyone that gears, you know, a
little bit different. It's, I don't even see it as
scary right now 'cause I actually feel safer in it.
But at first, you know, there's a little bit of it because it's
just so much more weight than these.
Yeah, and if that isn't a perfect example of the the whole
stupid debate that some raw people say like, oh, the gear
does all the work. Like you take literally one of
the best piloters of all time and put him in some of the gear
and he fucking hates his life. Like, it's it's it's a prime
example that like it takes a lot of skill and a lot of time to
learn it. Like there's people who've been
probably multiply for 10 years that are not getting a lot out
of a shirt or getting nothing out of their deadlift suit.
And it's kind of a a good example of like what it does.
Yeah, he, he was amazing in what I would love to see and if he
would have committed, but you know it, it's not his passion.
Yeah. And I think that's.
But he respects it and that does tend to be different from a lot
of top raw lifters I. Think yeah.
And I think that's the key. I think I've said it a couple
times before, like if you look at obviously Dan Bell, for
example, and other top 10% of like best raw lifters of all
time, you could, you could look at their Jim crew or you look at
their past. They've either been in a pair of
briefs, they've trained with someone who's been a multiply
and you can learn a lot from each other.
Yeah. And so as far as your training
goes, obviously I know you have holy wars in February, but you
have the the WPL coming up then September NNN.
So maybe tell us your kind of game plan for that and what the
prep's going to look like. I'm coming off the single
plumbing. I've actually I had eye surgery
earlier this week and I've got two more scheduled in July.
So anyone that I've seen at a new new folk that I would stand
off is no, I just can't see you. Hopefully come November I'll be
able to see people and after that I'm probably going to have
a 10 to 12 week Rep window and I'll just gradually build on it.
I probably won't do as much raw as Daniel would like me to do,
but that's one of those kind of trade-offs of being older.
I do feel like at least 4 squats, a pair of briefs makes a
big difference in how I feel. And he kind of would maybe not
agree with me on that and say you know you haven't done a raw
meet in so long. Well I prepped for pro AM, I
never had my body felt. I will admit he is totally right
that equipped taxes my CNS a lot more so it's a trade off.
They both impact me, just in a different way.
I do need to learn how to better deal with the CNS.
Yeah. And as far as kind of the single
ply coming out of that, do you, is there some things that you
learn from single ply that you think will help you in the
multiply? I think probably I'll learn more
from the raw than I learned from the single claw.
I kind of had my head down and used to when he started, he
would do a raw meat, single ply meat, multiply meat and he would
cycle it. And I liked the idea of it was
kind of gradually building. So I was going to handle less
weights raw, obviously add a little bit to it single fly and
then a fair amount more to multi.
The raw was felt light enough at this point that like I was more
comfortable letting weights settle, you know, before I
started that I didn't necessarily do before.
Carried over some to single fly, maybe not as much as I would
have hoped. So that's going to be one of my
kind of focuses is getting a good pick.
But beyond that, making sure I'm in a good position before I
start descending because I have a bad habit of starting out of
position and then having to either force the depth or, you
know, being 2 inches high. Yeah.
And I think maybe it's very similar overall, but or in terms
of opinion or maybe it's kind of polarizing, I'm not quite sure.
But would you say single pies closer to multiply or closer to
raw? Probably closer to raw now when
I get back in the multiply, maybe you know I'll say
differently. It does doesn't add near as much
as my multiply and there's still a lot of the aspects of the body
is taking up the the gears, you know, to help you.
It's pretty tight. My squats it it actually ended
up on me day being a little bit looser than it had been
training, but it it didn't give me as much of A game as the
multi Well and the groove is similar, particularly from my
squad. I ended up learning how to get
back narrower for my raw meat, but the single ply isn't as wide
as my multiply. Yeah.
And from some of the people I've talked to with single ply, they
basically say it hurts more than multiply, but feels like less
support. And I was like, well, I'm never
doing it then. Yeah, I I told Daniel if I'd
started in single ply I would not have stayed a court.
Yeah. And I think it's something that
maybe some people have shared this, but when I first was
thinking about getting equipped, I was like, maybe I'll start
with single ply and kind of ease my way into it.
And just from people's stories and just kind of watching it,
it's, I'm kind of glad I went right into Multiply.
Yeah, it's, it's a good step, I guess if you want to be in like
the USAPLSUSPAS, if you want to do the Olympia, that type of
thing. But if that's not your goal, the
multiply and just the fact of having briefs so you can do some
training that's not full gear. You know, when I was in the
single ply, it's either all on or it's or it's not.
So I like that kind of. I like squatting on a brief.
I've already told Daniel I was like for WPOI want to
concentrate on my bed left and try and get a £500 dead left.
The other team meets less. I'm just going to look for
something that's safe, you know, whatever that number is.
Even if the squad is in briefs, there's times I don't know if I
don't squat just as well and as much in briefs as full gear.
Yeah. And I think I was kind of losing
my train of thought as far as the the single ply goes.
I think like you were saying before with the, the tightness
of the suit and things like that, it's a much different
animal because obviously you don't have the, the straps like
to adjust them and there's way less adjustment and you have to
have it way tighter. So I think it's, it's pretty
interesting. You're right with if you want to
go like the USAPL route and that the IPF route with that, it's
kind of your only option if you want to do equipped.
So I. Did see USPA as adding some
multiply? Really.
Yeah, they actually had an equipped meet in Utah and it's
their only division. They allow a monolith in, but
I'm thinking none of these directors have monoliths so I
can't imagine it's going to grow much.
Yeah, it almost kind of brings in the question of like if
you're going to add that division, it seems like it
almost be unfair to pull out a separate squat rack just for an
equip like a multiply person. I think that brings up a whole a
slew of issues with that. Yeah, I don't think their
wording is the other. Yeah, RAW single would just have
to walk out of the model. My this makes no sense.
Yeah. So it should be interesting to
see how that kind of develops. But as far as meats go, I think
we should talk about your meat. Obviously you've been running
that for a few years and this year was the the final year and
I was fortunate enough to get down there last year.
So tell us about how how that meet kind of started and on top
of that, just how you've been able to get so many good
sponsors and kind of make it a big meet.
We started and it this was the 8th year we had it.
The first year we it was RPS, maybe the first three years it
was in a local high school. The first year our state
director, and I've heard this on your podcast before and others.
The politics is the thing. I wish I'd never known, but the
state director and the athletic director of the high school had
a falling out and he was like, you can't use our high school
anymore. If he's still involved.
I'm like, he's the state director.
I can't, you know. So we ended up having it at CTXS
location in Orlando a couple of years.
And then 2020 came and I was just like, we're just have a
meet right here in the gym. We'll move equipment around.
And when I first posted, I didn't think we would get a big
draw. It was, you know, Florida was a
very wide open state with COVID, but the rest of the country
wasn't. And I figured most of them would
be wearing masks and scared to leave their house.
As it turned out, now most powerlifters get careless.
And it turned out to be one of our bigger needs.
And we had a bunch of Northeastern people come down,
Chris, one that year, escape a bit and several others.
And after that, because I remember at some point before
that, I even said to Daniel, I want to hold an equipped on me
or an equipped me. And he goes, how many lifters
would you need to make it worthwhile?
And I'm like 12 or 15. He's like, oh, that'd be nice,
but it'll never happen. That's kind of like a challenge
to me. I'm like, it's going to happen.
And after that, we went with two, two days each year and
equipped day and a raw day. This year.
I initially started out with grand plans of three days for
our last year. We're going to have a pro
equipped day and an amateur equipped day.
I kind of like the time frame when I should have been really
getting it ready. Just a whole lot was going on
and I didn't do things quite the way I had in the past.
So I quickly gave up on the amateur equipped day and we
ended up with it was by far the smallest name and I think I had
at the time I was also done maybe 18 on equipped day and 32
on raw day, which is long ways sold out and it would sell it in
under 7 minutes, 52 slots. And this year I had slots right
up to layout. But we've just had a ton of
meats in Florida this year and right in this time frame that
never really existed in the past.
And all of them are having trouble filling.
It's just too many fats, too many meats, too close together.
Yeah. And but this year had a
different feel to it, and it was kind of nice, actually.
It was much more laid back, a much less divisive group or, you
know, one have an infighting group or any of that type of
thing. And for the most part, everyone
gets along. But, you know, there's always,
like, some cat in this hate, say, usually on the men's side.
Yeah. No it 100% women are very
supportive each other in the sport.
The men are childlike at times. Yeah, there was an equipped
men's group shot last year, but it was like a death of me.
I was just like, oh, why am I here?
These people are driving me insane.
This year, the raw chat took that over, but only in spurts.
For the most part, they were very good, but it was a good
year. It was last year.
I'm a terrible fundraiser. I hate asking people for money.
And I had just my standard people that, you know, the gym
members they would get every year and a few local businesses,
that type of thing. Lexi Viscori did it for me last
year. She has zero problem asking
anyone for money. She has zero problem.
You tell her I'll give 1000, she'll go.
Yeah, but if you give 2000 and I like going, we're OK, Fine.
If they're giving you 2000, they're giving you 2000.
So she raised I think between gift certificates and money, it
was close to $30,000 first last year.
This year was 8 or so much smaller donations.
This year she had managed ready to execute their logistics firm
that works with Bain. Then they're sponsoring Bain now
even you know and like, what can we offer to you?
But they've been our title sponsor 2 years in a row.
Yeah. And so kind of just to clarify,
correct me if I'm wrong, but kind of going into this year's
meet it you already kind of had it planned to be your the last
year doing it correct is. I've said it, you know, and
members, when I'd say this is it, this is it.
Yeah, You say this every year. And usually I would say it in
like the like last week or so, and then we'd have the meet and
it would just feel good, you know, everyone be happy.
Everyone enjoy it. It's so appreciative.
And I'd be like, all right, one more.
You're right, one more this year.
I just, I kind of knew, you know, my husband and I aren't
getting any younger. It's great that our members want
to do the meet, but it also leaves us with higher people to
move the equipment and this and that.
You know it. In our 60s, we don't need to be
moving every piece of equipment in the gym.
So I was like, we just have to get into this business.
Some people have asked me, OK, would you let me run it for you
in the gym type of thing. I'm like, no, because you're
going to have the same problem with moving equipment.
And my husband is obsessive about his equipment can't be
scratched. There can't be a, you know, when
she calmed down going the other way.
But we both need it just for the stress it puts on us.
And for me, like I said, I'm not getting younger.
I have my own goals and needs that I want to be able to do.
And I have to block off a portion of the year.
I couldn't do things so selfishly.
Some of it's just so I can compete.
Yeah. And I, I think that's totally
fair, especially with you kind of going after some some pretty
goals, obviously with some things that haven't been done
before, maybe beating some records like you mentioned
before. But I think the the meat over
the years has been great and I think it's been great for the
sport, especially multiplied to be able to have these kind of
high level meats that aren't just the WPO.
Like now we have the holy wars you had that we have other meats
like that kind of starting to build and kind of grow the
community again. So I think maybe kind of
retiring the meet where it's at, it's leaving it on a good
standpoint. Yeah.
I'd love to see there'd be like 4 big equipped meats more in
each, you know, season each quarter.
And that would be, you know, nice everyone could pick, you
know, at least 2 that are fairly well separated.
You know, the crazies can do 4. But it is different when it is
in all equipped. To me, I feel like the judging
is more consistent. It's more likely to be equipped
lifters that are in judging chairs.
It's not that I feel like gifts should be given because it's
equipped, but I do feel it looks different.
And a wall lifter can't understand there's a lot of
fabric in that hip grease. And you know, you're not seeing
the hip crease necessarily. You're just seeing a bunch of
fabric and going, oh, fabric tag.
Yeah. And I think that that's just the
one of those debates and things that are just going to get
talked about for years and years and years.
But and that's something that I've obviously gone through the
wringer of like, OK, do I care? Yes.
But there's maybe this is OK, maybe this is not OK.
And I think at some point it just be like we just got to
block out the noise and just lift and have fun.
Yeah. At the end of the day, if the
judges are loose that day, to me, if you're competitive and
you're an athlete, yeah, and you're able, you should take
advantage of it. I'm not saying, you know,
deliberately squat 5 inches high, but if they're not making
you go house parallel, why would you?
Yeah, it's like I remember Dave Tate said it best.
He was saying that like if if you don't adjust that Sander
that day, if you can hit that number, even hit a higher number
because you can get away with an extra 2 inches.
No one has ever said no. I want to get to parallel just
because I can. And, and I have the coach that
will. He likes depth.
Yeah. It's like if I get enough call
from him and training, I'm like, oh, this is a really great day.
Yeah, and. I'm like, I'm coming off.
Yeah. And that comes down to obviously
like back to the kind of crew mentality of not only the trust,
but also the being able to hold themselves accountable and kind
of not just like giving stuff away like in training and
training 4 inches higher than you get to the meet and you're
like, why can't I get a white light?
Yep. Yeah, and that's what he'll
always tell me he'll be like. If you can do it to my standard
in this gym, you're going to be fine.
Unless any meet we got to. Yeah.
All right, but that's a good way of looking at it And it took me,
I had, I think there's a program I bombed that I actually like
sort of passed out during the lift.
It wasn't like a full block out, but you know, it was like, and I
got paranoid after that and finally he just been like in
training. It was just like, I failed
before I could get to that pressure point.
And he was like, and I was like, I don't know what to do.
And he's like, you just have to trust the three of us fighting.
You have you, you know, if if you pass out, we've got you.
And he goes, you see me pass it. And that's that's hard to do.
Yeah. And that's that something that
takes a while and something that obviously there's a lot of crews
around here that I could go to a bunch of different gyms.
I knew I'm going to trust everyone there that's spotted me
to if I want to put £1000 on my back.
I have absolutely No Fear of getting under that weight just
because it was around me. Yeah, y'all have a nice that
it's so close together, you know so many, you know gyms you can
go train out and see different people and things.
It's one of the things I really like to be able to do.
It's hard to do when you are in a gym, but you know every now
and then I'll be able to go over to CTX and carrying.
Not often, but a few times. Used to more when Daniel was
based out of there. And then the other multiply gems
that are down here are just a lot further away.
Yeah. And I think that's what's kind
of great about the social media aspect of piloting.
I would say there's a lot of bad with it, but I think obviously
like this podcast, for example, and just all the the other gyms
in New England, but we also have gyms like you guys, CTX in
Florida, we have Wolfpack and RPG out in the Midwest and
obviously Ohio. And we're all so well connected.
We're all learning from each other.
We're all being able to travel to Meads, travel, just a train.
And I think that not only helps the community, but it's just
helping the numbers go up and up and up on pop Open powerlifting,
yeah. I feel like anytime you can be
around people that may have just a little bit slightly different
way of seeing something or doing something, it made that, you
know, I've had times where Daniel's been telling me to do
something and it made sense, but then someone else would say it
just a tad bit differently. Like now it really makes sense
and I think it's just hearing it things explained a little
differently. Or we used to have a Seth
Albertsworth of the channel, Seth and Manor Canadian, some of
their cues. For the longest time, I didn't
know what Seth was trying to tell me.
It would just be like, yeah, we always laugh.
Fans queue on everything is elbows.
Yeah, I'm like, are you going to yell elbows at me when I'm dead
lifting? Yeah, and I think a prime
example of that is just me in the bed shirt when Rupa would
always be like RIP it down, like break hard, blah, blah, blah.
Just kind of the same thing different ways.
And then when I was at the Pro AM, Me, me and Bane and my
friend Donnie, we're we're at River City bench and he's like,
you just got to like RIP it down and break like basically said
the exact same thing, John said. But for some reason it
immediately clicked. And I mean, obviously my bench
shows long ways to go, but it's been so much better from that
moment. And that's something that when
you kind of stake and find your own crew in your own gym and you
just are super culty and just don't kind of get out there, you
you don't get opportunities like that.
And that's how I would love to be able to take a vacation, like
up in the Northeast and just, you know, go to three or four,
just pick a few and, you know, just go train on whatever day
they have is a big day. Yeah.
And kind of with that, I guess a little bit of a, a variable to
talk about too. It's kind of climbing at
different meets. Obviously you guys down in
Florida, it's hot, it's humid and kind of up here it can get
very cold. And I just remember when you
guys came out for holy war is just Danny and and Dan were just
being like, it's cold as shit here.
They're like, how do you guys train here?
And we're kind of like the opposite of like, how do you
guys train in the heat? So for you, what's that kind of
how, how much does that affect you?
I'm not a cold weather person, but I don't know that it affects
me at a meet necessarily. I can block it high.
It probably I could see where blocking out the heat would be
harder than blocking out the cold.
You know, as long as you can, you know, stay warm somehow
between loafs. Whereas the heat, you know, you
just, you can only take off so many layers of clothing and
you're in equipped gear anyway. It's it's hard.
But like, I saw a thing today, you know, North Carolina's way
up in the hundreds and we're in the 80s.
It's not necessarily always hotter here in the summer.
I'll look a lot of times, Virginia's always worse when we
have to travel for work. Yeah, I remember actually last
week I looked when it was, it was 100° up here in Boston and I
looked out just to see and it was like 70° in California.
I'm like, this is this is ridiculous.
Yeah, it makes no sense sometimes.
But I think kind of before you wrap things up here, just kind
of talking about the being an older woman in the sport and
kind of trying to get maybe some people that are maybe a little
bit older or maybe we're pile lifting before and kind of
retired but have never been in gear.
Maybe. What would you kind of tell them
to what your experience has been like and how you've seen the
benefits from it? I would tell them, if nothing
else, get yourself a pair of briefs or borrow a pair of
briefs and just see how it will feel on your hips.
I feel like women in particular, it's a lot of hip issues and I
know guys do too, but I think women in particular that
compression will make you believe you can do things that
you had written off in the past. I feel like as we get older as
women in a lot of times we fall into the, I want to tone, I, I,
you know, I want my arms to not flap or whatever.
And you're over there with the pink and blue and green
dumbbells and you're not accomplishing what you're
trying, but you're still putting an effort and you're still in
the gym. You know, you might as well go
ahead and try a little bit heavier, a little bit different,
right? What was some protection?
Yeah, and I think, I think from the, I guess from the the
science and nerdy perspective, like putting compressive forces
on your bones and your tendons isn't going to make you more
crippled than put you in a wheelchair.
If anything is going to keep you walking and mobile longer.
And obviously that has more impact than just being able to
train heavy. It allows you to spend more time
with family and maybe go on further trips and not be limited
by a wheelchair or crotch or anything like that.
Yeah. I mean, at, you know, some point
it becomes I can get off the floor, you know, I, I can, you
know, like you said, play with your grandkids or great
grandkids or whatever you have. And that's going to translate.
Even if you don't do crazy numbers or, you know, even
compete in it, at least see what it's about.
It's worth it. Yeah, and kind of just in
general, I think maybe a lot of people share this opinion, maybe
not, but I think just squatting and briefs and wraps has to be
my favorite thing, and powerlifting in general.
Briefs. Yes, I hate a wrap.
Really. If I could find a sleeve that
was really comfortable to wrap I would be in it.
My right knee every time it is wrapped just blows up.
Never had an entry to it. It doesn't matter who wraps it.
If they wrap spiral, if they wrap crisscross, if they wrap in
or they wrap that, it still blows up.
Yeah. And I think.
We may have gotten in. In fairness, we may have found
what I was doing wrong. OK.
The weekend before my mate, but basically when I would go to
like go back before I skip my hips under, I was extending the
knees and we think it was just punching up in the back of the
knee wrong at that point. When I came forward and just
pinching something weird, I didn't do it at the knee and I
didn't do it the last week of training and I didn't have any
needs going. Well, there you go.
I think it's, it's very interesting to see how different
people like have their set up in gear.
Like I'm someone who like, I want everything tight cranked.
I want to basically not be able to feel my body.
Some people are like, I don't want the straps on.
I want, I don't even want to use like you have Rodney who doesn't
even use knee wraps. And like, it's just, it's so
cool to see how people can make make it work and put up these
crazy numbers with just so many different variables.
Yeah, I noticed I and I didn't notice it for someone pointed at
that Phil Herndon was in sleeve in his knee.
Like OK, you know, I don't feel so bad, but I don't wrap some
days. Yeah.
But I I think we can kind of wrap things up here.
So I'll ask you my final question.
If you could give a new power lifter or someone going to their
first meet, no matter their age, a word of advice, what would
that be? Pick openers that, as Daniel
says, I could light you on fire and you can go hit them on the
platform. You're going to enjoy the day as
long as you don't miss an opener on one of the lifts and then
you're going to stretch yourself out and it's not worth it.
First meet. Everything you do is appeal and
just the fact that you made it to the platforms if you don't.
So give yourself the chance to to win that day mentally and
fall in love with it. And then you got a baseline you
can go from. But there's no reason to have
that stress in the first meet A. 100% the first meet should be
not the funnest but it should be the least stressful for sure.
And that was kind of how I treated single fly.
It was going to be my first single fly me everything was
going to be APMR again, even going back to raw at the
program. I did that a little bit.
I'm, and I hear this from a lot of people, I'm a spreadsheet
nerd. So I've got every variation and
a different tab. You know, what I've done in it,
dates and what I was wearing and what I weighed back then.
And at 60 I made over £60 because I'm like, all right,
it's going to deteriorate at some point and I need a baseline
where I'm not trying to do what I did at 56.
For most people, they're saying what I did at 28.
But so I do feel like always resetting yourself and really
thinking about where you are body and mentally and what time
you got in your private life. Yeah, I think.
That influence your meat. Yeah, 100%.
I think just like what you're saying with the kind of over 60
tab, I think it's really good for your mindset to be able to,
like you said, reset and kind of have a a new outlook on it,
whether you're trying a new gear setup, even if you're trying a
new shirt, maybe you start logging well, what have I done
in this shirt? So I wanted to thank you again
for taking the time to come on. It was my pleasure.
Very. Nice, I was like I enjoyed
talking to. You.
Thank you, sweet.