Advice for the Young Lifter
By Matt Kroczaleski
We featured a “Kroc Files” article in last week’s newsletter, but Matt Kroczaleski – one of powerlifting’s most compelling figures – had more to say on the sport this past week:
After training with and watching a lot of newer lifters at meets, I
think there are some things that a lot of younger lifters need to get in
their proper perspective. First off, even though powerlifting may be an
individual sport, the way guys train and compete - and this applies to
almost everything in life - is as a team. This means everyone
helping everyone. Don't expect help without offering something in
return. There is nothing wrong with asking for help or advice, but if
you’re always on the receiving end and rarely offering to help other
people, they will resent it and after a while cease helping you.
Everything in life should be give and take.
Secondly, and this is a big one, show respect where and when it’s
appropriate. This does not mean kissing ass or being a nut swinger –
which is something most accomplished lifters hate. It means showing the
respect that’s due to the people that have earned it. I see so many new
guys having one good meet or training cycle, then talking shit to
everyone around them about how they will break their records and PR’s.
Nobody appreciates that, especially when they’ve been around for a long
time, have been where you’re at and know what lies ahead of you. Think
of it this way:
How would you expect a freshman football player walking on at a
Division I school to act toward the guys who are seniors there? The same
thing applies to a rookie in the pros. Knowing how to treat those who’ve
been around longer than you goes a long way toward getting respect
yourself. You must give respect in order to get it.
This past weekend we went out to dinner after the state meet, and there
was a young kid there that just started training with us. This was his
first meet. He had a good meet and was very pleased with himself. At
dinner, he started talking shit to both my brother and me. We put him in
his place, but he’s lucky that one of us didn't get up and knock him the
fuck out. This is a perfect example of someone's head getting way too
big way too fast and not knowing where he ranks in the big scheme of
things.
The point is that he hasn't earned the right to treat us that way. He
hasn't earned our respect, and he obviously doesn't respect us enough.
When I was younger and I trained with a group of guys that were bigger
and stronger and had been training longer than I had, I kept my mouth
shut and listened to what they had to say. I never, ever talked shit to
them. I didn't always agree with everything they had to say, and it
didn't mean I worshipped them. I simply gave respect where it had been
earned.
A good saying that I try to adhere to is, "If you really are good at
something, you don't have to tell people. They will tell you." This is
totally true. If you do well at something, people will know it and
they’ll talk about it even if that never gets back to you. Talking about
yourself and your accomplishments excessively just makes you look like
an egomaniac and a tool. Don't do it.
People may congratulate you to your face, but I guarantee you they’re
mocking you behind your back if you talk too much. Work hard, achieve
your goals, show respect to your fellow lifters and keep self
aggrandizement to a minimum, and people will respect your accomplishment
- and not resent you for them.
Now, of course I’m generalizing with this article, and there are many
older lifters that may not deserve tons of respect - as well as younger
lifters who do - but I think the idea I’m trying to get across is fairly
plain to see. I don’t know if it’s due to the current social culture, or
if I’m already becoming one of those “old timers,” but it troubles me to
see so much arrogance and lack of respect in many of the young kids that
are up and coming in the sport.
Q&A:
I see you’ve been doing lunges lately. Are you going to continue
doing them? What’s with the log? Also, how do you recover so quickly
from such serious injuries?
Yes, I plan to keep the lunges in my program, and I use the log
because it's fucking cool. Seriously, I like the lunges because they hit
the quads, hams and glutes hard, which of course helps with the squat
and dead, plus they do so without putting a tremendous amount of stress
on the rest of the body - which makes them an ideal assistance movement
after squatting.
I am able to recover quickly for a few reasons. First, I have had lots
of practice at it! Second, I know my body very well and have learned how
far I can push it during rehab to minimize recovery time.
The key to a quick recovery is doing as much as humanly possible as soon
as possible after the injury. Sitting around on the couch getting fat
and feeling sorry for yourself does nothing to speed up recovery.
Getting up and working the injured area ASAP does.
The trick is walking that fine line between maximum recovery and
re-injury. That’s where knowing your body and the 25+ years I have been
training help me with that greatly.
Another important factor is, of course, your mental outlook. You have to
be confident that you will fully recover and willing to endure some pain
to get back quickly. I have never had an injury yet (and I've had some
good ones!) that I even doubted for a second that I would make a full
recovery from. It isn't always avoiding injury that determines who will
go the farthest but rather how one handles coming back from them.
Do you have any advice on dropping body fat while increasing
strength?
Your goal with cutting weight should be to maintain as much strength
as possible during the cut and then to try to regain (and hopefully
surpass) your current strength level while maintaining the lighter
bodyweight.
You see, losing weight is a catabolic process and gaining muscle is an
anabolic process. Unless you are extremely out of shape or entirely new
to training, it will be virtually impossible to gain strength while
cutting. Most likely you will actually lose some strength, but don't
worry - you should be able to exceed your previous strength levels given
time.
With all of that being said I feel the best way to lose body fat and
retain strength is by increasing your cardiovascular work. You should
also clean up your diet but I would recommend maintaining your current
total caloric intake and creating the caloric deficit necessary for
weight loss through an increased expenditure of energy, namely more
cardio.
My favorite method is walking on a treadmill at a rate sufficient to
elevate your heart rate to 55-65% of your max. This is easy on your
joints, doesn't tax your muscles too much to where it affects your
recovery from weight training and it is effective for fat loss. You can
also ride a
bike (stationary or outdoors), walk outdoors or use other
cardio equipment like elliptical machines and step mills as long as you
shoot for the same target heart rate.
Jogging or other more intense forms of cardio will burn a lot of
calories and at a quicker rate but they also lend themselves to burning
up more muscle mass than less demanding types of cardio.
I would suggest starting with 30 minutes of walking on a treadmill
3-4
times per week on non-training days. As you lose weight you can make
adjustments from there to keep the weight loss coming.
I’ve noticed that you never do any direct shoulder work. Is there
any reason for this?
Actually, I have stopped doing any direct shoulder work because after
dislocating my left shoulder the week before the Arnold, I noticed that
any shoulder work I did was aggravating the injury and prolonging my
recovery time.
My front delts get plenty of work from all of the pressing I do, and the
rear delts get hit pretty hard with all of my back work. So far I
haven't noticed any downside to ceasing the shoulder work, and my left
shoulder is fully healed and feeling great.
More shoulder work would be needed if I were a bodybuilder, Olympic
lifter or strongman, but as I am currently only competing in
powerlifting and this is my main focus I don't feel the lack of direct
shoulder work to be a hindrance to my progress.
What kind of warm-up do you perform before you lift?
Everything I do, including warm-ups, is written in my log. My
warm-ups just include lighter sets of the exercise I am going to
perform. My first exercise always has at least several warm-up sets, but
after that I only do warm-up sets for an exercise if I feel that body
part isn't sufficiently warmed up from prior work.
I do perform some stretching if I feel an area is tight. This mostly
pertains to my lower back. Sometimes I also perform some of the band
traction exercises that Dave Tate has talked about in his articles.
These have helped my back and shoulders and I do them often when I am
having problems with these areas.
Matt's Bio Page
Matt’s Training Log
Articles By Matt Kroczaleski
Ask Matt a question
Team EliteFTS
|