Training with Spud
By
Dale “The Beast” Steifel
I moved from Greenville, South Carolina, to Columbia, South Carolina, to go
to school at the University of South Carolina almost three years ago. I
considered myself a hardcore powerlifter, and at the seasoned age of
19-years-old, I thought I knew what I was doing. When I came to Spud’s gym, the
most I had done in a meet was 650 lbs on the squat, 385 lbs on the bench, and
605 lbs in the deadlift.
I did my research to find the right gym for me and was excited to learn about
Spud’s gym with what seemed like an army of strong training partners. The first
time I walked in the door of his gym, I was excited and nervous. I met Spud at
the front desk and introduced myself but didn’t really talk to him because I was
in awe of his greatness (he was the first top powerlifter that I had ever met).
I started training a few days here and there, getting acquainted with the gym
and trying to figure out just where I would be in the pecking order. Everybody
does this when they go to a new gym but won’t admit it. At the time, there were
two crews who worked out on separate monolifts. I called the crew that I was in
the kiddy pool. The strong crew consisted of Spud, Karl Tillman, and Barry
Sturdivant. These guys were amazing to me because I had never been around big
weights like the ones they lifted.
Of course, I acted like it was no big deal because everyone else did, but I
was scared shitless when someone asked me to spot Spud squatting a grand. It was
just another warm up for him, but that night was the first night I really got to
talk to Spud about his training. I tried like hell to get into his good graces
so that I could learn from him. This is around the time I started earning
nicknames. Spud kept calling me the Spy because he said that I was a spy sent
from another gym to learn all his secrets. Karl either called me the New Guy or
Dellbert. (For almost the first year that I was there, he thought my name was
Dell.) Now, my nickname with the crew is “the Protégé” because I’m a little spud
in training.
I quickly found out that whatever Spud said was golden and any advice that he
gave I followed to the letter. It was amazing how quickly I got stronger
training with the always competitive kiddy pool training crew and learning from
Spud and the rest of the guys. It didn’t take long before everyone started
pushing me to do a meet. I think they wanted to see what I was made of when it
came meet time. Anyone can train great and hit big numbers in the gym but then
freak out when it comes meet day and bomb. This was not the case with my first
meet after training with my new training partners.
I competed in a local meet in Rock Hill, South Carolina, where I squatted 804
lbs, benched 506 lbs, and pulled in the middle 600 lbs. For me, that was the day
I got accepted into Spud’s strong group. After the meet, I went from top dog in
the kiddy pool to the weakest guy in my new crew.
One major thing that throws people off when they come to train with us is the
intensity level of Spud and the rest of the guys. It all depends on what night
it is, but most nights, it’s a fun time with Spud cracking jokes on everyone.
People try to come back on him, but the man has a smartass answer for any joke.
He has his moments of angry intensity before a big lift, but overall, it’s a
relaxed training atmosphere.
When Spud was 300 lbs, it was funny to watch him nod off to sleep in between
sets. He would finish squatting 1000 lbs, take three or four steps to his chair
(which might collapse at any moment), sit down, and nod off to sleep for a
minute. He carried his “fat chair” around the gym with him so that he could sit
down when he trained his clients. I can’t say that I was much better during my
last training cycle when I was up to 320 lbs. I never went to sleep during a
workout, but I did use the fat chair. The newly slim Spud looked at me and said,
“I remember those days,” as he watched me eat my patented cookie, brownie,
peanut butter sandwich containing over 1,000 calories.
The funny part about training with Spud is that I haven’t seen him lift in a
meet yet. He has been to several meets since I’ve been training with him, but
normally, I’m running the gym while he goes to meets. (I work for Spud at South
Carolina Barbell.) It’s really odd that the only competition that I’ve seen him
in was during his short-lived (thank God) bodybuilding career after his squat
accident.
Spud lost over 100 lbs after he tore his quad and exploded his shoulder
nerve. He wanted to speed up his rehabilitation process and improve his health.
In one year, he went from 305 lbs of “can’t tie my shoelaces without passing
out” to 195 lbs of spray tan and posing briefs. Those were fun times working
with a carbohydrate-starved, shriveling fat guy doing 2–3 hours of cardio per
day. He wasn’t too hard to deal with until the last 2–3 months before his
bodybuilding show. Then, he was like most bodybuilders who have been dieting and
doing endless cardio for months on end—an angry two-year-old. That phase quickly
passed after he had his first doughnut after the bodybuilding show. Doughnuts
and pizza can fix anything after a year of dieting!
Throughout the whole ordeal, Spud still trained with the crew but made a few
bodybuilder-friendly modifications. The funny thing is now that he’s back solely
to powerlifting, he can pretty much out lift everyone in the gym, even though
he’s 75 lbs lighter than he was.
It is fun chasing Spud’s numbers, even though it will take a while for me to
get there. That still doesn’t prevent everyone from pitting me against him on
training days. Keith Ferrara (the “Angry Troll,” as we call him) constantly says
that Spud will throw me out of the gym when I beat his numbers. I think I’m safe
for a while, considering that Spud’s total is in the 2500-lb range and mine is
in the low 2100-lb range. Nonetheless, it’s fun to see what lengths the Troll
will go to get a reaction from one of us. Spud takes the Troll’s antagonistic
banter in stride in true Yoda form and says that he wouldn’t be a good coach if
his protégé didn’t surpass him. Teaching is one thing Spud does that has been
great for everyone in our group and their success.
It has been great to learn from one of the best powerlifters in the sport.
Spud has taught me a lot, things that would’ve taken me years to learn on my
own. He says that I get the benefit of learning from all of his mistakes so that
I don’t have to make them on my own. He stresses that one of his biggest
mistakes was overtraining just for the sake of doing more work. He told me that
it’s important to understand why you’re doing an exercise and to keep the focus
on achieving that purpose. Spud is always learning new training methods and
different ways to incorporate exercises in training cycles. That’s the benefit
of training with a smart powerlifter.
Spud has a relaxed, mellow approach to teaching and correcting form problems.
He can sit back and watch us lift. Every once in a while, he interjects what
someone did wrong and how to fix the problem. He hardly ever gets animated when
he’s correcting someone’s form. One time, a cop who trains with us kept making
the same mistake while squatting. He asked Spud to watch his form on a close to
max squat. The cop got under the bar, and it was ugly from the get go. Before
the cop even got halfway up, Spud said, “I’m going to punch you in the *&$%*#@
face!” I knew that Spud was half serious but mainly frustrated. It’s always
funny to see him get riled up. He knows who needs a smack in the head and who
needs to put the brakes on the intensity. Everyone is different in their
approach, but Spud always seems to know how to motivate us.
I’ve also learned from Spud how to self-motivate, but that doesn’t stop him
from adding a little extra motivation. Spud knows how and loves to push people’s
buttons. He loves to make little remarks like “just get what you can” or “you
can go to a lighter weight if you need to” after he finishes a hard set of
whatever we may be doing. Those remarks are more motivating than someone yelling
at me and smacking me because mentally it forces me to rise to the challenge of
training with someone stronger than me. Spud gets great pleasure in making sly
little digs at me because he gets to be a smart ass and motivate me at the same
time. It’s the same with everyone in our crew. Everyone is a smart ass on their
favorite night to train. For instance, the people with big benches talk smack on
bench night and keep quiet on squat night. I just keep quiet. I’m amused
watching it all play out, with Spud always getting the last word.
The past few months of training have been sort of half ass with Spud just
coming off the bodybuilding show and me just doing as little as possible during
my hellish school semester. Now, our attention has turned to preparing for a
meet. Spud hasn’t let the cat out of the bag yet on what meet he wants to do,
but I’m planning on competing at the Junior Nationals in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
I finally made the commitment to compete at a higher level. I’ve done plenty of
small, local meets with good success but nothing on a national level.
I’m excited to start our training because I developed the squat and dead
cycle. I added a few new things and made the cycle percentage based, which is
something that I’ve never really used in the past. I got the Spud stamp of
approval on the program, and he’s going to do the cycle, too. We may need to
change a few of the weights though, as I was pretty optimistic in picking my
weights for each workout. However, I’d rather overachieve than fall short of my
goals.
My goals for the Junior Nationals are a 950-lb squat, a 675-lb bench, and a
705-lb deadlift for a total of 2330 lbs. Hopefully, if things go as planned,
these will be my third attempts, but we will see how the cycle progresses. I
haven’t ever been on the exact same training cycle with Spud so it should be fun
because we are both competitive with each other.
Training with Spud has done wonders for my development as a powerlifter and
my internal drive to accomplish. Not only is Spud a renowned powerlifter, but he
also owns and operates three businesses. He owns South Carolina Barbell, where
we train with all the normal people; the Spud Inc. Strap Line; and a newly
acquired Nutrition Warehouse. Spud’s drive to be successful in business is
comparable to his competitiveness on the powerlifting platform, and this has
shown me what it takes to achieve your goals.
Spud always talks about willpower. He says that you can accomplish anything
you want if you commit your will to do what it takes to get there. I have no
magic total that I’m striving for because I’m still finding my potential. I feel
that long-term goals can limit you if you underestimate your potential. Instead,
I plan to keep learning and growing by listening to people who have been where I
want to be, and I’m lucky to have a training partner in Spud that is just that.
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