Tear after tear, I was seriously never benching again—it’s just not for me, blah blah blah, excuses, excuses. I had injured myself so many times, but I couldn’t let that stop me.

The key to stepping on the platform at maximum strength after cutting weight is to spend as little time as possible with your body weight at less than you intend to weigh when you lift — this process is difficult and requires a great deal of desire, discipline, and pain tolerance.

Matt Kroc training arms 2 weeks out from NPC Mich State Championships

I’m half way through the training cycle for my meet. I almost forgot how hard training for a meet is on your body.

We often learn more from our failures than we do from our successes and I definitely feel this is the case here.

Mmm….applesauce, pickles and eggs.

I don’t believe in perfection…there’s always more that can be achieved.

If you’re looking for some entertainment, there may be a traveling side-show headed your way.

I don’t know that it’s entirely possible to stay sane while dieting, but here’s a few tricks that may work.

When I walked up the first day they had a hog cooking right in front of the building.

These are NOT the same as regular curls, that’s for sure.

Many of you know that I compete as an amateur powerlifter.

The most common questions I receive are “What type of program should I be following?” and “What type of program do you follow?” In my opinion, too many athletes concern themselves far too much about what training program they’re following. They don’t focus enough on the other myriad of factors that are more influential in determining how far they’ll go in their sport.

Honestly? I can’t believe I just wrote this title, nor can I believe I’m going to post this article.

You hear people talk all the time about how someone is a product of his or her environment. This is almost always the case when someone has done something wrong, and the argument is used as an excuse for the person as if they had no choice in the matter other than to become what their environment leads them to be

It was the afternoon before the meet, a Friday. I weighed in at 240 lbs. Weigh-ins were scheduled for 9:00 am Saturday morning. In preparation for the four and a half hour drive down to the meet site, I started my cutting process by putting on four layers of sweat clothes.

I think the best method for cutting weight for a 24-hour weigh-in is to get your weight down and back up as fast as possible. The less time your weight is down the less it will affect your performance.