In the past, I used to be against doing barbell stuff in the gym. I mostly wanted to do dumbbell stuff for most body parts, but I guess doing barbell stuff is really good. Doing barbell stuff in the gym is really growing on me. I’m really liking bench and regular squats at the squat rack. Maybe doing barbell stuff like those are really effective for building muscle mass and more strength?

A lot of people like to knock the bench press and I was guilty of bashing the bench but I don’t hate bench pressing anymore. If you want to get a much bigger chest, bench press is pretty much the way to go. If I’m going to be doing powerlifting competitions more, I’m going to have to bench, squat and deadlift full time and I just started doing that.

I’ve never done barbell squats in my life before… that I used to avoid like the plague and I just started squatting at the squat rack for the first time. I’m really liking that too. I was doing barbell squats earlier this morning trying to find out what my personal record is gonna be on that and turns out my PR for squats is 100 lbs. for one rep. As long as I can do the leg press machine heavy that means I can squat heavy on the barbell too. I could probably go more than 100 lbs. on squats and I’ll try that next time.

I don’t need a spotter for most of my workouts… except the only workout that I need with a spotter is on the bench of course. You don’t need a spotter for deadlift and you don’t need a spotter for squats either ’cause most squat racks have adjustable safety bars. For bench, I need a spotter but for the heavier sets. The lighter sets on bench I can get alone but for heavier sets, I’ll get a spotter. It’s always good to get a spotter when you’re not sure of something ’cause you never know.

If I want to do more powerlifting competitions in the future and I will, I need to bench, squat and deadlift full time. I need to build more strength if I want to be able to lift heavier which is the goal. Hopefully someday I’ll be able to win 1st place.

Anyway, on a side note if I want to get bigger in size and get even mores strength, I think benching, squats and deadlift is pretty much the way to go. All three of those workouts are the king of all workouts and I can now see why all three are very popular. All three exercises are compound exercises which means they workout more than one body part. The bench can workout most of the upper body including your arms and the squats/deadlift works out most of your lower body.

I used to avoid all 3 workouts ’cause I was afraid they might make my scoliosis much worse but now I’m thinking that won’t be a problem at all. Some may say bodybuilding is dangerous for people with scoliosis and the Harrington Rod but not really. It’s really safe and I don’t see how it could damage the spine even more. As long as you have strength and muscle, shouldn’t be a problem. I’ve been lifting weights heavy for 10 years or more and haven’t had anything happen to me yet. I’m good to do all the bodybuilding and powerlifting all I want.

Kev

Over the past 10 years or more that I’ve been doing bodybuilding and weightlifting in the gym, people have doubted me and criticized me all over. I think all weightlifters go through the same thing whether they want to admit it or not. Yeah, people will doubt you, criticize you and call you delusional… all that stuff. I certainly gotten a lot of that.

It’s one of my biggest pet peeves is when people want to doubt me in fitness & bodybuilding. What’s even more interesting is that some will act like I’ll get hurt doing it and many will act like I don’t know what I’m doing.

Then once I did my first Power Lifting contest and made third place, they’re all of a sudden shocked and surprised about me. I’m like, WOW. After all the negativity I got over my fitness over the years, people wanna act all surprised now.

Yeah, I do know what I’m doing in weightlifting. I do know how to keep myself safe and not injure myself. I also know really good form in my workouts too.

Ya know, you’re going to get this a lot. You want to get into bodybuilding, powerlifting, strongman stuff and things like that… you’re definitely going to get critics and haters for sure. The best part is when people who don’t even workout giving you all kinds of advice and I’m like, huh? Best thing to do is just ignore them all and continue to do your thing, no matter what anyone says.

Sooner or later, people will start to see what you do and then people will catch on and give you respect. It takes time but you can earn respect by everyone around you. You just gotta keep doing your thing and keep working hard. They will never criticize and never doubt you again.

Getting into competitions is actually kind of a good thing. I’ll never get into pose-down competitions or anything like what you see in Mr. Olympia, that will never be my thing but for powerlifting, yes!

I know I talk about this a lot but my first powerlifting meet was the best thing I ever did so I deserve to brag on about it. It really was an amazing experience. I can see why they’re getting so popular. There are many different powerlifting federations all over the country and I would like to try different ones too.

Kev

Experiencing my first power lifting competition was really interesting. What I found most interesting about it was how honest they really are. If you do really good lifting there at the meet, you do them perfectly, people around you there will give you respect. When you go to a competition if you want respect, you gotta earn it. If you do a bad lift, they won’t be afraid to say that as well and then they’ll give you honest advice on how to do them better.

When they do give you honest feedback, they won’t put you down and upset you, though. They’ll be nice and humble about it. There’s no judgement at all with these power lifting competitions.

When I went last Friday night, I was hoping to get some good advice and some pointers on how I could lift better but turns out I didn’t need much advice ’cause my two coaches already saw that they knew exactly what I was doing. Really they were impressed with me. Even the owner of Albany Strength was impressed with me ’cause I got good compliments by him too.

Why were people impressed with my lifting that night? It’s simply because I’ve been lifting for many years already. It’s been about 10 years or a little over by now. When I first started lifting weights, I was already doing bench pressing and dead-lifting. I experimented with those workouts for a little bit then I gave them up and now I’m back to them full time. I’ve been lifting weights for a long while. I’m a self-taught body builder and weight lifter. Yes, you heard that right! Some out there would be surprised that I never had a coach or a personal trainer. I did all of this by myself.

How did I teach myself? Simply put, I learned from books (Arnold’S Modern Bodybuilding book is the best bodybuilding book out there), youtube videos and just by watching other people in the gym. A lot of people think I don’t know what I’m doing, they think I’m gonna hurt myself and blah blah blah… I got a lot of negativity over the years. So now all that negativity is starting to turn to positive now that people are finally starting to see what I do.

I love weight lifting. It’s the second passion of mine other than music.

Another reason I got into power lifting competitions is that I wanted to feel like a pro athlete. Take my weight lifting to the next level and go pro, ya know?

Power Lifting competitions are definitely a blast. I definitely wanna do more of them in the future.

Kev

So I’m just getting into power lifting. Yes, power lifting and body building are both slightly different from another. The difference? Well body building is more focused on building muscle, losing fat, strict dieting and all that. Power Lifting is being able to lift the heaviest you can possibly lift and in power lifting you don’t have to worry about transforming your physique to when you’re lean. In power lifting, you can still be really fat and out of shape and lift weights anyways.

I want to do both. Power Lifting and Body Building. In Power Lifting, all that requires is just bench, squatting and dead-lift so I’m going to do all three full time every week. I gotta add those to my workout plan and I just did that. So how would I combine power lifting and body building together? I’ll figure it out as I’m doing some research on the internet and I’ll ask for some advice from my two power lifting coaches that I’ve been working with. Yes, I do have two power lifting coaches and those are the two people who I went to my first Power Lifting competition with last Friday.

I think Power Lifting would be good for me ’cause it would help give me more strength for my regular weight lifting in other workouts, ya know? Power Lifting would be pretty useful and that’s a part of why I’m getting into it. Just to be able to lift stronger and lift heavier is the goal. I’ll also want to build muscle at the same time while building power lifting strength and I’ll figure it out. I want to get a bigger body and I think Power Lifting will help me get that too.

Some  of you may say to yourself, “Power lifting is very dangerous and you’re going to kill yourself”. Um, not really. From what I’ve experienced last Friday night at my first Power Lifting competition, it seems very easy and safe to me. Even though Power Lifting and Body Building are slightly different they are still a bit similar in a way too. In Power Lifting, you just lift the weights that feel most comfortable to you just like in body building. You don’t want to lift weights you can’t lift to avoid injury.

At the Power Lifting meet last Friday, I was watching other lifters and I’ve seen plenty of other lifters that can’t even lift the bar all the way up so that means the lift was no good. I’ll make sure I never do that in a competition meet. When I do more competitions, I’ll make sure all my lifts count. I won’t fail any of my lifts at the competitions, I promise you that. Yeah, I definitely do want to do more power lifting competitions for sure.

I used to be against weight lifting competitions and never really wanted to do that in the past but my feelings have changed and now I want to get into them. I never saw myself as a power lifter until now.

Over the years of my life, so many people doubted me and always worried about my lifting and I want to get into competitions to start proving people wrong. From what I’m seeing so far, I’m doing a good job of that… proving people wrong.

Ever since I did my first competition last Friday night, I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback from my family, friends and fans. It felt pretty amazing. I never thought I would win a trophy on my first try… when they called my name, my jaw dropped. It was an amazing night for sure. Now someday, I hope to make first place.

Kev

I’m still thinking about that night and like I said, it’s a night I’ll never forget! Not bad for someone who just did Power Lifting for the first time.

Some of you may ask, since I’m about to get into power lifting will I still do body building? Yes. I’m gonna do both as it is possible to do both ’cause there are many that do both out there. If I’m going to do more power lifting competitions in the future, I’m gonna have to stick with bench pressing, dead lifting and squatting full time. Thankfully the Battenkill YMCA in Greenwich the gym I go to allows you to do all three. The gym I go to do allow body builders and power lifters too.

Sometime in the future I’m still gonna sign up for a membership at Albany Strength ’cause it’s a great gym and I want to work out there more often if I can find a way to get there.

Only thing though I don’t really like the singlet I was wearing at the meet that night but I’m planning on ordering my own singlet for power lifting competitions. I don’t like wearing bright colors so I’m going to be ordering a black singlet, wear a black t-shirt under it and wear black sneakers. I’m planning to buy new sneakers pretty soon and I might do that next time I hit the mall.

I think Power Lifting will be perfect for me to get into ’cause it will help me get more strength in my regular lifting, ya know? Plus Power Lifting will help get me bigger in size.

I don’t need a spotter for dead-lifting and squatting ’cause you don’t need a spotter at the squat rack at all. The reason you don’t need a spotter for the squat rack ’cause there are these two safety bars where you can adjust them to the right height  and when you squat down and in case you can’t push back up, you can just set the barbell on the safety bars. With the bench press, I’ll need a spotter though when I lift the heavier sets on that thing. I’ve got to do all three of these workouts full time: benching, dead-lifting and squatting. All three are pretty easy workouts and they can be very safe to do as long as you know what you’re doing and do them in perfect form.

I can’t lift over 200 lbs. yet on any of those workouts but that is my goal I want to achieve someday. I can get there easily the more I work hard.

Power Lifting competitions are fun. I can see why they’re getting popular around the Capital Region. Will I get into Strongman competitions as well? Probably not ’cause I don’t want to do too much. Bodybuilding and power lifting is good enough for me.

Kev

Well I went to my first Power lifting competition in Albany last night and I killed it! It was easy and I did it with no problem.

My personal record for bench: 95 lbs.

My personal record for dead lift: 175 lbs.

As you can see in the photo above, I won my first power lifting trophy! I didn’t think I would win a trophy on my first try but ended up getting 3rd place which was surprising to me. Ya know, this was the best thing I’ve ever done in my life and I’m definitely going to do more power lifting competitions and it’s definitely going to be a full time thing, I think. Yeah, for sure.

I could have gone heavier on the bench, though. I could have gone 115 lbs. or a little heavier than that but I definitely will give that a shot next time.

I had a blast last night, though. Not only did I have a blast performing my lifts in front of an audience, I had a blast watching other lifters too. I helped cheered them all on and hopefully try to motivate other lifters to lift harder. I give other lifters some positive feedback by simply saying, “Good lifting” and giving other lifters fist bumps when they get done with their lifts. Everybody was so friendly, down to earth and so humble. There were no egos and no prima donnas at all which was a cool thing!

I also got great feedback with my lifting and got great crowd reactions from all of them too. Seriously, though… the crowd reaction I got for my lifts were pretty strong… I almost felt like a rock star and it felt great. This was the best thing I’ve done in a long time. Maybe I should get into power lifting competition full time and do it professionally. For the first time ever, I feel like an athletic person.

I just wanted to experience something amazing in my life and it was a great experience. It’s a night I’ll never forget. Yeah, admittedly on my first try in power lifting competition, I kind of went in a little easy but next time I’ll lift everything a little heavier hoping to make it to 2nd place.

Like I said, I can’t lift over 200 lbs. yet but that is my goal and I’ll get there easily the more I train at the gym 4 days a week.

Yep, heavy lifting is the name of the game in power lifting. I said the other day before the competition that I hope to go in there and impress the hell out of people and I guess I did exactly that. I don’t mean to sound selfish and admittedly bragging a bit but I feel very proud of myself. Not bad for a guy who is 41 and got scoliosis with a Harrington Rod.

When I went to Albany Strength to do the competition, I was hoping to learn how to get better form and better technique in my benching and dead-lifting but the two coaches I were with didn’t give me much advice ’cause they saw that I knew what I was doing. They saw that I was doing benching and dead-lifting in perfect form so I’m good. Not bad for someone who learns this stuff on youtube, lmao. Those fitness channels really helped me. I don’t watch a lot of fitness channels in youtube but there are a few who I’m a big fan of.

As far as the Albany Strength gym goes, it’s a very cool gym. It’s a real gym. You know a lot of gyms out there are so clean and so perfect? Well not with Albany Strength XXXL! You’re gonna see broken mirrors, dirty floors, real weights, real equipment, a lot of old school equipment and you’re gonna hear a lot of noise. With a gym like that makes me wish I live in Albany ’cause I would work out there full time instead of the Battenkill YMCA in a heart beat. I’m still gonna get a membership at Albany Strength and I’ll go there when I can like on the weekends or something. I got to meet the owner of Albany Strength and he’s also the RAW Power lifting director. He’s a super cool guy too and he cares for all of his lifters that work out there. He even gave me positive feedback on my lifting too.

For more pics and video from last night, check out my instagram page… I’m going to get around to posting the dead-lifting videos tomorrow: https://www.instagram.com/kevbrockmusic/

So to all you doubters and critics who likes to say stuff about my lifting, how do you like me now hmmmm???? Take that!

Kev