What Powerlifting, Bodybuilding, and CrossFit Taught Me

I've been obsessed with training for over 20 years now. At one point or another I've thrown myself into powerlifting, bodybuilding, CrossFit, endurance training, and just about every generic gym program you can think of. For a long time, my ego wanted to be elite at something, but that certainly never happened. A few years ago, I started to embrace it and learned to enjoy being well-rounded. I'm a weirdo. I just love to train. Looking back, I'm glad I bounced around and tried so many different styles because every one of them gave me something I still use today.

It started with classic Bodybuilding.com programs and random workouts with friends in high school. Which mostly meant bench press and abs, obviously. That carried into college, where a friend introduced me to powerlifting through Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength. I got hooked. I never took it as far as drinking a gallon of milk a day like Rippetoe recommended, but the program taught me there was value in mastering the basics. Squats, deadlifts, presses, bench press, power cleans. Do them over and over. Add a little weight. Repeat. It was my first exposure to progressive overload, and it worked. I got a lot stronger. I still have the beat-up copy of Starting Strength that I read cover to cover. Those years taught me patience. Strength comes from stacking tiny improvements over a long period of time. Add a few pounds. Track your lifts. Trust the process. To this day, the backbone of my strength training is still built around basic compound lifts and gradual progression.

After a few years of chasing strength, though, I hit a wall. My lifts stalled and my body felt wrecked. My knees and shoulders were always cranky. Every few months I'd tweak my low back badly enough to be out of commission for a week or two. I needed something different. That's when I stumbled across Arnold's Blueprint to Mass. I dove in. Bodybuilding was a blast. Chasing a pump every workout was fun. I built muscle and I started feeling better. A lot of the aches and pains faded when I stopped obsessing over how much weight was on the bar and focused more on training volume and muscle development. I ran the full Blueprint program and stuck with bodybuilding-style training for a couple of years. I never looked anything like a bodybuilder. My genetics, nutrition, and complete lack of steroids made sure of that. But I added muscle to my naturally lean frame, and I liked the way that felt. Eventually I burned out on that too.

Around that time, Lainey and I were living in downtown Denver. One day I searched "gyms near me" and a CrossFit gym popped up five minutes from our place. I knew a bit about CrossFit, but not much. I walked in and signed up for a trial week and got hooked immediately. I loved the intensity. I loved the challenge. I loved feeling athletic again. CrossFit gets criticized a lot. Some of it is unfair. One criticism that is fair is that the movements can be complex, and complexity comes with risk. Ironically, that's part of what I loved about it. There was always a new skill to learn or something to improve. But eventually my shoulders, knees, and back started reminding me there was a cost to all that complexity. After about a year, my low back got so bad that I ended up in physical therapy and stopped lifting completely for several months. It sucked. Training nothing but CrossFit wasn't the answer for me, but it taught me a lesson I still use today. Conditioning should feel athletic. Training should be challenging. Sometimes it's fun to finish a workout feeling like you emptied the tank. Keep the movements simple enough to manage the risk, and that style of intensity can be incredibly effective.

What I do now is really just a blend of the best things I found in all of those training styles. That's what Power Shack Training is. It's not trying to reinvent anything. It's taking the lessons that worked best for me from powerlifting, bodybuilding, conditioning, and athletic training, then combining them into something that's sustainable and enjoyable. It keeps training fresh. It lets me feel strong, athletic, and reasonably good about how I look. Most importantly, it keeps me excited to train. Once I stopped obsessing over a single number, a single lift, or a single performance goal, I started enjoying training a lot more. Training is the most fun it's been in years. I'm sure PST will keep evolving as I learn more, try new things, and get older. The one thing I don't see changing is that I still love training. I look forward to it every day.