a little about me and how i got here

I’ll try to keep it sweet and brief - no promises;

Growing up I was always active, literally the only class I attended throughout high school was PE, go figure. I had gym memberships throughout my life but it just never stuck, I had zero interest in training purely for my health (not good I know, please) or aesthetic alone - not that I find anything wrong with that for those that do.

Fast forward to about 2019 I’m cruising through life - I’m thinking, you know what this is okay, I’d work hard at a 9-5, save up, maybe one day buy a house and start my own family, can’t really go wrong, it didn’t matter what I did, as long as the pay was good enough and my belly’s full at the end of the day, I was happy.

At this point in my life all I had was my work ethic, a bit of savings, and probably at the lowest weight I’ve been at during my adult life (68ish kilos), it was time to get back in the gym, Christmas was around the corner, and I wasn’t going to wait around to 2020 to come around to start a new years resolution, I went down to the closest 24/7 and signed up for a yearly straight away, we’re roughly in the beautiful springtime of September, 2019 - trying to paint you a picture here.

So I’m in there, still no idea what I’m doing, no clue what programming is - I’m supersetting arms and starting to dabble in the squat, bench and deadlift, what am I hitting? Something like 70kgs/60kgs/60kgs in that respective order, I had no idea how everyone else was lifting so much more, but I wanted to get there, I ask a friend, he says 5x5, I’m like okay I now have somewhere to start.

BUT now I’m sitting in front of the TV one day, at said friends house, COVID is all over the news, we fall into lockdown, gyms open-close-open-close, times goes on, I’M driving in the car, its nighttime, I’m thinking to myself, well - another gym phase cut short, what do I even do now? I guess if I just left it at that, I’d have more time on my hands to do god knows what, enjoy life, spend it with family, do something meaningful with my life -

I suppose that’s definitely how it could’ve went, but no - it felt like it was over too soon, I wanted a bit more, it wasn’t enough, is there not a way I can commit to this without being too invested? (which I wasn’t at this point financially + physically real talk). I buy this cheap barbell and bumper plate package from World Fitness Australia, some mats, a crappy bench off eBay and some dumbbells, now we’re talking.

2020-2022 I’m going crazy man, I start adding bit-by-bit to this gym, I had all this time on my hands during lockdown, I google 5x5 and I find out about powerlifting. So week-to-week I’m maxing out okay, all I know is progressive overload right now, and I do 5 sets of 5 reps, more and more every time - no deload, what is that? I don’t know at this point, I just know if I miss a rep, I’ll take off some weight, and finish the set, now I’m maxing out and drop setting, bonkers, my eyes were red and I felt high after my workouts. My back, don’t even start with my back, all I did was 3 days a week, 1 day for each (SBD), which later evolved to 1 day for each + 1 accessory. This was the bulk of my training, trash.

2022-2023 I continue on with my nonsense, but now I want to compete, I’m falling in love with powerlifting, I never want us to be apart, I’m all about it. I think it was at the end of 2022 I do my first novice comp, I weighed in at 83ish kilos, hit 190/120/230 from memory, 3rd place, not bad. Heading to the end of 2023 I wanted to get serious, I get a coach, I do my first sanctioned (photo to my right, bald asian guy) 3rd place again, but I get a medal, pretty messy day, but pretty stoked.

2024 March I’d like to say? Who knows, somewhere first-second quarter. I put my garage gym behind me, my parents knocked down the shed to do some reno (yes I moved back home with my parents), I needed to grow up and step out into the real world and commit to some real growth, I join a gym, calibrated plates, combo racks, you name it. Competed in spring, based on DOTS, positioned 9/31, so-so.

2025 Now and my story is coming to an end, finally I know. Can you believe I’m still at my 9-5? But this time I’ve had enough, powerlifting and I, we’ve had our ups and downs, but at this point, its like that part in a relationship you know you’re solid, I’ve trained with minimal gains, I’ve train with injuries, I’ve enjoyed the good, I’ve overcome the bad, we aren’t going anywhere at this point - I quit my job to pursue fitness. It was time for me to learn more not only for myself, but through experience, doubt, and love for general health and wellbeing (lets be real mainly strength) it was time to help others, maybe like you, maybe not.

Don’t really know where this road will take me, I don’t even know if its the right one, but if the world stopped powerlifting today, if none of this worked out as a career path - this will always be a big part of me and I’d like to think I’d be involved in it to some capacity.

That was probably neither sweet nor brief, and truth be told I'm not sure if I would’ve published this if my manager didn’t tell me to (so you can blame him), but that’s my backstory on a page. You have my stats, if you want my help, I will leave a button below for my online coaching services. If you’ve gotten this far, and you feel absolutely disrespected, with the time you’ve expended and will never get back, I will also leave another button below, for you to email in a complaint, I’m all about options,

Anyway its been good, hope to hear from you soon.

-Tommy