710. Struggling with motivation after time away from training, Kevin found his way back through powerlifting. In this episode from March 2025, he breaks down the key differences between powerlifting, weightlifting, and weight training, explaining how each impacts strength, fitness, and overall health.
710. Struggling with motivation after time away from training, Kevin found his way back through powerlifting. In this episode from March 2025, he breaks down the key differences between powerlifting, weightlifting, and weight training, explaining how each impacts strength, fitness, and overall health.
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Hello listeners, I hope everyone is doing well. This week, I went shopping. I went shopping to buy a new pair of workout pants and found myself at my favourite spot for such things: Lululemon Athletica. I love their clothes, but pretty sure there needs to be some disclaimer here that other brands are available. What I didn’t love, however, was the 360 degree mirrors in the changing room. After 7 months of focusing hard on my studies and my training going from 6 days a week in the past to 6 days a month, I did not enjoy that self view at all. However, like all things related to self, it is changeable. I went out to a local spot that I knew had a body composition machine of the same brand I have used in the past, so I compare the data directly. And since the pandemic, my body weight has not changed at all at 200lbs. However, I have lost 10lbs of muscle mass and gained 10lbs of body fat. Not good, but it’s useful data. And also this is why I think weight scales don't tell the full story. You know people are obsessed with the number on the scale. But you could be within the normal weight range for your height or for your own life, but you could be under-muscled and carrying too much body fat. So the number on the scale is not that important. What's important is the composition.
Anyway, after getting this information, I began to think about why this had happened. Really it came down to loss of mojo. I'm not immune to that just like anybody else. And what really did me in was the pandemic. I was really, really active, prior to that. I used to wake up early every single morning to walk the dog and then after breakfast, I went to meet friends to strength train, usually 3 time a week were pure strength: A squat day, a press and pull day and a deadlift day.
In between those days were long walks carrying odd objects. I remember living in Hong Kong we would often put our body weight in each hand onto farmer's carry handles and go walk around the neighborhood. I have friends in California that used to do crazy things like hook themselves up to the front of their Jeep and drag that around the neighborhood. But I sometimes used to go for a walk with 45 pounds on a sled or something and pull that around. All things that would make you look ridiculous. But were good for functional training.
And usually in the evenings, I would do some kind of martial arts to get some aerobic work in and because its something I enjoy. On a Saturdays, I would often try a either new sport or a different activity: swimming, stand up paddle boarding, wake boarding, trail running etc. And then on Sundays I would usually rest. I also used to track my food. So I knew what I was eating, how many grams of protein, fat, and carbs I was having each day and had a target for each. Except I didn't track anything on a Sunday and ate whatever I wanted, which usually consisted of things like pancakes or sourdough french toast. So that's the things I like for my breakfast.
Then one day, like it did for everyone, the pandemic happened and I was in ‘lockdown’. No gym, no martial arts, no meeting friends. Over here you were only allowed outside once a day for 30 minutes, and it had to be inside a 5 mile radius of home. So you couldn't drive somewhere and go for a walk. You had to walk within 5 miles of your front door. If you drove somewhere to go for a walk, they counted that as a leisure activity, which was illegal, crazy. For the first few weeks my motivation was high, I would walk out or run out with my dog, I did push ups and air squats at home. But of course as days turned to weeks turned to months, I just stopped. Eventually lockdowns eased off and gyms reopened, but I just couldn’t get my motivation back. It could be because of a range of things, including loss of habit, loss of routine, also things like self shame because going back to the gym, I was unable to do things I previously found easy.
And also the whole dynamic of the gym had changed. It used to be if you went to the gym and someone was doing squats and you wanted to get in the squat rack, you would say "hey can I work in?" While they were squatting, you were resting and vice versa. But now you go to the gym and people are occupying the only piece of machine. And they are siting on it on their phone while texting, watching tiktoks, or whatever they're doing. But the point is if you're not doing leg extensions, why are you on the leg extension machine? It's not a seat, and you're blocking it for everyone else. But you know, you can't really go up and say that to people. It's a bit confrontational. So you just have to deal with it. And sometimes I've gone to the gym and not been able to do what I've wanted to do because people were blocking the equipment doing exactly that.
So anyway I thought about this thing, "what did I used to enjoy? I used to really like martial arts a lot and also enjoyed powerlifting or strength training. So why not try that again? So, I messaged the University of Edinburgh Powerlifting Club and asked if I could go along. I did. There wasn’t a pair of headphones in sight. It was great. Everyone was super friendly. Everyone was lifting together, sharing platforms, sharing barbells, lifting heavy. And when people were doing their own lifts, everyone stopped to watch, giving them support and a high-five rather than just ignoring them. Really wonderful to see. Wonderful to remember what that felt like. And although at some point, I was really pretty strong for an average person then. And now I'm not. But I wasn't feeling pressure, and I wasn't feeling bad that I couldn't do those things. So I was really excited to get strong again. And after the class, I signed up for the rest of the year, and I am really excited.
So, that's my little personal anecdote done. But now on to this weeks episodes subject matter. So I said I went to the powerlifting club, but what is powerlifting when compared to weightlifting? And what makes those two different from weight training? So, on the days that the powerlifting club aren’t training, the weighs room is used by the weightlifting club. Weightlifting and powerlifting are sports and are two different sports. In powerlifting, there are 3 main lifts that you trained for: The squat, the bench press and the deadlift. In the squat, your aim is to take the largest possible load through the minimum legal range of motion, legal being in the competition of that sport. And usually the aim is to get the hip crease below the knee that would be legal. Powerlifters do what is called a low bar squat, where the bar is slightly further down your back than it would be for weightlifting, which I will cover in a moment. And the reason is simply a mechanical advantage. In biomechanics, it's called a 'moment arm.' And when the load is closer to the pivot point, which is the hips, then you can usually lift more. In the bench press, again the largest loads are taken through the minimum legal range. You are lying on your back and bring a loaded barbell from straight arms down to the chest, press up to straight arms again and you are done. You sometimes see powerlifters with really arched backs or wide hand positions. Finally we have the deadlift, where you pick the load up from the ground, hips and knees lock out, and you return the barbell to the ground under control with your hands on it. You don't drop it from the top. You sometimes see some powerlifters with a really wide stance called a ‘sumo’ stance to decrease the range of motion.
In weightlifting, there are 2 lifts, but once there were 3. The lifts are the snatch and the clean and jerk. Until 1972, there was also the clean and press. It was removed then due to difficulties in judging standards, mainly due to competitors leaning really far back and doing what almost looked like a standing bench press (minus the bench obviously). So, what are the two remaining lifts? Well, in the snatch, you snatch the barbell from the ground overhead in one movement. Usually, the lifter starts squatting down behind the bar, with a very wide grip, almost hands at the ends of the bar and then pulls the bar up the hips and drops under the bar really fast, catching it overhead and standing up out the bottom of the squat while holding the bar overhead. There are other variants, like a power snatch, or a muscle snatch where the athlete does not squat under the bar again but pull it up in the air. These are not usually performed in competition because most people cannot power snatch or muscle snatch as much they can snatch. It's usually technique limited though. You normally find novices can power snatch almost or as much as they can snatch just because they're lacking the technique. In the clean and jerk, in the clean portion, it looks like a deadlift. You start from that deadlift position and rapidly pull the bar up, extending your hips and shooting under the bar and catching it on the front of the shoulders. Then standing up in what what we call a ‘front’ squat and gets ready to perform a jerk, which is where the knees bend and straighten again and that kind of force transfers to the barbell and propels it overhead until the arms are straight. As support for weightlifting, athletes often train the ‘high bar’ squat, different from the low bar squat powerlifters do. This is because you can do this more easily with an upright torso, something critical to performing weightlifting, but not for powerlifting.
Which brings me to weight training. As I said, on certain days in the week, the weight training room is used by the powerlifting club and on other days it is used by the weightlifting club. But at no time is it used for weight training. Which is the first difference. Weightlifting is a sport. Lifting weights is not a sport. Everything you do in weightlifting is to be better at weightlifting and everything you do when lifting weights is to be to be better at life. The next difference is that when I was describing powerlifting, I noted that it is where a participant takes the largest load through the minimum legal range of motion. Lifting weights or weight training, then the focus should be on taking the loads through the largest range of motion you can around the joint. So you should squat as deep as you can with good form, but not as shallow as you can get away with. So why have I gone to powerlifting again? Why would I do a sport and not train for health? Well, I would argue that doing a sport is healthy than not doing a sport at all. And it's a good motivator for me. I am, because I will be training more than I would without the sport club as a motivator. I'm actually a very competitive person. And I get more out of that competitive environment than I will out of an environment where I don't train very hard at all.
Anyway, if you are thinking about struggling with motivation, then I think considering joining a club could be an idea. I have said before on this podcast that the number one predictor of success is adherence and the number one predictor of adherence is enjoyment!
Have a great week! If you want to send me an email, then please do so at getfitguy@quickanddirtytips.com. Although I would like to note, I don't check the emails anymore. Someone over there checks them for me and then forwards me anything useful because I've just had some strange and unusual emails. So I don't want to have to deal with that. I don't think anyone should have to deal with harassment or anything like that in their jobs. So if takes me a while to get back to you then I apologize. But those are the reasons.
Get-Fit Guy is a Quick and Dirty Tips podcast. Thanks to that team: Morgan Christianson, Holly Hutchings, the director of podcasts, Brennan Goetschius, and Davina Tomlin. I've been Kevin Don. If you have a question for me, you can also voicemail me at 510-353-3104 or send me an email at getfitguy@quickanddirtytips.com. Visit quickanddirtytips.com, or check out the shownotes in your podcast app.