Interview with Mash Elite Performance's Greg Nuckol - Part 3

In this last instalment we begin to wrap up our interview with Greg Nuckols by asking about meet preparation. 

By the way check out the Youtube below of his record raw lifts this year!

Greg Nucksols: Well, peaking aside (I saw you linked my blog post about it, thanks  :) ), meet day is more of an art than a science.

Competing is just as much as skill as squatting, benching, or deadlifting.  I have some tips, but honestly the only way you can really nail it is practice.  My first successful meet (where I hit the numbers I was capable of) didn't come until my 6th or 7th trip to the platform.  I even had Travis (a guy who knows more than a little bit about hitting big totals) handling me in two of those early meets.  People want to lift big in their first meet or two, but honestly most people need several before they figure out how to perform on the platform.  However, here are some tips.

1.  Don't stress about anything.  You may have slept poorly the night before, didn't rehydrate as well as you'd like, woke up with a stiff joint out of the blue, etc.  Once it's meet day, things like that are out of your control.  They are not solvable problems.  If you devote mental energy to worrying about stuff like that, it lets the subconscious message weasel its way into your mind that you're not ready to compete.  On meet day, only focus on thoughts that build your confidence.  Dwelling on problems is for training.  Dwelling on strengths is for meet day.

2.  Do not pick aggressive first OR second attempts.  You should never never never never never never miss an opener.  I also don't think you should ever have to grind a second attempt much.  The first attempt is to make sure you don't bomb.  The second is to gauge what you're good for on the day.  The third is to hit a number on the platform that reflects the training you put in leading up to the meet.  When in doubt, pick conservative weights.  Numbers on the platform are numbers that matter.  Give youself a good number to improve upon next time rather than calling for a long shot and either bombing or only getting your opener.  Once you get good at gauging how you handle weights, you should be able to pick a spot-on third attempt based on your second.

3.  Don't fixate on numbers too much.  If you show up at a meet just to take a particular record, that's one thing.  Otherwise, meet day is about putting together the best total you can FOR THAT DAY, not hitting an ideal dream-scenario total.  I understand having a "game plan" for your first two attempts to reduce the stress of planning your attempts on the fly on meet day, but you third should be based off your second, not a pre-planned number.  You'll stress yourself out about your third if you're not feeling it on meet day, or you'll limit yourself if you stick too rigidly to a planned third that's way too conservative.

4.  Big breakfast, small lunch, fluid throughout the day.  Use the bloat to your advantage.  A ginormous bloat will help you on the squat and bench, but will screw up your starting position for deadlift.  Eat a big breakfast on meet day (enough before warmups that you don't get sick), make sure to salt your food liberally, and get plenty of fluids.  If you do it right, you should be rolling into the venue with a bloat that'll put 10 pounds on your squat automatically.  You don't want to overdo it for lunch, however, because a bloated stomach can keep you from sinking your hips into a deadlift.

5.  Find the level of focus that's right for you.  I personally find it mentally exhausting to focus on lifting all day.  I like chatting with other lifters, cracking jokes, etc. between attempts.  If you're on the other end of things and you need to stay 100% focused all day, then find a corner, bring an ipod, and have a friend tell you when you're up.  Don't think there's one "right" way or do things.

6.  Manage arousal.  Research shows that there's a roughly bell-shaped curve for how arousal affects performance.  If you're zoned out, you don't perform well.  If you're way over-aroused, you don't perform well.  Most people learn how to find that happy medium in the gym by using things like music, yelling, or ammonia for increased arousal or visualization, mediation, or inter-set mobility work to decrease arousal.  With hundreds of eyes watching (including three judges), the dynamics change somewhat, ratcheting up the level of arousal for most people.  It's easy to over-psych in meets and make dumb technical errors, or simply be burned out by the time deadlifts roll around.  Be aware that you're have a much easier time getting "up" on the platform and a much harder time coming "down" between attempts.  Plan accordingly.

There are probably some things I'm forgetting, but those are the high points.  More or less, get on the platform repeatedly and find the style that works for you.

Training Truth: Great feedback Greg, I wish I had stuck to a better plan for my first comp. While I had a blast I pretty much made every rookie mistake, from overdosing on Gatorade to being hyped up for the whole 7 hours!

During your study breaks you work at Mash Elite Performance, tell us a little about the facility and the man himself Travis Mash? What impact has he had on your lifting career?

Greg Nuckols: The facility is exactly what you'd want from a performance gym:  Racks, platforms, specialty bars (power bars, weightlifting bars, swiss bars, trap bars, etc.  No crappy gym bars that get canoed from a 405 squat), some jerk/plyo boxes, ropes, GHRs, a vertimax, some TRXs, and some prowlers, sleds, tires, a couple stones, some dumbbells, bands, etc.

The most important thing about the gym itself, though, isn't the equipment.  It's the people and the atmosphere.  The guys I train and coach with account for probably 90% of my close friends.  We strike a good balance between constant expectation of success and lack of judgement.  When we're training, we're simultaneously focused on trying to beat each other and building each other up.  It's a tough balance to strike, and there are (admittedly) days that we end up goofing off or getting overly competitive, but a surprising amount of the time it's an unbelievably constructive dynamic, and the results speak for themselves.  We carry that same ethos into how we train groups of athletes and adults.

Good coaching is about more than giving someone a good program and monitoring technique.  It's about interacting with the athletes, finding ways to motivate them when they try to slack, reeling them back in when they start pushing a little too hard, knocking someone down a peg when they're starting to get cocky in a way that poisons the group dynamic, or building someone up when their confidence is holding them back more than their physical ability.  There are plenty of places you can go, including Mash Elite, that are solid on the fundamental, objective duties of coaching.  Mash Elite nails the intangibles better than any other place I've been, though.

Now, Travis Mash.  I think this would best be covered in a narrative fashion.

Although I met Travis when I was 14, early on we didn't really talk much about powerlifting in depth.  He moved to Chicago before I had the chance to learn much from him.  However, the lesson he imparted early on, without saying a word about it, was the value of high expectations.  I'd train in the same group with him a pretty fair amount.  When you max is his second warmup set (or, in the case of the deadlift, his first warmup was often 495, so I couldn't even budge his first warmup weight), it really puts things in a different perspective.  I had lifted a little at school, but in a football weightroom, 4 wheels is an impressive feat.  Just getting used to seeing 8+ plates on each side of the bar, and letting it sink in that people could lift that much weight, did wonders for my psyche.

I didn't see Travis again until he moved back to North Carolina and opened Mash Elite.  I needed an internship for my major, and I figured I could get one with him.  That summer I learned a lot, but it was a give and take relationship.  I remembered Travis as someone who was really arrogant, but marrying his wife Drew did wonders for him, and he was much more open to learning new things and exchanging ideas.  That summer I was running a modified Bulgarian Method program which, conventional wisdom said (including everything Travis had ever learned) wouldn't work for a drug-free powerlifter.  Well, lo-and-behold, I got a lot stronger.  Travis, seeing that, took some of my input and modified the program for the athletes to include more near-max lifts for the clean and snatch, and it paid off.  There aren't many 20 year olds who's internship directors give them that level of respect.  Travis, though, will give someone respect and listen to anyone's ideas as long as they're logical and getting results.  If nothing else, he's constantly evolving the way he does things, rather than building a brand around a specific way of doing things and consequently stagnating.

As I'm sure you've figured out, though, Travis and I are very different people.  I'm the type who likes to read a lot, tinker with things, and come to a really robust understanding of the way something works before I make any sweeping claims or recommendations.  Travis is more brash and action-oriented.  Sometimes he says or does things before really thinking them through, but much more often than not me makes the right call and it's paid off for him as an athlete, coach, and business owner.  I temper his enthusiasm sometimes, and he give me the impetus to climb out of my head and actually *do* things.  I think it's been a really beneficial relationship for both of us.

Training Truth: I am a huge believer in nurture over nature and that good mentors provide an exponential boost up the learning curve whether it be in business or sport. 

Sounds like you have a perfect set-up working with Travis at Mash Elite Performance and from your insights he is obviously an elite coach and great mentor for you.

Greg this is probably a fitting place to end our interview series. It's been great to have you stop by and give us an insight into 'Nuckol's powerlifting prescription. You certainly have an analytical approach to your training and preparation and no doubt you will have a real push soon at some of those raw records you alluded to earlier.

No doubt plenty of questions will come from this series and I'd love to host you again down the track! Hey you could always come lift raw down under at a GPC event as hopefully Dan Green will be back on our shores in 2014.

It was great to have Greg give up some time and if you want to follow his blog and training progress head to his excellent site at  http://gregnuckols.com/  

Or learn more about Travis Mash's Mash Elite Performance at www.masheliteperformance.com

Stay Strong

Thomo