Follow Your Dreams as a Hobby or Career?

If you pop around Instagram, Facebook, Pintrest, or any other social media outlet. You will inevitably come across motivational quotes like: "Follow your dreams!" with a picture of a fit body or a Lambo.  Maybe you are in a job that you aren't a huge fan of. Maybe you love lifting and want to do that full time and hit the pinnacle of your sport. That's all fine and dandy but you need to think about what your dreams truly are and what it takes to get there without committing financial suicide or losing your marriage. I can speak to this from personal experience on both of the above. We are going to take my life as the example here where lifting and competing in powerlifting and strongman became my dream and life's focus. There's definitely a few good ways to do this and a few bad ways. Come along and let's break it down.

So I decided I love training and working out. I thought, "man if I could workout as my job that would be awesome!" So how do you pay the bills as a pro worker-outer? Being a pro athlete pays pretty well in the sports world but not in the barbell world. Even CrossFit pays out it's top people but that's like 4 people out of everyone competing. So what do most people with this mentality do? We either become personal trainers or we open a gym. I went the open a gym route. Disclaimer: There's nothing wrong with either of these paths but you need to understand a few things. First if you just want to train people and not have annoying adult responsibilities like business insurance and bookkeeping then get ready to make $12.00/hour for the rest of your life or until you can't do your job anymore because you are old and decrepit. So if you want to focus on lifting and are willing to live that Spartan minimalist lifestyle then go for it. You will train clients in the AM, workout in the early afternoon, and finish with clients in the evening. Eat up and lift your face off. Just don't try to add in a social life or a meaningful relationship.

If you are ok with the adult responsibilities associated with gym ownership and management positions then go for the business owner route. You will learn what working on 100% commission is like. Some people thrive on it, but now in order to pay bills you need to focus on your business as a primary and your lifting dreams as a secondary. It will be slow going at first and will take a while before you start actually making money. Welcome to a start up business.

Now let's go back. Your primary goal was to be the best lifter in the world right? I basically went both of these routes and realized that I didn't mind training some people, but hated training people who aren't willing to put in the work that it takes to improve. Further more I really enjoyed my own lifting and seeing my numbers go up the most since that was my actual goal and focus. That means that you are still doing a job you don't really love just to pay bills so you can keep getting those gainz. I wasn't a fan of the administrative stuff either so, but did it as a means to an end. Well geez, in following my "dream" of a fitness job I basically just ended up with a normal person job that doesn't pay as well as an actual standard 9-5 job. Only now my hours sucked to the point I had to neglect my social relationships. hmm...

So here's my two recommended solutions:

1. As soon as you are done with your schooling and before you are married with kids get a part time job doing whatever it takes to afford a crappy but super cheap living situation and spend the rest of your money on food. Live that Spartan life and hit as many athletic goals as you can. Heck you never have to stop doing this. Just keep life super simple and work for what your goals are. The issue is that most people want more out of life than a shanty. They want a life with stuff and people in it. If that's you then check out #2.

2. Get the best paying full time job you can. Hit the gym really hard 1-2 hours 4 days a week. Stay single or find someone who is willing to put up with your gym crap long term. (Mine did for 10 years). Get a real adult person dress shirt and tie sort of job. In the gym ownership path you would have to do the not fun stuff anyway so you might as well get paid better for it. Nothing says you can't train a few online clients on the side. That's what I do. The best part about this approach is that if you get a client that sucks you can just fire them since you aren't counting on the income from this part of your life. You will also see that you will get more out of your workouts since you are not at the gym 10 hours a day training people.

Now just remember this is only one man's opinion. I know people out there killing it on the gym owner and personal trainer side. That just wasn't me though. I'd rather grind and crush a work day unrelated to my kick ass hobby as an aspiring Pro-Strongman. This doesn't mean I gave up on my lifting goals. I will be at World's again this year and will absolutely molest USS Nationals in June, but now I will be able to afford to go the competition, have a roof over my head, and even eat food!

Train hard but don't be dumb.
Talk soon,

Dan Mason

Strongman competitor in the 242lb and 275lb classes and a pro Powerlifter in the RPS 275lb class. Dan is also an Elite lifter in the USPA/IPA. He holds instructor level ranks in Taekwondo, Muay Thai, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Dan has been training people for strength and martial arts since 2004. For other fun stuff check his Instagram @RoninStr

Mistakes to Avoid in Competition

This article is based off of my most recent competition at USPA World’s so will have a bit of a bias towards that meet specifically. There will be nuggets regardless of your barbell sport though. So off to the races!

For me a big hurdle at this meet in particular was a few injuries I had coming into the meet. I tweaked my back a couple of weeks prior and the month before banged my shoulder up pretty bad. If this is a similar situation that you find yourself in then you need to check your ego. My goals were a 625lb squat, 500lb bench and 705lb pull at the beginning of the cycle. If I was still wanting those numbers I likely would have bombed out by the time I got to bench press. So Tip 1 is to be realistic when evaluating your attempts, and always open light. For powerlifting I wouldn't open higher than 90% of what you want for your third attempt. No one cares that you attempted an 800lb deadlift if you don’t get it off the ground. Remember this is specific to Powerlifting. In strongman where we see rep fest situations, be smart with how many reps are realistic. Don’t get hurt for a local meet. In Weightlifting I have no idea what you should be thinking for attempt selection. Maybe a bit higher than 90% but remember you need to get something on the board so be smart and don’t go too ham too quickly.

A second issue that surfaced for me was judging. Our meet in particular was held on Sunday. The judges have been at it since Thursday. They are only human and you can’t expect perfection after three eight hour days of non-stop judging. A bad call or at least close call is going to happen. Really the best way to avoid this is to go to a meet that happens on only one day or be in a lighter weight class. Us big fellas always go on a later day. If you get called on depth of your squat but it was close then you need to work on leaving no doubt. If it could go either way then be ready for the call to go against you. Get your butt down and don’t be a sore loser.

Listen to the calls! If you have to wait for down command on a jerk, log press, or deadlift then you need to get your head right and LISTEN! I was guilty of this on my second squat attempt. I started my squat just before the command and it cost me a podium finish. That’s a dumb thing to lose a meet on. Don’t be stupid. Pay attention!

A final thing that gave me a bit of a mind-screw was my first deadlift attempt. It was supposed to be around 620lbs but they loaded it to 606lbs. I lifted it anyway then checked in at the desk to double check. It was loaded wrong and I should have checked before I lifted as it changed what I did for my second attempt and may have played a part in my 3^rd attempt miss. But hey, I didn’t call them on it so that’s my fault not theirs. Always check your equipment and make sure everything is set up exactly how you want it to be. You are there to perform at your best and you need to make sure all variables are set

to give you the best chance at success. So in Powerlifting make sure everything is chalked like you need it to be and double check the weights. The same is true for Weightlifting. In strongman you have more to mess with. Make sure your kegs and sandbags are set up how you want them to be. Make sure the log handles are facing the right way, and for the love of God, pre-tacky your stones!

I hope at least one of these tips helps you out in some way or at least gets you thinking about how you compete. As always feel free to reach out if you have any questions or want to chat about training.

Talk soon,

Dan Mason

Strongman competitor in the 242lb and 275lb classes and a pro powerlifter in the RPS 275lb class. He is also an Elite level lifter in the USPA/IPA. He holds instructor level ranks in Taekwondo, Muay Thai, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He has been training people for strength and martial arts since 2004.

You can follow Dan on Instagram @RoninStr
For training and nutrition advice and tips email roninstr@gmail.com