¡Bienvenidos a Lifting Latinos! Have you ever wanted to be a competitive athlete? Today we are talking with Juju Patino, a competitive powerlifter at USC! Later in the episode we will also be answering some of your burning questions that you submitted on the Lifting Latinos Instagram page, so make sure to stay until the end to get those answers!
Bienvenidos a Lifting Latinos donde hablamos sobre all things gym strength y salud con una perspectiva Latina. Today we’re talking with Juju Patino, a competitive powerlifter here at USC.
Hi everyone. My name is Juju Patino. I’m a second year student here at USC, and I’m studying Industrial and Systems Engineering.
So episode four, we learned a lot about what powerlifting is. So make sure to go check that out if you haven’t already. But today, we’re going to be getting into what it looks like to compete in powerlifting. Yeah, we’re also going to be seeing how Juju got started his whole journey. And later in the episode, we will also be answering some of your burning questions that you submitted on the Lifting Latinos Instagram page. So make sure to stay tuned until the end when you get those answered.
So how did you kind of get into the sport? I know you were part of the USC Barbell Club. Does that kind of how you got that started? Or was it way before that?
It was honestly way before that. It was more in high school, but it was more towards health-related issues. So it was, like, I was kind of overweight in high school, in a sense, so my doctor’s, like, you have to go into the gym, or, like, get into some sort of physical education through the exercise. I ended up going to this powerlifting gym in where I lived in Miami, Florida. I remember one day it was, um, the day I was on a squat 405, for the first time. And then my gym reception, it was this guy who apparently was like, this Puerto Rican national champion. So when he saw me do it, he was like, “Oh, you interested in powerlifting?” And I was like, What is powerlifting? So he introduced me to the concept, and then he was like, I can get free coaching for a few months. And I took it up. And then I guess that’s where I kind of started to love more powerlifting.
Like, off the bat, your role model was someone in the Latinx community showing you the ropes. That’s great. And then you kind of continue that with USC Barbell Club, I’m guessing?
Yeah, of course. I feel like USC Barbell Club has given me the opportunity to really grow, in a sense, because, yeah, obviously I had a coach who really taught me the initial starts of it. But after I came here to USC, I didn’t have him anymore to really guide me, so I had to find another source of, like, education, in a sense. And here, when I came to Barbell Club, I was introduced to the real community, where it was just like, there’s people that were, like, 20 times stronger than I was. And when I came in, it was kind of an overwhelming feeling, but they were such a, like, a close knit community and really positive to a sense where it wasn’t me getting intimidated by the restraints, but it was more in a sense, that they were teaching me something that I didn’t know. And I feel like over the year that I’ve been at USC and been in the club, I feel like I’ve gotten, like, three times stronger just because I’ve been in that type of community.
And you guys, compete in that club.
Yes, we compete once a semester. Well, usually it’s once a year, but now I’m currently the vice president of the club. So we’re trying to push more for more competition. So we’re trying to do one at least once a semester.
That’s great and but it’s great just to, like, also have the encouragement with like, your friends. Oh, yeah, building that community, yeah, it makes it a lot easier, and you get more motivated. Like, what was your first competition experience? Like then? Because, you know, you have this guy who’s willing to mentor you. What was his name by the way?
His name was Javi. Javier.
Javier. Okay, so, yeah, like, what kind of got you from that initial like, Hey, I’m gonna train you, and then got you to that move now I’m gonna compete.
Of course. So basically he was one introducing a competition, and he will show me videos of himself competing. And I just love the environment. I just love the type of, like, energy that you get from competing, because it’s a different whole scenario, because it’s different when you lift in a gym, and you’re going to, like, fail, in a sense, but then now you’re competing at a more professional level. And you’re there’s the stakes are higher, basically. So I guess when I saw that, it was more scary at first, but I was like, maybe I could do something with it, you know? And then my first conversation was back in Florida. It was like, a little local meet, because there’s different variations of meets. You have, like, local meets that are like in your city. And then you have more, like, state meets or collegiate meets, where it’s more just college based. And then you have national meets where it’s just, I guess everyone in the US, but my first one was a local me, because, like, you know, it’s like, we’re the beginner list, and it was just a small little gym. It was like 50 people were competing and stuff the way they differentiated by weight class and age. So at the time, I was 17, and my weight class was like 82 kilos. So it was like 182 - so I competed in like a weight class of like three or four people. But definitely, it was a very scary experience for the first time, and when you compete, you have people watching you, and they have, like, a stance, like they’re like, over 100 people. But it’s kind of scary, but also encouraging, a sense, because when you’re doing it, especially on your last attempt, she’s always screaming at you. But um, yeah, it was definitely a good experience. Because I also had another friend of mine who, like a professional PT, and he it was my coach. He put me on him, and he was basically the guy who handled me in the meet, which is basically the guy who’s like, okay, just when you warm up, this is how you should be doing things in the me. So, like, I wouldn’t be overwhelmed. It was a scary experience, but something that I definitely recommend for people who are just interested in powerlifting, because it’s just an experience where you have a community that’s also like, behind you, and everyone there is super positive. You’re there to just push your limits.
And can you explain a little bit what the criteria is like, maybe it’s like, who can lift the heaviest? I don’t know if it’s that simple, though.
Yeah, definitely. So in power lifting, it’s really strict, in a sense, because for each different lift, they have these single these things called commands, and if you don’t follow these commands, yeah, you can do the lift. But if you don’t follow them, they give you three reds, and three reds is basically you don’t have no good lift. So when it comes to squatting, is one of the most is one of the biggest ones that had to have the harshest criteria, because they they first have three commands. They have the start, which basically you start squatting, and then they have the rack. So basically, the biggest rule in squatting is getting that death. If you don’t get that deaf, you don’t get below that 90 degree parallel for your legs. Okay, they don’t count as a lift no matter if you push through, like you’re like your nose is bleeding, like everything, like, you can get that lift, but you don’t get the death for it. They give you three res. So basically, in piloting, it three attempts, you have the opener and you have, like, the somewhat close to your PR, and then your third one can either be your PR, or if you’re not having a good day, it’s just a normal list. Because in piloting, it’s more, not a game of, like, who can lift the most in all three lists, and more game of numbers. So it’s like, you want to total as much weight as you can combine. So when you have your squat bench in that lift, when it comes to benches, it’s a lot harder, because in power lifting, you have to have a second pause, or two second pause when you’re at the bottom of the bench. So in benching, it comes with three commands. It’s like start, which is you just lower the weight to your chest, and then when you’re at the weight at your chest, the weight has to be completely stable, so in a sense that it has to be completely paused, like you can have the way on your chest, but if you’re moving and fidgeting, you’re not going to call you the press command. And I just hit the press command, you lift. And then they have the rack command, and a lot of beginning lifters. Like I had the issue where I had the dead of the list. I did the pause. Everything was fine, but I didn’t listen to the rack command. So when I did listen to the rack command, just because of that, I didn’t get any lift.
Wow. Yeah, I had no idea it was that, like specific.
Criteria is rough. And the one with the least criteria is dead lift. So that was just simply just, I just tell you to start and then, um, you dead lift. And then at the top they you have to wait for the down command. So you basically have to wait to the down command. So everything’s locked out, so your back’s locked out, so your legs are locked out. But if your example, like my legs are locked up, and my back isn’t completely up straight, they’re not gonna say the down command. So if they don’t see the down command, then you can’t go down. I mean, if you go down, then if you don’t, they don’t say, you know, you think you’re up right? Then they don’t give you a lift. So it happened to me in my last competition where I high locked down my legs, but my back wasn’t completely upright, so I literally just was holding like, over 500 pounds, just for like a good 10 seconds. What’s happening guys, exactly? I was really up there just waiting for like 10 seconds, waiting for the guys to down command. But when it comes to competing, the way they categorize it is basically based on weight class and age. So then there’s different Federation. So the one that we compete here USC, is called the usapo, USA Powerlifting. And the way they do it is they based off on teen Junior. And then open the teen category is basically, um, there’s three different versions of it. It goes from like 15 to 19, okay. So it’s basically like Team One, Team Two, Team Three. And it’s like, oh, team 3am. I 19 three? From 18 to 19? And then you got like Team Two, which is like 1718 and then team one, which is like 14 to 16. And then after that, you have the Junior, which is basically you’re from 20 to 23 and then after that, beyond 23 it’s called the Open division. There’s no more age categories, more like you’re competing with everyone that’s, like, beyond the age of 23 got it. And then they have this also category for like, people who are like, over the age of, like, 50 that would be really cool to see. No, yeah. And there’s a lot I’ve seen this guy, oh my gosh. My first competition was a local meet, and then I saw that on the board was like, shining red, and it was like, world record attempt. And I was like, what? And it was this guy who’s like, 55 oh, like, he only went to bench and but he was benching like 410 pounds. That’s incredible. And he weighed like half my body weight. He weighed like 130 pounds. It was just so crazy. But then back to the criteria, yeah, besides the age category, um, you also have weight classes. So it’s like, they base it off kilos, because the power lifting was first, I think, in Europe, and it just came to the US. So they always use kilos. So it’s like, my weight class right now is 75 kilos, which is like 160 which is like 165 but it, um, differentiates between one men and women. For males, it’s about eight kilo, which is 16 pounds. But for women, it’s like five kilos, so it’s like 10 pound difference. So like, jumping from weight classes with women is a lot, like, easier, in a way.
Yeah, I guess you were already touching on it, but like, the beginner mistakes that you made, like, looking back, you’ve grown from. Like, can you recall any of those?
Yeah, of course. So basically, I think the biggest mistake I made was kind of tackling it alone, especially when it comes to lifting, getting educated is probably the most important part. So I guess one of the biggest mistakes is basically, I think, not reaching out and not like, looking up online, being like, Okay, this is the type of stuff I have to do, the type of trainings have to approach, or just simply going out to people in the gym and asking people who are stronger than me, like, oh, how do you do this? Oh, you’ve been doing this for like, what five you’ve been listening for five years powerlifting for 10 like, how? What are the things that you’ve learned in power lift? Oh, there’s so many different factors, so many different things that as a beginner, you don’t really know, you don’t really experience, but you really gain that experience by just asking people or just getting educated online.
Yeah, and I think it also helped too that you had, you said you had that who helped a lot with injury, because I’ve heard that’s like a huge problem with power lifters. Yeah, lifting like 400 something pounds and yeah. So what is a like, a average week of training look like for you?
Well, I train four days a week. It’s Monday, Tuesday, Thursday. And then on weekends, I decide if it’s Friday or Saturday. So if my friends go to the pilot team gym, I do Saturday. If not, then I just train here at USC on Fridays nice. But the way that they do it, my my coach does it. He makes he bench every day, and then he differentiates between squad and Dallas. So like, Monday, I Dallas and bench, and then squat. And Tuesday, I squad and bench, then vice versa. But the way that proactive programming works is that they’re working kind of these things called blocks, and these blocks can be from five weeks to 20 weeks. And so they’re prepping you in a sense, where you start super low in weight, and you’re kind of building up to your PR first week, you have like this thing called taper, where it’s kind of like you’re doing super low weight. And then after each speech progresses, each each week in the block, you get you up the weight. So they kind of build up, in a sense of depending on how long your block is. For example, if my block was five weeks the first week, I started off at 330 and then the second week, 350 until I get to that 440 mark, and then I say, okay, was this block good? If this block was good, okay, I’m gonna try 450 if not, then I try 440 and if it was awful, then I’m gonna go lower. I’m gonna just do 430 but the whole point of it is so that you kind of doing this constant cycle where after each block, you’re going back to super low weight, but then you’re training for five or maybe even 10 weeks to where you can get to the point where you can PR. And the whole point of that is just injury risk. If you’re training to your failure, especially in like, for example, deadlifts every single week, you’re not going to get stronger. You’re going to get overworked and fatigued, and you’re going to get injured super fast. And between the weeks as well, you have different variations of the list. So for example, the way that my coach does is that variations of the lift he does for the first squat day. I do high bar squat, but he programs it so that I can get used to uncomfortable situations that come to squatting, because I’m more of a low bar squatter where the bars were more towards, like your the back of your shoulders, right? Yeah, he does it. He does it with variations. And same thing with deadlifts. If you were to deadlift, I’d say twice a week in powerlifting, that’s way too much. It’s so 215 to an extent. So with a way that a lot of coaches, and my coach program, it you dealt with once a week, and then your second deadlift day is simply just super low weight. For example, my primary deadlift days, it can be from like 440, to 500 440 to 500 but then on the secondary day is simply just okay, I’m just gonna deal with 300 pounds, and it’ll be 300 pounds, okay. But it’s like, in relative to my PR, like, it’s something that I can go in the gym, I can do it anytime the day, yeah, but it’s like, it’s doing it so that I can get used to the form. Because I realize sometimes, for example, when I go on vacation and stuff that I don’t work out for a week, I don’t lose strength, but I lose that form and I lose that muscle memory. So it’s like those secondary days are more for you to really get used to the muscle memory, the lifts, and for you to really build up to that five week mark where you get the PR. But some people, they take it longer, and usually when the blocks are much longer, they kind of produce the better outputs because you’re kind of working super low weight for a good three months. But then during that three months, you’re basically charging up all the energy to lift that one specific day to your PR. So it’s kind of like, I view it kind of as a graph. You know, you’re looking at a linear line. So you’re starting all the way from the bottom with super low weight, and you’re just progressively going high until you get to the rate of your PR. So if you were to lift, let’s say, at the top of the peak every single day, you’re only going to regress downwards. All that, in a sense, it’s also good for the long term, because, like I mentioned before, super injury prone, but it’s just better for myself, because that’s the best way, scientifically, that power lifters have just done PRs.
So you’re competing in October. Where is that going to be?
Yeah, it’s a gym called Hidden Strength gym here in-- It’s near Cal Poly Pomona. So it’s super close by. But, um, yeah, it’s all the so called school, Collegiate School. So it’s like, you got Cal Poly, you got UCLA, you got Cal State. So all the different schools are competing there. But last year we competed, oh my gosh, it was so it was so far away we competed and Jose. So it was like a good, like, six and a half hour drive, wow. But that meet was definitely a lot bigger, because it was like, every California school, so people were, like, flying in and stuff. And that was my first, like, collegiate experience. I was like, oh, there’s so many people here. And I was like, at the time, I was 17, so I was like, oh, nervous. But I feel like, because that experience, for example, coming up to this meet in October, I feel like I’m more prepared for it, yeah, especially with, like, the situation in the like, I guess the nerves, because I was able to do this meet with like, the 150 other people. Wow, whoa. But like, now coming to this me, I’m more like, positive, yeah, you like, you know what to expect and everything, yeah, not to expect, and know how to deal with the nerves and stuff.
Yeah, that’s great, because I was just gonna ask you, like, how do you even get in that, like, mental space, because I’m a super, like, nervous person. Like, growing up, I could never do sports because the competition aspect and stuff got me so nervous. Like, how do you as an athlete get in that mental state prior to competing?
But especially when it comes to the mindset, and competing is definitely one of the biggest things is, like you said, listening to, like, the music that I listen to in the gym, is getting locked in. A lot of power lifters, with a majority take this thing called pre workout, basically the thing where, like, you just, you chug a bunch of caffeine and stuff. So when it when it comes to lifting, when it comes to lifting a bit in the warm ups and the meats, I take, like, double what I take the caffeine, actually, so locked in, but mentally, like, I’m. Just prepared to just really put myself out there, but definitely to get into that mindset. It’s more in that helping the most of the community, the community there are so pause is so positive, especially just random people you’re competing with, really sometimes, like before, like, the way it works a lot when you compete, you’re in a single file line, and all the lists are just waiting to go out. I just talked to the guys in front of me, the guy I’m competing the guy I’m competing with. So it’s not like me him are like, one on one and like, like, competing on the me. It’s more like me being like, Oh, how was training? Like, oh, how was your day? So it’s kind of like getting into that mindset where it’s not like you’re competing with other people. You’re gonna try to be the best. So it’s more like my mindset is more tailored towards, okay, I want to become the best athlete and the best, but the strongest I can that day. Instead of me being like, Okay, this guy in front of me, he’s, I’m gonna lift 400 pounds. I live 410 better than him, right? I don’t get I’m gonna be sad. It’s more like me being more positive on myself and just thinking about, Okay, I’m gonna be the strongest version of myself today, other than me being like, Okay, I have to be stronger than these other people. So it’s just changing your perspective. I will view these people who are stronger than me as a motivating factor. I want to get to that level and even possibly surpass it. Other than me stepping back and being scared to even attempt it, and that’s what I feel a lot of beginning power lifters is one of the biggest faults, was where they see these people who are stronger than them, and they get overwhelmed, and sometimes they even quit the sport. They were always comparing themselves to other people, right? And comparing themselves to their competition, quote, unquote. But then they got too overwhelmed, and then they were like, you know, I can’t do a sport anymore. So it’s just, especially with these needs to that concept of perspective and just community.
Yeah, like, your only competition is yourself.
Exactly. That’s just the best advice I can give to any pilot store and just any lifter in general.
Yeah, and that’s great that you were able to use these people who are, like, more experienced or maybe been in the space longer than you, like, as a tool to, like, help you get better. Because honestly, like, I think it’s you’re doing yourself like a disservice when, when you see them only as competition, it’s like, no, they can actually help you out. And that’s great. That power lifting is such a positive community that that you can just be friends with these people and they’re willing to help, help people out, that maybe, like, want to learn more, I’d imagine too, that like the the crowd, like energy maybe helped you.
Oh my gosh, yeah. So, like, especially the third attempts, like, when you’re actually going for your PR, like, that’s when people get, like, loud, and they just start yelling. Like, people don’t even know people. I don’t even know their names, I don’t actually know my life, but they’re just yelling for me. I’m like, I was like, Oh my gosh. But definitely, when it comes to the crowd, like, I can just simply just hear them yell, because that’s I get more locked in, but, but, yeah, that’s one other thing.
When you first show up to like, the competition, do you like stretch before? Because, I mean, we talked about, like, mental preparation. What is like physical preparation? Like, day of the competition look like?
Yeah. So when it comes to these meets, I use this the same warm up I do in the gym. So it’s a lot of dynamic stretching. And one of the biggest things that, oh, one of the biggest mistakes I had in the beginning of my prior thing, is that I always did always did static stretching. So the difference between static stretching and dynamic stretching, that static stretching is like, you’re holding your body parts to, like, be static and like, straight up. So like, for example, you’re pulling your leg back, you’re pulling your arms back. Those type of static stretching are good for recovery, but they’re not good before lifts. But when it comes to dynamic stretching, like, just simply is doing a little jog, doing like, just like, even like jumping jacks. Sometimes I see this guy who’s like, 30 times stronger than me, but then he’s doing like jumping jacks to warm up, like, oh, but just keeping anything like dynamic, keeping yourself in the flow, is the biggest things that can just get you prepped to just simply warm up. But when it comes to warming up at the at these me, I mentioned this thing before, you have handlers, and these handlers are basically people there who are basically telling you, this is the time you should warm up. So when it comes to warming up with weight, retrospect, it’s kind of like it varies. For example, if I were to that lift, and my main goal today was to hit 540 I will start warming up with just the bar, you know, I’ll start dealing with the bar, and then I’ll incline with each plate. So be like 135, and then it’ll be 225, and then 315, you basically just warm up at least four or five sets. So for example, when I forward to deadlift, it’s easy one to compare, because I just do it by plate. So it’s like, I do a plate for like, 10 reps, just for me to get in the flow of the weight. And then I put another plate 225, and then that’s when I’m like, more. I’m like, more I’m like, pausing my rep so I can understand, like, this is how like the form is. And then the third play, that’s when I use my belt. And then the fourth play, that’s when I’m like, Okay, this is when I have to, like, take it more seriously. And then that’s I’m building up little by little to get to that first attempt. And then after the first attempt, you don’t warm up anymore. You’re just, you’re simply just there waiting, because if you’re a warm up after your first attempt, you’re just, like, going to your PR, you don’t want to do that. Just want to, like, just being like men. Now you have to be more mentally prepared to really do your second attempt that, um, that plan that my or any handler uses is the same thing for bench and squat all the way you’re building up to that first opener, and then after that opener, you don’t want open anymore. You’re just simply there waiting.
That’s good. At least you have like, people helping you out.
No, yeah.
I feel like if I if I was in that situation, I’d just be lost.
I had this little story where I also competed in June at the regionals in Georgia, Atlanta. And the thing is, my biggest mistake that I meet was I didn’t have a handler. Oh, so I simply like it was so mentally challenging for me, because I didn’t know what I was doing I would. I wasn’t proud to be a handler, especially for myself. So one of the biggest things when it comes to handling is that even though, like you have someone telling you what to do, you’re they’re the ones who are racking your waist, for example, I need to be mentally prepared to do these lifts. So I’m just simply in the background, just waiting so my handle to put on the waist, for example, to put on the first plate, second plate, third plate. But if I’m there by myself, I’m the one doing that. So I’m the one doing the physical activity where I have to put it on my plates and get myself mentally prepared and do the warm ups itself, rather than someone there being my coach, and being more positive, being like, Okay, this is you do it now. And one of the biggest things was timing your warm ups. For example, you can’t warm up and then go lift in a minute. And the way you differentiate it is basically your name in the roster, like I mentioned before. So example, if I was lifting six, my six in the roster, my last warm up is coming right after that third guy lifts. And keeping all that, keeping, um, your name on the roster, putting on your weights, doing all your warm ups, and also just lifting in general, for me, doing that all by myself, which is too, like, mentally draining. And that was one of the biggest things why I kind of fell short in my last meet, because I just didn’t have that guy who was just doing that all for me, right? And I was like, I could do it myself, handling super easy, because I just put on my weights. I warm up whenever, but it was just so much more than that. So it’s more mental, like preparedness that I didn’t have. So I feel like, especially just like you mentioned before, you just feel so overwhelmed, because you have to keep track of so many things. So definitely having that handler there, having that, like, mentor position there, it really, um, reduces a lot of the mental stress. You have at the needs.
Right? And it’s, it’s also just, like, less to worry about. I feel like you’re, you should just be worried about, like, doing your best, performing your best. And then it’s like...
I have to be worrying about rocking my weight. Worry about, like, this is the time I should warm up, and I start overthinking that I want too early that warm up too late. So it’s like, all these different things, but having that guy there can really help.
You were talking earlier about how your friends kind of, like, would kind of quit the sport because of their injuries.
And that’s one of the biggest things for a lot of lifters where, like I mentioned before, pilots in the game of numbers. So if you’re not getting those numbers after these blocks and after these meets, then it becomes very hard to really continue with the sport, and especially when it comes to injuries and stuff, it gets hard because that time spent to come back to your old strength takes so long. Like I had this friend who he’s become one of my most like, motivational like factors in my lifting where he was injured and he couldn’t get back to his normal shame for two years. So this guy was like, he was dead lifting over 700 pounds, wow. And then he got injured, and then he told me a story like, oh yeah, once I was able to swap 700 pounds about two years ago. But then recently, he was able to just, really, just push himself and take that slow route and really just go through the process of just recovery and really taking the steps to really get back to your strength, and it’s just simply just a you have to have a positive mindset, like, yeah, I got, I got this injury on my lower back, but, yeah, I got this injury on my hamstring. But you have to simply just wait through the process. Because a lot of people were like, they understand that they get injured, and then they get so demotivated, in a sense where they just don’t want to go back to the sport, but like, they quit that competitive sense. But I feel like one of the biggest things, and one of the biggest things that us at the barber club like to do is that we want to keep that positive mindset where, although yes, you can have this injury, yes, you can have this major setback, but if you just simply just keep going to the gym, if you simply just keep working out and keep not even worry about policy, but just keep yourself physically active. In a sense, the rate of recovery just expediates, just so much more. And if you have that positive mindset in yourself, where, okay, yeah, I had the setback, but I have in the future, someday I keep just working hard and just, I’m gonna get back to somewhat my strength, or just simply even better, then I have the potential to really get back back to where I was. I looked at this study where, like, a lot of people, when they got injured, like, yeah, they had that two year span with it, and they got a lot weaker, but when they recover and when they rebuilt, it gets a lot stronger. So sometimes it’s a pro where, in a sense, although got injured, and it’s like a major setback. Now, when I’m back to lifting my I guess my hamstring and my pecs are a lot more defined, a lot more rebuilt to where that I was before I got injured. So that’s one of the things that the guy mentioned before, who started the last 600 pounds and got injured, like something, he realized more was that he like, ripped something in the in his lower back. But now, when he was deleting over 700 pounds back after that two year break, he felt that his back was like, I guess, rebuilt and redefined to a sense where he was able to do much more weight than he was before he got injured. So that’s another perspective that a lot of people don’t consider.
I think also it’s like, what doesn’t kill you, it makes you stronger. And you know the setbacks, you just kind of have to power through them. And, like you said, like sometimes it’s a blessing in disguise. Are there any like, kind of awards or like placements you’d like to share?
I got this when I did my first competition, because I was, like, a teen, I got this award for, like, best teen lifter in the meat that I had. But the thing is, for me, it’s more impactful for me to really have that personal goals and not really reach for things like, I want to get this middle, I want to get first place. Like I mentioned before, you have that competition with yourself. So when you have those achievements where it’s like, okay, I want to increase my PR by 10 pounds, 15 pounds, you get more of a positive output. Because if you don’t reach that middle, if you don’t reach that. Number one place, even top three, you’re gonna feel like that meat was for nothing, right? But if I’m squatting and I’m dead lifting, and I’m doing my PR of 10 or even 15 pounds, then for me, that’s my personal achievement, because although I didn’t get that top three, I was able to really push myself to an extent that me four or five months ago didn’t feel like I had the capability of doing it. So I guess for me, and it comes to personal achievements, like, especially in the beginning of powerlifting, and just lifting in general, like you have a little you have the little milestones. For example, why I dealt with 200 pounds for the first time? I was super happy, because I was like, Oh, I gotta know I can do this. Really, you want your mindset to be towards getting stronger, in a sense, you don’t want to have that mindset where I had to get first place.
All right? Well, before we dive deeper into Juju’s journey, we have something special for our listeners. We’ve received some fantastic questions from our audience for our special guests, I’d love to hear your insights on them. So Alejandra asked, How often do you train? I think you mentioned...
Yeah, I train four days a week, just Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday or Friday. But yeah, these sometimes I take a break sometimes, because especially when it comes to school work, and it comes to like jobs and like internships and stuff.
Rachel asked, What are your favorite go to healthy meals?
Oof. Especially when it comes to college. I don’t have the time to cook. I do not have the time to really prep my meals. I would love to, but one of the biggest hacks that I’ve learned is those Trader Joe meals. The frozen aisle is actually really good frozen aisle. I’ve literally from the beginning of the semester from now, I’ve literally just been eating the same two meals every day.
What are they?
It’s literally, it’s like this, this chicken fried rice, or even vegetable fried rice. They’re literally $3 I know, and it’s so much rice, like, I literally a pound, like, a pound of rice, and I can literally split it half and half in the day. Like, I eat for, like, lunch. I eat two meals a day, so I eat, like, lunch and dinner. But they’re really big meals, right? And then they have this teriyaki chicken.
Stop. I do the same thing. I love, I love the teriyaki.
The teriyaki chicken, and it’s so much protein, like the entire bag, I think, then comes with, like, 135 grams of protein.
This is not sponsed by Trader Joe’s . It should be. Clarissa asked, How do you stay motivated towards achieving your goals?
It comes with everything where that motivation kind of disappears and it becomes more disciplined. So it’s like half the time, like, I’m walking to the gym, and then people go up to me, like, oh, how are you so motivated to go to the gym, it’s not motivation. It’s more discipline. Because half the time when I work out now, like, when it comes to classes, I’m super tired. Like, half the time when you want to go, it’s more it’s okay to lose motivation for the gym. Like, obviously, at some points in my lifting career, I’ve lost a lot of motivation. But you’re going to understand that after the output you put into the input you put into it is going to leave the positive output.
Sarah asked, What advice do you have for a beginner power lifter wanting to get involved in the power lifting scene.
Of course. So like I mentioned before, just simply, just stop with the baby steps. Simply, just put yourself in the gym. Because I feel like, like I mentioned before, it’s really underappreciated where people just show up to the gym and they get that used to that environment. You have to understand how weightlifting works, in a sense, to really progress into that. Okay, piloting is this branch of weightlifting I can pursue. Maybe that’s something I can do to just get stronger, in a sense, and just be happy with a sport that I like. Isn’t, you don’t have to get the form right. You don’t have to get the eating right, but just simply, if you find a joy in just working out in general, then you can gain that passion and motivation to simply, okay, I’m gonna do piloting now. Then the after you understand that concept of power lifting. After you weight lifted for a bit, then it’s good to just simply look online for resources. There are so many influencers, and there’s so many scientific researchers who have done so much research on piloting. Be educated.
All right. Well, we hope you enjoyed this competitive lifting segment of Lifting Latinos and come back for more. Make sure to check out more Dìmelo content on Annenberg media’s website and follow lifting Latinos new Instagram page at lifting underscore Latinos. Also be sure to check out Juju and all of his amazing powerlifting content.
Yeah, my Instagram is @julianpatino09 and definitely follow Trojan Bible Club. We are still accepting current members, and our listing days are Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursdays. We reserve the bottom half of Lyon center from six to eight. So if you guys want to check it out, definitely show up.