21 May Paul Oneid – Fluff ‘n Buff and MY STORY
I am currently in a VERY long off-season. Mentally and physically, I needed a break and will have lots on the go the next few months business wise, not to mention that I will be getting married. I am still working with Jon Byrd for my training and Tucker for my diet and feel stronger than ever. My next meet will be the EPC (IPL) Finals December 9, 2017 up here in Montreal, QC. I’ll be lifting knee sleeves only at 220lbs.
[wa-wps]
No videos today because the commercial gym I train at doesn’t allow video, but I had a really solid session. Although solid, it wasn’t fancy, so I thought I would answer a question I have gotten a few times – How did I get into powerlifting/ What was my journey?
Well, if you know me on a personal level, you know I grew up as a little fatty. Up until I was 18, I was overweight. I graduated high school at 230lbs and about 5’7″. Even though I was fat, I was always very active. I used to play basketball as if I was trying to go to the NBA. On weekends, 8-10hrs a day and during the week I would play before school, at lunch, after school. I played school ball, club and everything in between. I was actually a pretty solid 2 guard, “running” 3 point line to 3 point line and lighting it up from behind the arc.
After high school, I decided I wanted to stop being fat and get some girls (the same goal as every guy who picks up a weight). I got a job renovating my uncle’s flower shop and warehouse, worked 8-10hrs a day and trained twice a day, everyday. I was what I would like to call “MANorexic.” In the 2 months between high school and University I lost 55lbs. My workouts were basically things I read in bodybuilding magazines and a ton of basketball and cardio. I had my eyes set on walking on at my University. We started school (I majored in Human Kinetics) and basketball kinda fell by the wayside. I still played a few times a week and briefly for a club team, but I much preferred the training to the playing.
In my second year, I decided to try my hand at football. I had gotten up to about 200lbs and was relatively strong, but it was at this point where I started to gravitate towards heavy lifting. I wanted to be big and strong, so I could compete on the football field. I played for a year at slotback (inside receiver in Canadian football). I had solid hands and was shifty, but I was in no way a great player. I just loved to be out there competing. In the off-season after my first year, I tore my meniscus pretty bad. I actually tore it, started to rehab it, and tore it again. I had the surgery and through the rehab process I really fell in love with training. This time, I was training “smart.” I began to educate myself outside of my classwork. I already had the scientific knowledge base, but lacked anything applicable to strength training. Reading books like Science and Practice of Strength Training, The Westside Book of Methods, Supertraining, books by Tudor Bompa, Issurin, many of the old Russian manuals and basically anything I could get my hands on. Through this learning, I began to fall in love with the art of training. I took another crack at football once I was healthy, but my knee just didn’t respond well to the constant start/stop and pounding I was putting it through, and to be completely honest, my heart was no longer in it.
Once I put football aside, I got a job as a personal trainer. My friend Marco Walker and I also started training some of the Varsity athletes for free and experimenting with different modalities. We even did a 1 week training camp at Defranco’s Gym in North Jersey. As I neared graduation, I started thinking about my next move. For me, I gravitated towards the collegiate realm, while Marco gravitated towards the private sector. I decided if I was going to do it, I would go learn from the best coach in the game. The winner of the Strength Coach of the year award was Ron McKeeferey at the University of South Florida, so I sent an email and secured myself an internship. I worked for 4 jobs for 8 months after graduation and saved up enough $$$ to move to Tampa for 4 months.
OFF TO TAMPA I WENT! I did a 4 month internship with Coach Mac, Marc Hickok (Head S&C at the University of Vermont), Frank Wintrich (Head S&C Coach University of Virginia, Football), and Justin Thiel (Head S&C Coach, University of Tampa) along with 13 other interns. To this day, I am still best friends with many of those interns. It was the most memorable and life changing summer of my life. I would not be the person I am today without that experience. If any of you are reading this, THANK YOU for your friendship and positive influence on me. While interning, Coach Mac said something that always resonated with me – “Have something that makes you different.” He said this to hammer home the point that you need to have something that the athletes you coach can relate to. For me, this was easy. I was already pretty strong at this point, so I said “I am going to be a powerlifter!” I did my first meet that summer and never looked back. Being a competitive athlete myself demanded instant credibility from my athletes. They saw me training and they new I expected the same commitment from myself as I did from them. For the record, I competed in a Raw United meet in Orlando (where I first met Jordan Wong) and I squatted 530lbs in sleeves, bombed on the bench and they still let me pull, so pulled 570lbs weighing a whopping 213lbs after dinner the night before. I had NO IDEA what I was doing from a competitive standpoint. While I was in Tampa, my father convinced me to apply for my Master’s. I got in and started the Exercise Science program. Through school, I continued the internship, but I also applied for jobs. I landed a Graduate Assistant position under Todd Hamer at Robert Morris University.
I WAS OFF TO PITTSBURGH! I worked under Todd for 2 years, along with my great friend Ralph Petrella. I also started the Master’s program in Sports Management. I worked with about 500 student athletes each year while at RMU and it was the experience shaped the coach I would become. On a daily basis, I find myself doing things and think, “Uh, fuckin’ Hamer does this!” That is not a bad thing by any means, and speaks to the mentorship he provided me with and the influence he has had on me as a man. Thank you Hamer! While at RMU, I probably did about 5 meets a year. Full meets, push/pull, it didn’t matter, we were lifting! It was awesome, but it sure as hell beat me up. I maxed out as often as I could because that is “what they did at Westside.” By the time I was done working with Todd, I had squatted and pulled over 600lbs in the 220lbs class. When I graduated my Master’s at RMU, I had to move home… stupid immigration laws!
BACK HOME I GO! When I moved home, I started training with Jay Nera, Kade Weber, Shane Church and Willie Albert. Each one of these men has played a huge role in my competitive success. Since starting to train at Dynamo, I have put over 400lbs on my total. I trained at Dynamo for 4 months while I tried to find a way to move back to Florida and finish my USF Master’s. Lucky for me, Justin Thiel, whom I worked with at USF, was now the Head S&C Coach at UTampa and offered me an Assistant Job. I am forever grateful to him for that.
BACK TO TAMPA… After the summer, I moved back to Tampa to finish my last semester at USF. While working at UTampa and studying for 3 classes and a practicum, I continued to try and pursue powerlifting. I trained at Elite Strength and Conditioning, now owned by Scott Stiefeld and Alan Molina, but previously owned by Chandler Marchman. All three of these guys are awesome training partners and great people. This was a really fun and hectic semester with no where near enough sleep lol. As it became time to think about post grad plans, the opportunity presented itself to interview for the Head S&C job at Queen’s University in Kingston, ON. This was a dream job for me because it was 2hrs from home and I would have (what I thought) would be the ideal situation for me to flourish as a coach.
BACK HOME I WENT… From there, you likely know the full story and even if you don’t it’s all good. I am no longer a collegiate strength coach, but I am still in love with the barbell and love to coach my online athletes. I have been a part of Team PRS for over a year now and am thankful for the opportunity. I still train at Dynamo Barbell with Jay and Kade, along with many young and up and coming lifters. Shane and I hang out less than I think we both should. I work a desk job from home for a large insurance company as a Functional Rehabilitation Specialist and still do some personal training for a specific clientele. That is my story, in a nutshell. Hope you enjoyed, because it was fun to sit here and reflect!
Oh yeah, I trained…
Fluff ‘n Buff
- Hammer Incline – 12/10/8
- DB Bench – 12/10/8
- Cable Flies with hold – 15/12/10
- Machine Shoulder press – 12/10/10fail
- Laterals /ss Front raise – 15/12/10
- Skull crushers /ss Incline Curls – 12/10/8
- Single arm press downs /ss rope hammer – 15/12/10 + dropset
- Stir the pot – 150 reps
The same warm-up was performed everyday:
- Hip circle – 200 steps
- Supine alternating hip hikes – x30 total
- Assisted box get ups x10-15ea
- Single leg glute bridge – x10ea
- Glute bridge iso hold – x:30s
- McGill Big-3
- On Upper days (1-2 rounds)
- Band dislocations – x20
- Band Pull aparts – x20
- Mace Swings – lots
- Pushups with scap protraction – x15
- T-Spine mobilization – 5x5sec holds
- On Lower Days (1-2 rounds)
- TKE Iso-hold – 10x5sec
- Single leg RDL – x15ea
- Hip Airplanes – x15ea
- Bulgarian Split Squat – x15ea
Goblet Squat – x15
Paul Oneid
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