Latest / The Platform: a Michigan High School Powerlifting Association Podcast / Flipping the Script: Chris Whittaker, Iron Dread & Building a Strength Culture| The Platform Ep. 26
Transcript
- Chris Whittaker: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the platform where the stories weigh a ton. This is your Michigan High School Power Lifting Association podcast, and we're glad you're here. Today we're flipping the script. Normally you hear myself alongside Coach Chris Gillam asking all the questions on the platform. Today I get put into the guest chair as Coach Gillam is joined by Coach Brian Litton, our fellow board member, to talk about my journey through My professional life and athletic life here. From growing up in Kingston, New York, becoming the head strength and conditioning coach here at Dexter High School, building our Iron Dread Strength and Conditioning Program and our Iron Dread Powerlifting Team, getting into the Michigan High School Powerlifting Association and joining the board of directors. We're going to talk about the people that helped shape me as a coach, the growth of powerlifting here at Dexter High School, our conjugate training philosophy and how we prepare lifters for competition and our athletes. training in our iron drip program, the future of our program, and you know, even get into a little bit when I stepped on the platform myself. and a bunch of other things that have absolutely nothing to do with powerlifting, but are probably fun to hear. Even professional wrestling. before we get into it, make sure you're subscribed to the platform wherever you listen to to your podcast, leave us a rating, a review, follow the Mystical High Michigan High School Powerlifting Association on all our different social media platforms. Share the show with your athlete, coaches, teammates, anyone who know and loves this sport and you think would like to hear it. And if you want to support the platform and the Michigan High School Powerlifting Association, visit the MHSPLA Fourth Wall Shop. Grab your MHS PLA and platform gear. Every purchase helps support the podcast and the association and allows you to fly the colors of the platform and MHS PLA. You can find that at MHSPLA shop.com. Fourthwall dot com. So step up. Lock in. The bar's loaded. This is weird for me. Flipping the script. I'm in the guest chair. It's episode twenty-six. Hit the intro music. to the platform where the stories where you're told Then we arise as one Michigan's lifters. This is us This is the platform. episode of the platform, your Michigan High School Power Lifting Association podcast, where the stories weigh a ton. This one's gonna be a little bit weird for me because I am normally your co-host, Chris Whitaker. but today I'm going to be the guest. We have Coach Chris Gillam and Coach Brian Litton. That are going to run this show. I've never I think I've been a guest on one podcast before, guys. This is weird for me. Chris Gilliam: Great. Well, I'm gonna introduce you even though everybody should know who you are. as he mentioned, we have a little curveball for this episode. Our guest today is a highly educated man. He's very well spoken and intelligent. This guest has a bachelor's degree in physical education, a master's degree in health, physical education and recreation. We called that hyper back in the day. And a a strength and conditioning specialist certification from the NSCA. He likes blue cheese with his wings and above all else, he is a conjugate man. Let's flip the script today and welcome our guest interviewee, Chris Whitaker. Chris Whittaker: I mean, wings were meant to be served with blue cheese. Right? Chris Gilliam: Yes. I'm with you, I'm with you. Chris Whittaker: It's not Brian Litten: Wait. Chris Whittaker: that I like it. It's that's the way God intended, Brian. Brian Litten: Can can we just ask real quick, bone in or boneless? Chris Whittaker: That doesn't exist. Wings Chris Gilliam: It's boned in for him, so Brian Litten: Thank you. Chris Whittaker: wings have bones. Brian Litten: Thank you. As a former butcher, I'm happy with that answer. So Chris Gilliam: yeah. If there's any to any of our listeners out there, there's two things you need to know about Mr. Whitaker, and that's blue cheese with bone and wings. Okay. And conjugate method is the only method that matters. Those are the Chris Whittaker: It is the only Chris Gilliam: two main things you'll need to know and remember, and I'll carry those to my deathbed when it comes to Mr. Whitaker. So I gave you some background information on but you know, give us some more information on yourself, Chris. Where are you from? Are you married? Do you have any children? Chris Whittaker: I'm originally from Kingston, New York, one two four one, home of the Tigers. born and raised there. My parents went to school there. and I really took a lot of pride and still do take a lot of pride in being from Kingston and it kind of helped shape who I am today, my experiences there and the teachers and coaches that I had there. Chris Gilliam: Awesome. And you're married, correct? Chris Whittaker: I am married. My lovely wife Katie and I met in the state of North Carolina because I had to leave Kingston. Couldn't get a teaching job after about five or six years of bouncing around doing part-time things and subbing. And when I came out of school, it was rough for teachers. So wound up going to North Carolina, met my wife there, and she was originally from Chelsea. So we wanted to come here to Michigan and We lucked out. She got hired back at Chelsea and I'm at Dexter High School now and we'll go in we're going we're in our ninth year now at Dexter High School. Chris Gilliam: Awesome. besides lifting weights and coaching lifting, what are some hobbies that you have? Chris Whittaker: well, one is helping my wife take care of the two girls that I didn't mention in the last question. Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Chris Whittaker: we have two girls, Mila and Carolina. they're four and one right now. I try to try to help her the best I can. I you know, very much what do you need me to do? Yes, boss. Okay, we'll do it. outside of outside of that, I Enjoy cooking. I'm a big I got a Pit Boss Pellet grill. hey, that's another sponsor we gotta give for the show here, Chris. You know, I had it Chris Gilliam: For sure. Chris Whittaker: from the old one. Jocko Fuel and Pit Boss Pellet Grills. They're they're official sponsors of the Iron Dread podcast. There you go, Jocko go right there. I'm I'm go less. All of mine are at school. But yeah, hobbies wise, I do a lot of different things. There's a lot there's a lot of stuff that I could tell you right here, right now. Chris Gilliam: Yeah, let's do it. That's what we're here for. Let's learn about Chris Whitaker. Not the guy Chris Whittaker: my moonlight. Chris Gilliam: at the meets, but the guy at home. Chris Whittaker: Well, at for me, my moonlight is a DJ. I've done done that on and off for a long time. line dance instructor. I've taught line dancing all over in New York, North Carolina here. I've choreographed line dances. and then you flip to if you you can't see it out this window over here. Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Chris Whittaker: There but there is a sixteen by sixteen professional wrestling ring set up out there. midlife mayhem wrestling. Give us a follow. where the crisis is real and so are the suplexes, Coach Litton. for midlife mayhem wrestling. But we're doing it all. We're doing it all and having a lot Chris Gilliam: Nice. Chris Whittaker: of fun doing it. Chris Gilliam: And you've just recently picked up like you guys started camping, right? Chris Whittaker: yeah, we've had we've been doing that for a while. we were actually in a car wreck in twenty three and it destroyed our first camper that we got. somebody blew a stop sign in front of us and Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Chris Whittaker: spun, flipped the whole whole deal. you know, thankfully everybody was was okay. Mila, our oldest, was one at the time. but Yeah, we've been we've been doing that on and off. I did that growing up. We had a seasonal campsite, like everybody here goes up north. in New York, you go to the Adirondacks. Right. And that's that's where we were and I spent a majority of my childhood growing up in the Adirondack Mountains areas of upstate New York. Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Hey, isn't that Chris Whittaker: Yeah yeah. Chris Gilliam: like is am I thinking in the wrong mountain range? What like dirty dancing? What was the mountain range for that? Chris Whittaker: It might have been the cat skills, which is where I'm from. I don't remember if dirty dancing Chris Gilliam: Yeah, okay. Chris Whittaker: was the cat skills or or I think it was the cat skills, yeah. Chris Gilliam: Okay. And so that's probably where you picked up your line dancing skills, maybe? Chris Whittaker: I picked up my line dancing skills at a place called Joe's East West, gentlemen, in New Palts, New York. Chris Gilliam: Nice. Chris Whittaker: Moment of silence for Joe's East West. COVID killed. Chris Gilliam: All right. That's some interesting facts. I did not know a couple of those, so I'm glad that we did that. And obviously your profession, Chris, what do you do for a living? Chris Whittaker: I am the head strength and conditioning coach at Dexter High School. I'm a certified PE teacher, so I'm I'm the mix that we don't always see, but I think works really well where I'm running all of our before school and after school sessions and teaching during the day our strength and conditioning classes. Phil Jacobs and I teach together during the day. He, you know, he's gonna retire. the end of the year and we just hired Jesse Hodgkins from he's origin s originally from Milan. he was the head football coach at Milan and he's gonna come in and work with work with me in the weight room and and he's gonna be our defensive coordinator as well. Chris Gilliam: Awesome. Brian Litten: Man, Chris Gilliam: You're up, Brian. Brian Litten: that's a lot of yeah, that's a lot of stuff. Do you coach football too in any other sports? Chris Whittaker: Yeah, I I'm the assistant off varsity offensive line coach now. for a majority of our time I went and I coached freshmen. I was the freshman offensive line coach. just Brian Litten: So you got early, huh? Chris Whittaker: yeah, just doing all the stuff that we do in the weight room and having to handle all that. for me, like when they when when they asked me to go do freshman, Phil asked me, you know, hey, I need you I need you to to go do freshman for a year 'cause my my first year I was the varsity O line coach. we had another guy played at Indiana, the that coaches with us, Bill Ivan. Shout out Bill Ivan. he came in, took the varsity job. So I went and and did freshman because it was a little bit easier for me to be able to manage the weight room stuff and and that. and then last year f Phil wanted to have an assistant for Bill. so we hired one of our former players that became the freshman coach, and I go up and I I was Bill's assistant. and now Bill's leaving us too. So we're we had another another guy, young guy, Andrew Covert, coming in. he played at North not northern, Michigan Tech. So he's coming in and we're gonna I'm Chris Gilliam: Okay. Chris Whittaker: gonna be his assistant, kinda help help him because he's a young cat. Brian Litten: Thanks so how did you get into the Chris Gilliam: Sorry. Brian Litten: sport of powerlifting and what drew you to the sport? Chris Whittaker: I got into this sport. Phil Jacobs was the one that told me about it. he emailed me the registration paperwork for Grass Lake's regional meet in twenty nineteen and that's when we started doing this. took thirteen kids there to Grass Lake and prior to that I had been like looking around, like, you know, if we start a team, you know, how do we do it? I was in the stands at a meet that Chris was running at Birch Run, the US APL meet. and it was just like when you train when you when you study enough of the conjugate training stuff, which we'll talk more about, right? It there there's a lot of powerlifting bias within the materials that are teaching you the conjugate system within the country. So that kind of got me where I wanted to start a team 'cause I felt like it was a good way to keep our kids training in our program through the winter. Chris Gilliam: Great. tell us about your journey with the Michigan High School Powerlifting Association. You said that you started in 2019, but you know, you're a board member. How long have you been a board member? Chris Whittaker: I don't even know now, Chris. It's been it's been that long. I Chris Gilliam: I gotta answer it for you. It was post COVID, correct? Chris Whittaker: think it was post COVID, yeah. Yeah. Chris Gilliam: So probably two thousand twenty one ish, two thousand twenty two. Chris Whittaker: Yeah, I'm gonna go twenty one, twenty two. We ran our first meet in twenty twenty and I wasn't on the board yet, when we ran Chris Gilliam: Right. Chris Whittaker: our first meet. but yeah. Chris Gilliam: Yeah, I mean then that's the year we just finished our state meet in the next week. Everything shuts down throughout the country. So in the following year nobody who could have mates, so it probably was twenty twenty two you got on the the board of directors then I'm guessing. You know, the twenty one, twenty two season. So all right, good. what do you like about being on the board of directors? Chris Whittaker: I think it's fun to one for me because I don't know so many people here in the state. getting into know coaches and stuff, like you know I if you would have told me I don't know where DeWajak, Michigan is, and I don't know where it is now, right? But just talking with Brian at Meets and and talking with n with all these different coaches, you know, that helps me one learn where places are and now starting to build friendships. You know, we've been around long enough that You know, you're talking to people a lot and you're starting to make friendships. I think that's probably what I like the most about it is interacting with others and then to being able to go go to these meets and sharing information with other coaches. You know, a lot of us are involved in strength and conditioning as well. And that's probably my first my first role of you know, I'm a strength and conditioning coach first. So it's fun to be able to talk to more people about how they're training and and all that and powerlifting just becomes an avenue for us to do that. Chris Gilliam: All right, good. what changes have you seen since you've been involved in the s the sport through the MHSPLA? What changes have you seen in your short time? Chris Whittaker: Well, somehow I became the the chair of this organization. Can I be the chairman? But like yeah, like Chris Gilliam: Chairman. Yeah, we could probably do that. Chris Whittaker: yeah, yeah. that I don't know how that happened. but obviously we've we've had a lot of change come through. Like when I've when I first started before I was on the board, I can remember, you know, talking with Sheila and talking with Mike Mike Holes and and all these people and You know, then Jeremy, why can't I remember Jeremy's lap Ferman Chris Gilliam: Tony. Chris Whittaker: takes over, and meeting Eric and all these guys and like we've seen a lot of like, all right, hey, the different rule things that we've added. the meats growing and we're having more kids. So obviously it's I think it has changed a lot and all of them have been like trending in a fashion that's making our association a a bigger and better collection of coaches and young people here in the state. Chris Gilliam: Are there any changes you'd like to see occur while you're still on the board, you know, like anything you like would like to see happen moving towards in the future? Anything specific? Chris Whittaker: Trying think of what I've heard people complain about to me and I go, yeah, I do like that idea. Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Chris Whittaker: I wouldn't be opposed to a start command in or in the bench press. I think we can make a case for that. Maybe some sort of standard metrics on our equipment. Make our equipment similar at least. If it's not a brand, it's the bench is going to be at least this wide. you know, the bar diameter is going to be at least this big around. we have to have full size. you know, forty five pound plates. Like we've gone to meets before where the forty five pound plate is a little bit smaller than a standard plate. and I had a really good one and I just Judging having a standard or I mean w and part of my job is to do the judges training presentations. but having it where we have individuals that we certify as MHS PLA judges and those are the people that we outfit our meets with where possible. Chris Gilliam: Okay, so working towards certifying some people to be judges, especially for the state meet. I w I would guess that's for sure the most important one because of state records. Okay. Yeah, I mean th those are good ideas. Your turn, Brian? Brian Litten: I'm just thinking about the conversations that we've had with Amice just talking about different things. So there's lots of things that we can change and just keep on getting better. And on that note, we all have mentors who are some mentors that have both er that have both you have had as both a coach and also within any other part of your profession who have helped make you better. That's Chris Whittaker: So Brian Litten: on tying that question in. So yeah. Chris Whittaker: Yeah. a lot. I mean I can go back Kingston High School, Tom Lachlan. yeah I probably w I could send him the direct link and he I don't know if he'd listen to this or not. would love to talk to him about it 'cause he's competed in powerlifting too. d old school football guy. He's the one that took us and we then went and threw track and field with him 'cause he became the throws coach. And We were working and tr and he ran our strength and conditioning program. and he was the one that kind of made me want to become a phys ed teacher and a coach because he made a big difference for me, right? Like I was the kid that, yeah, my parents were, you know, pushing me to get to school and do what I needed to do. But it was the fact that I was pulled into athletics that made me want to do the the things that I needed to do to be able to be involved in athletics. and Coach Loughlin was the first step of that. we also had Coach Kirk Reinhardt. Kirk Reinhardt wound up becoming a superintendent of Kingston City Schools. Oddly enough, they passed him over for the head football coach job when Coach Lachlan retired. And he then kinda, you know, he's a New Yorker, right? Like got angry and said, I'll show you. And Went and became a administrator at all levels all the way up, super at another district, came back and retired from from Kingston as assistant superintendent just last year. And within a month of his retirement date, they named him the head football coach. so that's like kind of the origin side of that. I mean, going like fast forwarding into Michigan, just because you know we could talk forever on this one with the people that influence us. I I gotta I gotta shout out Phil. I gotta Phil Jacobs has been a mentor for me. Phil Jacobs gave me an opportunity at Dexter High School. that If it wasn't for him putting his stamp on me, nobody would have taken a chance on at Dexter Community Schools. And I know that. so he's absolutely somebody that not only too did he provide me the opportunity, but then was a constant sounding board of experience. because if you know Phil, Phil's gonna tell you what's on his mind. And and sometimes with him you just you get angry 'cause damn he's right again. you know, there's there's an ace Ventura line. I'm sick of always being right. Brian Litten: Yeah. Chris Whittaker: Me, me and the new head football coach Rob Schwartz, who's a great guy and judges for us and is a big supporter of me and supporter of our program. We just spin that and go, damn, we're sick and tired of Phil being right. Chris Gilliam: Right. Chris Whittaker: So yeah, I mean th Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Chris Whittaker: there's many others in between. My dad, you know, Brian Litten: Mm-hmm. Chris Whittaker: my you know, there's so many that I could name here, but then we'll be here forever. So I'll I'll I'll stop there with with mentors and stuff. Chris Gilliam: Awesome. Well those are I know Phil, and so I know that he obviously would be a great mentor, and it sounds like those other gentlemen back in your hometown were a big influence. We all have those, so thanks for sharing that. you founded Iron Dread Strength and Conditioning Program. this led to the development of the Iron Dread Power Lifting Program. What's one piece of advice for another coach looking to start or improve their powerlifting program? L and it can be more than one thing, Chris, 'cause you know it takes more than one thing, but Chris Whittaker: Yeah, it takes it takes a lot. but you know I think w the fact when your strength and conditioning program and your power lifting program can be as in sync as possible, I think that's huge. especially because so many of our powerlifting coaches aren't the they're not like me where they're the teacher in the room all day for their strength classes. that that's been something that allows us very easily to to do powerlifting because I'm writing the programming for everything. I don't have to try to get someone else to adjust what they're planning for their class to meet the needs of our program you know for powerlifting. And within that too, you know, our kids can utilize their class sessions. We allow them to to utilize their class sessions as their training for that day. So there's no designated you know, three fifteen practice time starts. We just run our sessions and our kids have to get in to four of those sessions a week and train their four conjugate days to max effort upper, max effort lower, like ma dynamic effort upper, dynamic effort lower. Like and if they they wanna come more they can. But I guess like to kind of bring it back together piece of advice if you're a teacher Within the school day, you're ahead of the game. if you're not, make friends with that that person in the building. Maybe see if they'll coach with you. so then you both have buy in into your power lifting stuff. Chris Gilliam: Well awesome. Thank you. Brian Litten: All right, Chris, you've mentioned before that powerlifting is not a varsity sport at Dexter, which blows my mind with how big your program is. So but continuing here, why do you suppose that this is the case? Chris Whittaker: Because I'm stubborn and didn't force their hand and just said we're gonna do it. I don't know. It it's we have a ton of sports like basically you name it, if they're playing it in high school, we have it. Brian Litten: Mm-hmm. Chris Whittaker: and with that high school and middle school, we have one athletic director and one assistant. athletic director trying to keep up with all that. So I think if I would have like really pushed it to to make it that way, we probably could have gotten into that. I'm gonna tell you, they kind of treat it like it is, even though our stipend comes from Schedule B payments instead of athletics budget. the way we do our our kids can earn varsity letters, but because it's me sometimes with I mean, last year we were a little bit smaller, but we've been as big as 120. And I'm the only coach of you know, for that, all those. what I started doing was is saying, okay, if you've already earned a varsity letter, we're not gonna do a pin. Right. But if you've already earned a varsity letter in another sport, you're good. We're not doing a pin. If you haven't then powerlifting can be the gateway that earned you the physical letter within the program. Brian Litten: So how do they get the letter? Do they have to go to a meet or do they just how's the what's the process there? Chris Whittaker: our standards are training based. Like they Brian Litten: Okay. Chris Whittaker: have to train and with all of our kids, right, they have to train their four days a week. If they're not training their four days a week, the first time I'm warning them the second time, hey, look, we can't do this. Right. You need to get your workouts in, you need to get your training sessions in. The third time I either I haven't never I've never fully removed them from the program because I want to give them another shot. So it's okay, hey. We're training into Dewajiak's meet. Brian Litten: Mm-hmm. Chris Whittaker: you didn't you didn't get your days, so I'm not registering you for the meet. Hopefully before we get to Three Rivers meet, you'll get yourself back on track and be able to handle it. And most of them most of them either get back on track or they eliminate themselves. Chris Gilliam: So, I mean, it's not technically considered a a varsity sport, but really it is 'cause they are getting a letter, right? Brian Litten: Mm. Chris Whittaker: The on paper? No. In practice? Yeah. Chris Gilliam: Okay. I mean 'cause I mean that that's Brian Litten: It was kind of similar in Orion. Chris Gilliam: the reality. I mean, to me, if if your school is allowing you to award letters, I think the other part is is if they are paying a stipend to the coach, they're at least acknowledging that you deserve to be compensated for the time and effort you're putting forth, just like other programs have. So is there a stipend that you receive for doing powerlifting? Chris Whittaker: Yeah, it's through schedule B payment. So like how they how they do like band and other like scient you know, chess club, Brian Litten: Mm-hmm. Chris Whittaker: whatever Chris Gilliam: Extracurricular. Chris Whittaker: all those other other things. Yeah, it's not part of Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Chris Whittaker: the athletics budget line. Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Well and and the reality is it's not gonna be like that at any school really because if you think about it, you talk about your hundred and twenty kids you had that year. Technically if it they were running it through the athletics program, that would be twenty dollars for each of those kids for every meet you went to. You would end up having a budget comparable to football if the if the school did it. You know what I mean? And so I think that's where a lot of schools are. They're they're very similar to you and so I I would say that y you technically are a you're still considered a club but you're treated like a varsity sport in the most important things. So Chris Whittaker: And our district is pay to play, right? So our families are paying two hundred and fifty dollars a sport up to up Chris Gilliam: No wow. Chris Whittaker: to a thousand dollars a year family cap for sports. Chris Gilliam: So do they have to do that for powerlifting? Well, there's the bonus on that being a sport, but in their eyes your kids aren't having to pay except for the twenty bucks for a few meets that they go to, which is far cheaper than two hundred and fifty dollars. Brian Litten: Man, I completely Chris Whittaker: Part of my recruiting pitch, guys. Chris Gilliam: Yeah, I'm with ya. So yeah, that's a win win. That's cool. Chris Whittaker: You know our kids pay their meat fees up front. Our kids buy their their T shirt and shorts for their uniform that they keep. they have their own belts, their their own stuff, but we collect all their meat fees up front. So we can write a check from the school account to pay the meat fees. But yeah. Still significantly cheaper. Cost them about s eighty bucks at the end instead of two fifty. Chris Gilliam: Nice. what's the hardest thing to coach in the sport of powerlifting from a technique perspective and why? Chris Whittaker: Mm. from a technique perspective, I'm going to say when we've talked about it a lot with other guests, is holding the deadlift to as strict a f of form as possible. making sure that they are not overloading the bar and getting their hips up in the air and like straight and rounding their backs and doing all this stuff that, you know, we make the joke sometimes. And I I know I've made it made it on here. you know, the deadlift doesn't actually bring a fear of death. Squat bark and fall on you, bench press bark and fall on you. So sometimes kids get stupid. with it. I don't program heavy, heavy deadlifts that often within our cycle. I might need to do it more. but we still see a lot of growth and progress in the the different variations we use. So yeah, from a technique perspective, I'm gonna say with that, 'cause they think they can move more than they can and you gotta get to understand why that's not the way to do the deadlift or the things we wanna do. Brian Litten: It's a good little leeway into our next question here. Walk us through how you periodize a training block for the deadlift. Chris Whittaker: just for the deadlift specifically. All Brian Litten: Yes. Chris Whittaker: right. So that that's gonna really look probably not what people are expecting here. It's we run Chris Gilliam: Thank you. Chris Whittaker: we run three week three week waves. We run conjugate training. So as I said, there's the two max effort days, the two dynamic effort days. if we are you know, we're running max effort work, we're working up the heavy singles, doubles, triples, sometimes fives, never forced, don't know why. Brian Litten: Mm-hmm. Chris Whittaker: Never never I don't think I've ever programmed Max Ever Day a four. where they really the goal of those days being where you strain on the bar and move, while holding good form. If it's so heavy that your technique is getting pushed way out, well now it's too heavy, it's no longer Max Effort work. You're not straining on it. that gets coupled with in an ideal world, seventy two hours later, the speed work, Brian Litten: Mm-hmm. Chris Whittaker: speed squats. speed pulls, speed bench on the on a upper day. so when it comes to tailoring it into the deadlift, the way that would work is a max effort day would get a max sumo deadlift. usually I like to have pull doubles or versus chain. once we get it we're building getting ready to build a new room. Soon and we're gonna go to full power cages, then we can start to program more deadlift versus bands as well. I like to put something else in there for those heavy max effort days that's not straight bar, straight weight deadlift. Because if all of a sudden they think they can pull this much and then in training because they just went through all the other components of our training, and now that strength's not quite there yet because we haven't peeked into that and they miss. Well, now that kills their confidence. Come meet day. but we yeah, we'll do some sort of deadlift variation off of you know, four inch blocks, pin pulls, bands, chains, something like that heavy. and then their speed cycles going into a meet. And this is all usually this all happens about three weeks out. Right. We train we train our normal rotations and stuff throughout the year. And then when we're about three weeks out from a meet, that's usually when that heavy deadlift variation comes. 'cause then we'll get the squat the next week. and then the week of the meet, usually there's no max effort work. Sometimes we'll touch ninety four percent, which is our opener. Which in talking to people there it's a little high, but it it's worked for us. It's worked for Brian Litten: Hmm. That is high. Chris Whittaker: us opening the ninety-four percent. and then the speed work is is within there and then usually it they're gonna get speed strength percentages. So they're gonna run between bar weight band and chain, they're gonna run the seventy five, eighty, eighty five Brian Litten: Mm-hmm. Chris Whittaker: percent on the speed day. Sometimes straight weight, sometimes it's fifty percent bar with twenty five percent band or chain. And that Chris Gilliam: What's the rep range on your speed days, Chris? Chris Whittaker: squats, lowers we o usually do doubles on everything. So anywhere's from eight to twelve sets of two on the squats and then the deadlift volume I like to cut in half. So usually deadlifts gonna be between six to eight sets of two on our speed days. and that and then it all gets waived in three weeks and after the the third week then we drop it, change something, and run it again. Brian Litten: How do you adjust the volume and intensity as a lifter approaches a meat? Chris Whittaker: So as they as they approach the meet, just like I said, they're we don't we train we just keep running three week waves with our different bars and and exercises like Brian Litten: Mm-hmm. Chris Whittaker: we do normally year round. when we get closer to the meet, well that's when the straight bar comes in more frequently. That's when we are going to bring free squat in, especially on our dynamic effort days. There was a time where I took Louie's advice and never never free squatted him. And then that worked for us for a while. You know, go into a below parallel box, it worked fine. And then went one year we had a couple kids that they really started overthinking the free squat versus the box squat. And Brian Litten: Mm. Chris Whittaker: all of us that teach it, no, it's the same same thing, except you're coming Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Chris Whittaker: to a dead stop on the box. But for whatever reason, our kids were having a hard time with it. So take the box out and let do it. Let them do it for specificity. so that's kind of how we adjust really, it's movement based. and then pulling like taper into state meet, for example. we might run the the holy circumax. Heavy heavy band tension and then You're so say like 21 days out, you're taking a heavy, heavy squat with like 65% band tension. Normally we use 25 or 30 percent you know percent band tension. So it's crazy heavy. Like we've had kids flip racks over with band tension, you know, when they they stand up with it. You're just having to make sure it's set up. Hit that heavy 21 days out. And it's that delayed transformation effect that that comes twenty one days later when you hit the meat. So, like all Brian Litten: Mm-hmm. Chris Whittaker: of our varsity kids this year ran Circomax into the meat and they all PR'd in all three lifts or Brian Litten: Assim. Chris Whittaker: or matched in all three lifts. But that then gets paired with speed work against that same band tension and the sets drop. So the first week we're doing eight sets, the second week we're doing six sets, the week of the state meet we're doing four sets, and there's no max effort work. Brian Litten: Mm-hmm. Chris Whittaker: So that's how we taper it down going in. Brian Litten: So what do you do after the season then? Chris Gilliam: So Chris Whittaker: After the season I give a week off. usually and tell hey, you know, you want to come in and train, fine. we couldn't we can just pick up with week one of a of a training cycle or just pick up wherever they are. I like to tell No, hey, go disappear for a week. You know. and then they jump in and they just keep training. Most of them are in our class, so they're they're coming in to school and they're coming into class anyway, so they just get switched. To whatever the next phase is for them. If they're going into a spring sport, well then we just move them to class cycle. Yeah, which we have block schedule. So every other day we switch them to that. If they're a football player that's not joining another team, well, their expectation is they continue to train four days. So they basically same stay on the same thing. It's just the movements are different. We're going with yoke bar, camber bar, buffalo bar. We're switching all these different bars around. Brian Litten: Please. Chris Gilliam: Right. so you had mentioned it earlier. Dexter's getting a brand new state-of-the-art weight room soon. tell us about it. Chris Whittaker: so currently the room that we work in is twenty five hundred square feet. We have sixteen racks, two of which are out on our if you've been to our building, the we have a small indoor track that goes around the top of the gym, like which is something that's rare in New York, but a lot of places have here. that I've seen. we're moving to a build a seventy five hundred square feet space that's gonna be built as an addition off the front of our building. so with that we'll go to eighteen full power racks and running out from there our accessory things because we like to split the kids upper days lower days. And that's really just for the ability to organize the room and have them flip flop back and forth, share equipment, you know, especially in our space that we're in now, like it's a necessity. We can't have a group of sixty plus doing the exact same things the exact same ways in in our current situation. Like we have to be able to move them. so going to the 7500 square feet, they haven't had me drop my equipment quote yet. I'm I'm counting on them to make me lower lower what was put in. I hope they don't. because if they do, I think we're gonna have one of the nicest f I think either way we're gonna be in the running with the nicest facilities in the state for a high school facility, and it'll be built exactly to do what we do and be efficient. full power racks, multiple all the specialty bars that we utilize, reverse hypers. assist GHRs that we can double as inverse curls. you know the sleds well everything everything conjugate that we run right now, this facility is just going to allow us to maximize it where if we needed to, we could run a hundred at a clip in this space. Chris Gilliam: Awesome. Brian Litten: You're making me jealous. So you conduct a powerlifting Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Brian Litten: meet every year in your auditorium. How did you start this and what is the purpose of the meet? Chris Whittaker: So the one the one that we've done in our auditorium, we've actually only done that the two times. that the first one was during COVID when we couldn't have real meets. And we did that. and then the last one was when my wife and I were getting ready to have Carolina, our our youngest, where if we would have stayed with our normal date that we run our regional I might have needed to be in a hospital with the birth of a kid. so what we wanted, and it kind of what got us started with that is we have a a beautiful, it's called they call it our CPA, our Center for Performing Arts. You know, the beautiful large theater room stage and all that. And I was just like, you know, when you go and watch the USAPL at the Arnold and You know, things like that. Like it's on a stage, like lights and the whole thing, and it's a big deal. And when when we started the when we did the one in COVID, it was trying to make it as big of a deal for our kids as we could because they were they got their powerlifting season, especially the seniors, got their senior year of powerlifting taken away. and what that that me was in in many ways, like we talk about all the time, like it's so fun for our kids. to do and be in that different setting on the stage. the last one we did we invited Onstead, Andrew Clute over at Onstead. Shout out Clute. we need to get him on the podcast too. you know he's close by to us. I knew we couldn't take like you know we're got good relationships with Grass Lake, right? as much as I'd love to have done a a duel with Rule and Dan Rig. Shout out Coach Rigg. we knew we weren't gonna be able to fit that many people. So we were invited on setup, had four platforms run on the stage this past time. it's on our YouTube channel too. You you can check that out. but it just became making it a big deal. Doing all the same things we do at a mi Michigan High School Powerlifting Association meet using the same programming, the same procedures. of a Michigan High School Powerlifting Association meet putting it on that stage in that different venue to make it a big deal. Chris Gilliam: There there are plans to do another one in the future. Chris Whittaker: no, only because this. I don't want to ask my people for help more than once. You know, if you know, if we said like, you know, I really want they 'cause our people come out in force to help us. Like we're we're blessed in Dexter, that the people in around our strength program, around our football program, on our powerlifting program are supportive of us. Their parents sign up to help. We can get kids in our building to come and spot and load. Like at our meets, we don't have to have competitors spot and load each other. Very rarely it only if the lifter wants that. We'll have trained individuals loading the bar and spotting the bar. and that's allowed us to go fast. So I ask a lot of them for that one day. So it's like I don't want to ask them again, you know. Chris Gilliam: Sure. That'd be less help but you 'cause you're only running a couple of platforms, right? Chris Whittaker: Yeah. Yeah. And and and maybe like so say like if Dewajak, right, we wanted to do one, right? Chris Gilliam: Mm-hmm. Chris Whittaker: I'd consider it, right? But then I'd probably say like, all right, hey Brian, can you bring me judges and table workers for two out of the four platforms? You know, and then then I don't have to you know, I can I can pull some of like the alumni folks or maybe some of the people that aren't available to help us in February, but then do that with us. No. I I think I think they're fun, but I just I the only reason I don't do more of them or do one every year is because I only want to ask my people for help once. Chris Gilliam: Sure. Well, I think it's great when you told me about running those. I mean, the other thing that potentially could be used, you know, maybe you run like a mock meet to train people in that environment. You know, that's something to to think about. And it you know, 'cause you're right, putting the kids on stage, putting the lights on that's even a different feel than our meets. So now you You had told me before, is there an organization that's looking to potentially have a meet at your auditorium? Chris Whittaker: Yeah, I've actually been approached by two different groups recently. one of them was the Michigan chapter for Olympic lifting. I forget the exact name for forgive me. I I had to tell them tell them no because it was in the middle of September. and with my football obligations, I I couldn't be a point of contact and be a person to help with that. but for power lifting, the Folks from Detroit Barbell have been out and they want to bring the Cincinnati women's pro am to the Detroit area. And we were one of the places that they came and l and have looked at, you know, considering of hosting that. And that would bring lifters in from all over the country, amateur lifters on Saturday, professionals on Sunday. It would be a USPA meet. Chris Gilliam: Nice. Chris Whittaker: So with that they would have a squat out of a monolift. they do have a fully equipped division, but a majority of them would be raw. so what we're at right now is that's they wanna do that in April after our season is done. so basically where we're at is I'm waiting on the the school to give me the green light and then then we'll we'll bring them in and hopefully get some of our kids that are more serious about the sport and might be those types of kids that are gonna go on to collegiately power lift. Well maybe they stick around and and keep training on our powerlifting cycles into into April and get to do that and represent us. Chris Gilliam: Awesome. That's cool. you you're used to this. Power lifting sport has failures that occur in it. do you have a favorite failure or setback that ultimately put you in position for success, Chris? Chris Whittaker: I screw up a lot. There's a lot of things. There's a lot of things that I mess up. you know, so there I I'm I'm constantly learning from the stuff that I screw up. but if I had to go like here here's a good one that I think our kids and all of us could relate to. When I was doing my masters, I was doing my master's online Emporia State University in Kansas, a bunch of us bunch of PE teachers in Kingston. That's what they all did to get their masters, because in New York you have to have your masters. to keep professional certification. so I I was taking the c the the courses at about the same time as one of my best buddies. We went to high school together. We w played college football together. I he's a PE teacher as well. Shout out Quentin Johnson. and I had this statistics class that we had to do. And it was I'm not the best math guy. Right. But Quentin had already done the class. And he might have had all the assignments that were exactly the same. I'm not gonna fully admit in a recording to academic dishonesty, but you could read between the lines. and said choices led to a C minus in the class, which then took my GPA to a point where I needed to repeat the class. So it was actually a forty five hundred dollar mistake on my part because I had to. pay to take the same class over again and do the work myself anyway. so do it right the first time guys or you have to do it again. Chris Gilliam: All right. Good. Chris Whittaker: Or cost forty five hundred bucks. Brian Litten: All right, Chris. you have competed in the U USAPL a few times in the past. Tell us about these experiences and did they make you a better coach? And are you going to compete again? Chris Whittaker: I don't know. I probably like to compete again. My my my training's so up and down right now. We're trying to make some schedule adjustments. to give me a little bit more time to be able to do that. Like right now I'm I'm getting like half a session in, you know, in the mornings and it it doesn't help me. Definitely not enough to compete again. but I do think those were valuable experiences to be able to, you know, step on the platform and kind of put yourself out there and be like, you know. This is what our lifters go through. This is what the kids that we coach go through, and we experience it firsthand. funny story. And we coach this all the time. And Gillam's heard this one before. And I don't know if I've told you, Brian, but Brian Litten: Mm-hmm. Chris Whittaker: both of those meets in this sport that we've coached now for a long time, both of those meets, your boy completely ignored the head judge on the opener squat. Both of them got red lighted. what that does for me now, the kid that's super nervous about commands, I can bring themselves down. I can bring them down a little bit and go, hey, listen, I've been coaching this forever. And both of the two USAPL meets I did, I got red lights on the first one because I completely ignored the judge. So Chris Gilliam: Was it was it the rat command or was it the squat command? Chris Whittaker: squat command. No walk out. Bang bang bang. You didn't Brian Litten: Mm. Chris Whittaker: get the squat command. Chris Gilliam: So you did it without even getting the squat command. Awesome. Chris Whittaker: Yep. Don't don't know why I was all I I mean, especi the first one the first one obviously I was a little a little more nervous than the second one, but somehow I still did it on the second one. You know, it's I don't know. Chris Gilliam: So the second meet when you did it again were you halfway down going, crap, I did it again. So yeah. That was your Brit that was your Britney Spears moment, right? Oops, I did it again. Chris Whittaker: Yep. Yep. Yep. And Gina and Gina Hensley was running at me. oops, I did it again. I did it again. Yeah. Still went up. Still went up in wait on the next one though. I think Brian Litten: There you go. Chris Whittaker: I got it. So but yeah, they have made me a better coach for sure. Just being able to Chris Gilliam: All right. Well for sure. Yeah. Speed round now, Chris, but we're gonna put a little twist on it. All right. I want two answers from you for each of the questions. Your first one is for you personally if you are the lifter. And then the second one is as a coach, all right, for your own lifters. Okay, go ahead, Brian. Brian Litten: Alright, favorite lift squat, bench, or deadlift. Chris Whittaker: What for sure. Brian Litten: Is that for both of them or just one? Chris Gilliam: Was that for both? Chris Whittaker: For both. Yeah. We're gonna squat. We're gonna squat heavy. We're gonna squat well and that's gonna make us better at the deadlift. Chris Gilliam: All right. So speaking of squat, are you a low bar or high bar squat? Chris Whittaker: what we teach would be classified as high bar, right, across the rear delts and traps. Chris Gilliam: And that's what you do yourself. Chris Whittaker: Yeah. Yeah. The moving it down I just always felt like I pitched forward a lot more and didn't want to put my low back in that position. Or my kids. Brian Litten: Okay. Sumo or conventional deadlift. Chris Whittaker: sumo we teach the sumo first and foremost to everybody, and that's what a majority of our kids are gonna pull. when if they want to pull conventional in competition, that's something that then we teach them and they run speedways with that to get get with that. I believe, like what Louie always talked about, that the wide trains the narrow. So Majority of time in training the deadlift for myself and our kids, we're training sumo. Conventional is a variation that we throw in, but I pull conventional. No in both of those meets I pull c conventional. Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Are you a one rep Max guy or a rep PR? Chris Whittaker: I think everybody knows the answer to this question. We train conjugate. We strain. We Brian Litten: Yeah. Chris Whittaker: do singles. We're not afraid. And like Dave Tate said, once you give way, you start doing doubles, triples, fives, like then there's more stuff that can go wrong then. Just strain. Do it once. Brian Litten: Don't forget the fours. Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Brian Litten: All right. Best accessory exercise for the squat. Chris Whittaker: I think w with the squat, reverse hyper is always a big one, because it is traction based and building the posterior chain, especially the the lockout at the top. we run a ton of GHRs. G HRs and reverse hypers never come out of our training, so it would have to be probably G H R slash reverse hyper in that in that order for me. Chris Gilliam: Is that for yourself also? Chris Whittaker: I got a GHR and po it's I bought it from a company that shall not be named. that's not the one that you know I like working Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Chris Whittaker: with. and it's not the best. It's not the best, but we make it work with the with the G HR. Chris Gilliam: All right, best accessory exercise for bench press. Chris Whittaker: triceps. close grip, board press, high rep tricep extensions, with a band, to develop that. Yeah, there's there's a lot. There's a lot with those, but it's some some within the triceps feel. Brian Litten: Okay, and what about the deadlift? Chris Whittaker: basically all the things that help our squat go up, help our deadlift go up. in my experience. I do with the deadlift, really that's a thing that we just have to get the technique down within and we do that during our speed work stuff. So, you know, the same things for the squat, the GHR, the reverse hypers, the single leg variants, lunges, split squats, stuff like that. But if it helps our squat go up, it helps our deadlift go up for the most part. Chris Gilliam: All right, well it's that time. We've come to the end of this episode. Are there any last questions you have for Coach Whitaker, Brian? Brian Litten: yeah, how'd you find out about Jacko? Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Chris Whittaker: Well, Brian Litten: Pull the book out. Chris Whittaker: I I'll leave it on the shelf. We're getting over time here. Brian Litten: Ha Chris Whittaker: extreme ownership. listen to the audiobook. I have the like the workbook here. but that's kinda I I was looking for ways to get better and you know, need to be a better leader. And I came across the extreme ownership. Listen to that and then that spun into Dichotomy of leadership, leadership strategies and tactics, the discipline equals freedom field manual. I I've I've been through it all. the Jocko podcast. I was a Jo I'm a Jocko Underground subscriber for his underground podcast. you know, I like the message he brings. I I still have not mastered mastered the art of discipline to his level. still working on that. But that's kind of what got me there. I I I was even a member where you ever see when they do the the t shirt, the mystery t shirt membership. Brian Litten: yeah, shirt locker thing, yeah. Chris Whittaker: Yeah, the shirt locker. I I was even spending money, money Brian Litten: Mm-hmm. Chris Whittaker: on that and and just it was I like the message. It made sense to me from a leadership standpoint. how the you know, they they preach all the different different components. I won't dive into all of them. Brian Litten: Mm-hmm. Chris Whittaker: Read the book. But that's Brian Litten: Hm. Shameless plug right there. Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Chris Whittaker: yeah. That's yeah. And that got that's what kinda got me in in all that. Started with with that first book, Extreme Ownership and went from there. Brian Litten: Had have you shown your students or your athletes the I I showed it when I used to be a principal, I used to open all my leadership meetings with the TED talk that he did. I've never shown my students it, but I feel like they would actually some of them would kind of grasp it, the the whole the TED talk about the extreme ownership. Have you ever shown that to kids or anything? Chris Whittaker: I I haven't, but i a lot of the stuff that he talks about in the book are in that. Well Brian Litten: Mm-hmm. Chris Whittaker: if I remember correctly. It's been a while since I watched it. there was there was a time where we were and I wound up stopping because I didn't I obviously didn't do it right, 'cause it wasn't connecting. But we would go in and discipline discipline equals freedom field manual, right? Brian Litten: Uh-huh. Chris Whittaker: Coming in. Okay, hey, before the training session or going in, you know, where does discipline come from? Read the passage, right? Discuss it briefly. You know, maybe they they give me something in a quick Google form or whatever to understanding. Brian Litten: Mm-hmm. Chris Whittaker: that's that I've that I've shared that those things. You know, just stand up there and literally take it and read it to Talk about what is what it means, Brian Litten: Mm-hmm. Chris Whittaker: what it means to them and then then go. Our Brian Litten: Mm-hmm. Chris Whittaker: sessions are pretty tight programming wise as far as time. So we try to like limit where possible the amount of stuff that we're we're talking about or teaching. Cause then we're then we're having to cut something physical out if we if we go Brian Litten: Gotcha. Chris Whittaker: too long. Brian Litten: Okay. Good. Chris Gilliam: All right, good. you're a big wrestling entertainment fan, all right. So besides Mark Henry, who did compete in powerlifting, who do you think would have been a great power lifter from the world of wrestling and Chris Whittaker: Mar Mark Henry w was the first Arnold strongman as well. and an Olympic lifter. his whole gimmick was that he was the world's strongest man. Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Chris Whittaker: I do I always liked him. He was cool. But as far as from from the world of powerlifting or the world of wrestling, there's a guy named Big E Langston is his gimmick name. you know, insider term, gimmick character. Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Chris Whittaker: he's I think he's got a over five hundred pound bench press. there's there's been a lot a lot of like training footage that Cena has put out. He's a big Olympic lifter. with all that going back further Chris Gilliam: I think Big E's from Detroit, isn't he? Chris Whittaker: Biggie he went to Iowa. He played he played football. No, he's from Tampa. So he Chris Gilliam: Table okay. Chris Whittaker: played D line at Iowa. there's if you go back, right, the Legion of Doom, the Road Warriors, right? Hey, I'm sure all of our all of the people my age and up remember the Road Warriors. What a rush. Chris Gilliam: yeah. Hawking animal. Chris Whittaker: famously those guys were like five hundred pound benchers too, I think. but no it's you know there there's a lot of crazy athletes that are going into and and again guys it's it's entertainment you know product. It's not athletic competition but the stuff that they have to be able to physically do. you know there there's a guy a guy right now his gimmick names Obufemi I don't know what his real name was is, but he he was a thrower at Alabama through the shop put. I think he might have been a national champ. And now he's gone through their developmental system and they actually had him go up against another freak of nature today as we record this in Brock Lesnar. So that's that's the type of freak freak athlete this guy is that he stands in across from Brock Lesnar, who advertises as the greatest combat sports athlete there is, NCAA wrestling champion, WWE champion, UFC heavyweight champion. Like there's some crazy athletes, man, that are coming through the sport. Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Chris Whittaker: Me and my buddies that do it you know, in our little, you know, midlife mayhem wrestling promotion, we are not the athletes that you see in on TV. Chris Gilliam: Gotcha. Brian Litten: Alright, any last thoughts or comments that you have, Chris? what are your social media handles? anything you got for us for the good of the cause here. Chris Whittaker: I get on tangents and I talk too long. judging by the length of this episode. so I won't take too much more of people's time. They're used to listening to my voice on regular episodes. social media wise, you can follow follow my stuff at coach underscore Whitaker at coach underscore Whitaker66, Iron Dread underscore S C. there's all that stuff on there. I have part of my responsibilities is the powerlifting association social media. So the at H S P L A Instagram, Facebook, Twitter is a little bit different. Somebody made that before me. It's like I H S P L A. because we couldn't get the other one switched. But yeah, it's a lot of the stuff that you're gonna see on mine is is gonna be you know, stuff that we're doing within our program. I don't post a ton of videos from the weight room. I don't really like having phones out videoing lifts. but sometimes you'll see a one if I really if I think it's good, right? Like there's been lifts that I videoed at our meets to add to the social media page and I didn't post it because I didn't you can clearly see that the kid was too high in the squat and then lights light up all all three whites. So like trying to keep a standard there. Like and for us with our training, like I'm not taking the time to pull out a phone and video a kid. If I get a a a lift on on footage or if I was using video to as a teaching tool and we have it sometimes I put it up. But but yeah, I won't I won't take too much more here 'cause again I could talk for hours. Especially on a variety of different topics. Chris Gilliam: No, it's great. I appreciate ya flipping the script. I appreciate Brian being a part of this as well. that does it for this episode with Coach Whitaker. Thanks for joining us. And let's keep the lifts being big. And what's the tagline, Coach? Chris Whittaker: This has been the platform where the stories weigh a ton. Alright, folks, so you have it. That does it for another episode of the platform. a little bit different one today, especially for me, as we flipped that microphone around and I got to answer a lot of questions. from Kingston, New York to Dexter, Michigan, from the thirteen lifters. from the our first MHS PL meet in twenty nineteen, the building the iron dredge trendy conditioning program and one of the largest high school powerlifting programs around. We've had a lot of fun coaching athletes and stepping on the competition platform myself. this episode is a reminder that there's a good story behind almost everything. And I hope you enjoyed my story. and that me and every coach are still learning along the way. big thank you to Coach Brian Linton for stepping in and joining Coach Gillam for this episode. it was weird but fun for me to do at the same time. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure you're subscribed to the platform. You're leaving us ratings and reviews. Share the episode with somebody in the strength and powerlifting community that you think would enjoy it. And don't forget, support the show at the Michigan High School Powerlifting Association Fourth Wall Shop. Grab your platform and MHS PLA gear. Help us continue building and promoting high school powerlifting here throughout the state of Michigan. To get there, again visit MHSPLA-shop.forthwall.com and get the gear. Support the show. Until next time, keep training, keep coaching, keep learning. And when you step onto that platform, make sure you listen for the damn squat command. I'm Chris Whitaker. This has been episode 26. Thanks for listening to the platform where the stories weigh a ton.