October/November 2022 - 27

Nutrition
football and powerlifting. We continued this throughout
middle and high school and in 2012
I had the opportunity to go to the
Open National Championships
in Orlando, Florida where I got
to watch Blaine Sumner squat
1003.1 lbs/455 kg. It's safe to
say from that point on, I was
hooked.
After graduating high
school, rather
than training
for football,
wrestling,
and track
performances, I started
to invest my time more
purposefully towards
powerlifting. In terms of
nutrition, it wasn't really until my
second year at the University of
Wisconsin - La Crosse when I was
introduced to Dr. Andrew Jagim that
I really had any cognizable strategy.
Up until that point, there was really no rhyme or reason
for how or what I ate and no real goals or knowledge
as to how I determined my energy or nutrient intake.
Unsurprisingly, this coincided with a period of relative
stagnation in my powerlifting total. After a year of not
increasing my total, Dr. Jagim brought me into the lab
to measure my resting energy expenditure and had me
track my food intake for two weeks. With a thoughtful
nutrition strategy, I made tremendous progress, had
more productive training sessions, and was able to win
three international titles.
Author: What are three concrete nutritional tips
that you would recommend to other individuals who
are either involved or seeking to become involved,
with powerlifting?
Andy: This certainly depends on goals and how
close you are to your weight class maximum. Broadly
speaking, however, my number one suggestion would
be to be realistic in your strategy. The best nutrition
plan in the world won't do a thing if you can't practically
follow it consistently. This goes for what meals you're
eating, energy/nutrient intake, etc. If you're a fulltime
athlete who is 100% focused on training, you
have a bit more flexibility to make complex/precise
plans. However, if you have a full-time job, family, or
some other serious time constraints, it's okay (from a
performance standpoint) to make things simple. In short,
only make your nutrition strategy as complex as you
reasonably can to fuel your training. Second, I would
say that the vast majority of people don't need
to be taking most supplements. I'm not
saying supplements don't have their
place in a well-structured nutrition
plan. However, the vast, vast majority
of supplements are overpriced and
don't yield much of a real benefit;
spend that money on real food if
you can. Finally, I would say that
tracking your food intake
strategically in a way that works
for you can provide invaluable information
if you can do so and still maintain a healthy
relationship with what you're eating. While
it may not be necessary after you get a
pretty good idea, I believe that having
nutritional information can be extremely
useful when attempting to ascertain what
went wrong (or right) in a training cycle or
when trying to make changes to your nutritional
strategy to optimize performance.
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October/November 2022

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