- Hi, my name is Tiffany Leung, and I am a powerlifter.
[upbeat cheerful music]
I'm gonna take you through my fitness
and wellness practices.
My PRs for squat is 314,
bench; 156, and deadlift is 347.
I hold the world record in the 97 pound weight class
for squat, and I hold the world record in my total,
and that's 804.
My top three wellness practices
are taking my 10 minute walks after I eat,
keeping myself on a routine,
and my recovery, which includes sauna and my graston tools.
I weigh myself on a scale every morning, every night,
then I write it down in my notebook here.
I just started this new one
so that when it comes competition day,
I know where I have to be to be able to make weight.
After getting ready,
I like to open the blinds, so I get a little sunlight in.
I started taking my phone out of my room
and just putting it in the living room, charging.
I use just a traditional alarm clock,
I bought it at target.
I did this because I noticed that I would be scrolling
through my phone at night or first thing in the morning.
I'm looking and seeing if I have any texts
from my clients or what I have to get done that day.
A lot of times I don't even check my phone
until after I start eating my breakfast.
So, it gives me almost 30 minutes
of just taking care of myself.
Then I go and make my breakfast,
which is usually Greek yogurt with some fruit.
Measure out 200 grams.
I don't really measure this, I just like it to look pretty.
I try to do mostly berries,
and then granola and a little bit of honey.
I do that in the morning because it has a good amount
of protein and it gets me going for the day.
Protein is important for powerlifting
because you need protein to build your muscles,
and it also helps for recovery.
I take 10 to 15 minute walks after eating
because it helps with my digestion.
Sometimes I get stuck inside, so that helps with sunlight
and getting a little more energy.
It also helps with a little bit of cardio
that I don't really do.
I'm just trying to enjoy the fresh air and sunlight
before I get back to my hectic day.
I feel like this impacts my day a lot, actually.
If I can be more structured in the morning
and have the set routine, it makes me feel a lot more calmer
and not have any anxiety going into my work,
and then going into lifting.
I have been powerlifting for 10 years now.
I train for about two to two and a half hours a day.
And then I train about four to five days a week.
Before I started lifting,
I didn't have a fitness routine or a health routine,
so it's totally changed my whole life.
It's changed what I ended up doing as a career.
So, powerlifting has really changed everything.
I think a few of the bigger misconceptions
would be you have to be strong enough to compete.
When I started, I don't think I'd ever touch a barbell.
That's why I love doing my job,
because I can get women to lift weights
and not feel like it's a scary thing.
My second meal I usually eat
about three to four hours after my first meal.
And I eat that because I have to go
to the gym about an hour later,
and that fuels me for my lifts for that day.
It is 11:32.
I am just about to leave my place to go to the gym.
I have a big bench day today.
For warmup, I usually get on a foam roller.
I'll roll out my back and anything else
that feels a little tight.
And then I usually do a lacrosse ball on my glutes.
Those are usually pretty tight from sitting all day.
It definitely gets into smaller spots.
It'll dig in there a little deeper than a foam roller.
And then I've also used a golf ball before for my feet,
because you can just dig into smaller crevices.
And then I'll start to use bands
to just kinda warm up the muscles that I'm going to use.
In my gym bag, I bring my own bands.
I have some wrist wraps.
I use these when I bench and I squat.
I have my notebook.
I have my workouts in it.
This is what I did today.
So, these are one of my weightlifting shoes.
I use these to squat sometimes.
What's different with these is it's flat on the bottom.
It's important that the shoes are flat
so that you can feel the ground.
If you're wearing tennis shoes,
there's usually foam in there,
so it kinda just puts you a little off balance.
And then there's also a little bit of a heel,
which helps with ankle mobility.
So, some people can't get to depth, the right depth.
So, that also helps a little bit with that.
So, that's why I wear these to squat.
If I don't have these, I would go barefoot
over going in my tennis shoes.
Mobility is important in powerlifting
because we do have to get into so many different positions.
If I can't get into a certain position,
then I'm probably going to overcompensate
in different ways to be able to lift the weight.
I try to do a lot of stretching
and using the hypervolt too.
If I don't work on my mobility for a couple days,
I definitely notice it in my lifts
and having to warm up longer just to get things looser.
After I do my mobility stuff,
I start doing the certain movements to warm up
the muscle groups that I'm going to be using.
So, if I'm squatting, I'll do some squats,
some lunges, some glute bridges.
When I'm benching, I'm going to warm up
more of my upper body and my chest area,
so that that's firing more.
So, I incorporate accessory lifts
at the end of workouts or as my warmup.
If I do it as a warmup, I don't use heavy weights with it.
If I do it later, after my main movement,
try to do a little more weight
so I can get stronger through those lifts too.
I don't know if I would say there's one muscle
that is the most important to strengthen,
but because you are using your core
through all your lifts and the glutes
actually do a lot of work in all three of the lifts,
so I would say those two
are probably the most important.
The week before the competition,
we call it a deload week, where you do less weight
so that your central nervous system can kinda recover
and be able to be at the peak when we get to the meet day.
So, it's just letting your body recover.
I definitely do a lot less cardio
going into the competition,
more because I don't wanna waste my energy on cardio,
and I usually end up getting hurt
doing something stupid doing cardio.
When I'm lifting heavy, I try to hold my breath
and brace my core.
This way keeps everything tight.
When I breathe out during a lift,
it kind of just lets all my muscles relax a little bit more,
and you wanna be tight
and strong when you're under heavy load.
So, for a heavy squat,
I would mentally visualize me making the lift.
I can walk up to the bar, grab the bar tight,
and I get under it and just squeeze
my shoulder blades together,
so that's tight,
and it's not going to roll around on my back.
And then I take a deep breath,
hold my breath and take the bar out.
And then I step back with it,
I take another deep breath, embrace against my belly,
and then I go down into the squat,
trying to really push my knees out,
trying to get everything to activate
while I'm doing the lift helps with getting back up.
I wear my lifting belt when I lift
because it helps me remember to breathe
and hold my breath against it,
and it also helps me keep my form tight.
When your form breaks down,
you're more likely to injure yourself.
I do arch when I bench; two reasons.
For competition, the rule is you have to touch your chest,
and then you push it back up.
So, the shorter range of motion you can have,
as long as you can control it, it's gonna be easier.
You have less time under tension,
and it's also safer for your shoulders
if you can actually protect them
by pulling your shoulders back
and making a little bit of an arch.
So, with my clients that bench,
I don't have them get into a full-on gymnastics arch,
but I do have them have a tiny arch
so that it does protect their shoulders.
I rest between heavy lifts
about three to five minutes, for two reasons.
One, in a competition,
you usually have about 8 to 10 people in a flight,
so you are resting about 8 to 10 minutes
during competition.
And then number two is so that I can fully recover
from the lift before, which is usually heavy
if I'm going heavy that day.
When I come up with goals for my next competition,
some of it's talking with my coaches
with how things worked out the last meet prep
and how much I was able to progress.
And then two is kinda looking at some records
or what other competitors are doing.
So, sometimes I'll look at some of the lifters
that are in the weight class above me at the gym,
and try to hit something that they're hitting.
So, that's kind of what keeps me motivated at the gym.
It is 2:50.
I'm gonna put together my food.
I meal prepped rice, some sweet potatoes and some steak.
So, I meal prep because my days are so packed
that it's really important for me to get my four meals in.
So, I make sure that I get the fuel that I need
and my body feels good,
because I'm going to have to use it
the next day and the day after,
so I just try to get the best food I can in me.
I just don't really count how much water I drink.
There's a pee chart, and I just try to make sure
that my pee isn't super yellow or super clear.
But it's really important to stay hydrated
because muscle cramping is not fun
when you are trying to squat.
So, I actually do like electrolyte tablets,
like Nuun tablets.
I started my water heater.
I have a drawer full of Nuun tablets.
So, I'm gonna pick one.
My favorite one is the tropical one.
Tablets are in the cup.
I'll pour it in.
It goes so much faster if you do it this way.
Adding the Brita water.
[relaxing upbeat piano]
That's also normal.
It's about 3:15.
I just finished eating.
I'm taking the trash out,
and then going for my 10 minute walk,
and then going to my clients.
So, imbalances, it would be my right leg
stronger than my left.
So, what I've seen sometimes in my squats
is I am shifting my hips one way
because something's off in my body,
and I do get body work done,
and I try to roll out to get everything to be balanced.
My right shoulder was really tight,
which led to my left pec being tight.
And I actually think it started with sleeping on my side.
And I used to sleep on my back,
and then I...
I'll just say I started cuddling,
and I can't cuddle anymore
because it just hurts my shoulder.
So, now I just lay on my back.
It's important to fix these imbalances
because if I don't work on loosening it up before,
it's really hard for me to even do a push up
without my pec being really tight and pulling.
With benching, it's really hard
to get in the right position.
With squatting, it's really hard
to just even get my hands behind the bar.
So, the graston tool, it helps break up tissue.
So, I use it, mainly right now,
on my pec here to just try to get this to break up
and get blood flowing in there to help it recover better.
I usually use it in the sauna because I'm sweating,
so it's a lot easier to glide on my skin,
or in the hot tub.
And then sometimes I'll do it in the shower.
If it's really bad, I'll do lotion
and start just kinda breaking it up.
doing the graston benefits my lifts
by just getting my body to feel better,
and being able to get under the bar without pain.
It's really important for me to have rest days.
I actually have two to three rest days
depending on if I do anything on the weekend.
All my clients don't believe me, but I do.
It's almost the opposite of what a lot of people do think,
they need more work to get stronger,
but actually my body needs the rest to build the muscles up.
If I'm constantly working out,
it doesn't have time to rebuild.
And then for my mental health,
I don't need to be working out every day
because I will just constantly think about it,
and I need a break from that.
I would say therapy has helped a lot.
So, I started doing therapy about a year ago,
and that's really helped me with mentally being focused.
I wish I would've gone way earlier.
Once I started going to therapy,
I feel like I just learned a lot more about myself,
and just being able to process a lot of stuff,
and be okay with not having control of everything.
I can't finish a workout.
It's okay.
I couldn't do this and it's okay.
I've done a lot of work to get to that point,
it's not gonna go away by missing one workout.
I think, because of the confidence
and the mental side of it,
it's helped me break through barriers
that I couldn't get through because I'd be so scared
of the weight that I was going to be lifting,
even though I've done it before in training.
My lifts have gotten significantly better
technique-wise and weight-wise since I started therapy.
It is about 7:15.
I just finished my last meal; dinner.
So, this is my last 10 minute walk in the night.
It's actually one of my favorite walks
because I get to reflect on the day.
What went well, what went wrong.
What could I do better tomorrow?
After that, I usually try to get in the sauna
or the hot tub.
I actually just bought a sauna and it's in my garage gym.
So, it is 129 degrees in here.
It says 80 minutes, but I'm only gonna stay
in here for about 20.
I actually never really liked the sauna,
and then one of my coaches mentioned
how great it is for recovery.
I think the older I get and the longer I do powerlifting,
the more wear and tear my body's going through.
So, the more I can get ahead with recovery,
the more I'm gonna do, my body just feels more ready.
For me, I think, mentally it lets me really unplug
and just be ready to go to sleep after.
Sticking to a routine has really helped me.
Eating at the right time and being fueled for everything
and just having scheduled time.
I use my calendar like it's life or death right now.
So, I give myself 30 minutes to eat and walk.
Then stretching or sauna time.
And it's helped me just know that, at a certain time,
I have to start to unwind or do these things
for myself so that I feel good for the next day.
Because I am getting more rest and I am getting the food,
I feel physically like I'm so much stronger
and have so much energy
because I'm doing all the right things.
So, what I do to ensure
that I have a good night's sleep
is, I have blackout curtains,
so it's completely dark in the room.
I try to keep the temperature pretty low.
If I could train for an extra two hours
or get the right amount of sleep,
I would take the sleep over training
because if I don't sleep enough,
I'm not gonna recover enough,
then I'm not gonna lift well anyways.
So, that's why I prioritize sleep.
The most rewarding thing about powerlifting
is the confidence and being stronger
and knowing I can do a lot more stuff,
even if it's not lifting weights.
Knowing that when I started,
the weights that I'm lifting now,
I would say I didn't even think of these weights
as being something possible.
So, I think I take that mentality
into my everyday life now too,
is like, I'm reaching for so much more in my career
and just personal stuff.
I'm proud of the stuff I've done with powerlifting,
but I'm also just even more proud of the way
it's made me be in real life,
and the way that I can help people feel the same way.
It is 10:45 at night.
I just set my alarm.
I am done for the day.
I'm gonna get into bed,
but I'm gonna put my phone on the charger first.
Thank you, Self, for following me today.
I will see you next time.
[upbeat low-key music ends]