So… who is the man behind PowerliftingToWin.com? Read on to find out.
My name is Israel Thomas Narvaez. Most of my friends call me Tom, though. I generally prefer to go by Izzy.
As I said in the video, I’ve been lifting competitively for about six to seven years in both the USAPL and the USPA. My best raw lifts are a 520lbs/234kg squat, a 355/161kg bench, and a 606/275kg deadlift at 181lbs.
You can see some of my lifts here:
If you couldn’t tell from the footage, I’m an extremely intense lifter and insanely competitive. I’m motivated entirely by climbing the rankings, settings records, and winning meets. I want to be the best.
I’m always looking for any possible edge that I can get. I’m the kind of guy who will go as far as picking up another 0 pair of lifting shoes if I think it will give me another 5lbs on my squat. If you’re the same way, you’ll probably like me and you’ll probably like this site.
My Lifting Background
I’m a certified Starting Strength Coach
Starting Strength Coach Certification — Izzy T Narvaez
I also have about a year’s worth of experience running my own gym — Bothell Barbell. My experience in coaching others in person has been primarily with novices. Four years after originally making this site, I’ve now got experience working with lifters of all levels including those competitive at the National level and even a few National record holders.
Powerlifting Influences
My biggest influences with regards to training, nutrition, and the sport of powerlifting in general include:
I also have a great deal of exposure to the Westside Barbell Method through training with Justin Randal at Local’s Gym for about a year.
Final Notes
If there is any one specific thing I’d like to convey to you here and now it is the fact that I absolutely love the sport of powerlifting. I live, breathe, sleep, and eat lifting weights. Even when I’m not at the gym, I’m thinking about the gym. Powerlifting is my passion. This is what I do.
I am currently living and training in Albuquerque, New Mexico. If you’d like to train, contact me and let’s set something up. I’m always down to train with a fellow powerlifter.
Click here to read more about Powerlifting To Win.
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Questions? Comments?
For all business and personal coaching services related inqueries, please contact me:
Where can I contact you?
I can be reached at admin@powerliftingtowin.com
Hey man,
Nice blog. I have a question about SS – with young athletes who have zero weight on them, they often stall very early on. As much encouragement as one can give to eat more, we can’t always control their eating habits outside their time with us.
With youngsters who’ve stalled early, I often take them off SS and prescribe pure bodyweight stuff for a month or two until they’re proficient, then they can start SS again.. it works, but I was just wondering what the advice from an official instructor is?
Thanks bro
First, I have to ask exactly how young are we talking here? If the individual hasn’t yet reached Tanner Stage 4, the SS Novice progam is inappropriate. If they are well enough along into puberty then I’d basically offer the following thoughts… There are many types of trainees and their dedication exists along a continuum. As a coach, you remind them of the importance of recovery. You insist upon these things to the best of your ability. You give them tips to increase calorie intake such as whole milk, peanut butter protein shakes, etc. The better athletes will listen and the others won’t. In this case, you MUST have microplates available. For the athletes who refuse to eat, they’ll need to make 1-2lbs increases very early on. If they’re not eating, they simply won’t be capable of the typical 5-10lbs jumps that most people can make in the first couple months of SS. This is not your responsibility, but if they are still to have an effective training session under the bar, you must accommodate their less than optimal recovery circumstances.
However, personally, I would not recommend full cessation of a barbell program at any point. Bodyweight exercises are fantastic for GPP and conditioning, but they do not adequately or effectively train strength in a measurable, incrementally loadable way. At some point, adding further reps becomes strength-endurance. If the goal is to get the athlete big, strong, and powerful, we need to increase maximum strength and this is best done with barbells.
Many of the athletes in question who I’ve experienced this with are around 16 years of age, definitely not fully matured physically, and natural ectomorphs. How would you continue the barbell training in the above scenario, apart from using micro-plates? Frustrating for both coach and athlete, I must say.
Btw I disagree with the last point about bodyweight – u don’t only have to add reps, you can increase the intensity of the exercise via loading (eg weight on your back during push ups), or changing the angle (i.e. elevated feet).
Thanks man
You can increase the intensity, yes, but not in a scaleable, loadable, measurable way. This is why barbell training is superior. You can increase intensity by a fixed, measurable amount. For example, if you put your feet up on a bench to start doing pushups, how much did you just increase the intensity? What %? Can you elevate the feet more and more over time to make sure the work stays strength specific (in the 3-8 rep range)? You can sort of do these things but it is very tedious and difficult. To stay in a specific rep range with barbells, and thus stay strength specific, is very easy. We just add the amount of weight necessary to get the reps where we want them. In this way, barbells are much, much more effective for strength development.
At 16 years old, most of these kids are mature enough to run the full novice program. Microloading is a necessity. There should be nothing frustrating about adding 2lbs to your bench press each workout. Assuming you’re doing the standard SS program, this is 12lbs per month. 12lbs per month after 6 months is 72lbs. Anyone who adds 72lbs to their 3×5 bench press in six months, is going to put on an enormous amount of muscle mass. Of course, if they gain weight, they’ll be able to do 5lbs jumps for quite some time as well. So the total gain will be even more than that. However, even for grown men, we eventually move to 1-3lbs jumps on bench/press. Like I said, it is a necessity. We don’t ever drop below 5lbs on squats and deadlifts, but, for women or underweight teens, this might also be necessary. Keep in mind that linear progress adds up very quickly. Adding just 5lbs a week to your squat is 250lbs+ at the end of the year. That is substantial for anyone. Microloading is a very good thing. Don’t consider it frustration. Just be thankful you can still make those linear jumps for longer than you can with regular plates.
I would continue with the standard SS novice programming until intermediate programming is necessary. That is, when the athlete can no longer recover from the workload between workouts, the training periodization moves to a weekly organization where PRs are attempted only once per week. For example, Monday might be 5×5@90% of Friday’s weight which will only be 1×5. Wednesday will shift to a “light day”. Perhaps only 2×5 @ 80% of Monday. This is the “Texas Method” and the first programming variation we move to after the standard novice program stops working. You can read more about the full application of it in Practical Programming: http://www.powerliftingtowin.com/practical-programming-review
Thank you for such a detailed response bro, much appreciated.
Looks awesome man.
Thanks for taking a look Chris! That’s definitely inspiring to hear coming from someone who is as successful at this shit as you are.