Episode 45: Getting Uplifted through Lifting with Meg Squats

Join powerlifter, Bodybuilding.com Spokesmodel Search winner, and YouTube fitness stalwart Meg Squats in this wide-ranging conversation. She shares her strong, strong story (it involves even more squatting than you might imagine) and gives crucial tips for thriving on her new program, Uplifted. Plus, there's a lot of screaming and alarms going off toward the end of this episode, if you like that sort of thing.

Highlights:

- Her early videos: "Hey, here's the lift. That's all there is. That's all you get."

- Why she left the CrossFit gym on the first floor and moved up to the second floor and "bigger people."

- Her most crucial transformation: 12 weeks of squat-only training after a bikini show

- Her mixed feelings over her bodybuilding show experience

- Powerlifting vs. Bodybuilding: "They're different kinds of suck."

- Why doing a bikini show is a more advanced fitness challenge than most competitors realize

- Her decision to do the legendary Smolov squat program, and why she chose it

- After Smolov: high, frequency, "PR every day" training

- Bodybuilding competition vs. Powerlifting: "Ah, man, I gotta go up in front of these people. Can't I just lift in front of them? That'd be better."

- Why she feels it's important to be proud of her body and how it looks, even as a powerlifter

- Her no-filter, no-Photoshop approach to social media

- On social media posturing: "Perfection is insanely boring."

- "I'm back at the body weight where I so much hated my body. And it's a combination of understanding myself more, understanding that whatever weight gain I do experience is not the end of the world, and also adjusting my goals and understanding that my value does not end with how I look. My value is not based around my body–really, at least how my body looks."

- How to know if you're ready for powerlifting, and if it's a "beginner-friendly" sport

- What to expect from Uplifted, and why she wishes she had this program as a beginning strength athlete

- The importance of "bro stuff"

- The importance of RPE (rate of perceived exertion) and auto-regulated training

- Why you should definitely get some coaching and/or take videos of your big lifts

- How to deal with "squat hunger"

- Her secret intra-workout snack: 20g of whey and a rice crispy treat

- Why this probably isn't the right program for someone trying to "diet," whatever that means

- What to do if you get a week into Uplifted and nothing feels comfortable or right

- Why going too heavy is a way bigger problem than going too light

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