Beyond Strength: Powerlifting with a Purpose w/ Tamara Walcott

Podcast – Steph Gaudreau

I want you to imagine a heavy deadlift. How challenging it is, the focus needed, to tune everything else out and give it your best. Now, imagine that the barbell weighs over 650 pounds. That is the reality for Tamara Walcott, a world record holder in powerlifting. But Tamara didn’t always have this confidence. Having to overcome obesity and single mom guilt made Tamara the inspiring and powerful woman that she is today.

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Key Takeaways

If You Want to Get Stronger, You Should:

1. Work with people who support your goals and lift you up in times of hardship
2. Accept that failure and obstacles are going to be part of the process and that you can overcome them anyway
3. Fuel properly and often in order to support both your body and your mind

Overcoming Setbacks with Tamara Walcott

Tamara Walcott, the Plus Size Fitness Queen, is a record-breaking athlete, a resilient mompreneur, and a motivation to all. Her journey, marked by her triumph over food addiction and obesity, inspires others to embrace mental resilience and celebrate every victory. In this episode, we explore Tamara’s world-record-setting story and join her on a transformative journey.

Stay Dedicated To Your Destination, Even If You Can’t See It

After stumbling into a powerlifting gym in 2017, Tamara realized that she would have to change from the inside out to achieve her goals. By 2018, she was coming in first place in her first competitions and realized that to take care of others around her, she had to take care of herself first.

Her mindset, mission, and ability to navigate setbacks helped her break an all-time world record while training just three days per week. These traits, combined with her dedication and ability to accept failure as part of the process, have gotten her to where she is today.

Your Strength Is Your Sexy

Proving to yourself that you can do something you couldn’t do before is one of Tamara’s favorite parts of powerlifting. Her mission is to bring more women into the sport and eventually get the deserved recognition from associations such as ESPN and the Olympics.

She works to encourage women to stop letting comparison steal their joy and instead compete against themselves while ensuring they are fueling enough. If you believe in your ability to keep going despite the obstacles in the way, anything is possible.

Are you feeling called to lift something heavy? Share how you are getting involved in the community with me in the comments below.

In This Episode

• How Tamara got bit by the powerlifting bug (6:28)
• Surprising things about powerlifting as a sport and lessons learned (13:34)
• Discover the environment and energy of a powerlifting meet (16:46)
• Inner dialogue tips and the importance of pushing past your own limiting beliefs (26:40)
• Looking at the training schedule of a recording-breaking single power mom powerlifter (32:51)
• Understanding ‘My Strength is My Sexy’, ‘Women in Powerlifting’, and more (45:52)

Quotes

“I think that is the exciting thing about it, is that anyone can be a part of this sport, and not a lot of people know about it yet. Which is why I want to keep talking about it.” (5:36)

“You get one minute to do your movement. But that one minute feels like 10 seconds. But it’s the best 10 seconds of your life.” (17:24)

“Powerlifting literally saved my life.” (19:40)

“I think the most common misconception, even when I was heavier, was that I had to eat less in order to lose weight. I had to eat less to be at the body aesthetic that I wanted to be. It’s not that you have to eat less, you just have to eat the right things and fuel your body right for whatever your performance is or what your program is.” (35:39)

“Failure is a part of the process. It doesn’t mean to quit and give up, it means to learn what you can learn and press on.” (41:27)

Featured on the Show

Apply for Strength Nutrition Unlocked Here

Tamara Walcott Website

My Strength Is My Sexy Gym Tour Tickets

Tamara Walcott 641LB Womens Elephant Bar Deadlift Record Video

Follow Tamara on Instagram

Follow Steph on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube | Pinterest

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FYS 378: Powerlifting and Recovery Tips for the 40+ Athlete with Laura Phelps

FYS 344: Body Acceptance & Powerlifting with Christina Malone

Beyond Strength: Powerlifting with a Purpose w/ Tamara Walcott Transcript

Steph Gaudreau
If you’ve ever attempted a heavy deadlift, the bar is loaded up. It’s right there in front of you, and you have one job to lift that bar off the floor with as much strength as you can muster. You know how challenging that is? You have to focus tune everything else out and give it your best. Now imagine that that barbell weighs over 650 pounds. Let that soak in for a moment.

Steph Gaudreau
Most of us would say not today, but my guest today on the podcast has done just that, and in fact, she is a world record holder in powerlifting. She’s incredible, and on this podcast today, she’s going to be sharing not only her process and her journey in getting into powerlifting and being a world-class, world record holder in powerlifting, but also the mindset that it takes to overcome obstacles, both in and out of the gym.

Steph Gaudreau
If you’re an athletic 40-something woman who loves lifting weights, challenging yourself, and doing hard shit, the Fuel Your Strength podcast is for you. You’ll learn how to eat, train and recover smarter, so you build strength and muscle, have more energy, and perform better in and out of the gym. I’m strength nutrition strategist and weightlifting coach Steph Gaudreau. The Fuel Your Strength podcast dives into evidence-based strategies for nutrition, training, and recovery and why once you are approaching your 40s and beyond, you need to do things a little differently than you did in your 20s. We are here to challenge the limiting industry narratives about what women can and should do in training and beyond. If that sounds good, hit subscribe on your favorite podcast app, and let’s go.

Steph Gaudreau
Welcome back to the podcast. I am so excited that you’re with me today. You have picked a good podcast to listen to if you want to be inspired to get out there and do cool shit and lift heavy weights, you have landed on the right episode with my very special guest, Tamara Walcott. She is a world-class, truly world-class, raw powerlifter. She’s broken countless records, lifted incredible amounts of weight, and just overall, been an incredible ambassador for the sport, especially to bring more women into powerlifting.

Steph Gaudreau
But her journey has had challenges, and in this episode, she’s sharing a lot about how she got into the sport, what she’s learned from it, how she has triumphed, but also how she’s navigated challenges and setbacks, and the mindset and mentality that she’s had to have to continue to press forward with this mission that she’s on. No matter if you are a competitive power-lifter, you’re somebody who lifts barbells in your training, or you’re just starting your strength training journey. There is something for everybody to take away from this episode with Tamara before we dive in.

Steph Gaudreau
If you listen to this episode and you’re like, Okay, I am ready to get to work. I want to take my strength, muscle, energy, and performance and take it up a notch. I want to take it to that next level. I want to feel like a badass, but at the same time, do it in a way that works with my physiology as an athletic woman over 40, with coaching and community support. Then go ahead and check out Strength, Nutrition Unlocked. This is my group program. We’re going to lay out the framework for you and guide you as you implement and really customize it to all the things that you’re doing, your preferences, your likes, and the the places you want to go with it, then go ahead and get on board. You can start your process by submitting an application at StephGaudreau.com/apply. We would love to hear from you and see you inside the program.

Steph Gaudreau
All right. Without further ado, let’s jump into this episode with Tamara Walcott, Tamara, welcome to the podcast.

Tamara Walcott
Hi. How are you?

Steph Gaudreau
I am fantastic. And I said earlier, as we got on and met each other for the first time, I truly do feel like I’m in the presence of lifting royalty here because you’re somebody I’ve known about now for a couple of years. And I just remember watching, we’ll probably talk about it, but your event at the Rogue Record Breakers in 2022 and I saw that video and was like, this is incredible. So I’ve been a huge fan of yours ever since. I’m really glad we get to sit down and have this conversation.

Tamara Walcott
Oh, I’m happy to be here. Thank you. Thank you for having me

Steph Gaudreau
Absolutely. I mean, I think the conversation around women building strength, women in midlife, building strength, and either coming back into the weight room after a period of time away or getting into powerlifting or getting into the barbell is just such an exciting conversation. What makes you excited about not lifting only for you, for you and what you do, but for seeing this, this sport in the barbell growing and getting into more people’s hands?

Tamara Walcott
For me, is like anyone can do it, anyone literally can do it. Like when you look around in a room full of powerlifters, when you go to a meet, you hear people saying that their doctors, their lawyers, their students, there’s they were construction. I think that’s the exciting part about it, is like anyone could be a part of this sport, and not a lot of people know about it yet. So that’s why I want to keep talking about it. And then also, for me, it’s just going in week over week week, and proving to yourself that you can do something that you couldn’t do before. So that’s one of the things that I really enjoy, is just coming back to something that I couldn’t do before and proving that I can, as long as I keep putting in the work. That’s what I love most about it.

Steph Gaudreau
Absolutely, it’s such an exciting thing to do, to be able to get in there and see yourself grow. And you hinted at sort of that mental like, all right, if I can now, I didn’t think I could do this. Now I can do this thing. Like, what else could I do? Exactly? Take me back to sort of how you started lifting. Like, how did you find the barbell? How did you find powerlifting? What initially got you bit by the bug?

Tamara Walcott
First and foremost, I knew nothing about powerlifting. I am an island girl at heart, born and raised in the US Virgin Islands never saw powerlifting, never saw Olympic weightlifting. It wasn’t something that we saw. So when I moved to Maryland, back in 2002 started working and having kids, but I came from a heavily athletic background. Through shot put, I played volleyball, I played softball, I played basketball and I was a power forward all through high school. So having kids and just going into corporate America, going through a divorce, and then coming out on the other side, weighing almost 500 pounds, I had to figure out, like, all right, what am I going to do next?

Tamara Walcott
The athlete in me was like, All right, we have to do something. So let’s go back to something that you did. But when I went back to, like, trying to get on basketball teams or, like, volleyball teams, it didn’t work with my schedule with two small kids. So I went to the gym and I started doing dumbbell training. Went to another gym, and I saw people screaming. Chalk was everywhere. And I was like, What are these people doing? This is insane. Like week over week, I go, there, you hear someone screaming, people are looking.

Tamara Walcott
They stop, they’re cheering. And that’s actually how I found my coach. A couple of months after, after coming back, my coach was there, and then he became my coach, and then he told me, do you know people compete for this like, I think you should try it. And I was like, Sure. And then a year in, I had my first Powerlink powerlifting competition in 2018 so in 2017, I found out about powerlifting by stumbling it onto a powerlifting gym. And by 2018 I was competing at my first competition, and I came in first.

Steph Gaudreau
I’m not sure if people listening to this, who maybe aren’t as experienced in things like powerlifting or barbell will realize how it is, I mean your your strength and accomplishments are incredible, but to do it in such a relatively short period of time that is just, I have no words for how, just like insane that is, that’s such a huge jump in your strength, in getting in there, and these accomplishments that you’ve you’ve done. So if anybody is listening and thinking, Oh, I don’t know if I could do this. I think this is just so, so inspirational. So you stumbled into a powerlifting gym. Kind of saw people lifting. You were doing some dumbbell stuff. You said, Was there ever any moment for you where you thought, you know, I have to get in shape before I start lifting, or I have to get in shape before I pick up a barbell? Or was there anything like that in your mind that you sort of had to overcome that mental or self-talk, I guess that like mental switch?

Tamara Walcott
Oh yeah. It started way before 2017 so how it started for me? It started in 2016, I was 415 pounds, and that’s the first day I walked into the dumbbell training where it was just strictly dumbbells for almost a year. So when I walked into that gym at 415 it was a group fitness class. And at 415 pounds, I can do regular push-ups. And I remember people half my size that couldn’t do it, that was inspired and like, oh my god, if she can do it, I can do it. And the athlete in me just kind of fed off of that, you know what I mean. But one of the things that really had to change is I had to change from the inside out. So I started giving myself affirmations. I would do mantras again. I’m a single mom, 415 pounds. My kids still screaming McDonald’s every time I pass it.

Tamara Walcott
So I still had to, like, give them cookies and all the things I didn’t deprive them of, the things that children want. You know what I mean. But I had to start treating my body like a temple. So I had to change from the inside out. First. I had to start saying, Tamara, do you want to look like a crispy salad, or you want to look like a greasy five guys burger like, what do you want? What’s more important? And then I started like, associating the way that I felt during training with the things that I ate. I noticed if I didn’t eat that great, my training wasn’t that great. I noticed if I didn’t sleep the night before that my training wasn’t that great. So the better I ate, the more I drink water, the more energy I had. So I started associated how I feel with the things that I put in my body. So that’s really where it started for me. It started back in the middle or beginning of 2016 and doing dumbbell training towards the end of 2016 but it really started with me fueling myself, right?

Steph Gaudreau
Yeah, I’m sure that’s that’s super powerful. And you, like you said, you made those associations. And so one of the things I talked to my clients about a lot is the idea of your identity. Like, what kind of identity are you trying to foster? You mentioned earlier that you’ve been athletic your whole life, so what did, what did you lean on, if anything from that sort of athletic mindset, or, you know, thinking about that and kind of bringing that in? Was there anything you were mentioning some of the things you would tell yourself, but if you could kind of go back to your younger years, is there anything you kind of drew on there with, like that athletic identity?

Tamara Walcott
I think the athletic identity that I drew on is that anytime I thought that I could do something I would, I put my mind to something. I accomplished it. And that’s who I always was as a child. As I would, I remember people saying, You’re not going to be able to do that, and I’ll be like, I’ll show you, and I will get it done. That has always been Tamara Walcott. That has always been Tamara Stevens. That’s who I was as a kid, but that was always me, I was known for getting that done. So I think that’s one of the things that I really hold on to. Like, if I said I was gonna do something, I got it done. And that’s what I did when I decided to make that shift.

Tamara Walcott
When I got married and had kids, I got lost in the sauce of being a mom and being a wife and forgot to take care of myself, like I really got lost in the sauce and going through the separation and the divorce, I realized that in order to take care of my kids around me, because I could show them better than I can tell them I’m gonna have to take care of myself. Mommy can’t be tired, too tired to take you to the park because she’s winded. Mommy can’t be too tired to get up and do and run with you because she’s too tired. My son was a runner. He was one of those kids that you almost had to put the little backpack with the string on. And I was like, I can’t run after this kid if I need to catch him. And those are all the little things that I had to say to myself. Tamar, if you put your mind to something, you can get it done. And that’s the athlete mentality that switched back on for me, no matter what it is, if I said I’m going to do it, I’m going to get it done,

Steph Gaudreau
I love that. Super powerful. So thinking about your start, did your dumbbells for a year, and then you sort of got into powerlifting proper. What were some of the things that maybe either surprised you about powerlifting as a sport or getting into barbell lifting, Is anything that you wish? If you could go back to that period of time and tell yourself a lesson or something, you wish you knew that you would tell somebody who’s kind of making that transition now.

Tamara Walcott
Take your time lessons. Don’t try to rush the process. Don’t look around to see what other people are doing. One of the things walking in because by the time I started powerlifting, I’d lost 100 pounds. So I was about 315 or so. But one of the things that I did a lot of is comparison, and comparison I realized early on is the thief of joy. And I would remember walking in there telling my coach, well, I can’t squat 225, but this guy’s like, half my size, and he can squat 225, why can’t I? So those are some of the things that I wish that I could roll back the hands of time that sometimes clouded my judgment, some things that almost made it made me not want to walk back into the gym.

Tamara Walcott
And then also I was, I was really concerned in the beginning with what people thought when I walked into the gym, I would hear people saying, like, she should be doing cardio. She should be doing this before I got around the right group because I was still pretty heavy. And those are some of the things that I wish I would I would be able to, like, instill in newer people, like, focus on yourself and don’t rush the process.

Steph Gaudreau
Really, really valuable pieces of advice, for sure. And I have things too. I wish I could go back and say, and I think that they would be very similar. You know, when you kind of walk into a space and you are already new at something, automatically. Feel like eyes are on you. And then if you’re in a situation where you maybe don’t trust the community, you don’t know the community as well. And of course, how you show up as a human being, and all of your different identities, right? Can impact that as well. So I appreciate you sharing that. And when you okay, you got in the gym, you started powerlifting, for anyone that doesn’t know exactly what the sport of powerlifting is, before we take the conversation much further, how would you explain what the sport of powerlifting is to somebody who’s never heard of it?

Tamara Walcott
So someone who’s never heard of powerlifting, it is three movements, we squat, we bench, and we deadlift. So you’re picking up dead weight off of the ground. You’re laying on a bench, and you’re pressing off of your chest as much weight as you possibly can. And then we’re squatting the weight on our back as well. So that’s kind of how I would it’s the big three, the squat bench and the deadlift, but they’re all functional movements to a certain extent, to the point where, if I needed to carry a couch because I’m moving, I can make it work. I can move myself. So I would say strength is extremely important.

Steph Gaudreau
Yeah, absolutely. And we definitely love that message here. That’s what we’re all about. Yeah, it’s so interesting because I came from a little bit of an Olympic lifting background. So whenever people kind of talk about the differences, I’m like, okay, so Olympic lifting is like, dead silent. When somebody’s about to snatch, or cleanage or powerlifting, completely the opposite. So what is a power typical powerlifting meet like, in terms of, like, how you actually do a powerlifting meet, and what is the environment? Usually like, what’s what’s the energy?

Tamara Walcott
Yeah, so I’m actually doing my first powerlifting meet. It’s called The Walkout Records in January. But powerlifting meets in general, my first time walking into a powerlifting competition, my first and I heard the family screaming, the crowd going wild, weights dropping powder, flying in the air, music blasting to the point where you can walk out to your own song. It’s a party. Party, okay, but the adrenaline is definitely pumping. You get one minute to do your movement, but that one minute feels like 10 seconds, but it’s the best 10 seconds of your life. So that’s that’s pretty much what a powerlifting meet feels like. It’s very intense, but also you’re seeing people do extraordinary, like extraordinary things.

Steph Gaudreau
Yeah, the Olympics are currently going on as we speak. Powerlifting is not an Olympic sport. It’s not yet. Would you like to see that change?

Tamara Walcott
Absolutely I have, like when I broke my first all-time world record in 2021 and I got on SportsCenter, was with Ellen and all that stuff. One of the things that I kept saying from then is, if cornhole could be on ESPN since powerlifting made it there, so can powerlifting. So, I mean, let’s get on ESPN first. That’s what I’m vouching for. And then hopefully these federations can all talk and be friendly so we can end up in the Olympics. Yeah, that would be great.

Steph Gaudreau
That would be fucking amazing. And I want to see you there.

Tamara Walcott
That would be so amazing. Like, like, how they schedule the like, they already know where they’re having the 2038, Olympic so do I expect this to happen overnight? And me be there? I may not be there lifting on the platform, but I will be there on the panel if that makes sense, I’m definitely going to be one of those people who are spearheading getting the Olympics to take on powerlifting.

Steph Gaudreau
That’s amazing. So you got involved with powerlifting, went to your first meet, and started competing in the ins and outs of sort of daily slash weekly powerlifting, training, what were some of either the biggest challenges for you and or the things that were most, I guess, pleasantly surprising, like, what, what did you love about it, and what was also challenging about sort of getting into a rhythm with training for meets and things like that?

Tamara Walcott
I think the first in the beginning, I don’t deal with it now anymore, but in the beginning, I dealt with a lot of mom guilt. I dealt with a lot of mom guilt from the ex-husband or my mom or sister’s friends who just didn’t understand. Like I was in here, not only physically getting right, but mentally getting right, like powerlifting literally saved my life. It saved me from being on my 600-pound life. Literally, it saved me from some mental things that I was going through, depression and anxiety.

Tamara Walcott
So I literally had to deal with some mom guilt early on. So those are one that’s one of the negative things that I wish no one has to go through. Um. Um, but on the positive side, um, I think powerlifting has made me very structured. I didn’t think it would make me such a structured, proactive, and not reactive person. So I’ve always been a social butterfly. I always looked at the cup, um, half full, in a sense, where I just enjoyed life, um, when I was doing what I love, but powerlifting made me very structured.

Tamara Walcott
I know I have to get this rest. I know I have to make sure that the kids do this before I do that. So it’s made me very organized, very structured. Um, it’s made me a forward thinker. Um, yeah, so that’s what I love about this work that I did. That’s a pleasant surprise.

Steph Gaudreau
Yeah, it’s almost like, kind of like that anchor point around which you can then prioritize and schedule, and yeah, you love it. And so it sounds like you’re making that time, making the space for doing what you love and helping the other things fall into place. Yeah, yep. And I tell

Tamara Walcott
athlete a lot of people, I think, as I started later on in life, my counterparts around me, because my late coach, Dan, who passed away, he was 28 when he started coaching me, and I was like 32 and he was not even 28 maybe he was 25 Yeah, he was 25 he was a kid, and I was older. I had two kids, and I couldn’t go to the gym six days a week. Like all the other people in the gym, I could only go three days a week.

Tamara Walcott
So I would train Monday, Wednesday, Friday, sometimes, Saturday, if my kids were with their dad. But I broke an all-time world record just training three days a week. So it can be done. You don’t have to go six days a week, so I make I made it work by just being as organized and structured and doing what I needed to do.

Steph Gaudreau
So you had some early success. And when things started to kind of pick up for you, you started to like, how did that go for you? Were you sort of like, okay, I did this meet that was really fun, or like that, just like, tickled that part of my brain? Like, I need more of this. How did it go for you in terms of, now I want to keep training like I want to keep going forward? Because I know sometimes people have that sort of one-and-done checklist, like me, I did a marathon. I’m like, never again. I’m not doing this.

Tamara Walcott
We’re both there. I did a 10k or something, and I was like, I was thinking about calling an Uber. I was like, why would anyone want to do this? But I didn’t call the Uber.

Steph Gaudreau
Relatable. So what to you about powerlifting? Kind of scratched that itch. Or you were like, I need more of this after you did your first meet.

Tamara Walcott
So after I did my first meet and came in first I still was new to powerlifting, to the point where it was just still exciting for me. It was just really exciting. But I think the thing that kept me going was I started going to competitions where I saw women around me deadlifting almost 500 pounds. And I looked at my coach one day, and this, by then, we were almost two we were, like, a year and a half in, almost two years in, and I was like, coach, do you think I could deadlift 600 pounds one day?

Tamara Walcott
And he was like, Absolutely, you can. So I think he helped me lift that, like, keep that, that spark that I had. He set it ablaze, because as soon as he said, I absolutely think that you can now, I was like, All right, let’s get this done. So it went back to that old athlete mentality, that childhood mentality, where it was like, All right, Tamara, you can do this. Let’s see if you can get there. But one of the things that I always focus on, and I never like, really, like, let distract me. It was always me versus me. So when I went to a competition, I never knew who I was competing against, and I never knew what their numbers were.

Tamara Walcott
I never cared. To this day, when I go to a competition, I don’t know who’s on the roster. I’m just showing up to beat my old numbers. So that’s one of the things that I think has kind of kept me going, just wanting to beat my own numbers.

Steph Gaudreau
Yeah, that’s super powerful. And I know sometimes it’s, like you said earlier, comparison being the thief of joy, and you can kind of get stuck in your mind about, you know, who’s there, and all these things that you can’t necessarily control. So I love that you’re highlighting the importance of running your own race, so to say, and keeping your eyes in your lane. And that’s really powerful. So you started competing. You were like, okay, yes, like, I’ve got a coach that really believes in me, and that’s so important. What was your trajectory like? So you started competing in 2017-18. Around that period of time?

Tamara Walcott
My first competition was in 2018.

Steph Gaudreau
Okay and then what happened?

Tamara Walcott
And then 2019 was the first time…2019 I came in 19th in USAPL. Would have come in fifth if I pulled my last deadlift, which I failed. It’s funny because I remember that day like it was yesterday. I was the last girl to pull on the amateur flight at the USAPL nationals in Ohio. I got it up to over my thighs, but I couldn’t lock it out. It got so quiet in the crowd because I was pulling for so long after they were cheering, that a guy was like, give a tour. Just give it.

Tamara Walcott
One thing I don’t do, is drop the bar. My grips run this strong. But so that was 2019 came in 19 after that, I always came in first. I never wanted to do that again. So in 2020, I did the Kern and I came in first there, and then I broke my first all-time world record in 2021 at the showdown in Kansas City. And that’s where the trajectory really took off because then I was on SportsCenter. Ellen was calling me and accidentally hung up on her producer, thinking it was a bill collector, because, again, I was a new single mom, like people were trying to collect bills that I didn’t have money for, going through this divorce, but yeah, and after that, it’s just been, it’s just been a roller coaster ride, but I’m still riding that wave.

Steph Gaudreau
Yeah, if and when there’s a failed lift, or you, like, you know, three red lights, or, like, three miss lifts or anything like that has ever happened to you, how do you what do you tell yourself, like, what’s your sort of like, inner dialog? How do you coach yourself through that? Or what helps you to get past things like that that might set other people back?

Tamara Walcott
You know what? I have never been a lifter that over analyzing or over-critiquing myself. It just wasn’t ready yet. I was just taught. I was just taught, and I think my coach poured that into me too and just trying to even think back on my younger years if I’d missed a free throw, or if I didn’t throw my shot put the way that I should have it. It didn’t go as far as I needed it to go. I’ve never been one to beat myself up. I just kind of learned from my mistake, and know that it’s not that time.

Tamara Walcott
It’s not time yet, especially in powerlifting, and you may know this, and being a weightlifter, if you’ve done Olympic weightlifting, the numbers that we hit in the gym are sometimes bigger than the numbers that we hit on the platform, right? So the number that I’m going for on the platform is not necessarily as big that I’ve hit in the gym, but because we’re doing the big three that day. It’s different circumstances. So I just tell myself, I’m not ready yet. It’s not time yet, and I move on. I don’t dwell on things that I can’t control. Why dwell on Spilt Milk? Just clean it up and move forward. I’ve always been that kind of person.

Steph Gaudreau
I love that, yeah, probably gonna like pull that as a quote, because that’s really, really very wise and very impactful, you know, and to So, like you said, like you’re going to learn from those things and move forward like it’s all you can do. You can’t move back. Yeah, so rogue record breakers, 2022 tell the good people now you’ve been very modest up to this point about not actually saying what numbers you tend to hit in the gym, but talk, talk to me about that experience. You know, why did you why did you go? What was it like? What did you lift?

Tamara Walcott
Oh, my goodness. So getting invited to Rogue, to do the record breakers, was, I was shocked that they were calling to have me come there. But then I wasn’t shocked, because, of course, of what I’ve just pulled, I can see why they would want me to come there and deadlift, right? So the deadlift that I pulled in 2021 was 636 pounds. That’s the deadlift record that I broke. So when I got the invite to come and do the rogue records breaker. I think their deadlift was at like six. I think it was 626 and I actually pulled 641 pounds that year at Rogue Records Breakers and took it from Andrea Thompson, who I was there competing with. That was the current record holder. That day was incredible.

Tamara Walcott
I never pulled on an elephant bar deadlift before an Elephant Bar before. I never used the plates that they had there. I wasn’t able to train at all on that bar. I literally had broken the all-time high world record. Powerlifting found out a month later that they wanted me to come in two months to the rogue record breaker, had to go right back into a program, which is normally not typical, like we usually do an off-season, but I have to go right back into a deadlift program, show up, touch the bar for the very first time. I remember being in the back with all these strong men and women. And that has touched the bar before. One girl said she’d never touch the Elephant Bar here at the Arnold’s.

Tamara Walcott
And she kept saying to me, she’s like, Oh, in her British accent, this doesn’t feel right. Does it feel right to you? Or whatever accident, I was like, it feels fine to me. Now, mind you, I’m like, Oh my God, this feels so foreign. But I was like, nope, feels fine to me. Oh, we’re warming up. And I don’t know if that was her way of trying to psych me out, now that I think back on it, but she kept saying, This doesn’t feel right. Um, needless to say, I went out there and I broke the record the second time, and then I broke it again at 641 so I broke it twice on that stage in 2022.

Steph Gaudreau
I’m gonna dig up a link for that and put it in the show notes because y’all need to see just how easy you made it. Not even like that you know, it was a successful lift. You locked it out, but how easy you make it look.

Steph Gaudreau
It felt so late. 641 pounds. I mean, just marinate on that for a minute. Dear, dear listeners who are listening to this. And you know, that’s incredible. It was such an incredible thing to watch. Very, very incredible.

Tamara Walcott
People were like, how did it feel? I was like, it felt late. Like, if they let me pull it, I’m I probably would have gone up there and pulled it. It was a good day. It was a good day.

Steph Gaudreau
Yeah, that’s incredible. And especially, like you said, to do it on equipment you had never used. Never used, you know, in an environment that’s very different. I mean, a lot of times for athletes, those things can throw you off, or, you know, make you feel a little out of sorts.

Tamara Walcott
And you talk about a powerlifting competition being loud and crazy on the Rogue Record Breaker stage, I couldn’t even hear myself. Think that’s how loud it was. It was, it was a huge crowd, all the lights, the cameras right in your face. It was a totally different experience than being at a powerlifting meet. But my coach was there with me. That’s the he was there with me. So the second time I got invited, he wasn’t there. But for the 641 he was.

Steph Gaudreau
And then he went back and did another rogue event. And what happened there?

Tamara Walcott
651 pounds. Yeah, another athlete. What’s her name? Victoria Long. She pulled 651 and then I pulled 651 right after. So we both did that year.

Steph Gaudreau
Incredible. Yep, absolutely incredible. So strong. You mentioned earlier how being, you know, just with the time constraints that you have, you know, we’re not 2020, years old in college anymore, or, you know, you’ve got kids, other things to do with your life as well. Training and kind of being really on when you’re in that three days a week, for example, is really important. So, and then you also said you had to kind of go back and get back on a program. So kind of in an average week, what does your training tend to look like when you’re, you know, healthy, not injured, those sorts of things?

Tamara Walcott
So I train every Monday. Monday is a staple for me. Monday’s been a staple since I’ve been on this fitness journey. So Monday is my squat day. I train four days a week now, so I added an extra day when I wanted to kind of make sure that I’m taking care of the most important muscle in my body, which is my heart. So I have added an extra day, but I squat on Monday, then I bench, then I deadlift, and then I have a bonus day. Nice, four days a week.

Tamara Walcott
But pretty much one of the things that I do is I make sure, in the beginning, before I was a little bit of a yo-yo dieter, and I wanted to kind of start because it started in 2015 when I would try, I would fail. A try, I would fail, try, it would fail. I remember one of the things that would make me fail is I would tell myself, you’re going to go on Monday, you’re going to do this on Monday. And if Monday never, like, if I didn’t do it on Monday because something came up with the kids, then it would be five Mondays from now before I start again, or five months from now before I start again. So one thing I tell myself, there are seven days in a week tomorrow, and I tell it to my clients right now too, there are seven days in a week.

Tamara Walcott
I don’t care what seven days you go to the gym, you just gotta go three of those seven days. It could be Monday, Wednesday, or Friday. It could be Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday. But for me, I always go on a Monday. I call it. Never miss a motherfucking Monday. So a lot of my clients train on Monday just because they love the slogan. But yeah, so we never miss a mofo Monday ever. But I switch it up as long as I go my four days. It doesn’t matter what four days, it is.

Steph Gaudreau
So important. And I love how you’re highlighting there the importance of being flexible, and, you know, having structure within that flexibility and just saying, like, I just have to get in there X number of times. You know, it doesn’t have to be perfect. I think that’s so important with you know, earlier you were saying how certain things started to have to fall in line, like you had an awareness of how things like your nutrition affected your training, or your sleep affected your training.

Steph Gaudreau
What are some of the more important things that you think, especially for powerlifting, has helped you with regards to nutrition and recovery, or that you work with your clients on, like some of the biggest, I guess, challenges that people have when they’re maybe a little bit newer into powerlifting or barbell sports, with getting those pieces integrated into their training.

Tamara Walcott
I think one of the biggest things and common misconceptions, even for me when I was heavier, is that I had to eat less in order to lose weight, and I had to eat less to get the body esthetic that I wanted to be. It’s not that you have to eat less. You just have to eat the right things and fuel your body right for whatever your performance is or what your program is like. Do you want to be in a deficit, calorie deficit, because you’re here to lose weight, or do you want to have a surplus because you know you’re going to lift heavy weight, like, what’s important to you is going to deem how you fuel your body?

Tamara Walcott
So I think for me is I, I consume about 2600 calories that I want to maintain when I’m in prep. So I’m not here to lose weight. I’m here to get stronger. So I just make sure that I tell people, you just have to fuel your body right. You can’t starve yourself and put yourself in starvation mode, especially if you want to lose weight. So I think one of the biggest things is just focusing on eating right. One thing that I did not do when I was my heaviest, and a lot of people that I coach, tend to do as well, is they don’t eat breakfast.

Tamara Walcott
And it’s like that is truly the most important meal of the day. Even if breakfast starts at two o’clock for you, it’s still the most important meal of the day. So one thing that I did that helped me lose my 100 pounds is I ate backwards. So my biggest meal, even if it was one o’clock in the afternoon, because I didn’t like eating breakfast either, my eggs and my steak would be my biggest meal in the morning. So by the time I got to lunch, it was a little bit less by the time I got to dinner.

Tamara Walcott
Now, I don’t feel like I’m starving, and I’m not trying to order pizza and Papa John’s or Kentucky Fried Chicken, or whatever it is, because now I’m in starvation mode, and I’m going to eat whatever I see. I’m going to eat seafood now, whatever is accessible. And that’s one of the things I did for a long time in my life that I think a lot of us are doing today.

Steph Gaudreau
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I see that a ton with people as well. It’s, it’s hard, right? It’s kind of what we’ve we’ve been taught, or we’ve learned, we’ve, I mean, we used to read in magazines, I guess before there was the internet, right? But those, those sorts of, like you said, backward, types of strategies, and especially if you’re challenging yourself, your body, you need that repair, you know, absolutely here to cosign that idea of fueling, for your performance, right for your lifting, to improve your strength. Absolutely.

Steph Gaudreau
You’ve been very candid in social media and things like that about some of the challenges and sort of setbacks, I guess, that you’ve had with your training. You mentioned Lucy, your coach. I know you’ve been kind of grappling with an injury. How have you have you made it through that, especially for somebody who training is such an important part of your life, right? It’s it’s been life-changing for you. So how have you navigated those challenges?

Tamara Walcott
It’s almost like it’s familiar now, like, have you ever? Have you ever? I feel like I’m always that person that has to take 10 steps backward to take 20 giant leaps forward. And I say that because my journey really started with me losing my grandmother. So I lost my grandmother in 2018 and she used to call me her human crane. It was right around the time I started lifting right, and she lost her ability to walk, and she was scared of that machine that would put you in and out of bed.

Tamara Walcott
So I literally was that one putting her in the chair or moving her to her bed or bringing her to the bathroom. So I literally have been dealing with setbacks my entire my entire journey, after 2019 nationals, the week after, because my grandma passed in 2018 2019 I was competing sad because she had just passed away not too long ago. We just buried her. And when I got back, I finally pulled 500 for the first time, and I told myself, me being that mindset driven person. My grandmother was the matriarch of our family. She was the oldest of 13 kids, and I know for a fact that she left me her strength, because now finally, I can pull 500 pounds off of the ground.

Tamara Walcott
So I always look for the positive in things. When my coach passed away. I was like, what would he want me to do? Literally, got reinvited to the Arnold. I got the call in November to get reinvited to the Arnold in 2023 in December of 2023 he passed away. No, no, sorry, 2020, the end of, I’m talking. Last year. I’m a little mixed up, but he passed away, and I went to the Arnold in March of 2023 and yeah, I’m behind a little in March of 2023 and I broke 651 pounds because I said I was going to do this for him, no matter what.

Tamara Walcott
I was gonna go on the Arnold stage, and I was gonna pull that weight for him, and I might have my years and my dates mixed up, but pretty much at the end of the day, when I pulled that 651 and he wasn’t there for with me, I just knew that I was doing it for him, and no matter what, I was gonna go there and get it done. And the reason I am still on this journey to this day is because we made a promise as well. And I made a promise to myself that I’m going to be the first woman to squat 700 deadless 700 and bench 400 and unfortunately, I popped my pec two weeks out last year. So sorry, no, I popped my pec in October.

Tamara Walcott
Yeah, of last year, and I was supposed to compete in October on the 28th and I popped it on the 16th. So it’s just been set back, overcome it, set back, overcome it, set back, overcome it. And I’m just I’m relentless. I’m like a dog with a bone. I have unfinished business. I know I can do this, but failure is a part of the process. It doesn’t mean to quit and give up. It means to learn what you can learn and press on. I’ve learned to actually bench better. I’m almost benching 300 again today. I have a program to bench 295 for three sets of singles. I’m almost to where I used to be. I popped my back, my pec, benching 391 pounds.

Tamara Walcott
Women don’t bench 391 pounds on a regular basis. I know that. So injuries, they sometimes, unfortunately, come with the sport that we’re in. It’s a dangerous sport. When I popped, it did, I think it was over for a split second, but then that Ultima came back and said, you got this bitch. Let’s go do this. We gonna get this done. You set some things out. You set some goals. You know what you want to do. Let’s go ahead and see what you can do. And I was, I took my time. I went back to that old tomorrow, and I’m like, coach, my new coach. Now let’s do this low and slow. And that’s exactly what we did. And we’re building low and slow. I did not rush anything. I did not overthink it. I did not try to overshoot anything.

Tamara Walcott
But to get back to your original question, I just push through. I push on, and I expect failing sometimes, and bad things happen to be a part of the process, and I leave, unfortunately, some room for disappointment, so I’m not in shambles. And just know My why is I’m doing it for my family. I’m doing it for my grandmother, I’m doing it for Dan. I’m doing it for my new coach, Connor, now as well, I’m doing it for myself, you know? So I’m just keeping those things in the forefront because they’re important to me.

Steph Gaudreau
I need people to go back. I always say rewind, but that’s not like, really a thing now. So like, tap back and, you know, put the conversation back a couple minutes, and I want them to listen to what you said again because this is one of the biggest, sort of permanent stopping points that I find a lot of people bump up against when they’re in this, like midlife time, right? And things are overwhelming. They’ve got a lot going on. There’s a lot of challenges.

Steph Gaudreau
And you know that that tweak will happen, the injury will happen, or something really important comes up, and they feel like I just can’t do this anymore, so I’m going to walk away forever. I think that’s certainly an option, but I want them to hear how you approach it because I hear determination in your voice. I hear having a clear sense of values or purpose of why you’re doing this is such an important driver of tenacity, of you know, overcoming things that are in your way, and looking for solutions, not letting it completely derail you forever.

Tamara Walcott
Again, one of the biggest things for me has always been staying dedicated to my destination, even if I can’t see it. I remember saying I would have a brand and be on TV. I’d said that out loud, and people would look at me and smirk and laugh and be like, What the hell is she talking about? You have a brand and you won’t be the strongest woman in the world.

Tamara Walcott
I started saying that like when I decided to change and become the woman that you see standing in front of you here again today, knowing that I used to be that athlete, I hold on to that destination. I knew I was going to be something great. I knew I was going to do something great no matter what happened, even if I took a road I hit a roadblock or took a pit stop, pit stop, and no matter the route that I took to get there, I still stayed on course. I just get back in my car and I stay on course. On to the next one. I fix my flat. I get back in the car, I stay on course. So I stay dedicated to my destination, even if everything around me is crumbling because I know it’s temporary.

Steph Gaudreau
It’s temporary. All right? There’s a masterclass in the mindset of what it takes to keep going when there are obstacles in the way. So thank you for sharing that. One of the things that I love very much about what you do is you’re really out to make a difference with other people in your own way like it’s being out there and lifting and inspiring people is that, in and of itself, is incredible, but you’re also taking a lot of steps to help others, to teach others, to spread what you know, to be a teacher, to be a coach, and to positively impact the sport. And I would love for you to share maybe a little bit about some of the events that you have coming up your My Strength Is My Sexy like, what is that all about? So how are you taking now what you’ve accumulated, and all of your strength, and how are you sharing that with other people?

Tamara Walcott
I think the first thing that I started was Women in Powerlifting, which was important for me to share, because it came at a time when people were talking about women and their incontinence, that they’re peeing because they deadlift. We are structured differently. Unfortunately, our mechanics are a little different. We make babies. It happens, right? So at the end of the day, that’s one of the big reasons. That was the driving force behind women in powerlifting.

Tamara Walcott
But then also just always hearing like, if you lift you’re going to look like a man. You look like a man because you have muscle that’s not feminine, like we’re the only species that compares what a man should do or what a woman should do at the end of the day. Fish, you don’t know which one’s a man or a woman half the time. Birds, maybe because one’s prettier than the other, but they all do the dedicated things. They all fly. They all go and collect the sticks. They all, why can’t we do both? We can be both.

Tamara Walcott
We don’t have to be a man because we’re lifting heavy weights. So that’s one of the reasons that I brought out women in powerlifting. But it was important because you saw a lot of the younger girls online getting attacked, and I’m like, I’m going to use my platform. Because people used to come on my page and say, when Tamara deadlifts, I don’t see that she pees. Actually, I do. Your girl just got thick thighs, though, so you don’t see it, but I do. So I want people to know at the end of the day, they shouldn’t be ashamed to walk in the gym. They shouldn’t be afraid to deadlift because they think they’re gonna pee about what other people are gonna say.

Tamara Walcott
Listen, don’t drop your your bar over a little PP up, we clean it up and we move on. So that’s one of the big reasons why I started Women In Powerlifting, just to give other women in the sport a platform to have a conversation and have a forum on to kind of speak about the things that we deal with in powerlifting, to continue to encourage our girls, the younger girls coming up, to be a part of this great sport, because it really is. It teaches so much mental fortitude. And you walk into a community of like-minded people around you, cheering you on and supporting you inside and outside of the gym.

Tamara Walcott
The other one that I created is My Strength Is My Sexy tour because my strength is sexy. I’m a bad bitch. My strength is sexy. So at the end of the day, it’s really about going from gym to gym. It’s for men and women. So men and women do come to my strength is my sexy tour, and we just live and I talk about the different techniques and the things that I wish I learned early on in my coaching career, like in my lifting career that I now teach as a coach, walking out of the squat rack, taking your time, bracing and breathing, not doing what everyone else is doing. No need to add extra weight. Stay on program. Don’t go rogue, because you see someone else lifting heavier than you.

Tamara Walcott
So all the things that I learned throughout my career, and the things that I did early on, in the beginning, where I was like, All right, Coach, I lifted a little too much, and I think I tweaked my back because such and such was doing that like. So I make sure I talk about it during the My Strength Is My Sexy tour, and just really allowing women to just live in their femininity of being strong, right? So that’s one of the things that reasons why I started My Strength Is My Sexy Yeah. So the next one I have coming up is in New York. So the next My Strength Is My Sexy tour is going to be in December in New York.

Steph Gaudreau
All right, everybody in the New York area or surrounding areas, or you’re me in New York for whatever reason. Yeah, go show up to that. That sounds incredible. And again, I think it’s so, so interesting and impactful to hear it from somebody who’s been through the process.

Steph Gaudreau
You’ve been through the trenches, like, and you’re sharing that knowledge that’s sometimes it’s this kind of, I mean, it sounds like you’ve had some amazing coaches from very early on, but it’s this stuff that isn’t always explicit or obvious. Like you were saying, how do you, how do you, how do you step out of the rack? Like, how do you rack the bar safely? I mean, what’s the easiest way to load the lift?

Tamara Walcott
For the deadlift, no one tells you, right?

Steph Gaudreau
Yeah, absolutely, that’s awesome. What else is on your agenda? So I know you recently? Well, fairly recently, were awarded a very prestigious world record.

Tamara Walcott
Oh yeah, the all-time?

Steph Gaudreau
Yeah, the all-time.

Tamara Walcott
So I have the Guinness Book of World Records for being the strongest woman in the world. Yes, I secured that at my last competition, which was 1620 pounds moved in total. So taking that number one spot in powerlifting. Wow, at least total. Yeah, that was a day, so Guinness was actually there. I’m glad I didn’t know that my team coordinated that. So I actually didn’t know they were in the building until it was done, till the deal was done. But that was pretty cool doing that that day.

Tamara Walcott
So I took my deadlift from 636 to 639 and then I bench 380 pounds, and I squat 600 pounds that day, all in one day. And I think you need one of the things that my coach always told me he’s like tomorrow, you’re not you’re not just a squatter, you’re not a bench, or you’re not just a dead lifter, you’re all three. And that’s that’s huge, because you have people that squat heavy but don’t deadlift heavy, or you have people that bench heavy but don’t squat heavy. So my weights have always been moving like gradually together, and that’s one, I think that’s one of the reasons why I hold a total.

Steph Gaudreau
Absolutely incredible. And you’re going to be hosting a meet in early 2025?

Tamara Walcott
Yes, so on January 11, 2025, at Exile Gym in Baltimore, Maryland, I am hosting the Walcott Records, which is going to be an annual meet. There’s actually a coaching award. So anyone who registers and signs up for this meet can nominate a coach. I’m giving away a Daniel Fox Coach award in my coach’s honor, so that way we can just continue to honor his legacy.

Tamara Walcott
Because it’s going to be an annual meet from here on out, but that is the first time your girl will be stepping back on the platform. So, anyone who wants to see me compete, you will have to get your tickets online, www.tamarawalcott.com, and just come out and have a good time. There’s gonna be tons happening there.

Steph Gaudreau
Incredible. I’m just so inspired by you, by everything you’ve done to improve the sport, to help bring new lifters into the fold. You’re making me excited to go in and deadlift on Monday next week. Get my Monday lifting on. I think it’s going to be an amazing trajectory from here. I can’t wait to see what you do going forward and how you continue to impact the sport. So thank you. Bravo, cheers, and thanks for being on the podcast.

Tamara Walcott
Thank you for having me.

Steph Gaudreau
Yeah, you’re welcome. All right, my friend, that’s a wrap on this episode. Now be honest. You want to go lift up something heavy, don’t you? I know that’s how I felt when I finished recording this episode with Tamara. So if you want to get involved, find out how you can work with her, attend one of her events, or follow her on social media. We have linked all of that up in the show notes, so go check it out.

Steph Gaudreau
Also. If you love this episode and you are appreciating the Fuel Your Strength podcast. then hit Subscribe on your favorite podcast app, hit subscribe on YouTube, and ring the bell while you’re there for more notifications. Every time you do this, it does help the channel. It helps the podcast grow and helps more strong women find the show. So thanks for that.

Steph Gaudreau
Also, if you’re ready to apply for Strength, Nutrition, Unlocked to get all of your nutrition, training, and recovery in order. Now that you’re over 40 and you need to do things a little bit differently with support, community, and expert coaching, then you can apply at StephGaudreau.com/apply, all right, that does it for this episode with the amazing Tamara Walcott, thank you so much for listening, and until next time, stay strong.

Beyond Strength: Powerlifting with a Purpose w/ Tamara Walcott | Steph Gaudreau.