Written by Team Juggernaut
This past weekend at the 2014 Arnold Sports Festival in Columbus, OH, Team Juggernaut’s Blaine Sumner had a performance for the ages! Blaine competed 3 times in 3 days, breaking the IPF Raw World Record total on Friday, winning the USAPL Single Ply Challenge on Saturday and winning the Single Ply Bench Only competition on Sunday! Blaine is a young lifter based in Oklahoma City, OK and after wrapping up his college football career, which included an amazing 52 reps of 225 at his Pro Day, Blaine quickly took the powerlifting World by storm, squatting a then World Record of 881 raw (belt and sleeves) in the Super Heavyweight division and winning an IPF Raw World Championship. Blaine competes in the ultra-competitive, ultra-strict and drug tested USAPL/IPF and has competed on the international stage on many occasions. Get to know this Juggernaut better…
Q: Awesome weekend for you Blaine. Congrats on the great performances! How is your body feeling after 3 meets in 3 days and what made you want to take on that challenge?
A: After the raw full meet, I was honestly feeling alright heading into the equipped full meet. But the third day, for the bench only, I felt wrecked. Elbows and triceps were hurting. And other than my elbows, I feel better than I expected I would now.
I wanted to make it a challenge to myself and try to do something I’ve never heard of anyone doing, and the Arnold was the perfect opportunity.
I wanted to establish myself as a world class lifter both raw and equipped. I ended up successfully lifting open IPF World Records in all three events, but two turned down on technicalities.
Q: You’re certainly known for your squatting power, sometimes I even hate you cause you can squat so much, what do you think helps you be such a tremendous squatter?
A: I think my athletic background is what has helped me so much. I played sports year round through high school then college football for 5 years. Everyday I was getting into an athletic stance and exploding.
Check out this interview with Blaine after he crushes an 805×3 raw squat…Q: Give us an overview of your normal training split…
A: I had 12 weeks to prepare for this meet. I would call it high frequency linear periodization. 12 weeks out I was doing sets of 8 in everything, and progressed down to triples the week before the meet. I would also lift in my gear every week, doing singles.
I trained 4X per week and each day was squat, bench, and deadlift.
The high frequency training is absolutely what allowed me to do the 3 for 3 this weekend. When I was training with Mike T, that was my first exposure to high frequency and I’m a big believer in it now. People shouldn’t be scared of high frequency. I think there is a misconception about how long it takes to recover.
I trained 12 weeks for this meet and didn’t take a single “Deload”. I squatted over 1,000 lbs every week, for 12 straight weeks. And there was usually high rep raw squatting going on the day before this.
I also PR’d in the raw bench with an easy 501. My bench was stuck for a long time in the high 400s. But an insane about of volume and frequency is what pushed it above 500.
I plan on releasing a book sometime in 2014. I want it to be different than what has already been put out. I think I’ve got some interesting perspectives and experiences that I can help other lifters with.
Blaine came back the next day to win the Single Ply competition at The Arnold as well…Q: Training 4 sessions like that each week must make it hard to recover, what does a large land mammal such as yourself eat on a training day?
A: Large animals and small children….. Actually I eat the same thing almost every day. Shake for breakfast, 10 eggs 2 hours later, whatever for lunch, chicken shake 2 hours later, some red meat and potatoes 2 hours later, bunch of pre/during/post shakes. Then a massive dinner. Usually some ice cream too.
Q: When you aren’t squatting 1000 pounds, what do you do for work and fun?
A: For work, I work as a petroleum engineer in the oil and gas industry. And in my free time, if I’m not lifting, then I’m on the lake fishing.
Q: What are the biggest differences between your raw training and your geared training?
A: I like using higher reps for raw training. I hate my life at the time, but after a few weeks of 8s – 5s, I know I’m ready to kill some heavy weight.
Equipped I train strictly using singles.
Raw is about brute strength, but equipped is very technical.
Q: What does the rest of 2014 have in store for Blaine Sumner?
A: I have the biggest, most important meet of my life. In November, the IPF World Championships will be held in Denver, CO. Which is my home state. I’ve won a raw world championship and want to win an equipped one now.
That means winning nationals in June in Pennsylvania.
A: I may also do raw nationals in July in Denver if I don’t think it will interfere with my training for worlds.
Q: Last question…who is the real Vanilla Gorilla?
A: I’m obviously the real Vanilla Gorilla!!!! Spoto and Weech are beasts, but this award goes to the best looking, which I win.
