Interview with Deadlift World Record Holder Amir Fazeli

If you follow Powerlifting in Australia you would have heard of Amir Fazeli. On April 11th 2015 Amir set a new World Record Deadlift with a massive 316kg lift in the uner 83kg division. Amir also squatted 255kg and bench pressed 150kg for a 721kg total, ranking him the number 1 overall male lifter in Powerlifting Australia’s Top 20, and positioning him as one of the best pound-for-pound deadlifters in the world.

Amir has represented Australia at 5 international competitions to date, with best results including:

Representing Australia at the first ever Powerlifting Classic World Cup in 2012, only one and a half years after beginning powerlifting.
Representing Australia at the Prestigious Arnold Sports Festival in 2013 and 2014. Amir won Silver medal for total in 2014
Gold medal 2014 IPF Asian & Oceania Powerlifting Championships
Silver medal at 2012 IPF Oceania Powerlifting Championships

In this interview Head Coach Nick from The Strength Shed talks to Amir about his journey so far. This interview was done 2 weeks before Amir competed and broke the World Record.

Nick: Thanks for taking time out to do this interview Amir. Can you tell us a bit about your sporting history and how you got into powerlifting?

Amir: I began sports in general at a very young age with soccer most of my primary school years. Dad was a wrestler from the old school so sport was very important to him as well as not having a son that was a weakling. Through high school I played and represented school in multiple sports from track and field, basketball and rugby league. I also got pretty heavily involved in boxing then later muay thai, BJJ and wrestling. In mid 2010 I got influenced more by powerlifting and had my first comp in Dec 2010.

Nick: What has your progression through the weight classes and meets been like?

Amir: My first comp was in Dec 2010 at the Matti Tikka Challenge. I competed in the 83kg division and have always been in the 83s since then. I was sort of forced into powerlifting by a good friend of mine, Jim O’Donovan, who I worked with back then at a gym in the city. It was a good thing he did force me into it even though I didn’t have much interest in competing. I won that comp pretty comfortably with about a 187.5kg squat, 120kg bench, 240kg deadlift. Through the years it has been great to see more and more competitors joining powerlifting and wanting to give it a go.

Nick: Do you have a favourite moment from your Powerlifting Career so far?

Amir: Im going to be greedy and say there have been 2 occasions: when I pulled the first 300kg deadlift. I was chasing that for a very very long time and my deadlift had stalled for quite some time before that and at times it seemed hopeless. It was great to overcome that obstacle. The other was when I became the first lifter to total over 700kg total in the 83kg division.

Nick: It looks like Powerlifting in Australia is growing. What is some advice you would give to novice/intermediate lifters lifters?

Amir: It certainly is. It’s awesome to see so many lifters regardless of age get into lifting. I would say to not get too lost in false promises and cutting corners. There is no shortcut, it’s all about having the right program, sticking to it day in and day out, year in and year out and, if possible, having either the right coach or at least the right environment to train in. You don’t want to be the strongest lifter in the weakest gym, you want to be the weakest lifter in the strongest gym. Hope that makes sense.

Nick: How different is your training now from when you started?

Amir: Worlds apart. When I started I would try out different program structures and analyse patterns in results. Obviously having a gym full of clients (aka lab rats) helped in gathering data. From this data I shaped my own training system over time and it is what we use this day to get our lifters and athletes to obtain national and international records as well as top rankings within powerlifting. And the system is always improved upon as new information comes about and we experiment on more and more of our lifters and athletes.

Nick: Have you had any setbacks during your years of training? What did you do to get around them?

Amir: Ofcourse. Everyone has set backs, what matters is how you deal with them. The most effective thing is to have goals. When you have goals you are working towards something so even if you get injured you know you have to fix it or find a way around it and keep going. No goals means there is no drive. If something happens you will easily be distracted or deterred. You need laser like focus on the goal at hand.

Nick: The first month of training at Adonis Athletics was a wakeup call for me. I used to think I was training hard until I experienced the atmosphere and programming at Adonis Athletics. Can you tell us about the evolution of the Adonis Athletics training system?

Amir: The “Adonis Athletics Strength Method” is a reflection of my own training and findings through the years. I am a sport science student so naturally I would constantly research about different training methods and findings in strength training. I would apply the common ones like 5/3/1, Westside, Sheiko or whatever to my own training but with the intent of noticing patterns in what I was looking for rather than just going through the program.

I would write these findings down and identify why I thought a certain method worked for me. Once I was done with that I would move onto the next one and change it a bit as I went and as I gained more knowledge. I have also had the privilege of representing Australia at multiple international competitions which meant I could now talk to lifters and coaches from different countries about their training routines and identify patterns there. And so on and on it went until I began shaping my own system of training which has now become the Adonis Athletics official training system at all Adonis Athletics franchises now and in the future.

This was along with my upbringing knowing that to develop serious athletes you simply need the right environment and that has changed through the years as well. The intensity our athletes bring to training is a reflection of everyone’s attitude at the gym. And their results show.

Nick: Let’s talk about your Performance Training Facilities Adonis Athletics. Can you give our readers some information about them?

Amir: Adonis Athletics was something I knew I wanted to open since I was about 16 years old. I could never find a gym that had the atmosphere I wanted. I wanted to bring strength and conditioning to the masses since it was always something traditionally available to only top level athletes. I wanted to systemise it so there can be results time after time, client after client and athlete after athlete no matter the experience level, age or training background. And that’s what we continuously work towards – being a place that anyone who is serious about training can call home and get results.

Nick: You have experience training lifters and athletes from a range of skill levels, ranging from novice ranks all the way up to the elite level. What are some of the common issues you see athletes making with their preparation?

Amir: Some common issues is the notion that training harder is the better way. That is, they beat their body into the ground week after week, month after month aimlessly. This is common in pretty much all sports and it stems from the competitive mindset of the athlete. As we know of course, this isn’t the correct way of doing things, you must train hard that’s for sure, but your programming must also be smart and have direction. The other mistake that’s pretty common is improper peaking for competition. Athletes do all that hard work but don’t peak right for competition and they don’t end up getting the performance they should have gotten because the body hasn’t optimally recovered yet. The third thing is lack of drive and that’s linked to lack of realistic goals. Setting the right goals is extremely important and I talk about it more in my JTS article here http://jtsstrength.com/articles/2015/03/12/develop-a-champions-mindset/

Nick: I remember when I first started training under you guidance I was getting online training and was coming into Adonis Athletics Granville once per week. At the time I loved training by myself, but soon ended up changing to coming 4 times per week since training around other motivated people took my training to another level. How much importance do you place on an athlete’s training environment to their success?

Amir: This concept is so important yet so underlooked by people who say they are serious about getting certain results. If you wanted to improve in basketball would you rather train alongside Michael Jordan, Scotty Pippen and LeBron James or your average street players? The answer is pretty obvious. Even though you will be at the bottom of the pack training alongside the likes of Jordan (if you had the privilege) the amount of motivation you build, the amount of experience you will gain, the environment they will create for you will be absolutely 100% conductive to you improving. You simply cannot not improve if you were to be placed in that environment and you had an internal desire to be better. Have a look at the gyms some of the greatest powerlifters train out of. Andre Malanichev’s gym looks like my Grandma’s house with old, rusty equipment. But out of that gym come multiple world champions and literally the best of the best powerlifters in the world. If you want to be good at what you do surround yourself with those who are on the same mission.

Nick: What are some of your favourite strength and conditioning resources?

Amir: I always stick to the knowledge that comes from those that have proven themselves to be credible sources, preferably with some scientific backing or at least enough experience to be reliable. Brett Contreras, Dr Mike Israetel, Juggernaut Training Systems website, Mike Tuscherer, Tudor Bompa, Dr Layne Norton and multiple Russian authors and coaches.

Nick: What is your opinion of the current state of Strength and Conditioning in Australia compared to other Countries?

Amir: We are certainly improving thanks to the internet’s ability to bring about information at a rapid rate and give us access to that information. A few years ago we were far behind other countries, namely The States. It’s good to see some signs that coaches and athletes are waking up to see a lot of the old school ways of thinking and approaching training is out-dated and the scientific research that is abundant in most cases is readily available and being accessed. Questions are being asked. A lot more work needs to be done but I think there are now enough people that will turn the tides in the next 5-10 years. Hopefully sooner.

Nick: Do you have any hobbies/interests outside of lifting?

Amir: Eating and travelling. Other than that I’m pretty immersed in improving Adonis Athletics as a whole.

Nick: Where can people find out more info about Adonis Athletics?
Amir: You can follow us and what we do on facebook.com/adonisathletics, instagram.com/adonisathletics, instagram.com/adonisathleticscastlehill, www.adonisathletics.com.au, youtube.com/adonisathletics

Nick: Thanks again for your time Amir.

Amir: It was a pleasure. Keep up the good work.

Check out Amir’s World Record Deadlift