Amped Training

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Welcome to Amped Training

Home of Matthew Perryman, CSCS 

Welcome to Amped Training.

You clicked this link because presumably you want to know more about this site and/or it's author.

To introduce yourself, my name is Matthew Perryman. You might have noticed above that I used my CSCS title; that's all formality and I use it to get hits in the search engine. I prefer to be called Matt. Not Mr. Perryman, not Coach Matt, just Matt.

This site is here to be something (hopefully) different. I like to write and I love to talk about strength, fitness, and nutrition.

I also like to point out the stupid things that people say and do in those topics. In fact, that's the whole reason I started this site. It seems to keep everyone honest.  

In a time when the business model seems to be "Guru in a Box", when making money and marketing has taken priority over actually learning and practicing the art, it seems to be all the more necessary.

So as to not be a one-trick poney, I hope to collect a number of resources, to include articles, product reviews, and links to a wide variety of information to help you improve yourself.

Along with that, I've got the Hater Nation section up to ridicule the stupidity that goes on in the fitness industry. Most of that is satire (if you haven't gotten the hint), but I'll try to keep it balanced by actually putting some useful information in so I'm at least a little constructive.

My Philosophy

My philosophy on training is a simple one. Keep things as simple as possible, tailor to the individual, and employ intelligent means of training. I try to keep to common sense critical-thinking at the forefront of the process, and to always turn a critical eye towards the ideas of others. 

Learning from other like-minded strength coaches, and even those with differing views, has shaped my views on training over the last 10 years. I've tried to take as much as I can from as many different sources as possible.

I won't blow things out of proportion here. I'm not the newest, hottest, most revolutionary thing on the block. Far from it. What you'll get from me is tried and true concepts that have been time-tested, with my personal interpretation. You'll get realistic expectations and outlooks. I'm a guy with a passion for helping others succeed, and has consequently spent a lot of time learning how to do so. 

You may notice that I tend not to write so many programs, and will instead focus more on the theory and (more so) philsophical and mental aspects of training and diet.

This is because, bluntly, just about anyone with a triple-digit IQ can read some basic exercise phys books and go get a certification. Yes, at this point they're still doing better than 99% of the average populace, but make no mistake: they're simply locked into a new paradigm, writing program after program with no real understanding of what's actually going on.

So I write about what's actually going on, attempting to reduce what seems to be complex into the simplest parts. Once you understand all the pieces, it becomes trivial to put them together.  

My Goals

Personally speaking, I love strength and performance. Aesthetic is still important to me to a point, however. As a consequence, I'm interested in "both" types of training, those interested in improving performance and those that want to build a nice-looking body, although practically the difference is mostly one of semantics.

I've had experience of working with women, including several figure competitors, which has taught me some valuable things (not the least of which being you don't know what you're in for until you've actually dealt with people and the problems that can come up with them). 

My own training revolves around heavy strength training, with an emphasis on powerlifting and Olympic weightlifting exercises, and as a result this is how I tend to view the training process. This is not to say I don't incorporate other approaches, but the core barbell exercises performed with heavy weights are always going to be a central theme of any exercise program I create. 

Best lifts to date, for those that care about such things:

Squat, high-bar Olympic style: 405 (185kg) x3
Squat, low-bar Powerlifting style: 425 (193kg) x2
Deadlift, conventional style: 500x5, 545x2
Overhead Press, 205 for 5 singles
Bench Press, 275x6, 305x1

These were all done at a height of 5'9 and a body weight of 200 to 215 lbs (91 to 98 kg). Completely unequipped (no suits, knee wraps, bench shirts, etc), for those of you that want to come in and talk trash. I'm hardly the strongest dude around, but I've moved some weight.

Of course, I'm also a virtual train-wreck at this stage of things, with recurring problems in the knees, hips, and shoulders. Especially the shoulders, to the point where I can't bench any kind of weight without issues. So joint mobility and movement awareness has become a favorite topic of mine.  

My Experience

I've been personally lifting weights for around 10 years now. I started out as the typical scrawny kid that only knew what the muscle magazines told me. In that time, I developed a passion for all things strength and performance related. Now I'm slightly less scrawny and weak, but I know a ton of stuff that lets me be right on the Internet. 

Over that time, I've written several articles for Mind & Muscle Magazine as well as Elite Fitness Systems. I'm tentatively working on a book that will delve into the concept of muscular hypertrophy though I won't set any deadlines for that just yet. 

I'm also a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) through the National Strength and Conditioning Association, which is considered the gold-standard among strength coaching certificates as that goes. Not that this part matters terribly, but it's important to some people. And it improves search engine rankings.

Thanks for checking the site out, and feel free to let me know about any criticisms, comments, requests, or other feedback.

Matthew Perryman