"Discipline and Regret"

Article by Matt Gary, CSCS

Matt Gary has written his seventh in a series of articles. To read past articles, click here.

In 1983, my sixth grade geography teacher was Spero Tshontikidis. In addition to teaching, Mr. Tshontikidis was a competitive powerlifter in the ADFPA. He brought powerlifting to our school and convinced the principal to allow him to start a powerlifting team. The first day he mentioned it to the class I thought powerlifting sounded cool and decided to give it a try. After all, what eleven-year-old boy doesn't want to grow up to be big and strong? Spero taught us how to squat on the first day of powerlifting practice. I had never touched a weight let alone squat. I remember my hips and hamstrings were so tight that I had to put my heels on a 2" x 4" in order to hit proper depth. I did three sets of ten reps with 95 pounds. On the way home I noticed my legs getting a little sore but I thought nothing of it. The next morning I woke up and tried to get out of bed. I took one step and fell flat on my face. My legs were so unbelievably sore that I thought I seriously injured myself. I had never experienced such excruciating muscle soreness. I convinced my mother to let me stay home that day. The following day I crawled back to school and told Mr. Tshontikidis that I didn't want to be on the powerlifting team and I would never squat again. He tried to change my mind. I didn't budge. Spero would later coach me on the junior varsity football team where I blossomed into the team MVP as a freshman. Meanwhile, he continued to encourage me to lift weights.

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