The Bodybuilding.com Podcast
The Bodybuilding.com Podcast
Nick Collias, Heather Eastman & Krissy Kendall, Ph.D.
Episode 34: Hard-won Life and Lifting Lessons from KC Mitchell
1 hour 15 minutes Posted Dec 27, 2017 at 10:27 am.
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Show notes
Strength icon KC Mitchell, aka "That 1-Leg Monster," shares his incredible story of struggle and redemption in this wide-ranging discussion. He lost a leg and nearly lost his life to an IED in Afghanistan, then battled back to become a competitive powerlifter with help from legends like Ed Coan, Mark Bell, Rich Piana and many others. Now he may be eyeballing… bodybuilding?
Highlights:
- Why he still revisits photos of the incident that almost took his life, and how it feels now
- His pre-injury training: Lots of fighting, plus "curls for the girls"
- What powerlifting has to offer CrossFitters and other lifters
- What the old KC thought of powerlifting (and powerlifters)
- His a-ha moment, in the darkest days of post-injury narcotics abuse
- Why he threw away his Doritos along with the pain pills and booze
- His unique relationship with pain
- What his first few weeks back in the gym looked like
- His first free squats—and the video of them that went viral
- Lifting with the big boys at Metroflex Long Beach
- His relationship (and pancake eating contests) with the late Rich Piana
- Why he shies away from "adaptive" lifting competition
- His epic first powerlifting meet story
- His "crazy" squat theory: "If I sit 402 pounds on my back, it's going to push me down to a point to where it's going to push me past that pain part."
- Backstage with Ed Coan before his final deadlift: "I'm not going to tell you the weight, but you need to pull it."
- How Hany Rambod talked him into (probably) doing a bodybuilding show
- Why he admires athletes like Kris Gethin
- The simple beauty of the deadlift
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