(C) Copyright 2015 Adam Palmer
Photo courtesy 9for9media.com

While being relatively new to the sport of powerlifting, Mike Garozzo is not your typical newcomer. He has racked up an impressive total in a very short amount of time. This interview was done back in April 2015 and a lot has happened since then. Mike competed at the RPS Heatwave meet held in Long Island, NY on July 12th totaling 1675lbs raw without knee wraps at 198lbs bodyweight and later competed at the 2015 USAPL Raw Nationals in Scranton, PA placing 7th in the open division with a 1642lbs total. Here is a look at Mike’s progress over his brief career:

1st meet: Nov 2012: 390,240,500 1130 @ 181 total w/ wraps
2nd meet: Nov 2013: 500,290,560 1350 @ 181 total w/ wraps
3rd meet: July 2014: 535,325,640 1500 @ 181 total (no wraps)
4th meet: Feb 2015: 540,341,678 1560 @ 181 total (no wraps)
RPS Heatwave: July 2015: 620,355,700 1675 @ 198 total (no wraps)
2015 USAPL Raw Nationals: Oct 2015: 611,353,678 1642 @ 204 total (no wraps)

RTS: How did you get into powerlifting and eventually start working with Mike?
Mike Garozzo: I got into lifting through a weight loss contest at work. I used p90x and a strict diet to win it… by a lot. I’m right around 5’10” and my body gains and loses weight very easily. I went from a chubby 195 lbs to an extremely lean 152 lbs. Once that was over, I realized that I needed to build some muscle because I was tiny, but I had no real weight training experience to this point. I started researching and realized strength training was the way to go, at the time StrongLifts 5×5 caught my attention and I started with that. I started SL 5×5 in February 2012 and I started with Mike in December 2013. RTS and Mike were brought to my attention when someone posted on one of my training videos on YouTube about him. After reading everything on the RTS website I knew I wanted to work with Mike and give RTS a shot, I’ve never looked back since. Read more…