I guess it's easy for people to label us as fat.
3..6..yea, we should be alright it's like 12 eggs.
We're big on our supplements.
We're big on our proteins...our
our amino acids, our BCAs.
Like hell, even our dog takes vitamins.
[Hip Hop music]
My name is Ray Williams, from Demopolis, Alabama.
32 years young.
And I'm a powerlifter.
Two of the best things you can do in powerlifting
is rest and feed the machine.
This morning I'm just going to cook some stuff up
feed my man
give him a good Mississippi breakfast.
Oh yea, that's looking real right there, pull those out.
We're just going to bask in the ambiance like...
that's how your bacon is supposed to look.
That's beautiful right there.
That's Mississippi bacon right there!
It's good stuff!
My man, Olu, here...
he came down from Maryland to train with me.
Olu's a former powerlifter, World's Strongest Man.
- I met Ray Ray...right?
[laughs]
I met Ray Ray yesterday afternoon.
I've been watching him on YouTube,
since 2012.
I'm blown out by his humility- he's kind,
he's knowledgeable and wants to pass on the knowledge.
[gentle music]
People remind you real quick that you come from a different side of the tracks.
And I learned that I was poor from other people.
I hated life. I hated everything.
I didn't like people. I was very antisocial.
I really didn't have the best home life, so...
if I were to drop out of school nobody would've cared.
And then one day, I found football.
And football kind of gave me
an avenue to chase that light at the end of the tunnel.
I wanted to be good at football
so I just figured
if I wanted to be good
I got to work out with the guys who are good.
So the first time I ever
put anything on my back was 205 lbs on the bar.
The rest of the time,
whatever the big boys did, we did.
I think next week we jump back into the 9's.
So that will be fun.
A week after that, we get ready to go to the Arnold
and tear shit up.
In this very room I squatted
780 lbs.
And then, someone "You should really consider powerlifting."
I'm thinking...
Isn't that like an Olympic sport?
Don't you got to do that in college?
No man, you just pay some money, join the federation and do it.
And I did.
It's been a blessing ever since.
If you go back to 2013, 2014,
people said I would never squat 900 lbs.
I squatted 905 lbs.
"You'll never squat a 1,000 lbs."
In 2016, in Atlanta, Georgia at Raw Nationals,
I squatted 1,005 lbs.
And the same people that are saying that
"You'll never do such and such"
"You'll never beat such and such"
I just want to beat myself.
I want to beat the best version of me.
You don't have to be
the strongest man in the gym every day.
And that was my big issue when I was younger.
First thing I learned in my first powerlifting meet,
the strongest person doesn't always win the meet
it's the smartest.
And I've just apply that to my training ever since.
- You okay, bro?
No!
I'm tired.
- You need more water?
I'll take a Coke Zero.
Powerlifting is an average Joe sport.
You can work all day at the mill,
or assembly line.
Here I am, sitting here,
I coach D- line and strength at a junior college,
in northeast Mississippi,
one of the best powerlifters in the world.
You know, you can be great at this,
all you got to put the time in, you got to work.
Drive!
This is when you come from nothing,
and you finally get the opportunity,
to make your dreams come true,
you put everything you can into it.
