JULY 2019 / MUSCLE & FITNESS 27MY HEART
A LWAY S L AY
IN GETTING
STRONG AT
THE GYM. THAT
WAS ALL I WAS
PASSIONATE
ABOUT.setbacks, including tears in his
hamstring and soreness in his lower
back—nothing that required surgery.
Yet they were slowly taking a toll on
Motivated by other powerlifters he
watched on YouTube, Williams figured
the way to get stronger was to keep
adding more: He trained every day,
he ate more, and he began taking
steroids to excess. Eventually, he
says, “my body decided to fight back.
The list of side effects I experienced—
we could talk all day about it.”
What Williams really needed was a
trainer who understood him and his
goals and could counsel him on
proper technique and how to
moderate his training so he didn’t
get injured. He found that person in
John Gaglione, a coach based in
Long Island, New York, and a former
wrestler whose clients include
Division I wrestlers and competitive
powerlifters. Gaglione is still
Williams’ primary trainer today.
“He transformed my lifts entirely,”
Williams says.
Williams entered his first RPS
powerlifting contest at age 18,his body. Williams assures he wasn’t
“ego lifting” back in the day, though;
rather, he had (and still has) a passion
for going heavy.competing in the 275-pound class
despite weighing only 247—and he
won. For a while, he found himself
waiting tables as his mother once
had, and then he became a personal
trainer at an upscale gym to make
ends meet. But he’s now grown his
following to the point where he can
make his living off social media and
through sponsors, in addition to
being able to train full-time.
In order to keep that growth coming,
Williams recognised he had to
diversify. Hence, the move into
bodybuilding. He entered his first
competition, the NPC Gold Coast
Classic, last February and won the
heavyweight division. But WilliamsWHEELS IN MOTION