On August 13, 2016, I was hired by Natasha, a 30-year-old dentist who had never touched a barbell in her life. Her goal was to build muscle, gain strength, and achieve the look of a fitness model you might see in a magazine.

Of course, I told her to focus on the process and let the outcome take care of itself. As I discuss in my book The Elite Trainer, if you want to look like a high-level fitness model, you should aim for high-level performance feats—like repping out squats and deadlifts with a load equivalent to your body weight.

At 113 pounds, Natasha would need to deadlift with a 35-pound plate on each side of the bar. I showed her what those plates looked like, then pointed to the 45-pound plates beside them and said, “One day you’ll even rep out with the big plates if you’re serious about it.”

“I can’t deadlift that weight,” she replied. “There’s no way!”

“We’ll see about that,” I said.

Fast Forward to January 13, 2018

The new year brought Natasha a new personal record in the deadlift—she did the “big plates” after all! After getting 8 reps on her first set with 135 pounds, I decided to record her second set.

We’ll stay at that weight for a while and continue refining technique, but the barrier has been broken. Big plates are now the new normal for Natasha when she deadlifts.

Take-Home Message

Forty-five-pound plates may seem intimidating at first, but if you work hard and stay consistent, you’ll lift them. Put in the work… put in the time… and eventually, you’ll conquer those big plates!