Nathaniel “Nate” Massiah is a name that is growing rapidly in the strength and fitness space. At 20 years of age, he began a university career, developed a huge social networks following, and remains torn while competing as one of the UK’s strongest weight lifters.
Massiah placed second in the 2022 British weightlifting (BP) British University Championships with a total of 730 kilograms (1,609.4 pounds) in the 93 kilogram class on April 2, 2022. Bar Bend caught up with the Londoner to find out more about his brand and how he stays so slim while achieving PR.
[Related: Strongman Hafþór Björnsson to Compete in Powerlifting Meet In December 2022]
love for strength and fitness
“When I was around five years old, I was cleaning out the attic with my dad and found his old bodybuilding magazines from the ’90s,” says Massiah. “I was immediately drawn to the sport of body-buildingadmiring the way the boys like it Dorian Yachts Y Kevin Levrone looked. When I got older I started watching fitness on YouTube with guys like rich piano and David Laid and seriously started weight training at the age of 12. Then, at 14, I wasn’t entirely happy with the way I looked and decided to commit to bodybuilding and powerlifting. I haven’t looked back since.
YouTube had a huge impact on Massiah. At age 14, she launched his own channel. Initially, she uploaded content to share most aspects of her life, including hair styling tips and, of course, exercise videos.
“I hit 1,000 subscribers in December of the first year, then slowly and steadily grew to about 4,000 subscribers in August 2019. It was at this point that everything changed: I made a video about the fact that I had won all nine (the equivalent to As) on my GCSEs (UK Secondary School Certificates), and that video blew up. At the time, I had a lot of exercise videos on my channel, so once the video blew up, YouTube started recommending my old content as well.”
It’s not hard to see why viewers would become loyal fans of Nate’s social media content. At 16, he weighed 260 kilograms (573.2 pounds) dead weight. At 17, he deadlifted 300 kilograms (661.4 pounds). At 18, he crushed 320 kilograms (705.5 pounds) and at 19 locked 325 kilograms (716.5 pounds).
Massiah has turned many plates before his 20th birthday. Although the rising influencer was accepted to the prestigious Loughborough Sports College, he decided to put that on hold so he could focus on strength and body-building — is now backed by top brands like my protein.
hit public relations
“I started doing individual deadlifts weekly to practice what it would be like to go for a one rep max,” shares the mighty Massiah. “For this, I will use a slightly lighter weight and increase it weekly. I also started doing deadlift variations, as a deficit. romanian deadlift. I also started creatine which I think made a slight difference, and my deadlift has continued to increase.”
[Related: Powerlifter Jen Thompson (67.5 KG) Unofficially Breaks Bench Press World Record with 148.5 Kilogram (327.5 Pound) Lift]
Stay slim while gaining strength
“The simple premise is not to let your body fat get too high during your ‘volume increase‘, shares the fitness influencer. “My focus is lean volume from September through March, slowly gaining weight in a small caloric surplus to maximize my strength without getting too fat.”
“During this period, I tend to spend most of my time doing powerlifting-style training…or more accurately, power buildingBecause I train in a hybrid style that incorporates both bodybuilding and powerlifting.” Massiah continued, “Then from April through July, I cut back to pretty low body fat levels. During this period, I am usually not too concerned with weightlifting, as I am training mainly in a bodybuilding style.”
“As much as I love weightlifting, I can’t do it year-round, it just gets too boring for me,” says Massiah. “So, I use bodybuilding to add some variation. Then through July and August I do my best to maintain this level of body fat and then the cycle continues.”
“Honestly, genetics play an important roleNot everyone can maintain a lean physique while gaining strength, but I definitely think people would have an easier time adopting my approach instead of going with huge dirty lumps where they gain too much fat and then spend months trying to burn it off. ”
by Massiah Exercise
- dead weight — Sets of a single repetition with 90 percent of one repetition maximum. Then two sets of four repetitions.
- Paused deadlift with deficit — 3×6
- side pulls — 4×10
- hamstring curls — 3×12
- rows of machines — 3×12
gym bag essentials
Massiah says that “a lever belt, liquid chalk, previous trainingY wristbandsare essential gym bag accessories when going out to a session”. And, with continuing to build his brand always at the forefront of his mind, Massiah also brings his camera and his tripod along for the ride.
When it comes to Recoveryweightlifter say epsom you go out they are a resource to him. Massiah is also working to improve his extensionas he feels this keeps him agile and less prone to injury.
[Related: Nabil Lahlou (67.5KG) Deadlifts 362.8 Kilograms (800 Pounds) in Training]
What’s next for Nathaniel Massiah?
As a MyProtein sponsored athlete, Messiah is building serious connections in the fitness world and now has over 138,000 YouTube subscribers at the time of this article’s publication.
I want to be the strongest 93kg junior weightlifter in the UK by 2024, have a million subscribers on YouTube and build a successful brand.
As if all that wasn’t enough, you want to put that slim frame to the test by entering a natural bodybuilding contest too. We will see how conditioned is the package that he brings to the stage when pose For him judges.
Featured image courtesy of MyProtein.
