Babatunde (Tim) Awoyinka

A quote that I love “If you do everything wrong in life, you’ll end up on a cardiologists table. If you do everything right, you’ll end up on a chiropractors table”. This comes from Eric Cressey, who is a literal encyclopedia of strength training knowledge. The basic idea is that, doing the things you should throughout life, can, and probably will, get you beat up at some point. The real question is… will you get back up? Will you take on the battle and come back for more?

Our athlete today, Babatunde, did just that. He came back from two herniated discs in 2017, to compete in the GGC in 2019. Then came back in 2020, and in 2021. He had a kid during that timeframe too, while working, and now he has a second kid here. And he isn’t shying away now, he is running JuggernautAI to prep him for the 2022 Spring GGC. This man freaking lives the GGC mindset. So let’s get into it, lets talk to Babatunde.

What is your story? What’s makes you tick?

I grew up in the suburbs of Minneapolis, MN. Following High School I went to Minnesota State University, Mankato where I lived for 4.5 years, following that I lived in Vermillion, SD for 3 years while I attended graduate school. Following that moved back home to Minnesota where I live now. I have a BS in Biotechnology from Minnesota State, Mankato and a MS in Chemistry from the University of South Dakota. I have a 4 year old kid and a newborn born in 2022, both girls #GirlDad

https://www.instagram.com/p/CaVx5hOgc8v/

What do you do for a living? 

I am a Service Manager for a global analytical instrumentation development and manufacturing company.  (Lab instruments) A relevant example of how some of our instruments are used, is for analyzing samples for drug testing athletes. I share a team field engineers across 9 states in the Midwest taking care of our customers every day.

What hobbies do you have outside of lifting?

Outside of lifting I enjoy woodworking and taking care of ‘handyman’ projects around the house. This amounts to anything from DIY garage gym equipment to outdoor furniture, to home renovations. Also I recently got back into golfing. I love activities that you can see progress and if you’re lucky, an end result.

Some of my contraptions – Pull down to use with ironmaster DBs, Iron Master pin storage, sled, DL jack

Do you have a background in sports? 

Growing up I started with soccer, playing from 1^st to 9^th grade. By 5^th grade I was too big and slow to play anything but goalie in soccer, so I also started playing football. 9^th grade I almost quit football (admittedly out of laziness), but my best friend Dylan Poesch, talked me back into it, Dylan will come up again later. In high school, in addition to football, I threw shot put and discus for track. When I got to college, I was introduced to rugby which I played for 5 years until going to graduate school.

How/when did you start lifting? Why?

Short version: January 15^th, 2012

It seems abundantly obvious that I should say I’ve been lifting weights and training since junior high or high school, but I wasn’t the most driven athlete. I was fortunate to have size being 6’ 3” and about 280 at 16 and some semblance of talent. Unfortunately, I was more interested in hanging out and just getting by rather than pushing my potential in both football and rugby.

After graduating from Mankato in 2011, I was applying to graduate schools and had hit a point where I didn’t have anything competitive to do, and I realized I missed competition, not to mention the “Freshman 15” turned into the “5^th year 50” clocking out around 340 by the time I graduated college.

Sometime in 2012 I was rambling on about something with Dylan per usual. Dylan has always been one of the hardest workers I’ve known, always smashing weights and doing whatever he could to get better, he went to college and played football and was (and still is) big into training. I was complaining about not having much to do and how big I’d gotten. He basically took it upon himself to make sure I ‘got right’ and wrote up a program for me to follow. He lived out of state, so I guess I had a virtual trainer before COVID made it cool. With the program it was a requirement for me to follow what he wrote to a T, write out my workouts, and report back after every session. I still have the notebook and the program to this day. Dylan helped me show how fun training was and from that point on I was hooked. I’m forever grateful for that because I think he set me up for success, starting slow (I did bodyweight box squats for like 4 months before touching a barbell to squat) focusing on form, and keeping a written record of everything I was doing. Thanks to that I have a stack of notebooks spanning about 5 years until I moved to keeping everything in a spreadsheet. This has made it easy and fun to track where I was, where I should try to go, and what works for me.

From this point forward I was online almost every day trying to learn about lifting, what works for people, what doesn’t, what was popular (and wasn’t), what programs were out there etc. I followed Dylan’s programming for 6 months until I was confident to start trying some new things. I’ve tried many many programs, always following them a minimum of 8 weeks. Without going into too much I’ve always found my way back to 5/3/1. I’d guess 40% of the past 10 years has been spent running some version of 5/3/1. I feel like I’ve come to really understand the point of it and can leverage the core of the program to fit ME and I love it. That said, I’ve always loved Chad Wesley Smith and the content he’s put out and even had a chance to meet him (with Dylan pictured below), so finally after seeing a rugby buddy of mine compete after using Juggernaut AI, I jumped in and started trying it out. So far after just under 3 months I’m really enjoying it! I’m going to continue using it through the May GGC to see how it goes! 

Here’s a list of all the programs I can remember trying:

• Starting Strength
• Swole System (Chandler Marchman)
• Swole System 2.0
• Manamorphosis (Marchman again)
• Stronglifts 5×5
• Madcow
• 531
• Strong Bastard 911 (Joe Defranco)
• Built2Last (Defranco)
• Candito 6 week program
• Poliquin arm size and strength
• Various Bench, Squat, and Deadlift specific programs

What kind of lifting do you do? Why?

In general, I’d guess I’d say I follow a powerlifting mindset, but in reality, that’s the closest thing to whatever we do to get stronger. I like it because you can measure your progress. I know that if I couldn’t lift 100lbs last year and I lifted it today, I am stronger. I also really enjoy strongman type training. I enjoy it for two reasons, one its fun to see how far you can carry or throw heavy stuff, and two because of the goofy looks I get from neighbors with whatever yoke, handles, small landscaping rocks, husafell stone, etc I’m carrying around.

Tell me about your gym.

MinneSWOLEta Garage gym (Instagram @minneswoletagaragegym) is in my …. Garage. It started out because of a Craigslist listing in May 2015, $300 or so for 495lbs of plates and a barbell. As any home/garage gym owner knows this obviously became an obsession of upgrading and evolving and getting ‘just one more thing’. I now train in my garage where I’ve carved out a space about 9’x12’ (larger or smaller depending on any other projects going on in the garage). At the core is a rack, barbells, about 1400 lbs of plates, sandbags, kettlebells, and Adjustable Dumbbells, oh and a trusty Ikea folding chair.

How long have you trained at home? 

I was still a regular at a local gym after getting the first set of weights, so I didn’t get my first squat rack until 2 years later in 2017, another great deal $182 to my door (geeze times have changed). To get it I made a deal with my wife that I’d work out from home at least once a week (when I say I was a regular at the local gym one span of about 3 months I was there literally every day thanks to my ‘brother’ Matt). In January 2018 my first daughter was born, this is when the garage gym really started to begin expanding. Although the local place is maybe a 10-minute drive one way, that extra 20 minutes alone driving (not to mention the random time I’d spend visiting with people) became extremely valuable. At this time, I was probably about 50/50 garage and local spot. Then when COVID started up and things were shutting down I went full time home gym and havent looked back since.
Are you eyeing down any new toys for the gym?

The only thing I feel I’m missing is some sort of cable machine. I’ve been looking at the small footprint wall mounted as well as rack mounted options. Just havent pulled the trigger. If space permitted, I’d go for a dedicated belt squat. Also planning to make some atlas stones for some outdoor landscaping décor.

Do you train by yourself? 

Yes, but my 4 year old is getting more curious haha outside of that I’ll meet up occasionally with a few friends an lift in my garage or theirs.

Pros and cons of lifting at home?

• Pros
  • I’m home more (commute, any small chats, waiting for equipment)
  • Environment: I pick the music, what’s on the tv, etc.
  • Example for my kid(s)
  • Always as clean as I want it
  • I can lift literally whenever I want to
• Cons
  • Climate control, Minnesota can get over 100 degrees in the summer and colder than -20 (minus 20, negative 20, 20 below zero!) in the winter.
    • Check out how you can beat the cold in an article I wrote last year for Garage Gym Life Media https://issuu.com/garagegymlife/docs/winter_2021/30?fbclid=IwAR0JMY_72XFKqV7z6VgOo8mr2qjebZDDvDptuPSxQol8uveUsGchTWxGJn8
  • Friendships and ‘gym bros’ (the fun/cool ones)
  • Lack of space, would be sweet to get a run of like 30 yards of turf
  • Can get super expensive

Do you have any competition experience in lifting?

I competed in one local strong man competition once (shortly after injured my back and had to start training all over after healing)

Did a ‘cheaters’ powerlifting meet at our local gym (slingshot bench and box deadlift)

Let’s talk about the Garage Gym Competition… Where did you find out about it first?

Instagram in 2019. As I was getting deeper into the home/garage gym social media realm. I think I was planning on repainting some of my plates and came across your YouTube video on referbing plates. That lead me to your Instagram and shortly after you were posting about the upcoming GGC. Been taking part ever since.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CEpgaohhcKi/

What got you interested in the GGC?

I just love the fun. Its really fun to see the variety of places people lift. Like who knew you could fit a squat rack and bench in a laundry room, or living room? Who needs a dining room?! Its also really fun to see families get involved. Oh and also the potential to win sweet prizes is a plus!

What brings you back for 2022?

Every May is my check in month. Its what I work for every year. Coincidentally my birthday is in May so since I have been lifting, I always did some sort of PR lift by my birthday (planned or not) so the competition being in May fit that for me. 

How many years have you participated? 

I’ve competed 2019, 2020, and 2021

• 2019 – 2019 Entry ( https://www.instagram.com/p/Bxn-0B7A4g1 )
  • My first adventure back into lifting heavy. Prior to this I had herniated two disks in my back in 2017 and had finally gathered the courage and determination to get back into it. It was a huge confidence boost that I could lift heavy again.
• 2020 – 2020 Entry ( https://www.instagram.com/p/CAEjqShAKN4 )
  • The realization that consistent programming helps (duh)
• 2021 – 2021 Entry ( https://www.instagram.com/p/CO9MJpagfpa/ )
  • Planning weight selections is really a thing

What brought you back each year?

The challenge to beat myself… The raffle… To be a part of the community

How did you approach the GGC each year? With goals? Specific peaking and programming?

2021 was the only year that I attempted peaking and all of that. And it was last minute, about 6 weeks out. Since I’ve never done this before there is still much to learn. Prior to that I’d adjust my programming (almost always been 5/3/1 over this time period) to allow myself to max test the week of the competition. The week following the competition I set my goals for next year. This year I’m leaving 100% of the programming to JuggernautAI.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CZ0uGI-Awog/

What has been the key pieces to your success, in the GGC and lifting in general?

Consistency, hands down. I don’t care what your focus is, what program you’re on or anything. None of it will work if you aren’t consistently doing it and following the rules.
I’ve always taken the approach that, whoever wrote this program knows better than me, if I knew better then I wouldn’t be looking for this program to follow. With that mindset it has always been easy to follow the protocol adjusting only when it is truly needed and after I’ve talked it through with someone who knows better.

What motivates you to lift, day after day, year after year?

My motivation changes over the year, sometimes its out of pure fun (this is usually spring into summer where I get to carry stuff outside again). Other times its because I want to be stronger than I was before. Sometimes I’m not motivated, but tell myself “Future me is going to be mad if I don’t train today”

I think at my core it’s a concrete way to measure myself. Am I better than I used to be?

What do you think of when you eye down a big lift?

First I think “Its nothing, just needs to go up and down” then I try to think of nothing. Over the years I learned I can’t get all hyped out screaming and all that, I need a deep breath and to center myself then go for it.

Favorite personal record song to listen to?

I don’t have a tried and true go to, but lately big sets gets one of these

• Broccoli – Dram
• On Top – Flume
• Holy Diver – Killswitch Engage
• Self Esteem – Offspring

What’s the most important thing people should know about you?

I’m just someone trying to be better, everyone can be better. Everyone can improve themselves and the lives of those around them. It doesn’t matter where you started or where you are currently at, all that matters is that you are putting in effort to be better, if you can honestly say you are, you’re moving the right direction. This is true for anything you’re doing or desire to do.

How are you preparing for the 2022 Garage Gym Competition?

This year I’m using Juggernaut AI. This will be the closest I’ve ever had to a power lifting/meet prep coach (maybe that’s what I’ll do next year).

Thanks Babatunde! You can find more from him on his Instagram channels here and here.