Eddie Baumgartner
After running the GGC for multiple years, there are a handful of names that have stuck out to me. People who show up consistently, maybe do something a little different, are above average strong, have a crazy story, you name it. Then you have people who fit all of that. My man Eddie has been around the GGC since the early days. He asked if he could lift in a luchador mask, which I of course approved. And the rest is history. Today we get the chance to talk to Eddie Baumgartner -AKA The Masked Lifter.
Eddie Baumgartner won the Texas Deadlift Bar in the Spring of 2022, and then came back to win the Grand Prize in the Fall of 2022 which included the JuggernautAI prize pack and a Surplus Strength ARC Series Power Rack. 2022 was a BIG year for the Masked Lifter.
This one is going to read out like a self story opposed to an interview. Just an FYI!
Get To Know Eddie Baumgartner
I am 35 and I was born and raised in the San Franscisco Bay Area. Specifically Vallejo, where six flags is for those out of the loop. I moved to Reno, Nevada in 2012 and have been here since! I got my BA in Kinesiology with an emphasis in Physical Education from Sacramento State. Then obtained my masters from ACE (American College of Education) in Health Education. I am a high school Physical Education teacher at Reed High School in Sparks, NV. When I’m not teaching, I also coach Shot and Discus (which I’ve done for 10 years!).
I am happily married to my high school sweetheart, Corrina. We have been together for 19 years and it just gets better each year. I have a dog named Gryla and a cat named Morty. I have been vegan for 8 years now and it is something I pride myself on, as well as being alcohol free for just over a year! As for hobbies, well, I was told that hobbies are what keep you alive by my 74 year old great grandma as a child, so I have a growing list. The main hobbies are, lifting, gaming (big Destiny 2 guy, but also Call of Duty and Diablo 4), building mechanical keyboards, photography, cooking, and a smidgen of disc golf.
Lifting and My Home gym
I got into lifting when I was in high school, due to track and field. But when I graduated high school, I could barely squat 135lbs and bench 95lbs. I had a growth spurt, and I was always kinda skinny fat. Getting into college I started to think about looking good, as all young adults do, and I started swimming class and doing bouldering at the local rock-climbing gym.
I became a proficient swimmer but never took it more seriously than morning swim classes. Bouldering really pushed me to use more strength, so I took a weight training class and worked on doing high intensity no rest lifting that was essentially CrossFit. I remember the first day that I took pre-workout and had a migraine after. Doing this type of training led me to getting beat by my friends who were stronger than me. I stopped doing CrossFit and looked into powerlifting.
Powerlifting
I had been on the internet looking at a website called EliteFTS and a guy named Jim Wendler. He has a program named 5/3/1, and I got a copy and started taking it a tad more seriously. I started training at my buddy’s house and writing the programs out of this book with accessories that I thought would make us stronger. This led to me doing my first powerlifting meet in 2010 where I squatted 315, benched 225 and deadlifted 375.
I was hooked after that. Around this time the school that I graduated from closed down. I had been volunteering as a coach there, and the head coach told me to go into a Conex box and get anything I wanted. I opened that door and found a white squat rack, barbell, and some Ivanko bumpers. Roughly 450lbs of weights was obtained and then stored at my mother in laws. That is how it all began.
Now the gym has gone from an outside garage gym in the bay area with who knows what to a top-of-the-line garage gym with a Surplus Strength ARC Series Power Rack, Texas Deadlift Bar, Gymway Oni Powerbar, and Calibrated Plates. My powerlifting career started doing that raw meet to now I compete in single ply powerlifting with best meet lifts of 557 squat, 308 bench, and 542 deadlift. The gym, called the Power Plant, used to have a crew, but due to life they all moved away. Now I train by myself and sometimes with my wife.
GGC and How It Has Benefited Me
I have done the GGC since the beginning, known as the Masked Lifter, and I think I have missed maybe one just due to not liking my attempts, so I didn’t post it. My garage owes a lot to the GGC. Remember the no name rack I started with in the pictures above? Well, I transitioned to a Titan X3 and then I got extremely fortunate to WIN the grand prize of the Fall 2022 GGC where I replaced that titan thing with a freaking BAD and BOUGIE custom 1/1 JuggernautAI ARC Series Rack made by Surplus Strength.
This thing NICE! It is 1″ holes so I use all the cool attachments and it has a nice blue coat on it that just pops. I would have never bought anything like this in a million years so winning it is so awesome. Love the white accent with the Jugg logo. The Texas Deadlift Bar has gotten so much use that it is basically attached to me.
2022 wasn’t a year of lifting for me. I chose accomplish running challenges such as the Reno Tahoe Odyssey, a 178-mile relay race, and I got the announcement that I won the bar right after I finished my relay. All the runners were confused why I was so happy. I have wanted a deadlift bar, so I bought the Strong Arm sumo bar, and it was fine, but once I touched that knurl on the Texas Deadlift Bar I knew I had a special thing. That barbell will get buried with me.
Grand Prize for who?
Now let’s talk about winning the Grand Prize. I had given up winning anything after the pioneer belt passed (that’s all I really wanted). So, I was getting ready to head to Vallejo on December 2nd to go do the California International Marathon. I was going to show my wife some funny meme on Instagram when I saw I was tagged in something. I shrugged thinking it was a student or something and showed my wife the meme. Then Joe messaged me and was like “Hey! Have you seen this yet!?!” AND I LOST MY F*CKING $HIT! I started screaming and hyperventilating, letting my wife know we won it! I won the freaking grand prize! 1 year of Juggernaut AI, the RACK, Juggernaut clothes and a 1 on 1 with Chad Wesley Smith.
Training for Meets
This has been a game changer for me as now I use JuggernautAI for my training. Since last year I’ve been able to pull my best deadlift EVER of 542lbs while weighing in at 198 at Powerlifting America Nationals! Before this I have ran everything under the sun, 5/3/1, GZCL, SBS, and a lot of Conjugate. JuggernautAI has made it easy to turn off my brain and just get after it. Competing in the GGC has been so easy and has been game changing for my life, and I will continue to do it. I will also continue to compete in official meets as I have a goal of competing for team USA, which I will accomplish before I am 40.
Final Thoughts W/ Eddie Baumgartner
I think that people should know that lifting is a lot of fun. That entering a competition, be it the GGC or an official one, is extremely beneficial for someone to do. We need to be challenged and face some adversity, even if it is something that we make up ourselves, as it shows that we can do hard things and accomplish goals. I will be continuing to accomplish hard things and have a fun time lifting in luchador masks in my garage for every GGC.
For the Fall 2023 GGC I am going to be hosting a local meet for Northern Nevada with a few friends and former students out of the Powerplant. It’s going to be a banger of a time. I have set up my JuggernautAI to have me scheduled for a meet for the last weekend of the meet. It is so easy to work with. We will play “Work B*tch” by Britney when my final deadlift comes up and I will pull something magical. My life motto is, “Live your life in a way that younger you would look up to you.”, and damnit, little Eddie would be so damn proud of the man I have become.
I want to thank Eddie Baumgartner for his time, honesty, and playful demeanor over the years.
