Hello fellow Titans!
Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Matthew Cavalier, and I will be taking over the Atlas blog while Cameron is busy running the gym, hosting the podcast and raising everyone’s favorite gym dog, Hercules. If you have ever come to a Strongman Saturday at Atlas, you have likely met or seen me there. Otherwise, most of my visits to Atlas are early in the morning. I am very excited to be writing for a gym that has become my home away from home. It is my goal to share my experience, philosophy and knowledge with everyone who takes the time to read my thoughts.
Background
I was raised in the small town of Pierre Part, Louisiana. I graduated from Assumption High School in 2010, where I played football and was exposed to strength training for the first time. After that, I would attend LSU and work for the football team’s equipment staff. There, I spent a lot of time in the team’s training facility where I was exposed to some of the nation’s top minds in strength and conditioning. It is there where my passion for strength training developed. I would spend countless hours training on my own and picking the brains of the strength coaches when I could. The lessons I learned there would carry over to my training throughout my years.
After graduating college, I remained in Baton Rouge and made a home here. I am currently married to my beautiful wife, Heather, and we are expecting a baby. With our two dogs, we have laid out some strong roots. During this time, I would continue to train on my own. Toying with various programs, learning things the hard way and absorbing whatever knowledge I could, I challenged myself physically to be the best I could be. Eventually, after bouncing around a couple of different gyms, I would stumble upon the Atlas Strength Shop during a Google search. One afternoon, I decided to visit the gym for the first time where I met Cameron, Tyler and Lauren. It was Cameron’s first location that he opened up as Atlas. It was a small garage sized gym with horse stall mats, barbells, iron plates and heavy metal blaring from the speaker. Yup, that’s where I needed to be. I would eventually join when Atlas 2.0 opened, and I was fortunate to be a part of the move into the massive and impressive Atlas 3.0. At Atlas 3.0, I would meet dozens of incredibly strong and inspiring people. I would also compete in my first strongman competition and proudly represent Atlas. It was an experience I’ll never forget, and one I will repeat as often as possible. From a personal standpoint, becoming a member at Atlas was one of the best decisions I’ve made. From an objective standpoint, you would be hard pressed to find a better gym than Atlas. The equipment, the knowledge of the lifters and the culture created by the people who make Atlas what it is, is unmatched by anything that I have seen.
What I’ll be Writing About
My goal is to bring you a variety of content through this blog. Obviously, I will be discussing strength training, and I want to touch on the entire spectrum as much as I can. This can include various programs and how they’re designed. I want to discuss topics about strongman, powerlifting and olympic lifting…...and maybe CrossFit…..maybe. I also want to venture into the philosophical side of strength training and explore how the mind develops with the body. I have a fascination for all things strength training. I will be honest with you though, I am not an expert. I have not set any world records, and I have not trained dozens of athletes to be pros. But I am a student of this field. It is my goal and my responsibility to share with you what I have learned, what I am learning now and what I will learn in the future. I am very open to any and all discussions you might want to have with me. If we can share knowledge, we can learn and grow together. By putting this all in text, I hope we can educate the next generation of athletes in hopes that they may not have to learn some lessons the hard way. It is my hope that we can see the next generation set new world records and continue to revolutionize strength sports. This might be a bit of a bold undertaking, but it will be fun to try.
At the end of every blog post, I would like to leave you with a quote. This quote might be inspirational, motivational or philosophical….or I might just think it’s cool. So, to finish off my first entry in the Atlas blog, I leave you with the following:“No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.” - Socrates