Mathew Zlat

Mathew Zlat would present himself as Mathew, if he had to describe himself he would describe him as a street lifter or a weighted Calisthenics athlete. His friends or people that meet him would describe him as the local Mr Olympia. Lately, he dropped his body weight because it was too high. Currently, Mathew measures 182 cm and 98 kg. Mathew Zlat started his training back in 2012. First, he started to see how strong he was and was only able to do 15 push-ups. He was disappointed, and a family member found a strength trainer for him, and he noticed that he progressed really quickly. Because he pushed himself, he experienced his first health problems. His mother didn’t want him to lift heavy weights, so he told his mother he did calisthenics, which is associated with body weight training. This exploit lets him continue. Due to the sport, he met new friends and really started to feel connected with street lifting.

In February 2015 he had the ability to try weighted Calisthenics for the first time and fell immediately in love. In the beginning he did weighted dips with a very high range of motion which prepared his joints for the future and this way he was always ready. He mentioned that he quickly leveled up and could go heavier and unlocked more and more skills such as front lever and one arm pull up. Mathew even progressed in weighted one arm pull-ups. 

Mathew considered that he doesn't have a secret in how he progressed. His secret would be just to push hard, which translated in his progress. But even now he feels proud sometimes in how much he progressed in a relatively limited time.

It takes time for him to change his limits. Before he thought 100 kg pull-ups were hard, and now he does them relatively easy. It simply takes time to set your goals higher. Definitely in the region of doing things that have never been done before, such as dip world records. Mathew currently schedules his training. He has a 3-week cycle which is based on the Texas Method. This is a classic powerlifting method for intermediate skilled athletes. It’s a weekly cycle, where the first week is a heavy week. Throughout the weeks he changes the amount of load. First week 3 sets, second week 4 sets and last week he does 5 sets of the exercises which he wants to improve on. 

He mentions that he doesn’t eat that much. Sometimes even less than his friends. Before a workout, he eats oatmeal to have carbs for energy. For lunch, Mathew prefers a regular lunch. Furthermore, nothing special. Currently, Mathew provides workshops and online training too. But he wants to improve himself on his coaching skills because he wants to take responsibility, right now he is accumulating his knowledge and experience. 

A typical day in the life of Mathew is quite laid-back since he quitted university and wants to be stable in his mental life. When he wakes up, he has a meal, and after that a walk or workout. After that, another meal, then he reads something. After that another walk or workout but nothing complicated. He would consider his walking as cardio since he walks 20 to 30 km per day. 

Mathew would consider everybody with the same body type to reach the level of him, but what makes it different is his mentality and approach. He considers that he is obsessed with his goals. He just goes hard and cold minded into his workouts. People are surprised when they see that he only trains 3 times a week. His workout contains mainly 2 exercises which are pull-ups and dips, he doesn’t necessarily have a split which makes it hard to work out more often since he goes all in when he trains. 

The most rewarding moment in his career was the CWWB where he surpassed his own experience. Under competitions, he would consider that his performance doesn’t improve really since it is also dependent on the equipment which influences the outcome. His physique and physical state is prime, perfect on competition day. 

Mathew has custom-made dip-bars because the dip bars in his gym were too low quality which would bend when he was performing. It was also good during the corona outbreak, since he could just take the dip bars home and workout there. The funny thing is that the dip bars are relatively cheap. He doesn’t train the front lever, but trained it back in the day and doesn’t really do it for training but sometimes to test himself. 

The biggest mistakes in calisthenics or street lifting in specific. The biggest problem in street lifting is that people think that it works like bodybuilding, which results in injuries and problems for the people. Often rep ranges are misunderstood, people should work in 4-6 reps. Mathew Zlat even considered 6 reps for endurance. He puts emphasis that long rest times are good, which improve your performance, and you can get the maximum results out of your workout. 

Progressive overload with protein and calories surplus will help result in muscle hypertrophy, according to Mathew.

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