Taylor Atwood Profile — Career, Stats, Diet, and More

Taylor Atwood is known as the king of the 74-kilogram weight class and one of the greatest powerlifters that have ever competed. He is a member of the IPF, meaning each of his performances is drug-tested. He has been competing on the biggest stage for over a decade now, and has won a dozen of the biggest competitions in the world. So, in this article, we have covered Atwood’s powerlifting career, diet, life, and more.

Taylor Atwood’s Stats

Full Name: Taylor Atwood (Powerlifting Athlete)
Weight	Height	Age
74-kg (163.1-lb)	∼170-cm (5-ft 7-in)	36 years
Date of Birth	Era	Nationality
September 12, 1988	2010s / 2020s	American

Taylor Atwood’s Early Life

Taylor Atwood was born and raised in Miami, Florida, where his passion for sports initially ignited. The most notable aspect of his early life that had a big carry over to his powerlifting career is undoubtedly American Football.

Taylor Atwood played in the Running Back position on the Webster International University team and found quite a lot of success. In fact, he was the all-time leader in career rushing yards (2,352 yards) on the ‘Warriors’ team. Atwood also held the team’s record for most rushing yards in a single season (873 yards), which stood untouched for the next six seasons.

So, it is clear that Taylor Atwood had an incredible athletic base going into powerlifting. He was a bit heavier during his time in football though, as his weight came out to 185 pounds (83.9 kilograms) back in 2010.

Education

During his football career at Webber International University, Taylor Atwood pursued a Bachelor’s degree in the area of ‘Science in Business Administration, Finance’. Apart from football, he was part of another activity at the university, which was the Student Leadership Association (SLA).

Most recently, Taylor Atwood decided to further progress his academic journey. So he applied to the Columbia Business School. There, he secured a degree on the Master of Business Administration (MBA) course.

Related: Powerlifter Taylor Atwood Crushes New Bench Press PR, Hits Massive 1697lb Total

Taylor Atwood’s Powerlifting Career

The Beginnings

Taylor Atwood’s powerlifting journey began in 2014, when he partnered up with “The Strength Guys” coaching team. His coaches immediately recognized the potential he had, especially since Taylor was extremely explosive from his football days but also had some experience in weightlifting. So, they immediately started preparing for the 2014 USAPL Raw Nationals. It turned out even better than expected, as Taylor won the title with a mind-blowing performance.

First Setbacks

Despite showing signs of progress in training, when the time came for Atwood to compete at the 2015 NAPF Arnold – Raw Challenge, it turned out far worse than expected. However, it was not due to his strength, but instead because of three technical errors on the squats, which got him disqualified. Still, Taylor Atwood and his team knew that he would be coming back better and stronger.

Unfortunately, shortly after, Taylor Atwood faced another serious setback. During a squat training session, he injured his back, which limited his capabilities for performing squats and deadlifts for a while. However, it seemed that he had recovered well. So, he made a late decision to compete at the 2015 USAPL Raw Nationals.

The bad luck was not over yet, as Taylor’s injury sparked again during the squat portion of the competition. He pushed through, and despite fainting in the warm-up room, he managed to defend his title.

Related: Powerlifter Taylor Atwood Hits 245kg/540.1lb Squat Triple Ahead of Sheffield 2020

Taylor Atwood’s first competition at the IPF World Championships came in 2016, where he finished in second place. However, he only had three months to prepare effectively, making it extremely impressive. He then took another silver medal at the 2017 IPF Worlds.

Despite the injuries and setbacks, as well as his relatively disappointing performances internationally, Taylor Atwood continued to win the USAPL Raw Nationals each year. Another encouraging fact was that Taylor crushed his PRs at the 2017 Nationals.

Taking The Throne

In 2018, everything started to look better. Taylor continued improving and secured the win at the IPF World Championships. Then, in 2019, Taylor managed to defend his title and even crush his previous World Records. He also won his third IPF World Championships in 2022.

Making History

In what turned out to be one of the biggest moments in powerlifting until that point, Taylor Atwood managed to become the first athlete in the 74-kilogram weight class to Total over 800 kilograms (1,763.7 pounds). He did so at the 2020 USAPL 38th Annual Florida State Championships, but it was far from what would come next.

Just one year later, Taylor Atwood ended up totaling 838.5 kilograms (1,848.6 pounds) to win the 2021 USAPL Raw Nationals.

Overall Powerlifting Stats

So, over the entirety of his career so far, Taylor Atwood has taken part in 23 sanctioned powerlifting competitions. He has won 16 of them as well. Atwood is currently an 8x USA National Champion and a 3x IPF World Champion.

Raw Competition PRs

• Squat: 303-kg (668-lb)
• Bench Press: 202.5-kg (446.4-lb)
• Deadlift: 340.5-kg (750.6-lb)
• Total: 838.5-kg (1,848.5-lb)

Related: Taylor Atwood SMASHES A 350kg/770 lbs Deadlift PR

Diet

Taylor Atwood has posted a couple of videos on YouTube revealing his Full Day of Eating. In those videos, he has revealed that the optimal calorie intake for him is around 2,100-2,220 a day. Moreover, he organizes his diet based on three categories: “fuel” for physical activities, hydration, and protein.

Daily Macros

• Fat: 67 grams
• Carbs: 220 grams
• Protein: 165 grams

Here are two examples of his daily diet:

Day One

Breakfast (Same Each Day)

• Oats (Half a cup)
• Milk
• Peanut Butter (16 grams)
• Protein (approx. 30 grams)
• Multivitamin
• Coffee

Lunch (at a restaurant)

• Grilled Skirt Steak

Snack

• Donuts

Dinner

• Did not specify

Day Two

Taylor Atwood ate the same breakfast as listed on Day One.

Lunch

• Chicken Breast (112 grams)
• Organic Pasta (56 grams)

Snack

• Strawberry Milk
• Protein Bar (30 grams)
• Sour Candy

Dinner

• Sushi Salmon Roll
• Sushi Tuna Roll
• Wonton Soup

Fun Fact: Taylor Atwood’s favorite meal after a competition victory is a medium-rare steak.

Related: Daniel Bell Complete Profile — Career, Workouts, Diet, and More

Training

Taylor Atwood is purely focused on powerlifting and the three main lifts of the sport. So, he avoids doing cardio training since some studies have shown that it slows down strength gain, as well as due to a lack of free time. His training program is completely personalized based on how he feels and outside factors such as his work schedule, family, and goals.

Back in August 2023, Taylor Atwood also revealed that he has changed his strategy and that he is planning to build a better foundation. To do so, he has gone back to the basics and implemented more accessories into his training program.

Taylor Atwood has also revealed that he is taking it slow, being patient, and allowing everything to fall into place. Notably, he is working on stabilizing his lifts, making tweaks to his technique, and improving everything to increase his chances of success, and lower his chances of injury.

Check out Taylor Atwood’s most recent workout video here:

The workout consisted of:

• Squats
• Hip Thrust
• Leg Curls
• Hip Abductors / Hip Adductors
• Bench Press
• Seated Cable Row
• Lat Pulldowns
• Dumbbell Shoulder Complex (Front + Side Raise + Overhead Press)
• Single-arm Tricep Cable Extension

Recent Life & Career Outside of Powerlifting

Taylor Atwood had a less than desirable season of powerlifting in 2023, but it happened because of multiple factors. Firstly, Taylor has a young son, and his family was obviously his priority. Moreover, it is also important to note that he has a regular day job outside of powerlifting, which makes his preparation more complex. Moreover, Taylor was also carrying an injury throughout the season, which left its impact on his performances as well. Still, there is no doubt that Taylor will come back even stronger in 2024.

Regarding his life outside of powerlifting, Taylor Atwood is working a full-day job as a Senior Managing Consultant. His job can sometimes take up to 80 hours of his week, which does not leave a lot of room to rest and train at full power. He also worked as an Expense Analyst, Royalty Cost Analyst, Spending Lead, as well as a Corporate Finance & Strategy Senior Associate. So, Taylor’s set of skills in sports and in everyday life is quite remarkable.

Taylor Atwood’s journey in powerlifting is far from finished; in fact, it seems that he is enjoying it more than ever. He has lost his IPF World Championship title and World Record, but that only ignited a flame inside of him. Due to this, Taylor seems to have elevated to a whole new level as an athlete

He does not allow any external factors to affect him, but instead focuses on reclaiming the title and records. So, seeing how Taylor is already regarded as one of, if not the greatest, powerlifters in history, if he manages to take the throne again, his status will be cemented.

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