Instagram post turns into an athletic career

By Robert Williams

Editor

Dylan Selly never planned to be a powerlifter, but after getting back in the gym and sharing his workouts online a passion he did not know he had came looking for him.  ¶  “I just kind of got in the gym and I don’t know,” Selly said. “I wasn’t even trying to get into the sport. I didn’t really have any motivation to actually compete or anything. I just wanted to lift numbers and be that guy throwing heavy weight.”  ¶  Selly was a 2022 graduate of Frazee-Vergas High School and a three-sport athlete for the Hornets competing in football, basketball and track and field. He started lifting weights during football season.  ¶  “That’s really the only lifting I did throughout high school,” he said.  ¶  Selly wanted to get right to work after high school, but it was not in the gym.  ¶  “After high school, I decided not to go to college and decided to get right into the workforce,” Selly said.

He found an occupation working turf surfaces for golf courses and athletic fields and turned that into a full-time job at Miller Yard Care & Construction in Detroit Lakes. Post-graduation, even with working outside in a landscaping environment, Selly was ready to get back to working out.

“I started to see myself get out of shape really quickly,” he laughed. “So, I got back in the gym a year after graduating.”

His workouts had nothing to do with powerlifting. He was simply working out to get back in shape and live a healthier lifestyle.

“After that I found out about powerlifting and just created a little social media page on Instagram (sellypwr),” said Selly.

Little did Selly know the reach his little Instagram page would have and who it would reach.

Professional Powerlifting Coach and Founder of Tidal Strength Powerlifting Daegan McPhail saw Selly’s workouts from Kansas City and liked what he saw. The duo have been working together for the past year.

“He just stumbled across my page and said, ‘Dude, you’re strong—we’ve got to get you competing,’” Selly said. “That’s when I took it full bore.”

McPhail has recruited more than 30 athletes, including Selly, and the group has formed into a powerlifting team despite being separated from each other.

“We’re all over the country,” said Selly. “It’s a strange thing, Social media can be scary sometimes, but social media, one little post, can make or break something. You can find a passion or open a door that you never thought was going to happen and that’s what happened to me.”

Under McPhail’s instruction, Selly found a mentor and a mindset that changed his workouts.

“I just really enjoyed the fact that I was lifting heavy in the gym and being kind of crazy and that annoying guy that is slamming stuff around,” he said. “But no, what really stood out to me was you know that body building style of training—you go to the gym and you’re just trying to look good. You’re looking in the mirror every single day and you’re not really seeing any differences. I like powerlifting because I train four days a week; we do blocks every month and at the end of the month we get to go for personal records (PRs). When I see PRs in the gym that’s my signal that I’m progressing. Just looking at yourself in the mirror you don’t see that every day but when you go in every day and you’re lifting heavy every day it’s been working for me.”

Selly records video of every workout session, especially his compounds: squat, bench press and dead lifts and shares that with his coach along with a Google Sheets spreadsheet for tracking progressive workouts weekly.

“Every week we get heavier and then the fourth week of the block we go all out,” Selly said.

Selly has competed twice over the past year and is sticking to six-month intervals in attending competitions for now.

He started his competition schedule at a smaller event in Princeton, Minn. 

“There were only 40 people there total and no weight classes because it was such a small meet,” he said. 

His second competition in early September was much different. The USA Powerlifting Midwest Regionals in Appleton, Wis., had 400-500 people competing in women’s and men’s divisions. Selly competed against 50 lifters in the junior (19-23 year olds) division and also competed in the open (19 and up). He was also able to meet three of his online teammates at the competition.

“Dylan put together a pretty strong day on the platform. Secured meet PRs on all three lifts as well as a nice total PR,” McPhail said in an online post. “Overall, not a bad day at the office. Dylan has only been powerlifting for about a year and he’s shown nothing but dedication and full effort day in and day out. Been a pleasure working with him so far, got a lot to look forward to as he dives deeper into his powerlifting career.”

The Midwest Regional was far more nerve-wracking than his opening meet in Princeton.

“It was a big stage; there were a lot of spectators, spotlights and I was very nervous for that one,” Selly said. “But you kind of approach it the same way.”

Lifters are able to stifle any nerves with 30 minute warm-ups backstage prior to performing under the spotlight.

“You’re working up to that opening weight that you’re going to hit,” he said.

Each lifter gets three attempts at each compound. Failing in all three in one category disqualifies a lifter for the entire meet.

“You want to get at least one lift on the board for each lift and there is a lot that goes into actually getting your lift to count too,” said Selly.

Some instances include during squats, the hip crease has to be parallel or below the knee and no downward motion with the bar. For bench, one needs to pause with the weight before doing the lift and obey the commands of a judge when it is time to press.

“The bar has to be completely stable for you to get the command to actually press and if it takes you longer to get it still you’re going to have a longer pause which is more fatiguing,” Selly said. “You want to be perfect all around.”

Selly does not have a specific goal to chase at the moment but has found multiple avenues of motivation to continue his new career. 

“There’s a master’s division in these competitions,” he said. “I think it’s 48 and up. I thought it was really inspiring seeing some 60-year-old women out there squatting 300 pounds. I just think that’s awesome. There are people in the 50’s and 60’s that still have that competitive edge and still love to get after it and have the motivation and discipline to train every day.”

Competition has only added to Selly’s desire to continue to improve in the gym and eventually back on stage under the spotlight.

“I look at it as if I want to be the best I have to do what the best are doing and get in there and  get after it even on days when I don’t want to,” Selly said. “That’s where you build the most progression—keeping that mindset of not giving up and I always think about the next time I get on stage again. It all comes down to that moment and all the work I do in the offseason that’s where it’s going to pay off.”

What is now second hand did take a bit of getting used to.

“When I first started working with my coach he wanted me to record my sets and everything and I was like really, I have to be that guy with the camera standing over there in the corner and I got a few, weird looks here and there,” said Selly. “But now, it’s a small town, I think everybody that’s there has probably already seen me doing it.”

Snap Fitness in Detroit Lakes has become home base for Selly’s burgeoning powerlifting career.

“I don’t really have a goal with this sport right now,” he said. “I’ve only been training for a year. I just want to keep competing and see where it can take me the next couple years. Being so new to the sport and everything and it came so quickly, I’m very curious to see how far it can take me being I’m only a year in. I’ve got people that I’ve watched on social media or people I’m competing with who have been training for five to seven years and seeing what they can do. That’s a very motivating factor. Seeing how long it’s taken other people to be great.”

Selly did wonder what his career would be like if he had known about competing in powerlifting two to three years ago and wants to encourage people of all ages to get in the gym, especially students.

“I would definitely encourage kids to get into this,” he said. “If they love being in the gym and love that environment and want to have that competitive edge there is always the competing side to it. If you get to that level you can get scholarships in college to some bigger schools. I’m excited to see where this sport goes. It’s new now and people are starting to get a lot of opportunities with it.”