- Passed the Step 1 exam using his own personalized study plan
- Ran an impressive 5:08 mile (weighing 220 lbs)—and then proceeded to deadlift 565 lbs an hour later
- Completed a 100-mile run in under 34 hours
CHAMP: What drew you to USU?
Wang: After 4 years at the U.S. Naval Academy (USNA), I realized I really liked to do 2 things: pushing my limits in all areas and hanging out with amazing friends who I met along the way. I picked USU because I realized the school had both the culture that encourages individuals to push themselves physically and academically and gives me the resources to be able to do both at a higher level of excellence. Also, from my experience at USNA, I learned that people who join the military can be some of the most amazing humans I’ll ever meet, so I figured the people at USU would be no exception.
CHAMP: Your achievements are truly impressive! What drives you to push yourself like this?
Wang: I knew that figuring out how to take Step 1 should be a priority when I came here. It was pretty hard at first. I had to give up every study technique I learned in undergrad and do a lot of digging around the internet and Instagram reels to find the perfect combination of efficiency in memorization, learning the material in a rapid and full manner, and the best practice questions to specifically prepare for the exam.
It took about 4 months to put everything together, but once I did, it was electric. I was able to learn everything from pre-clerkship within 3 months, and within another 3 months I was able to get my scores to a pass level. The craziest part is that the curriculum was so efficient, for most of the months I spent preparing, I only studied for a couple hours, tops. I had so much time to do everything else I wanted to in my day!
My fitness goals actually stem from being inspired by the friends I made at USNA. A lot of them are in the Marine Corps, Special Forces, or part of the Navy and doing really challenging things in their free time. I figured that when they inevitably wanted to do some crazy hard activity, I wanted to be able to keep up with them.
I also think that by training for and experiencing some challenges of similar severity to the things they’re doing can help me be a better future doctor as well. As I continue to push my limits, I better understand the lifestyle, mindset, and challenges they face in their lives. I feel like this will allow me to better tailor my care toward not just my friends but other Service Members going through the same things.
My original plan was to just run a sub-5:00 miler before the end of the year. But when I asked my cross-country runner friend for a plan to do it, I didn’t realize it would have me running close to 1,800 miles before the end of the year. So I said if I was going to be doing these upwards of 60- and 70-mile weeks for months at a time, I should probably have some other goal than just the mile. It just so happened that 100-milers were trending at the time, so I chose that as a secondary goal. Turns out one of my friends had just completed one so I was able to gather some tips from him before I did it.
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| ENS William Wang powerlifting |
I chose to do it on base because I was too cheap to pay for an actual race, and in case I died or something since this was my first 100-miler, the hospital would be pretty close by to save me. During all this training I continued my powerlifting routine and hit the gym since that was something I loved doing before joining the military. I know the military has a big running culture, but I was too stubborn to drop my heavy lifting and just adapted to being able to do both concurrently. I actually don’t like running that much so as soon as I was done hitting my mile PR (personal record) for the year, I just had this itch to test and see how much energy I had in the tank. So I just got up and immediately drove to the gym at USU after and maxed my deadlift.
Wang: Actually I really wasn’t an athlete growing up at all. I was born with Poland Syndrome, so I don’t have either of my right pectoral muscles. That made me a little insecure to try and play sports early on. I also didn’t have a lot of the resources or a support network to really hone my athletic skills. Most of my time also was just spent studying or working as a pizza delivery driver. I was able to afford a gym membership when I was a junior in high school and did some JV wrestling for a few years, but most of the fitness I did at the time was whatever I experimented with or found scrolling through the internet. A lot of the growth and progress has really just come from maybe the last 4–5 years since meeting my friends, having the money to take care of basic needs, and using the resources the military has.
CHAMP focuses on optimizing human performance, which includes physical fitness as well as mental, nutritional, and social/spiritual fitness. What do you do to build and maintain all of these areas of fitness?
Wang: For everything I try to follow 3 principles: Finding the most efficient methods to do things so I’m not wasting time, learning to add habits or activities into my life in slow increments to prevent overloading/burnout, and not being afraid to ask for help from someone doing better than me in something I want to do.
As an example for nutrition, I try to match my calories consumed to calories burned per week and eat about 1g of protein per lb of body weight per day as doing these 2 things seem to be enough to help me perform well academically and physically. If I know I’m going to be using more or less energy in the upcoming weeks I’ll change my nutrition slowly leading up to whatever is going on. And if something isn’t working, I’ll go find someone who has a better nutrition program than me and ask them for advice to modify things.
CHAMP: What advice would you give to incoming med students and fellow Service Members?
Wang: I think being willing to ask for help from those doing better than you and being willing to adapt to your new environment are huge. There are so many people with so many different strengths from their backgrounds. It can be so easy to learn what you need from them if you just get to know them and ask.
Also, being in medical school is a completely different domain, and some things that maybe you could do before just simply don’t work now. Being stubborn about some things only hurts you and your dreams in the long run. Sometimes moving forward means leaving a few things behind.
Wang: For everything I try to follow 3 principles: Finding the most efficient methods to do things so I’m not wasting time, learning to add habits or activities into my life in slow increments to prevent overloading/burnout, and not being afraid to ask for help from someone doing better than me in something I want to do.
As an example for nutrition, I try to match my calories consumed to calories burned per week and eat about 1g of protein per lb of body weight per day as doing these 2 things seem to be enough to help me perform well academically and physically. If I know I’m going to be using more or less energy in the upcoming weeks I’ll change my nutrition slowly leading up to whatever is going on. And if something isn’t working, I’ll go find someone who has a better nutrition program than me and ask them for advice to modify things.
CHAMP: What advice would you give to incoming med students and fellow Service Members?
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| ENS Wang (far right) and medical school cohorts |
Also, being in medical school is a completely different domain, and some things that maybe you could do before just simply don’t work now. Being stubborn about some things only hurts you and your dreams in the long run. Sometimes moving forward means leaving a few things behind.
CHAMP: What are some of your future fitness goals?
Wang: Among a variety that I’d really like to accomplish, a few are increasing strength (for example, 800-lb deadlift, 500-lb squat, and 275-lb bench press), improving endurance (for example, sub-5:00 miler), and maximizing aquatic fitness (for example, long-distance swim, treading water, and sidestroke).
CHAMP: What’s the most surprising fact you learned about optimizing your human performance since arriving at USU?
Wang: That there’s a limit to just how much you can push yourself in a certain amount of time before you need to pull back for a while before pushing yourself again. But also that that limit is pretty hard to reach and you can, in fact, hit it and keep treading along it for a while. You just won’t see a lot of improvement beyond it.
CHAMP: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Wang: I’d like to give a shout-out to Dr. Robert Thompson for giving me encouragement and support as I accomplished a lot of these goals. There were definitely times when I was scared or nervous that things weren’t going to work out or that maybe I took on more than I could handle. I really think our conversations helped me continue to push along even when I didn’t think I could make it.
Wang: Among a variety that I’d really like to accomplish, a few are increasing strength (for example, 800-lb deadlift, 500-lb squat, and 275-lb bench press), improving endurance (for example, sub-5:00 miler), and maximizing aquatic fitness (for example, long-distance swim, treading water, and sidestroke).
CHAMP: What’s the most surprising fact you learned about optimizing your human performance since arriving at USU?
Wang: That there’s a limit to just how much you can push yourself in a certain amount of time before you need to pull back for a while before pushing yourself again. But also that that limit is pretty hard to reach and you can, in fact, hit it and keep treading along it for a while. You just won’t see a lot of improvement beyond it.
CHAMP: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Wang: I’d like to give a shout-out to Dr. Robert Thompson for giving me encouragement and support as I accomplished a lot of these goals. There were definitely times when I was scared or nervous that things weren’t going to work out or that maybe I took on more than I could handle. I really think our conversations helped me continue to push along even when I didn’t think I could make it.
