What is Powerlifting?
If you love to lift heavy weights and compete against others, powerlifting could be the sport for you.
Raw Female Powerlifter (Priscilla Bavoil)
Squat, bench press and deadlift are the three lifts recognized in powerlifting. Often, powerlifting gets confused with Olympic weightlifting, where the two lifts recognized are the snatch and the clean and jerk. Both are barbell sports, but I’ll focus on powerlifting in this article.
Raw Male Powerlifter (Taylor Atwood)
If you’ve heard of powerlifting before reading this article then you might envision a very large guy with a whole bunch of equipment lifting an exorbitant amount of weight and think to yourself, “This is not for me.” or “I wanna be strong and compete, but I don’t want to look like that”. I’m here to let you know that the idea you have is more common in equipped powerlifting and in un-drug tested federations. Raw, drug-tested powerlifting is what’s became increasingly popular over the last couple years and is what I fell in love with competing and participating in. Those that compete in raw powerlifting are 9/10 times muscular, lean, and lift an exorbitant amount of weight too.
Raw vs. Equipped Powerlifting
Raw (Left) Equipped (Right)
In raw powerlifting the only equipment you’re allowed to wear is a belt, knee sleeves, and wrist wraps.
Equipped powerliting is broken into single ply and multi ply, where equipment ranges from knee wraps to SBD suits.
How does powerlifting work
In layman’s terms, powerlifting is the sport in which you perform a single repetition of squat, bench press, and deadlift (SBD) under certain regulations then your best successful lift, out of 3 attempts, of the 3 lifts gets added together to get your total. This is a male and female sport, so anyone can be involved. Both genders get broken down into varying weight classes for competition purposes.
Male: 52, 56, 60, 67.5. 75, 82.5, 90, 100, 110, 125, 140, 140+
Female: 44, 48, 52, 56, 60, 67.5, 75, 82.5, 90, 100, 100+
There are also different divisions for varying ages:
Youth (8 - 9), Youth (10 - 11), Youth (12 - 13), Teen (14 - 19), Junior (20 - 23), Open, Master 1 (40 - 49), Master 2 (50 - 59), Master 3 (60 - 69), Masters (70+)
There are a few different federations to compete in, but the two popular ones are USA Powerlifting (USAPL) and United States Powerlifting Association (USPA), I personally compete in the USAPL. The reason I compete in the USAPL is because of their drug testing standards and accessibility of meets to compete in.
Meets are held throughout the year, so there isn’t a set “season” like other sports. There are high-level meets that you can have the opportunity to compete in if you successfully achieve a qualifying total within your division’s weight class. These meets are Youth Nationals, High School Nationals, Collegiate Nationals, Raw Nationals, Arnold Sports Festival, and the recently added Pro Series (must obtain a pro card).
Drug Testing
The USAPL has a strict drug testing policy from the national level to the local level. Top lifters are subject to random drug testing outside of competition to ensure fairness for competitors. I’ll link a letter from the USA Powerlifting drug testing chairman…Message from the USA Powerlifting Drug Testing Chairman
How Do You Get Started?
Getting started in powerlifting is fairly simple as the barrier of entry is low compared to other sports. All you have to do is begin training squat, bench, and deadlift to a competition standard. Squats have to be below parallel (hip crease below your knee), the bench press must be paused on your chest and you must adhere to the commands of the referee, and the deadlift has to be executed cleanly (no hitching and fully locked out at the top). There are tons of beginner powerlifting programs on the internet to get you started, one of the most popular beginner programs is Jonnie Candito’s program. I’d recommend you give this program a try if you’re interested in delving into powerlifting then once you’re hooked look into getting under a coach to take you to the next level.
If you’re interested in comprehensive powerlifting coaching, reach out, and let’s schedule a call to discuss your goals to see how I might help.
