Women, Why Powerlift?

In my years of coaching girls powerlifting, I have noticed one constant young ladies love to compete. So why would a young lady of 14-18 years old or even a full grown woman want to take up powerlifting? I have several answers to this question. First of all, powerlifting is fun, and it is a lifetime sport that you can continue with after high school and college. Many young ladies compete in powerlifting at the collegiate level. Although powerlifting is not an NCAA sport, it is a very big sport at many colleges across the nation. If you dont go to college, or you have already finished college, there are many powerlifting associations that host powerlifting meets for men and women of all ages.

There is one reason I still compete in meets whenever I get a chance. I enjoy the competition. Competition is a part of our daily lives, no matter if you are competing for a job or a parking space at the grocery store. Powerlifting happens to be a fun competition, because not only is the lifter lifting against opponents, but also she is competing against herself to raise the total from her last meet. It is very rewarding to see the progress in overall strength. I have witnessed both women and men, in their 70s and 80s who have entered powerlifting competitions and have earned the respect of every lifter in the place.

But ladies, if you like to look your best physically, powerlifting is a way to keep yourself motivated to continue weight training because of the short term goal of preparing for a meet. At the same time you are training for a meet, you are keeping fit. Remember, muscles look way better than flab or fat. And by the way, your muscles will not turn into fat if you stop lifting. Muscles and fat are two separate entities. That is like saying that water will turn into dirt. It cant happen.

I have fought many myths about women lifting weights and powerlifting. One of the great myths that I have battled about women powerlifting is that many young ladies didnt want to powerlift because they didnt want to get huge muscles and look like a man. That will never happen, because women happen to have estrogen in their system, not testosterone like men. The big, hulking, muscled up women you see in magazines look that way because they have a lot of testosterone in their system. They either injected it into their bodies or took pills or both. If you dont voluntarily put testosterone into your system, then you will never have a mans body.

A female shot putter once told me she didnt want to powerlift because it wasnt very feminine. Did you hear me? I said a female shot putter. Now there is a real feminine event. As for being feminine, several of my state champions and best lifters have been cheerleaders who were on the homecoming court, and elected most beautiful or most popular.

Other young ladies have told me they didnt want to compete because they were not strong enough. I told them I am the coach and my job is to make them strong. Trust me. One of my former lifters, who still holds 2 state records in the dead lift used that excuse until I showed her the totals from a meet the previous week, and she saw that she was, indeed, strong enough to compete.

There is no reason not to powerlift as opposed to any other sport. I believe that most people strive to look good physically, and powerlifting can help contribute to decreased fat and increased muscle firmness, as well as rising self-esteem.

Men, Why Powerlift?

There are several reasons that young men should be motivated to powerlift. Many young men are athletes that participate in other sports. The question I would present to those athletes is this Would you benefit in your other sports if you were stronger? Of course you would. That is why almost all high schools and junior high schools alike have a weight lifting program for all of their athletes. The great thing about being on the powerlifting team is that it gives you short term goals to look forward to and achieve instead of just lifting from November to August in preparation of football season with nothing to break the monotony.

The one problem I have run into with the male athletes is that unless they feel like they can win 1st place at every meet, they dont want to lift because they would feel embarrassed. Lets face it, guys, there may be 250 lifters at a meet, and only 11 of them are going to bring home the 1st place medal. My son, Derek, powerlifted for 4 years in high school in the 148 pound class. He didnt bring home a 1st place medal until the next to last meet of his career. That 1st place medal he brought home, though, read Regional Champion. And two weeks later he took 3rd place at the state meet.

Get into powerlifting for the right reasons. Powerlift to have fun, to set some short term goals and to get stronger. You dont have to bring home a medal from every meet. If you start as a freshman, you may not even bring home a medal until your senior year, but it will mean so much to you when you do. Compete against yourself and you will see improvement every week. By that, I mean to try to improve your total every week from the total you tallied at the previous meet. Having this type of attitude gives you a goal to reach for without getting frustrated trying to beat stronger opponents. Just think, if you go out and improve your totals every meet, have you had a successful season? I think the answer is definitely yes!

Dont be scared, be competitive!