How did you all get into powerlifting?

[_3M_]

Just curious as to how you guys got into powerlifting.

I've been powerlifting for a little over a year now. When I was in college I had a professor who was a powerlifter and it's started to catch my interest, eventually I moved back to my home town and started training at an old school bodybuilding/powerlifting gym and some guys there told be I should try and compete. I competed in my first meet last October and have been hooked since.

I thought it'd be cool to hear some of you guys stories.

 

[uphillclimb]

POB made me do it.

Frankly, I was training for aesthetics but I enjoyed moving decent weight every now and again. I sent him some vids knowing that we lived close in proximity and then after he and some others suggested that I change up my approach/routine, we grabbed a few training sessions together and I was hooked with the methodology.

When I started, I was pulled 405 x 3 with straps, squatting 405 x 1 with questionable depth and benching 245 x 1 without a pause.

My PR's went to this with his aid

S 545 x 1
B 290 x 2
D 570 x 1

 

[SAD]

All by my lonesome, I decided to try it based on the advice that it was the quickest way to add slabs of quality muscle. Then I just got obsessed with beating myself. For a year I trained as a Powerlifter by myself, and then met MJR right after I had signed up for my first meet. I convinced him to join me, and we prepped for the meet together under the training program of Porkylittlekeg and I've never looked back. Best sport I've ever been a part of by a mile, and I've played a lot of different sports, competitively.

 

[PillarofBalance]

I was a skinny fat pussy.

Halo pushed me to run a Sheiko template. It crushed my soul but I loved it. Forever changed the way I looked at training.

Then SAD hit me up out of the blue and asked me to come to PA where we would do our first meet together. If anyone else had asked me to do it I probably would have backed out at some point. But SAD would have probably removed my balls. So i stuck thru it.

I will never forget what that felt like finishing my first meet. It was incredible. I was so wired I drove home 7 hours straight from PA.

Been hooked ever since.

 

[FLEXjs]

Lifted for most of my life, but mostly for bodybuilding.

Had a half decent squat and a half decent deadlift but a shitty bench. A dude on another board was pressuring me to do a PL meet but I kept wanting to wait until my bench caught up to my other lifts.

He finally shamed me into doing a meet in 2013 and I've done 3 more since then. Mrs. Flex has done 2 with me; both this year.

My bench still sucks though.

 

[DieYoungStrong]

My wife was did a few figure shows. I figured I had to do something to keep up. Contest Prep Dieting didn't look fun at all. Powerlifting looked like fun.

I always played competitive sports, and I liked the thought of "only" having to lift more weight then the guy next to me to win - nothing subjective. So I decided to do a PL meet. I hit up POB and was immediately hooked.

My wife saw me eating ice cream on the couch during my first peak, and couldn't comprehend what was going on. She swore off figure shows and became a PLer too lol. Now she's hooked.

If you're competitive and like to train hard, it's hard to not get the bug once you do a meet. It keeps me on the straight and narrow too.

 

[_3M_]

That's pretty cool. It's funny how we all came from different backgrounds of training to this one sport. After I did my first meet I started training with SAD who really taught me more about the sport than I could if ever learned by myself. I love competing and training as if my life depended on it.

 

[Vick]

I remember reading in Arnold Schwarzenegger's Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding when I was a kid how he envied the hardness of the powerlifters who got into bodybuilding, specifically Bertil Fox RIP.

 

[ChrisLindsay9]

I was a sedentary, videogame-playing, chubby (160lbs!) short guy that bad back spasms and knee pain for all of my 20s and early 30s. Four years ago, I lost weight through calorie deficit diet, which wiped out the little muscle I had. Hired a personal trainer that specialized with old people and did light dumbbell and bodyweight training for six months. Put on more muscle I ever had, and my back spasm/knee issues occurred less and less. So I started using mostly machines and dumbbells to do body-splits for a couple years on and off.

I didn't know anything about powerlifting, but I went to a meet as a spectator, in Spring of 2013. I was expecting to see huge guys moving a lot of weight. I saw a few of those people, but I mostly saw guys and women that were "normal size" (and a few that were short like me) moving a lot of weight. And I particularly noticed the fellowship amongst the lifters.

I was like "if they can do it, why can't I?" So I hired a general sports trainer at my gym that I knew did squats and deadlifts, to help me learn how to squat, bench, and deadlift (man, I was scared of squats and deadlifts). Joined this forum in the middle of June. Did my first meet in October of 2013 and that's when I became a powerlifter.

 

[FLEXjs]

Great story Chris.

 

[kyle grey]

I remember reading in Arnold Schwarzenegger's Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding when I was a kid how he envied the hardness of the powerlifters who got into bodybuilding, specifically Bertil Fox RIP.

Bertil's not dead he won a reprieve and is serving life in prison . Although Bertil Fox won a mock meet at a local gym at 16 and was insanely strong he was always a bodybuilder .

 

[macgyver]

I have just always enjoyed lifting heavy weight. I have never been able to commit 100% to powerlifting though. I am always torn between wanting a certain look and wanting to be strong. They always conflict with one another. I play around with local meets here and there but been over a year since I last competed. I just cant dedicate to it.

The competitive side of me kicks in a little here and there and knowing I could hold my own (mid 1600 total in 198 with almost no 'programmed' training and not relying on heavy use to 'peak')makes me at times want to pursue it more....but then in the end, I am just content with competing with myself.

I am not sure what I am....but I feel the MOST like a powerlifter....but looking more and more like a bodybuilder as time goes on. (not always happy about that as weird as that sounds) Really happy to be in 40's and best shape I have ever been and feeling good. I think powerlifting beats me up a little too much and I step away when I get tired of always nursing something. Funny thing though, I can take 8-10 months off a lift and be right back to my previous levels in a few weeks of returning.