If you haven’t lifted a certain weight, it’s not because your mom didn’t hug you as a child. It’s not because you got screwed over by someone. It isn’t on anyone else except you. If you want to lift 200kg, you — and only you — have to put in the effort to get there.
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There is so much inequality and injustice in the world, but there is still one place where these things don’t exist.
I spent 14 years practicing martial arts as a young man and loved it more than you can imagine. When I competed in judo, it was almost my entire identity. Following my discharge from the army and moving back to the big city though, I found I didn’t have the time to stay competitive in judo anymore. I hit the gym to stay fit, but there was something missing. I was still young enough to need some kind of goal to light my competitive fire, so I took up powerlifting.
I’d never really been interested in weights before, and until recently Australia has never really had any kind of gym culture, because we don’t have the high school and university level sports programs that the US does. I didn’t get into weights until I was in the army and competing in judo, but almost from the first time I picked one up I loved it. Hell, I probably could have been better at judo if I’d spent a bit less time at the gym, so when I finally decided to quit, moving to powerlifting was an easy decision.
I realized after reading Henry Rollins’ article on his journey with the iron why I love it so much. To me it represents the closest thing to true equality there is in this world. We talk so much about privilege and oppression on this site, but neither exist in the world of powerlifting. There is something totally pure about it, because you aren’t really trying to beat anyone except for the bar, the weights and gravity. They’re kind of like the Terminator – they can’t be bargained with, they can’t be reasoned with, they don’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear.
Look anywhere in life and you can see inequality and unfairness. Someone who gets things easy and someone who doesn’t. Someone who is born disadvantaged and someone who is born privileged. Someone who abuses their position to put other people under their boot, and the people who are under that boot.
You know those people that coast through life, everything seems to go their way even though they don’t really work for anything? They don’t get to coast if they want to lift big numbers. They have to put in the same work everyone else does.
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When you get to a powerlifting meet, however, none of that matters. If you want to lift 200kg off the floor, it’s going to take the same amount of work for you as anyone else.
The bar doesn’t care if you’re black, white, Asian, Hispanic or African, male or female.
It doesn’t care if you’re gay or straight, whether you’ve been to college, or what political party you’re aligned to.
That 200kg is always 200kg, and if you want to lift it, you have to put in the time and the effort. It doesn’t matter if that 200kg is made up of shitty, rusted plates on an old bar, or gleaming new Eleiko plates on a Texas power bar. The weight doesn’t change.
You know those people that coast through life, everything seems to go their way even though they don’t really work for anything? They don’t get to coast if they want to lift big numbers, they have to put in the same work everyone else does. That guy whose dad did him a favour to get him that great job? There are no favours with the iron. Even people as powerful as Rupert Murdoch or the Koch brothers can’t make a call to gravity and say “Hey, my kid wants to lift more, ease up a bit and I’ll make it worth your while”. This is why powerlifting is the great equalizer. Sure, there can be some dodgy judging at meets, but you can be pretty damn sure that when you see someone’s name on the scorecard and the weight they’ve lifted beside it, they have done the work to get there. If you haven’t lifted a certain weight, it’s not because your mom didn’t hug you as a child, it’s not because you got screwed over by someone, it isn’t on anyone else except you. If you want to lift 200kg you, and only you, have to put the effort in to get there.
The weight of those plates on the bar, and the force of gravity are constant. They do not change. The only thing that can change and force those things to move is you. The only way to do that is to get stronger. The only way to get stronger is to come in, every day, and lift more and more weight. You have to overcome the fear of having huge amounts of weight in a dangerous position. You have to overcome fear of injury. You have to overcome fear of failure. That is the only way you can have the success you want and lift the numbers you want. You, and you alone are responsible.
And that’s what makes powerlifting so goddamned great.
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Photo: Wu_135/Flickr