Lol, what a wonderfully dickish thing to say to a 17 year old girl with a double bodyweight squat and a triple bodyweight deadlift.
And you guys fucking wonder why no one likes the sport of powerlifting. Good grief.
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I did this one time with 95lbs. Deadlift-front squat-press-back squat-reverse lunge. Absolutely awful. Started at 10 reps of each, then 9, then 8…worked down to 1. Don’t do it, or do. Its not fun.
Me too, I tried it once and did about 3-4 sets, never again. Back in those days I was pushing a prowler a few times a week and usually ending up laying on the ground gasping for air and trying not to puke, somehow the complexes were worse. Still, it makes a lot more sense than burpees and mountain climbers and can build some muscle at the same time. Moderation is the key here.
Don’t blame the sport for the actions of one man. I run into more assholes at the grocery store than at a powerlifting meet.
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Also to qualify it, Backos knows his shit and has paid his dues. If he wants to be blunt he can, and regardless of how strong someone is, if they are doing something that could hamper their progress and complaining about lack thereof it is reasonable to call them out on it.
Powerlifting isn’t a fun sport @ActivitiesGuy It’s fucking hard and unforgiving, and there isn’t room for hurt feelings. Who gives fuck if people don’t like that? They aren’t the people the sport needs.
I’ll preface this by saying the thread is 12 months old, so we’re kind of stirring up an old flame here, but I still feel the same. I will attempt to clarify below.
If your attitude is “No one likes us and we don’t care” - that’s totally fine.
If you want to grow the sport (which, to be fair, may not be the goal; if there are fewer people competing, powerlifters can just keep winning “world titles” against themselves if they don’t encourage more participants) it seems that encouraging a 17-year-old girl that already has displayed good potential - and who has shown genuine enthusiasm toward the sport - would be a more constructive approach than belittling her.
As long as “They aren’t the people the sport needs” is a prevailing attitude (honest question: even if you don’t care about being perceived as a dick, do you at least realize how much of a dick statement that reads like in the context of a thread that featured an old man belittling a 17-year-old girl who asked for advice?) it will continue to be confined to a niche sport.
In contrast, CrossFit - which has been around for decades less than powerlifting and is certainly no more “fun” as an activity - has embraced a very welcoming and inclusive attitude from the first, and went on to become so popular and lucrative that the winner of a single CrossFit games title earns more prize money for that than any strongman or powerlifter has earned in their entire career, ever, by a significant margin. CrossFit actually became so popular that it had a pleasant carryover effect into OIympic lifting and Strongman contests, both of which are increasing in popularity thanks at least in part to CrossFit (lots of folks started out in CF before discovering they liked Oly lifting or Strongman movements more than the rest of the CF toolbox).
Powerlifting, on the other hand, remains the fringiest of fringe sports, something that can’t get an audience for shit, nor effectively grow its base, both of which actively contribute to the lack of prize money in the sport. Your theories on why that is true may vary, but I think belitting, nasty attitudes toward prospective lifters are likely one part. Again, CrossFit has only existed for ten years but dwarfs powerlifting in total participation, viewership of events, prize money, basically any way one could measure the size and scope of a sport. If you don’t care about that, okay (it sounds passive-aggressive, but I do mean that sincerely - it’s totally your prerogative to not care if anyone shows up to a meet or cares what you lift) but don’t ever complain again about lack of sponsors, prize money, or interest.
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That’s the thing @ActivitiesGuy don’t complain about any lack of money or sponsors or anything. I know powerlifting doesn’t attract audiences or anything like that.
Sure, lots of new people joining in and competing swells the numbers, and that’s cool. Federations get to make more money, some good gyms get more members who hopefully stick around so they make more money, which is even cooler.
Except, how many of these new people stick around? They come in, some get pretty strong pretty quick, they get plaudits and that’s cool too. Will they be here in five years? What about 10? Probably not. Will they seek out the best to compete against? Not too many will. A lot of those people come up against the hurdles powerlifting keeps in store: injuries, long periods of no progress, other adversity that impacts performance. Then they leave because they aren’t prepared to do what is necessary to move forward.
So yes, the ones who can’t deal with not progressing all the time or getting hurt aren’t needed.
Lastly, powerlifting is inclusive. Very much so. The oldest, crankiest motherfuckers are the ones who will take their time to help you out when you’re struggling. They just won’t sugarcoat anything. You do dumb shit and wonder why it isn’t working, they’ll tell you.
Based on all the federation drama, squat depth drama, gear drama, etc, I’m not so sure…
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I get the impression that a lot of the noise comes from a small number of people.
Very possible, but sometimes that small number of people ban people because they went to an Ed Coan seminar or start their own fed because they can’t play well with others, haha.
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Which is why
- Fuck the IPF and its affiliates; and
- Those new feds keep the poor players out of our way. Win win.
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For sure for both. But I find it means there’s a long history of hurt feelings in the sport. It seems foundational honestly.
It’s funny isn’t it?
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Ironically with my son is having a meet this weekend my attitude has rubbed off on him. I view meets as nothing more as a tool to test if things are going in the proper direction. Since I do believe a meet environment is a better indicator than a gym environment. Pretty sure after his last pull he will be packed up and ready to go and out the door not sticking around. sorta off topic I know
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