A rapidly growing, previously far more fringe, sport has young people breaking records? Huh, whoda thunk it.
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With raw powerlifting being a new sport, this doesn’t surprise me too much. Did it have a listing of who had set the records historically before that point?
Along with that, what of totals (for powerlifting again, rather than raw)? Powerlifting has gotten a little goofy in the era of social media and everyone wanting to have some sort of record, but in the era where people were focused on winning meets, I feel it was different.
EDIT: I wanna clarify that I’m not asking these questions rhetorically. I’m not trying to be a petulant child on this one. It’s fully possible I remember things incorrectly (especially given I haven’t followed powerlifitng SINCE it went raw and got all goofy), but it seemed like, before raw, records (total and lifts) were being set by guys in their 30s and above, primarily because it took time and experience to get good at gear, and also because gear increased the longevity of competitors in the sport. It either prevented wear and tear OR it gave you something new to master and find a way to get more poundages out. You can only get so strong, and after a while cap out, but there are lots of ways to continue to get better. And strongman ended up this way as well because the sport never shied away from gear in the first place.
So you’re telling me I chose a pretty poor time to start considering the power snatch/clean and jerk when I return to my gym soon. Should have a couple weeks to reach my peak on them before I’m an old.
I started doing hang power snatches and it looks like I am setting a 1rm in the front raise, haha.
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I think the clean and jerk is going to be fine since I’ve dabbled for a few weeks here and there for years. The snatch will definitely be setting PRs in “this was a mistake”.
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I don’t care if there are stuffed animals impaled on the ends of the bars, the clean & jerk just feels like victory.
The snatch though. Eh…
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The snatch always felt like victory to me…
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“The author’s wrong when he says most records are set by younger lifters.”
“But here’s some evidence that most raw powerlifting records are set by younger lifers.”
“Of course younger lifters set most raw powerlifting records, it’s a young man’s sport.”
So, the author was “wrong”… but also right?
Not from what I saw. I’m tapped out for time and energy to research further.
Raw WR Totals - 5 of 11 in their 20s.
123 1,339 Precious McKenzie 43 yrs old
132 1,477 Sergey Fedosienko 33 yrs old
148 1,627 Michael Estrella 33 yrs old
165 1,840 Rostislav Petkov 29 yrs old
181 2,000 Kody Blazek 33 yrs old
198 2,055 John Haack 26 yrs old
220 2,350 Yury Belkin 28 yrs old
242 2,358 Yury Belkin 28 yrs old
275 2,452 Zahir Khudayarov 32 yrs old
308 2,458 Eric Lilliebridge 26 yrs old
SHW 2,518 Daniel Bell 33 yrs old
Single-ply WR Totals - 9 of 12 in their 20s
Sergey Fedosienko 114 - 1515 22 yrs old
Sergey Fedosienko 123 - 1636 34 yrs old
Sergey Fedosienko 132 - 1686 32 yrs old
Jaroslaw Olech 148 - 1835 29 yrs old
Oleksandr Kutcher 165 - 2171 25 yrs old
Micah Marino 181 - 2190 24 yrs old
Kalle Rasanen 198 - 2493 29 yrs old
Andrey Belyaev 220 - 2447 27 yrs old
Yury Belkin 242 - 2491 25 yrs old
Yevgen Yarymbash 275 - 2535 26 yrs old
Yevgen Yarymbash 308 - 2645 29 yrs old
Blaine Sumner 308+ 2857 32 yrs old
Multi-ply WR Totals - 4 of 12 in their 20s.
Ernest Milian 114 - 1162 57 yrs old
Richard Hawthorne 123 - 1455 20 yrs old
Gerard McNamara 132 - 1675 52 yrs old
Brian Schwab 148 - 1930 33 yrs old
Oleksandr Kutcher 165 - 2167 25 yrs old
Kalle Rasanen 181 - 2425 26 yrs old
Shawn Frankl 198 - 2630 32 yrs old
Shawn Frankl 220 - 2715 33 yrs old
Matt Minuth 242 - 2700 37 yrs old
Dave Hoff 275 - 3005 25 yrs old
Dave Hoff 308 - 3103 31 yrs old
Donnie Thompson SHW - 3000 46 yrs old
Does this tell us that we can track down sport-by-sport stats to support the case we want to make? 5 of the Top 10 at last year’s WSM were in their 20s, FWIW. Seems unfairly biased to rule out certain strength sports, like raw, that may or may not lean towards younger lifters when the point being made is that a certain way of training is best-suited for younger lifters.
As I said many posts ago when this thread was new, this is a lot of overanalysis of one or two sentences from the article. It doesn’t actually change the underlying premise and key takeaways of the content.
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Is that a black cat I just saw? Is this a glitch in the matrix?
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Are we saying that some is the same as most here? To only look at one division that also happens to be the newest in the sport is very much ignoring the history of the sport.
Which was my original contention: it was a statement made based off a very brief look and a hasty generalization.
That seems more like what I would expect. And that’s in raw no less. Powerlifting itself I imagine will have even more trending to the 30s (which I see you caught with the multiply records) Heck, we see 17 of 35 records (assuming I did my math right) set by guys over 20. When the majority of the record totals are held by guys over 20, I would say 30+ is still showing record setting strength.
Don’t rule them out at all: consider them in the context. It’s what I asked in the start. It’s clear this isn’t just a thing done only by dudes in their 20s.
I don’t know how many more times I have to agree with this before it is understood that my issue with the article is the issue I have identified.
Just realized I DID do my math wrong: 17 of 35 is not the majority. Looks like my brain is slowing down faster than my body in my 30s, haha.
Although while talking about WSM, also interesting to note that, from 2006 to today, 11 winners were 30 or over.
Once again: assuming correct math. Check my work, haha.
Time to get real, brah.
@Chris_Colucci, it’s always a pleasure to see you pop in for some quality dialogue. Thanks, fellas.
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That’s why you need to start getting real. I think so, anyway. I forget sometimes.
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I found the article interesting, though perhaps because I’m coming at it from a different perspective. My powerlifting total went up throughout my 30s even though I started in the sport in my early 20s and competed regularly that whole time. Now at nearly 42, I’m definitely paying the price for those prs I set, especially the ones I hit in my late 30s. I doubt I’d change what I did even if I knew what the other side of 40 was going to look like, but I do wonder sometimes. Regularly lifting heavy weights is going to beat most people up if they’ve done it consistently over a 20+ year period.
Edited to say: Had I gotten “real” in my 30s, I’d probably be having a more enjoyable training experience than I am now. But, I for damn sure wouldn’t have pushed my three lift total as high as I did. The tradeoff seems like it should have been obvious looking back at it with hindsight, but when I was in my 30s I expected I’d squat, bench and deadlift heavy well into my 50s.
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Your experience makes a ton of sense, and mine is going in a similar direction: I am setting records on my lifts in my 30s that I never dreamed of in my 20s. That extra decade under the iron builds up a LOT of good stuff, like strength (muscle and tendon) and work capacity.
And amazingly, I do a lot of the things in the article to keep things moving along. I focus on rep maxes in training and save 1rms for comps. Which is what we see from the 30+ dudes setting records.
People wanna think it’s the 30 year olds setting records that are genetically blessed, but those are the 20 year olds that can do that stuff WITHOUT the decades of training (and tend to not last long). For the 30+, they have the tools: they just have to use them intelligently.
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Thanks for sharing. I’m no power lifter and I’m no standout at the gym, but my deadlift is tempting me to keep pushing. I’m 35 and pulled 505 yesterday which is my best non deadlift bar pull to date. I hit 545 on one of those in 2018. The question I need to answer is: Do I keep pushing and try to hit 600?" And then: “Is it worth the potential damage to my joints?”
I know the answer is probably a solid no, but I still want to try. It makes no sense because I know that no one will care if I pull 600 instead of 500 and my life won’t change one bit.
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You care, man
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I cared about the numbers I hit quite a bit, especially the milestone ones. I’m still very proud of those lifts, which weren’t all that great, because I know how much effort I had to put in to get there. You’re right though, nobody else is going to care one bit. Maybe your SO, but probably not. Then again, I doubt very much you’re chasing a 600 pull for any external validation…
Also, I must say that every time I hit a milestone – with one exception – the feeling of satisfaction lasted a couple of days and then it was on to the next goal. That seems to be the blessing and the curse of training to chase numbers.
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I wrote more in my initial response but deleted it to prevent opening a can of worms about training philosophies and internal/external motivation, etc. But, here it is anyway.
I’ve always had a goal when training - get bigger, get stronger, recover from surgery, cut fat, all of those at the same time, etc. Those all have a direction. I never really figured out maintenance. In reality, I’ve mostly just achieved maintenance over the years, but I was actually trying to achieve progress. That is the same kind of training that will wear down my joints someday. How the neck does someone train to stay the same (on purpose)?
If I was at 10% body fat at my current weight I’d be at my perfect body image wise but I get your point In that I’d never train to just sit there. I always have to have a goal (I’ve very goal oriented) so I’d need to push for something, the idea of staying still drives my crazy.