Or you just don’t like the fact that someone can train like a powerlifter and completely surpass you without competing. So your only cope is “he’s not a powerlifter until he’s on stage!”
That’s the root of it, really.
That’s a cope because people don’t like being surpassed by those who don’t compete
Yes. So do I.
Not necessarily. For me it’s mostly just clarity. If you start to call people who increase their 1RM in S/B/D in gym powerlifters, then technically almost every lifter is a powerlifter.
Well they aren’t being surpassed in the sport of powerlifting.
There’s a saying in strength sports: ”only what you lift in a meet day matters.”
Why is that?
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There is only one possible distinct line. It is Powerlifting during competition. All other lines would be up to individual interpretation.
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Because competition measures performance under standardized conditions, not overall skill, knowledge, or identity. That doesn’t mean someone who trains like a powerlifter isn’t a powerlifter, it just means they aren’t a competitive powerlifter.
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So if I occasionally throw basketball to the hoop at my gym, but I’ve never played in a match I can call myself a basketball player?
Nice. I need to introduce myself next time as a powerlifter and a baskeball player. Maybe as a marathon runner too, since I have runned in my life.
See?
It’s adorable you continue to have an opinion on a sport you have never played, studied, or participated in 
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That’s a false dichotomy. Treating competition as the only objective definition of powerlifting while dismissing the clear, methodological criteria that also define the practice. It’s a neat rhetorical trick, but it collapses under logical scrutiny because methodology and competition are two different domains, not mutually exclusive ones.
I can apply the same argument to bodybuilding. You can be a bodybuilder without competing. It has nothing to do with me never having been a powerlifter. I was a bodybuilder before I competed in it.
Which is? You seem to think all powerlifters train in a similar manner.
Again. By your definition we all in this thread are powerlifters.
That analogy fails because you’re comparing casual participation to deliberate methodological training. Tossing a basketball around is a random activity. Powerlifting-style training is a structured methodology built around specificity, progressive overload, and the squat/bench/deadlift as metrics of progress.
So if somebody trains using these criterias in their training they’re powerlifters?
So if I run progressively I’m a marathon runner?
Not at all, powerlifting methodology doesn’t mean everyone trains identically, it means they train according to the same underlying framework: specificity around the squat, bench, and deadlift; progressive overload; and periodized strength development aimed at improving 1RM performance.
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What’s sufficient spesificity to call someone as a powerlifter?
What if somebody does not aim to increase their 1RM, but it does increase?
And there’s difference of using powerlifter style training and being a powerlifter. I did 1,5 years strongman -style training and strongman programs. But I was not a strongman, since I never competed.
At 76 years old I try to train like a bodybuilder, but I sure don’t consider myself a bodybuilder. Not even close.
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You’re comparing two things that look similar on the surface but are fundamentally different in structure and definition. “running progressively” doesn’t inherently mean you’re doing marathon training. By contrast, powerlifting-style training isn’t just “lifting weights progressively.” It’s a distinct, codified methodology centered specifically on three movements
If this is the criteria many competitive powerlifters aren’t powerlifters at all.
I’m still interestec when strength training excactly turns to powerlifting?
Well I can say I was a bodybuilder before I stepped on stage because I exclusively did nothing but bodybuilding. Even average folks would assume I was a competitive bodybuilder before I stepped on stage simply because of the physique and work it took to get it. They didn’t first have to ask if I competed to make that assessment.
Not at all, variation doesn’t mean they’ve abandoned the methodology. Every serious powerlifter uses accessory or variant lifts, but the purpose of those lifts still ties directly to improving the squat, bench, and deadlift. That’s the defining feature of powerlifting methodology: no matter how many tools you use, the system always orbits around those three lifts and peak strength expression in them.
You can. I won’t stop you. But you are wrong about powerlifting. Which makes sense, as, by your own admission, you are uneducated on it
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