144 Things I Love and Hate About Powerlifting

When you get involved in lifting and competing, you have a ton of opportunities to visit different gyms, train with a variety of lifters, and attend and compete in a myriad of different federations. There are a lot of things you will learn about how people train, lift and compete.

WATCH: Chris Duffin and Raw Bench Phenom Leroy Walker

If you’re smart, you’ll pick out a lot of the positive experiences and advice that help you progress and use everything else to wipe your butt when you’re out of toilet paper. I call it a love/hate relationship based on experience. Here are a few things I love and hate about powerlifting, training, and competing.

LOVE IT: 

1. The extreme sport of powerlifting
2. Pushing yourself beyond physical and mental limits you never thought you could ever reach
3. Squatting, benching and deadlifting
4. Ammonia caps
5. Squatting out of a monolift
6. Knee wraps so tight they cut the back of your hamstrings when you squat
7. Lifting heavy
8. Women who lift heavy
9. Training in a team environment
10. Lots of powerlifting gear! (Yes, I have an addiction)
11. Feeling so much pressure at the bottom of a squat that it feels like your head is going to blow apart
12. Intensity
13. Sharp knurling on a bar
14. Having your own gym
15. Raw lifting, multi-ply lifting, single-ply lifting
16. Chalk
17. Training and competing with my wife, who is stronger than most men I know
18. Sled drags
19. Training like a BAMF
20. Helping coach other lifters to improve and get better
21. Three white lights
22. Hitting PR's
23. Great spotters
24. Skull tattoos
25. Reverse Hypers, Glute Ham Raises, and Belt Squats
26. Being a mentor and role model for my kids
27. Tsunami lat pulldown bars
28. Loud metal music during heavy lifts
29. Good bars and equipment
30. Having a great handler
31. Progressing
32. Box Squats
33. Training with better lifters
34. Continuously learning
35. Team elitefts
36. Adding more weight
37. Having an awesome coach (rhymes with Todd Brock)
38. Unracking your squat and feeling the weight try to crush you into the ground
39. Metal Gear
40. The smell of liniment
41. Social media to keep in touch with fellow lifters
42. Post training team BBQ’s
43. Nose Tork
44. Getting stronger
45. Eating to grow
46. Lifters who treat each lift like it’s 1000 pounds
47. Well organized meets
48. BCAA’s with extra leucine
49. Getting mentally cranked up for a lift
50. Leading by example and inspiring other lifters
51. Awesome training sessions
52. Not cutting weight for a meet
53. “Relentless” and all the lifters who raise money to support children
54. Metallica concerts
55. The Arnold Sports Festival
56. Handling team members at competitions
57. Meeting new friends through lifting and competing
58. Great technique during a lift
59. Helping people hit numbers they never thought possible
60. Reliable, committed training partners
61. Women who compete
62. Rubbing elbows and training with Dave Tate, JL Holdsworth, Joey Smith, Marshall Johnson, Jo Jordan, Clint Darden, Chad Aichs, Steve Goggins, and all my elitefts teammates
63. Being Canadian
64. Acupuncture and Percusser treatments
65. Canvas squat suits
66. Donating blood (Just gave my 50th donation this month)
67. Watching my wife compete and lift more weight than most of the guys I work with
68. Setting a new record
69. Ephedrine and caffeine pre-workout
70. Educational seminars
71. Couples who train together
72. Living, Learning, Passing On
73. SWIS Symposiums
74. Camaraderie
75. Adrenaline rush after a heavy lift
76. Setting goals and achieving them
77. Representing Team Canada at WPC World’s
78. Treatments from Dr. Ken Kinakin to keep my body tuned up
79. Having complete strangers approach you because they know you from social media and think you are inspirational

HATE IT: 

1. Red lights
2. Excuses
3. Meal prep
4. The words “I can’t”
5. Working shift work and trying to train optimally
6. Lack of commitment
7. Showing up late for training
8. Not putting your plates away
9. Receiving a text 20 minutes before training that something’s come up and you can't make it
10. Cocky, arrogant lifters
11. Commercial gyms
12. Getting old!
13. Cheap, shitty equipment
14. Different equipment in the warm-up area than on the platform
15. Gym selfies and people more concerned with taking pictures than training
16. Inconsistent judging at a meet
17. Shitty training sessions
18. People constantly on their phones in the gym
19. Cutting weight for a meet
20. Stretching
21. Lack of confidence
22. Bad lifting technique
23. People coaching lifters who don’t seem to know anything about lifting
24. Shit talkers
25. Mirrors in the gym
26. Counting macros
27. Self-proclaimed internet experts who criticize lifters and competitors
28. Bombing!
29. Lifters who are scared to push themselves
30. Having to piss wearing briefs and canvas
31. Unorganized powerlifting meets
32. Unreliable, uncommitted training partners
33. Raw lifters who hate geared lifting
34. Geared lifters who hate raw lifting
35. People who put a half-ass effort into their training
36. Shitty music during training
37. Injuries of any kind, acute or chronic
38. Women who train but “don’t want to get too big”
39. Overtraining
40. Critics who think it is “easy” to lift in gear
41. Lifters who think they’re better than everyone else
42. People who won’t help unless you pay them
43. Lifters who are constantly injured yet continue to train the same way
44. Lifters who compete once and think they can coach
45. Stinky body odor; it’s hard on the spotters
46. Seafood; if it crawls on the ocean floor and has a shell, I’ll pass
47. Intolerance
48. Lifters who think they know everything
49. Cardio
50. Spitting on the floor in the gym
51. Disrespecting equipment
52. Politics and politics in sports
53. Discrimination and racism
54. Wearing a singlet; even the word “singlet” is offensive
55. Lifters who don’t take the weight seriously
56. Dieting and the word “dieting”
57. Bad breath
58. Protein powder that doesn’t mix well or taste good
59. Lifters that show up to train and don’t help load and spot
60. People on their cell phones during training
61. Lack of respect for equipment
62. Coming to train and not being prepared (no wraps, no water, etc.)
63. People who only contact you when they want something
64. Watching the news; too many reports of terrorist attacks, politics, innocent people getting killed and groups promoting hatred
65. Quitters

I’m sure every person reading this could write a list of things they like or dislike about training and competing.  Some would be the same, some kind of similar, or you might have your own twisted, x-rated version of loving to lift in your extra small spandex, sandals, and bathrobe immediately after watching Silence of the Lambs…which is totally cool by me.