Powerlifting 's current events

[Adam2433]

I've been meaning to post this but kept forgetting with being busy with stuff for my wedding this weekend. But no one else has mentioned it either...

Thoughts on recent events in powerlifting including CAPO results, Hoffdd's 3005 and Chris Pap's video rant/response?

Me? I found CAPO to be awesome bringing in that many big names to compete on the same platform. Some great lifts. Converesly I found the Westside Invitational and Hoff's 3005 to be a joke. All of equipped lifting is a joke anymore and does more to discredit the sport than anything anymore. Hoff might be strong and a nice guy but this isn't his first time in controversy. A shame.

"How much can you lift?"
"Hold on. Let me put my suit of armor on and maybe a board so I can tell you "

And it has spread to all levels. I see more "bench specialists" who dont look like they train at all, never touching a weight to their chest in multi-ply week after week that can't hit 3 plates but talking all kinds of stuff about being badass "powerlifters".

[RobbHensel]

I've been meaning to post this but kept forgetting with being busy with stuff for my wedding this weekend. But no one else has mentioned it either...

Thoughts on recent events in powerlifting including CAPO results, Hoffdd's 3005 and Chris Pap's video rant/response?

Me? I found CAPO to be awesome bringing in that many big names to compete on the same platform. Some great lifts. Converesly I found the Westside Invitational and Hoff's 3005 to be a joke. All of equipped lifting is a joke anymore and does more to discredit the sport than anything anymore. Hoff might be strong and a nice guy but this isn't his first time in controversy. A shame.

"How much can you lift?"
"Hold on. Let me put my suit of armor on and maybe a board so I can tell you "

And it has spread to all levels. I see more "bench specialists" who dont look like they train at all, never touching a weight to their chest in multi-ply week after week that can't hit 3 plates but talking all kinds of stuff about being badass "powerlifters".

Yeah CAPO was a great event although as much as I like Sam Byrd he hits a WR squat, bombs out of the meet but becomes a squat only?ehhh sketchy

I stopped at Westside, Rheta West was just as bad then her blabbing all over facebook that it was the judges who passed it, ok great I buried 650 in single ply and had a questionable 700 that would have been ass to grass in that meet.

I like Chris Pappillion but god he needs to learn to spell and speak right it's painful. He's a guy I could see that does well in raw comps. Jason Coker is calling people out who help other people. Coker is a felon who care what he thinks. It's just powerlifting and not real life.

[nexa]

It's just powerlifting and not real life.

Pretty much this.

[Sammich]

Doing it is very, very fun and watching it is boring as fuck. Talking about it is orders of magnitude worse than watching it.

PS: Don't poo-poo equipped lifting until you've tried it. Unbelievably fun and difficult.

[Andre Gregoire]

Dan Green is my Idol

[Adam2433]

Doing it is very, very fun and watching it is boring as fuck. Talking about it is orders of magnitude worse than watching it.

PS: Don't poo-poo equipped lifting until you've tried it. Unbelievably fun and difficult.

I lifted and competed equipped years ago. It's everything I said it was.

Sorry to distract the forum from the real pressing current topics of discussion like whether rack pulls are better 1/4" below the knee or 1/4" above the knee...

[Andre Gregoire]

I'm happy that raw powerlifting has made a comeback. I have nothing against geared lifters but since I've never lifted in gear I don't know how much it helps.

I'm always more impressed when I see a heavy raw lift because I can relate better to how hard that might be.

Ive seen guys that can bench over 400lbs equipped and they don't even look like they lift. That's crazy. Also watching videos of guys trying to pull the bar to their chest and not succeeding until there's enough weight on the bar. Bench Press shouldn't include pulling the bar down...

Raw and Geared powerlifting are 2 different sports.

[Sammich]

I lifted and competed equipped years ago. It's everything I said it was.

Sorry to distract the forum from the real pressing current topics of discussion like whether rack pulls are better 1/4" below the knee or 1/4" above the knee...

Go ahead and deload because the stress is bringing out your inner asshole.

[Adam2433]

Forget I brought it up. We talk about the Olympia or Arnold when they happen. Thought we could talk about 2 big events in powerlifting.

It sounded as if you thought I didn't have experience with equipped lifting thus couldn't understand it. That's just not true.

[53greystreet]

Hoff 3005- wicked strong, he has even more in him

Pap response/rant- have not watched it

CAPO- awesome event bringing a lot of great lifters together. The stream started very late here so I was not able to watch as much as I would have liked

[nexa]

I can't even bother to wrap my knees at the gym.

[0001Delta]

I don't get geared pl and it doesn't even annoys me, so can't really make a comment on this Hoff "scandal" even tho I saw the vid. I think geared pl is just a totally different animal, tecniques used, training methods, etc, etc. I just believe one can't go around throwing the word "strong" if one benches 800 in a super-advanced bench shirt but die under 300 in the gym.

But if there's anything related to geared lifting that irks me are the guys at Elitefts that act all high and mighty and bash everyone and everything for being "weak", but who poop themselves or tear their quads from the bone trying to squat 400 without a suit. Or when one of them says bodybuilders are weak (when there's videos of Kai Grenne throwing 450 pound military presses for reps with ease.)

[53greystreet]

I don't get geared pl and it doesn't even annoys me, so can't really make a comment on this Hoff "scandal" even tho I saw the vid. I think geared pl is just a totally different animal, tecniques used, training methods, etc, etc. I just believe one can't go around throwing the word "strong" if one benches 800 in a super-advanced bench shirt but die under 300 in the gym.

But if there's anything related to geared lifting that irks me are the guys at Elitefts that act all high and mighty and bash everyone and everything for being "weak", but who poop themselves or tear their quads from the bone trying to squat 400 without a suit. Or when one of them says bodybuilders are weak (when there's videos of Kai Grenne throwing 450 pound military presses for reps with ease.)

Two different animals is absolutely correct. I mean it is all powerlifting (which I love all forms of) but they are certainly two separate events. Training methods can vary greatly or be similar in some cases. My team is about half raw and half in gear. I have them all using Block Sequencing with great success. The secondary movements will sometimes be different and there are slight modifications with overload amounts, etc, but the basic training plan and sequencing is the same for all my lifters.

I will preface what I am about to say with the fact that there are always exceptions to the rule and outliers so by no means is this is blanket statement, hahaha

*Almost* all lifters who can bench 800+ in a shirt can do over 500 or close to 500 raw. Some are even in the 600 range. I believe most would consider anything above 450 a strong raw bench.

Same with squats, *almost* all lifters who can hit 1100+ in gear will fall in the 750-850 range for their raw squats. Again I believe anything above a 700 raw squat would be considered very strong

And of course some people are better at using gear than others but the lifters at the top (gear and raw) are all very very strong. Every once in a while sure there will be someone with a massive difference between their lifts as stated before they are two separate events and each event has its own set of skills, strengths, and techniques.

[Adam2433]

This thread has been turned into a, "which is better raw vs gear" debate which is not what I intended. I agree with you GreyStreet that a guy like Hoff is going to be strong no matter what. But those are the elite of the elite. There are guys who are total fat body mushballs prancing around that they "powerlift" and are "bench specialists" because they are too lazy to put in the work to get stronger and too lazy to do an exercise that doesn't involve laying down. Or the kids who are twigs and can't hit 300 yet are in shirts. No the shirts/suits didn't create these problems the people did. I get that.

I personally, feel that having competed in both I would much prefer to not have to mummify myself to see how much "I" can lift. That said, I think the issue at Westside wasn't about geared vs raw so much as if you're going to have rules then enforce them for everyone.

All equipped squats are always higher than raw. That alone is stupid. But to pass squats like Hoff's because of his name, his gym or to help set a record is silly. It makes the sport look bad. And to my knowledge none of that is Hoff's fault as he is a good guy from what I am told from friends of his. But those trying to help him are hurting him more than anything.

Lastly, someone made a reference to CrossFit somewhere else and how (like the sport or not) it is super successful because it is unified under one body/federation, has 1 set of rules, common beliefs amongst competitors and lifters that support each other despite gym or affiliation. And look what it has earned them in recent years... a National ESPN televised competition with $250k to the winner and Reebok sponsoring all their stuff. Imagine turning on your ESPN one night to see Spotto, Lilly, Byrd, Hoff all battling it out for best lifter/total/lift on one stage with $100K on the line as Under Armour sponsored the event. That's where I wish powerlifting was. However I think some people like holding it back and keeping it down and dirty and dark because that makes it (and in their minds, them) more hardcore.

Total tangent there I apologize to everyone haha. I started the thread to see what people thought of the new all-time total record, the backlash to it and one of the biggest collections of big name powerlifters lifting at one place at one time.

Lift, eat, love right?

[53greystreet]

Imagine turning on your ESPN one night to see Spotto, Lilly, Byrd, Hoff all battling it out for best lifter/total/lift on one stage with $100K on the line as Under Armour sponsored the event. That's where I wish powerlifting was.

This would be fantastic but less than 10,000 people would watch it. Powerlifting is boring to watch, that will be very difficult to get around. When Efferding was going for the record there were like 500-600 people watching the online stream, I was one of them but that will not bring in any money. If someone were to record a meet and edit it down, I could possibly see it getting a 30 minute spot on ESPN. If done properly it would give the viewer the feeling that they are not watching 50 people do the same exact thing over and over again, hahaha

The crossfit marketing is genius, no doubt about that. Getting people to pay that kind of money for random circuit training is amazing