The Power Of A Lifting Community

When I say lifting community I’m not just talking about powerlifting gyms, as all you really need is a rack and a barbell to train for the sport. I’m talking about the communities built in and around many different commercial gyms, different personal training studios pushing the strength and conditioning component of health, social media posting and groups as well as the powerlifting federations around Australia and around the world.

Powerlifting is an individual sport that’s for sure, however I believe it has the potential to have one of the biggest community groups when comparing it to all the other sports out there.

My reasons being, seeing as though powerlifting is an individual sport, its you vs the bar. Compare that to a team sport like soccer, its this ‘team’ vs ‘another team’ sometimes causing some form of warship between the two. Fair enough powerlifters have competitors, but after all because the lead up to a competition is so long, it’s not just the competition that is going to be the decider of whether you win or not, it’s the reps, the food, the recovery, and the prevention measures that add up to bring that individual to the top of the ranks as a powerlifter. All which takes a whole lot of investment, bringing me onto the next point of the lifting community.

Now with all that investment and time dedication, it can sometimes take a massive mental toll on a lot of lifters wanting to push the most out of themselves. Having that lifting community there will help make that time enjoyable. A lot of people find that they are able to build strong relationships with the people that they are lifting with day in day out. Common interests are found within on another and seeing as though A LOT of time will be spent with them training, strong relationships are formed within many different lifting facilities. These built up relationships help many lifters get to the gym as they know they will get to catch up with people they like, regardless of how hard the lifting will be for that day. Lots of laughs, experiences and hardships will be experienced with this community at the gym which I believe is a recipe for great relationships.

Apart from drawing you to the gym to train, lifting communities have other great benefits to the success of your training as a powerlifter. Seeing as though you have great relationships with the people that you are lifting with and you more than likely like each other (I hope), the community will boost your mood when you are down, help you gain the courage to do something hard, offers honest advice when observing lifts, or even giving you a hard word or two when you’re veering off track and need some tough love to set you straight. Basically, the community acts as unofficial (or official) PT’s all doing their bit to bring everyone up as the best lifter they can be.