Turning 60 years old last year, I was confronted by the inevitable physical and mental decline. Running any distance and even walking long distances was becoming more difficult. The knees and shoulders were degrading and my stamina was ebbing.
What else to do but engage a personal trainer and try to push the envelope as it were to stave off the allegedly inevitable sufferings of old age? At a local box gym, two years ago to the day, I was fortunate to meet a young Marine who changed my life. I began working out two or three times a week with Coach Brandon Densmore. He suggested that I try the sport of powerlifting in order to, as much as is feasible. ”age backwards”.
Powerlifting is a pure strength sport. Each lifter is allowed three or occasionally four attempts on each of the squat, bench press, and deadlift. The lifter’s best successful attempt----as adjudicated by three judges--- on each lift counts toward the competition total. For each incremental weight class, age and gender, the athlete with the highest total in all three lifts wins.
Because each competitor is judged only against other lifters of the same gender, weight class, and age the meets are incentive to push our weights ever heavier. Over the last year and a half I participated in six formal meets.
Digging deep in the gym and in particular, participation in this great sport not only ameliorated the joint aches and pains thereby permitting me to run and walk quickly making me feel at least ten years younger; the mental challenge of achieving greater poundages over time carried over into my entire mental and spiritual life force
Largely due to the competitive nature of the sport---competing with one’s own numbers as well as people in our class---I found my myself pushing “balls to the walls”. Determined to lift heavier and heavier poundages and climb up in the national rankings my total went up 185 pounds during these last two years.
Last week the American Powerlifting Association and World Powerlifting Alliance held its annual World Championship meet at Kabuki Strength Labs gym outside of Portland, Oregon. Achieving a total of 975.5 pounds was good enough to win the meet and take the current ranking of #1 in the nation for M3 (masters 60-65) competitors.
It is our fervent hope that other folk including and especially “those of a certain age” can also revolutionize their bodies, spirits and minds by heeding the conventional wisdom to keep on pushing ourselves physically and mentally no matter what. When it is your turn to shine, shine brightly! In this way we can spread happiness and seek to eliminate pre-conceived notions of what it means to be a senior in this society.
We can hardly wait to see what the future brings because I am determined to break the 1000 pound barrier this year. This is the closest thing to “aging backwards” that exists on this plane.