Troy Valberg, Mario Valero, And Victoria Viola Rock The IPA State Powerlifting Championships
Yesterday, I went to watch a few of my friends compete in the IPA New Jersey State Powerlifting Championships. Unfortunately, I didn't get there in time to see the Squatting; but, I was able to catch both the Bench Press and the Deadlifting events. I went to my first powerlifting meeting last month; but this one definitely had a different feel to it. While one would expect all of the competitors to be huge, it was almost comical how enormous much of the audience was. It takes a special class of person to make chairs look dangerously inadequate.
Tremendous Troy Valberg
While Troy has competed in several Strong Man and Powerlifting events, this was the first time that he competed in all three events (Squat, Bench Press, and Deadlift).
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Massive Mario Valero
At the last meet, Mario showed up running on 3 hours of sleep; and he suffered because of it. This time, however, he showed up rested and ready to kick ass!
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Vicious Victoria Viola
This was Victoria's first ever powerlifting competition and, as you can see, she totally unleashed the beast!
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It's a funny thing to hang out with a woman in this kind of a setting. I am in no way at all a violent person; but, as a man, I am hardwired to want to protect people. And, when it comes to women, this sense is only amplified. I don't think that this is a drive that we are always conscious of; but, I believe the instinct is always lurking somewhere in the back of our minds.
Now, in most situations, this is never called into question. But, when your friend is talking to a 370 lbs man that can bench press over 900 lbs (this is not hyperbole), you definitely realize that, should you be called upon, there's really not much that you could do.
Of course, a thought like this is completely unnecessary because the people at these meets are almost eerily friendly. I just started talking to random people and everyone was super nice and happy to talk and completely willing to share all kinds of information about their lives. I even went up to one guy who was attempting a world record for raw bench and said something like, "I hope this isn't weird but, you are a beast!" And, not only was it not weird, but we got into a whole conversation about how he was switching from bodybuilding to powerlifting.
I guess when you get a bunch of people in a room all doing something the love, it really brings out the best in everyone.
In the end, all of my friends placed 1st in their respective weight classes and events! Pretty awesome stuff!
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And, furthermore, it was great to see Mario's UNCIVILIZED Brand being worn by a bunch of attendees.
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Reader Comments
Ben, I am agreat fan of weightlifting but I am not aware about powerlifting. Is it the same as weightlifting or different?
Impressive Young talent!!! Doesn't look so easy.
but interesting to watch :D -Congrats to the champions!!!
I would LOVE to go to one of these. I wonder if they have stuff like this in St. Louis?
@Iveth,
It is definitely not easy stuff! But, the people who participate in this kind of thing are pretty much always really great people; very friendly and they couldn't be more eager to see everyone else succeed.
@Jyoseph,
I think they do; I just googled for St. Louis Powerlifting and it looks like some good stuff comes up. They are definitely fun to watch, but I would definitely go with someone you know - they can be long days!
@Ben,
Doh! I guess I could have googled that just the same, ha! ;) Looks like there is one not too far from me on March 2nd. Sweet!
Now that I've been more into squatting, deadlifting, benching (the compound movements) I've been increasingly interested in powerlifting. I'm not a big guy (5'11" 190) so I don't think I could ever compete, but I could be there ooing and ahhing at the amount of weight being lifted!