Ladies and gentlemen, your star athletes for tonight’s powerlifting showdown: Standing at 5-foot-8, the man who is 195 pounds of pure muscle and can bench press a baby elephant, Matt Shuck! And representing Mrs.Gordienko’s journalism class, standing at 5-foot-9, 140 pounds with absolutely no powerlifting experience whatsoever, please welcome: me.

Despite my wonderful introduction, challenging a powerlifter to a powerlifting competition wasn’t the brightest move. Although Matt is almost a year younger than me, only 17 years of age, I felt like a little kid lifting next to him. For anyone who doesn’t know what powerlifting is; powerlifting is a strength sport where you are given three attempts to lift maximum weight on three compound movements, including bench presses, back squats, and deadlifts. While I had a general idea of what powerlifting was heading into it, I wasn’t ready for the amount of weight Matt would end up lifting.

Before starting our little “competition”, Matt made sure to mention how important it was for me to use good form for each movement. That was the right thing for Matt to say because most injuries caused in powerlifting are due to lifters using poor form while performing the movements. As I laid down on the bench, Matt slapped on a 45-pound plate on each side. I thought he was trying to kill me! Luckily, I was able to bench the weight, making me feel good for about five seconds, which was when I noticed Matt go on to add yet another 45-pound plate to each side, giving him a press 90 pounds heavier than mine! And the crazy part was, he got it up with ease, and went on to press it five more times! At that point, I knew trying to beat him was pointless, so I tried learning from him instead.

Matt went on to teach me less-known exercises, like the hang clean. The hang clean is when you bend down, grab the barbell off the floor, and use your body to bring it up. Matt gave me good tips when doing the movement, which included making sure I drove with my feet and bent my knees when doing the movement. After exhausting my body doing what felt like an endless amount of powerlifting movements, I got to have a talk with Matt about his opinions on powerlifting. One thing I was interested in knowing was why Matt was into it and how it impacted him. “It has made me strong obviously. Besides that, it has helped me stay busy and has made me a happier person.”

One powerlifter that goes to the same gym as Matt had a simple response to my question: what advice would you give to someone new who wants to get into powerlifting? “Eat a lot of food!” said Ryan Glodowski, who has been doing powerlifting for over two years now. Powerlifting can be dangerous if you neglect to do it properly, but with good form and hard work, it can be life changing for anyone.