You might have seen them at John Wooden Center grinding their teeth together as they lift heavy weights. And no, they’re not training for American Gladiators; they’re part of a powerlifting team here at UCLA. In case you’re not sure what powerlifting is, it’s a strength-based sport based on squat, bench press and dead lift.
The team started off as a group of friends who were huge fans of powerlifting as a group. As the team grew, they began entering more and more powerlifting competitions.
The team is fortunate to have such an experienced captain, doctoral student David Jurgens. As busy as Jurgens is with schoolwork, he’s dedicated to the team.
“Dave definitely knows what he’s doing,” said Nathan Beckmann, one of the team’s top lifters. “He’s learned from past world lifters and is by far the best lifter on the team. He gives everyone the title “˜captain’ to make us feel like there’s equality.”
The team trains five days a week: two days of bench, two days of legs and one day of back. Some of the lifters don’t lift huge amounts.
“It’s a great way to stay in shape, and you don’t have to be the strongest guy in the world to join,” Beckmann said. “Most of us weigh around 190-ish, but one of our guys only weighs around 130 pounds.
The team members follow a diet to help them keep in shape when preparing for a competition. A high intake of protein is essential as well as fruits and vegetables.
According to Beckmann, once the competitions are over, the lifters enjoy eating whatever they want.
To prevent any kind of injury or soreness before a competition, the lifters take a week off where they don’t do any kind of heavy lifting, but they do light lifts right before their competitions as a warm up. For Beckmann, light means 410 pounds on the dead lift.
A little over a week ago, Beckmann took part in his first competition at the Los Angeles Fit Expo, where he participated in the bench, squat and dead-lifting events. Just 198 pounds himself, Beckmann deadlifted an astonishing 540 pounds.
A dead lift is when the bar is picked up to where the person is upright. Jurgens said one of the top competitors in the nation commented on how Beckmann was so strong that he looked like he wasn’t even trying.
“It felt great lifting 540, even though it wasn’t my max,” Beckmann said.
The team is certainly excited about Beckmann’s potential.
“While we’re still an unofficial club sport here on campus, we’re very proud of Nathan competing as a Bruin and hopefully getting UCLA’s first national collegiate powerlifting record that we know of,” Jurgens said.
Though Nathan was capable of lifting more, he has a few more attempts at breaking his record this year at the 29th California State Championship, the Collegiate Nationals in May, and at the Muscle Beach meet in June.
The Bruin lifters are usually the only ones that enter competitions as a team. They go through intense training for upcoming competitions, but it’s often hard for the lifters to maintain the team atmosphere.
“As you can imagine, unlike a lot of team sports, we can’t all train together at the same time,” Jurgens said. “This makes it harder for us to get to know a lot of other people who might be interested.”
While they’re not an official UCLA team now, the powerlifters are looking to get more people to join.