What is power lifting?

It is a series of lifts that test your ultimate strength, when in competition, you need to set a weight and then lift that weight, if you are successful you get to progress and nominate a larger weight to lift. The Pretty and Powerful competition held at PTC on the 14th of December was targeting beginners to competing, not beginners to lifting.

The competition is structured so that the lightest lifts are first and they move onto the heaviest lifts at the end, it was broken into three waves, and there were two categories, under 65kg and over 65kg, but its rude to ask a woman what she weighs, so I am unsure who did that.

Crossfit Coorparoo was represented at this comp by Katherine Wright her trainer Timmy Menzies was by her side to help her through the comp, this was her 2nd power lifting competition and she was aiming to come home with a trophy!

The three lifts were, a back squat, a bench press and a deadlift.

Katherine’s first back squat of 140kg was quite impressive, but it did not impress 2 of the three judges, so it did not count, they didn’t realise this and then set the next lift to 150kg, this was close to her Personal Best (PB for short) on her 2nd lift at 150kg she failed and that meant she couldn’t go back down and had to lift 150kg on her third attempt or she would be out of the competition. Her third lift was perfect 150kg which meant she was in the competition and in 2nd place!

The bench press, it is one of those lifts that everybody brags about. What I like about this comp is it tests you across a few different muscle groups, so being strong in your squat does not mean you will be strong in your bench press. Katherine’s first bench press was 75kg, thats what I weigh! and her 2nd lift of 80kg was just as impressive! Her third lift of 85kg was not successful. So far she has lifted 230kg!

The winner of the comp is the one who lifts the most across all three lifts. Katherine was still in 2nd place, Rebecca Buckley had lifted 247.5kg, all Katherine had to do was deadlift 18kg more than Rebecca and she would win.

The last lift is the deadlift, after warming up behind the scenes, Katherine’s first lift was a huge 150kg Rebecca only lifted 145kg, there was only 12.5kg between them, the tension was lifting, could Katherine lift those extra 12.5kg? Her next attempt was 160kg, two of the judges disqualified the lift, so she had one last attempt, and a big decision, does she try 160kg again or go higher? She decided to attempt 160kg and she succeeded her final lift of the day was 160kg! That brought her total up to 390kg! Rebecca Buckley managed to lift 157.5 in her 2nd deadlift but failed her third at 160kg.

So adding up all those numbers meant that Katherine had come 2nd and had missed first place by just 15kg over 390kg! What an amazing feat.

I would like to thank Timmy for being there on the day and for the other Crossfit Coorparoo members for turning up to support Katherine!

If you would like to see the results for the remainder of the girls they are here.

Here are some images of Katherine in her various lifts.

I also took images of the rest of the lifts, if you would like to see images of you, please send me an email.

Here are some of the other competitors.

Post by Michael Coppola Photographics.

Post by Michael Coppola Photographics.

Wow, what an event! Hells Playground held at CrossFit S.P.E.E.D., hosted by Darren and Dena, the 25 teams of 4, two males  two females, battled through 5 WOD’s.

When reading through the WOD’s I thought to myself, I’d really like to do this comp one day, it wasn’t an entry level event, the WOD’s were designed to push you through your paces. Congratulations to Darren and Dena as I think they succeeded in making the guys workout hard, but also allowed the participants enjoy themselves too, I could see that by the pain and the smiles on the faces of the competitors.

The layout inside their Box is perfect for photography, the wall art looks amazing! The organisation and lanes made finding teams easy too! And the volunteer judges were awesome, not just judging but also encouraging to help get one more rep out! Great work Darren and Dena!

The winning team from CrossFit Leonidas the Leonidas Warriors beat The Be Sharps, one of CrossFit S.P.E.E.D.’s teams by ONE point! After 5 WOD’s and almost 52 minutes of workouts to win or lose by just one point means one thing only, serious competition, great work guys!

Darren mentioned a team called the P’s Rookies, made up of a serious competitor who got three new people into the comp so they could give it a go and see what they thought, by  the looks of the pictures of this team I think ill be seeing those guys at future competitions as I think they enjoyed themselves.

Like always at these CrossFit comps, the atmosphere was amazing, the crowd competitors and judges cheering people on. Looking forward to my next comp! See you soon somewhere!

If you would like to see the results, they are here.

If you are looking for images from the day email me with your team name and heat number.

Here are two more galleries on Facebook from the event

Post by Michael Coppola Photographics.

Post by Michael Coppola Photographics.

About 10 months ago a fellow bootcamper and friend of mine Bek was in a pub, she became the victim of a cowardly act that was committed by a man. With one unprovoked punch to the back of her head, her life changed. That night, she was admitted to hospital with a traumatic brain injury. Eight months later, she is still experiencing seizures.

Instead of retreating into herself, she started a campaign to change the way people think act and talk about the cowardly act of hitting someone from behind. She started a Facebook page Stop the Coward Punch. Its sole purpose was to increase the awareness of these cowardly acts and to make people realise that it should not happen.

Bek is now an ambassador for the Thomas Kelly Youth Foundation their vision statement is “Our vision is to foster a more responsible drinking culture and ultimately a safer and healthier community, so that everyone can enjoy our streets without fear or intimidation of a violent and often unprovoked attack.  It’s every Australian’s right to be able to enjoy our beautiful cities without undue peer pressure and crime.”

Deep down Bek is a bootcamper, she wanted to do something to raise some money and spread the awareness but also wanted to have a little fun doing it. So she spoke to Trent and Sarah at CrossFit Coorparoo and they formed this Lifting Above Violence Fundraiser event. The concept was to lift 30,000kg that day, with every 10kg being $1, and like all CrossFit, there is no point just doing it unless you do it great! The event raised over $4000 for the Thomas Kelly Youth Foundation, thats over 40,000kg!

Awesome work by the people lifting and the teams who raised money. A team of 4 girls from CrossFit Rocks took home the trophy with the most money raised! There were lots of people who did their PB (personal best) on the day as well.

Here are a few images from the event.

Use this hastag #StopTheCowardPunch 

Here is our Facebook gallery from the event

Post by Michael Coppola Photographics.