Last July a woman contacted me to inquire about powerlifting training. She asked if, at 42-years old, she was too old to begin competing at powerlifting.
My reply?
HELL NO!
So Conswella “Sway” Bennett [I’ll refer to her as CB when I quote her throughout this post] and I met and began working together to prepare for her first competition. We had about 14 weeks before the USAPL Powerlifting for Pink event.
Here are her lifts from that first meet:
Now almost a year since we started working together, Sway just competed in her third meet last weekend. Her best competition lifts are 220# squat, 155# bench press and 330# deadlift.
Over the past year, Sway and I have become training partners and friends, and she keeps getting stronger and stronger!
Sway is a Special Education Teacher at Kingsley Elementary in Dekalb County. She was recently honored with the Teacher of the Year award for the 2016-2017 school year.
CB: I’m still surprised at the honor, but I think I’ve grown so much as a teacher in the past four years and learned a lot of from my fellow teachers.
Teaching can be challenging on so many levels, but I really do enjoy teaching children, motivating and helping them to realize their potential. It is exciting to see them grow academically, but I really do enjoy watching the students who are shy or who aren’t confident come out of their shellI. My students know that I expect their best, and all I need them to do is to try.
Last weekend Sway competed in her 3rd meet, at the USAPL Dirty South Bench Press & Deadlift Challenge. Sway competed in the Push-Pull (bench press and deadlift) division, and she had her toughest meet yet.
CB: Preparing for this meet was more challenging for me this time around. Besides the normal day to day, I was doubting myself and overthinking lifts and allowing frustration to take over. It wasn’t easy. The weight was getting heavier. It affected my training and preparation – so much so that I debated not competing in the USAPL Dirty South Bench Press & Deadlift Challenge. Despite my self-doubt, I competed.
Sway last competed in early February at the USAPL Georgia state meet, where she placed 3rd in her weight class. Since then, she suffered a stress fracture in her foot and spent six weeks in an AirCast, unable to squat or deadlift. So in the meantime we worked on bench press. A lot.
CB: All the bench work really helped. Weight that I was unable to lift without wanting to kick my feet up from the floor I was able to lift during training.
As her coach, I’ve found it hard to slow Sway down in competitions. She is a lifter who thrives on the platform, and sometimes doubts herself in training. So for her first few competitions, we came to the meet with an idea of what her max lifts were… and then each time she has blown those old maxes away!
At last Saturday’s meet, she matched her old competition PR of 155# on bench press, quite easily, with her 2nd attempt. Sway trusts me to choose her attempts for her, and I decided to jump to 170# for her 3rd and final bench attempt.
She narrowly missed this lift, and I am very confident that at her next meet she makes it easily. On the bright side, we finally have an idea of what Sway’s max bench press is!
CB: I usually try not to listen when the announcer says the weight of the attempted to lift. However, I knew my second bench was 155# so I quickly started trying to process what I was about to do or attempt to lift. As soon as I felt the heavy weight, but I was thinking I can do it but something didn’t feel right, and I couldn’t get the momentum to press it. But, I’m determined to get 170# and make my goal of a 200# bench press.
Since having the stress fracture in her foot, I think Sway was having some doubts about her deadlift strength for this meet. So we opened conservatively at 292#, which she made easily.
CB: I’ve been doubting the deadlift and wondering about my squats after the fracture. Preparation for deadlift, which is my favorite lift, was so frustrating. I was having problems pulling weight that I’d done in training at times, and I was dreading it on Saturday.
Then we took a big jump to 325# for her second attempt. She picked the bar up easily, but lost her balance as she tried to lock out or finish the lift. This forced her to take a few steps, which is an automatic red light in the USAPL, so she got no lift.
CB: I felt myself lose balance. I still don’t know what happened. Anyway, I shook it off because I knew I could pull it and had pulled it before.
Usually after a missed lift, the lifter will attempt the same weight again or make a small jump. Since Sway had pulled the weight so easily, I opted to jump to 335# and give her a chance to set a small PR.
CB: When Lis asked me if I wanted to try it again or go up in number, I said what I always say: “I trust you. You decide.”
On attempt 3, the bar once again flew off the floor, but she struggled at lock out. The side judges called no lift for a small hitch, and it was voted no good, 2 to 1.
CB: This competition I didn’t do as well as I’d have liked. But as I think about Saturday and replay the lifts in my head, I have come to the realization that Saturday was indeed a “challenge” not only about lifting weight but overcoming my mental blocks and doubt. It’s something I’m focusing on now more than ever.
Once again, like on bench press, Sway had a frustrating third attempt on deadlift. BUT once again, we have a much clearer idea of Sway’s true one-rep max going into the next training cycle. And we also know we need to work on the top portion of each lift. So in this next training block we will spend time working on her lock out on both bench press and deadlift.
Sway finished the meet in 5th place overall and she won the Masters division. While she didn’t set any new personal records, I think it was her best meet yet.
She trained through an injury and still matched her old deadlift PR (the results might not show it, but I’m counting it!). And she made big progress on bench press.
I look forward to seeing what’s next for Sway, and watching her develop more as a lifter!
CB: To anyone interested in powerlifting, I’d say give it a try. For years I wanted to get into powerlifting, but never found anything close to me or a place where women were really into PL in my small town in Mississippi, or the next place I lived in Florida, or in Georgia when I first moved here.
But every so often, I did an online search and that’s how I found Lis.
It’s true: You’re not too old to pursue a dream especially if it’s something you really want to do. So find a trainer/coach and give powerlifting a try – you might finally realize your own strength.
Here are her lifts from last weekend:
