Barbells and Being

By Tenzing Choezing

What You Eat Really Does Matter

Imagine you are in a high-stress situation where all of what’s weighing on you is literally weighing heavily on your shoulders. The only thing keeping you from being crushed by this weight is your sheer strength—physical and mental.

Powerlifting is an ancient sport that is practiced recreationally and competitively worldwide. It is a sport where you have three attempts at three different lifts to max as much as you can: squat, bench press, and deadlift. Although the sport is as simple as lifting heavy circles, there are a lot of factors to consider. People who lift not only have to actively perform proper form, but also proactively practice injury prevention, and reactively practice recovery, nutrition, sleep, and more. Needless to say, powerlifting encompasses various factors beyond just its lifts. 

The following sections will go over the importance of breathing in powerlifting and its parallels with mindfulness. After establishing the similarities, we will look into the athletic benefits of practicing mindfulness and how to use powerlifting as a form of mindfulness. 

Power of Breath

Inhale… Exhale… As simple as breathing sounds, there is power in our inhales and exhales. These basic actions are what keep us alive. One of the most important aspects of successful lifting is breathing. In Powerlifting: The Complete Guide to Technique, Training, and Competition, Bryan Mann and Dan Austin illuminate this, stating, 

“A beginner or intermediate powerlifter may not put too much thought into breathing patterns when performing the squat. Believe it or not, breathing plays an important role in whether you make or fail the squat. Never let the weight control you; you control the weight. Through proper breathing, you can and will achieve control” (Johnson, 2020, p. 45).

Breathing is something that powerlifting brings out of the subconscious realm and into intentional consciousness. 

Mindfulness in Movement

Similar to powerlifting, practicing mindfulness entails being intentional with one’s breathing. This reliance on breathwork is present in both fields, even though they seem extremely different. Furthermore, powerlifting and mindfulness overlap in ways that may not be immediately obvious. Holly Rogers mentions in her book, The Mindful Twenty-Something, 

“Just as you get faster by running three miles a day or get stronger by lifting weights, you can become more mindful by practicing meditation. Often, we refer to meditation practice as ‘building your mindfulness muscle’” (Rogers, 2016, p. 23). 

Beyond lifting heavy weights, they are rooted in the same values and goals. Powerlifting is about more than building physical strength; it is also about building mental strength. There is a mental state in powerlifting that is adjacent to mindfulness. 

Mind Over Muscle

Just like any other sport, powerlifting requires discipline and tenacity; A feeling of wanting to be better than you were yesterday. Studies have shown that athletes may actually benefit from practicing mindfulness while playing their sport. A study conducted by Pineau, Glass, and Kaufman concluded that mindfulness can help athletes connect with their minds and bodies through body awareness and resilience against setbacks. These benefits, among others, result in better performance and recovery. Based on this study, athletes across different sports can benefit from the attributes of mindfulness. 

More Benefits

Beyond the athletic performance benefits, powerlifters can reap mental benefits. In Lifting Heavy Things, renowned strength trainer and trauma practitioner, Laura Khoudari, writes about healing after trauma by using lifting as a form of mindful, embodied movement practice. She writes about how she navigated personal traumas by embracing lifting weights as a way to reconnect with and re-empower her body and mind: 

“I train to feel my body, uniting my breath to reps and focusing on what it feels like inside as my body moves against the resistance of the weight of kettlebells, dumbbells, barbells, and more. In that way, I approach strength training the way one is intended to approach yoga. I train to deepen my relationship with myself and to feel my capacity for lifting heavy things. I train to be embodied” (Khoudari, 2020, p. 112). 

We’ve explored how mindfulness impacts athletes, focusing on both the physical and mental sides of the sport. By looking deeper into powerlifting, we’ve uncovered the mental weight that comes with it. When lifting is approached as a form of mindfulness, it creates an opportunity to reconnect with yourself—physically, mentally, and even spiritually. 

Powerlifting offers a path to strength, however you choose to define it.