The face of Humber extramural powerlifter Cameron Howard visibly strained after lifting a 180-pound deadlift at the Lakeshore campus gym.
Howard has performed at three competitions representing the Polytechnic, but he's unsure whether he'll compete in the next tournament at Seneca College, the one that matters the most, on March 22. Nevertheless, he loves the lifting and time spent in the gym with his teammates and the gym simply makes him feel good.
Coach and recent Humber grad Nico Perdicaris knows his team of six did well at a recent meet at George Brown College last week.
Six Humber athletes attended the meet on Jan. 18., with 36 athletes competing in the event.
Perdicaris said the team is ready for the final meet held in March at Seneca.
“I think we'll absolutely destroy the competition,” he said. “It’s all about getting our athletes into a comfortable environment because the Seneca meet is the big one.”
Coach and Guelph-Humber alumni Sarah Lam said the team performed well and is looking good for the final meet.
“It was really good to see all the athletes compete now, so it's going to be really interesting to see how we do at Seneca,” Lam said. “I think we’re going to do great.”
Humber’s Noel Berardine came first in his division lifting with no faults.
A fault in powerlifting means the attempted lift doesn’t count towards the athlete’s score.
Ekaterina Smorodina placed second among competing women, deadlifting 115 kilograms and lifting a total of 272.5 kilograms.
“She's in a way lower weight class compared to some of the top girls so it's quite impressive,” Lam said.
At these organized competitions, athletes will be judged on three different types of lifts: squat, bench press and deadlift.
Each lift is performed three times and the final lift is the heaviest.
“That third attempt that's your last shot. You want to make it the heaviest you can while also putting a number up on the board,” Lam said.
The lift must be executed within the cadence of the head judge’s commands; a command being an order to do the next motion of the lift.
Perdicaris said these competitions put a new perspective on lifting which can be beneficial for the athlete’s mindset.
“In training, you might slack off because no one is watching,” he said. “When you’re on a platform with spectators, you have your coaches your other athletes looking at you like ‘We know what you can do. Show us.’ it does push you to another level.”
Howard said the progression is his motivation.
“It’s kind of addicting,” Howard said. “You feel as you keep going you get stronger and stronger as each cycle of your program goes through. It’s addicting to see those results.”
“Once you step up to the bar, for me personally, all the anxiety goes away because you trained and usually you've hit those numbers. The last number you do is something you've never hit.”
Coaches will give athletes a training program to follow. Although the team meets for practice on most Sundays, the majority of the training is delegated to the athlete.
“It's really on the athletes to prepare outside of team practices because it is an individualistic sport,” coach Lam said.
Even though athletes compete individually, Lam said that’s when the team unites the most.
“Even though it is an individual sport, it's a really cool thing to see how our team really becomes a team and the way they're there to support each other,” she said.
“Athletes came who weren't even competing. They would be at the back with us and with their teammates Just hyping them up and cheering them on. Helping them put chalk on their hands and helping them stay focused,” Lam said. “It's really cool to see that.”
Howard grew up playing sports, including hockey, soccer and baseball. He said usually his sports rivals tend to stare him down at competitions, however, it’s a bit different in powerlifting.
“I went into my first meet last year thinking ‘Oh, I should look tough and like not make eye contact with the other team,’ but everyone's super supportive,” he said.
“I would chat with some of the guys from the other schools and then we would say what our lifts are. It was pretty laid back,” Howard said.
