Frederick Riedel, senior in mechanical engineering and president of the Powerlifting Club of Auburn University, was on Haley Concourse during O-Week to spread the word about what powerlifting is all about.
“Powerlifting is a strength sport,” Riedel said. “Powerlifting has three events: the squat, benchpress and deadlift.”
In a powerlifting meet, the highest weight lifted for each event are added up to make the total score, with the highest scorers winning.
It is a weight class sport, so there are multiple winners for the different weight divisions.
The greatest drawback to powerlifting is that it makes you feel like you’re never doing enough cardio, Riedel said.
“Powerlifting and the activity of supervised weight training is actually one of the safest sports if you measure by injuries per time spent practicing the sport,” Riedel said. “So, while I haven’t seen anything big, a lot of my friends are maybe like, ‘My knee hurts, my back hurts,” something else minor. The really catastrophic injuries I have never seen in person.”
Riedel first came across powerlifting while watching YouTube videos on how to work out.
“I came across some guys who were doing some cool stuff in the gym, and I thought to myself, ‘If he can do it, then that’s probably a good goal for me,” Riedel said.
Riedel is one of the founders of the powerlifting club.
“Honestly, I was surprised that there wasn’t [a powerlifting club] already here,” Riedel said. “My high school had a powerlifting team, all of these other universities have powerlifting teams and there was nothing here. I just figured that it was a niche that needed to be filled.”
For students looking to get involved in powerlifting, Riedel suggested researching it on YouTube and then trying it out in the gym.
“The main thing is getting the habit down,” Riedel said. “I think anyone can do that, but it’d be easier with friends.”
Riedel considers the best part of the club to be the community, where friends can support and help each other.
“It’s great having 130 friends that I can chat with at any time about any sort of powerlifting thing that I want to because one of the biggest things is that I always seem to bore my friends who don’t lift when I talk about it with them,” Riedel said.
The Powerlifting Club meets in the Auburn University Recreation and Wellness Center every Friday at 6 p.m.
The group also has an AUInvolve page.
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
