Comment: Lifters astound at rivalry meet

Weightlifting is one of the least recognizable high school sports.

It’s not glamorous, nor does it capture one’s attention like football, basketball or baseball.

But when you actually sit down and think about it, it’s really one of the most challenging sports available to prep athletes.

Every time I walk into the weight room, I’m amazed at what the human body can do, and this past week, when I walked into Lakewood Ranch High to cover the Mustangs dual meet with Braden River, my reaction was no different.

Sure, I’ve lifted dumbbells from time to time, but I tend to draw the line at 10 pounds. Fifteen to 20 repetitions of 10-pound weights are enough to make my arms feel like Jell-O.

So, it’s baffling when I walk in and see a handful of high school students not much bigger than I am lifting twice my body weight. I stare in amazement, asking myself how that’s even possible. How does one walk in and pick up a bar with 200, 300 or 400 pounds on it? I’d be lucky enough if I could bench the bar one or two times by itself.

Braden River’s Tyler Pittman posted one of the most impressive lifts of the meet. It wasn’t quite the highest total — that honor belonged to teammate Mike Pulawski — but it was the most thought-provoking given his body weight. At 154 pounds, Pittman posted a combined 530 pounds — nearly three-and-one-half times his weight.

And here I thought carrying around a 23-pound, 19-month-old was impressive.

Pittman, Pulawski and a handful of other lifters have their sights set on advancing to the state meet. Last year, the winning combined totals ranged from 435 pounds for the 119-pound weight class to 760 pounds for the unlimited weight class.

To put it into perspective, Pittman was 70 pounds away from reaching the mark set by last year’s Class 2A state champion. To them, it doesn’t seem like a lot, but to me that’s nearly three-quarters of my body weight.
I don’t know how they do it. They make it look relatively easy, but I think it’s safe to say I’ll be sticking to my 10-pound dumb bells for quite some time.