To avoid using the phrase, “a lot of people have been asking me,” I won’t kid you by using that phrase to make it seem like lifters are waiting in line to ask me any specific question. Hell, I don’t get asked a ton of questions anymore. My social media page is not something I feel compelled to flood with content for the sake of creating content. This doesn’t bode well for me when it comes to engagement, but I feel better doing things this way. 

However, when I feel compelled to write about something, I write about it. I’ve found myself in a couple of scenarios lately with lifters that I coach where it seems like it might be helpful to collect my thoughts on the buffalo bar and it’s variations and record them. It is with my hopes that it helps them, and that it helps you if you care to hear what I have to say about it.

The buffalo bar. I can’t say I have any idea who was the first to make this bar, or exactly why they made it. But I am certainly happy that it exists because I use it a lot. I have my guess as to why it was crafted originally, but that doesn’t really matter. What matters is that it’s a tool that many of us have access to (or can purchase) that we can use in our training.

What is the buffalo bar, and bars that resemble it? It’s basically a straight bar with a big and even bend inside of the collars. Almost like that bar that’s bent to shit a lot of gyms have for rack pulls, except it’s bent methodically and evenly throughout. Rather than sporadically bent from that guy that does quarter shrugs with 675 and too many drops from the top with rack pull PR’s.

There isn’t just one or two of them made anymore either, right? You’ve got many companies that make some variation of the buffalo bar. You’ve got the Duffalo bar, bow bar, yukon bar, bison bar, and so forth. There are tons of them, and they’re all a little different as far as tensile strength and how much camber (or bend) they have in them. Yet still, they all use a similar concept of a slight camber in them. Some are better built than others, and most of the time the price will reflect the level of quality of bar. You can do a quick Google search on the Duffalo bar and read about the science and engineering put into it in a very easy to read and understand format. As far as my experience goes (I’ve used maybe 6 different ones), the Duffalo bar does feel the best on my back when squatting and I think it has the largest camber of any of them.

I don’t know the degree of the camber that each specific bar has. But my guess is that it’s somewhere between 1-3 inches for all of them, give or take. It doesn’t seem like a huge difference, but an inch can have quite an impact here.

In my opinion, the scenario in which this bar provides the most value is when squatting. We’re powerlifters, and on meet day, we squat with the straight bar. While I think other bars such as the safety squat bar and cambered bar can provide a very high level of value, they aren’t that specific. They’re entirely different barbells. They can help us get stronger in different ways and provide relief to the joints and muscles of the upper body, but it’s a different squat. For less advanced lifters, the cambered bar might make them stronger, but the difference in technique and feel might be hard to replicate on a straight bar. The buffalo bar is only slightly different than the straight bar, but can provide at least some relief to the upper body and has similar mechanics to the straight bar. This is great because we beat the shit out of our upper bodies when we train bench. Nagging upper body tweaks, pains, and tendonitis are commonplace in powerlifting. We can attempt to combat this several ways, one being the use of the buffalo bar in place of the straight bar when squatting at least some percentage of the time. The level of which you might use the buffalo bar in place of the straight bar to give your upper body a break is totally case dependent.

If you’re a new lifter, I’d still say you probably can and should use this bar to squat with if you have access to it. I think it’s highly important as a new lifter to strive to make your straight bar squat technique as good as you can, and to be as comfortable as you can with using the straight bar before you throw in too much variation. With that being said, if you plan on powerlifting for a long time, it’s probably going to benefit you to throw this bar in from time to time if you have it. There won’t be any instant gratification, and what gratification you may receive from using this bar ten years from now won’t present itself clearly to you. Such is the case for a many things in powerlifting. We don’t realize the value of doing things a different way or being preventative until we’re fucked, and start the “what if” scenarios. Your shoulders and elbows will probably hurt less later on if you utilize this bar, and that might help you continue powerlifting for a longer period of time.

I can’t stress how much using this bar (and really every other variable with training) should be tempered based on one’s own specific case. I coach one lifter that just realized the buffalo bar he owns tears his elbows up more than the straight bar does. There’s one real life specific case that negates most of what I’m saying in this article. But taking things on a case by case basis is hard, isn’t it? This is why it’s hard to write about training. I could write something that might be applicable to 95% of people. But for that other 5%, it could be the last thing they need. It also places a lot of the ownership on the lifter, which most probably don’t want whether they realize it or not. They want to be able to take the words written by someone they respect and trust, and take that as a gospel because that would make things a lot easier. I know this because I’ve tried to do it so many fucking times. I’ve tried things suggested by the people I respect and look up to most in powerlifting over and over again and realized they just didn’t work for me. Then again, other pieces of advice have worked really well. I digress.

You can also bench with the buffalo bar. Again, how much usage is totally case dependent. The extra range of motion can be hard on the upper body, so I don’t typically advise taking absolute max singles with it. Using a buffalo bar to bench press with can be beneficial for a lifter with a weak bottom end (which is common). It asks more of your pecs by stretching them slightly further, and more of your lats by keeping positioning for longer in the hardest part of the bench. It also might help you if you’re weak at the top. Much like a small deficit pull, your body must fire for a slightly longer range of motion. It isn’t much, but as stated before, an inch can be a long way. If you bench with this bar at least sometimes, it might help you find an extra gear when trying to lock a heavy weight out on the platform.

If you’re a larger lifter, have longer arms, or have shoulder/pec problems, it might not be a great idea for you to use this bar to bench with often. It would probably be a great idea to use it often when squatting, if that’s your case though. If you’re a bigger lifter, you can try adding a small piece of foam or rolled up carpet on your chest with this bar. This will allow you some extra range of motion as you sink into the foam/carpet, but it will take some stress off your shoulders.

For some, it might feel even better to bench with than a power bar. I imagine this has something to do with the slightly different angle the buffalo bar has in one’s hands, which might affect the way the shoulder rotates when benching. I’m no scientist or movement specialist, though, so I can’t really say I know the answer as to why this is for sure. I have programmed the buffalo bar on the bench press up to roughly 80% of the time with one specific lifter I coach. This lifter told me her upper body felt amazing when benching with the buffalo bar, and even benched more than a power bar with the added range of motion of the buffalo bar. She was able to bench PR’s on the platform with a power bar after using it for only about 20% of her training. So in her case, it worked well.

To say more about this – if you’re more experienced, the difference between the buffalo bar and straight bar (at least on the squat) might become negligible. I record my PR’s for each bar with each variation I do, and when my straight bar and buffalo bar PR’s meet or my buffalo bar PR surpasses my straight bar PR, I’m not surprised because it feels almost exactly the same. Just less stress on my shoulders and arms when using the buffalo bar.

Now, if you start using the buffalo bar for the majority of your training, and you can’t replicate the technique on the straight bar, you’ve got a problem that needs to be addressed. At least before you do a meet.

You can also do front squats with this bar. The camber in the bar spreads the bar weight over a larger area. This is also true with back squats. Using the buffalo bar with bands or chains has always felt better to me than the straight bar, and I think the distribution of the weight has a lot to do with it. Again, I’m no scientist, but it feels way better to me. There are of course other exercises you could use this bar on, such as goodmornings.

As far as which one to buy, that’s up to you. I own a $200 buffalo bar I got off Amazon. It does the job, and whips less with 800 pounds than a Texas squat bar or even a more expensive buffalo bar at my gym does. I’d say this was a good investment. I train in a garage gym, so my budget is limited to however much the few of us can scrap together. However, when it comes to gym equipment, it is often the case that you get what you pay for. Yes, there are some pieces you don’t need to go crazy with. My $100 45 degree back raise does the job just as good as a $700 45 degree back raise does. The plates we have all weigh the same, and some cost 1/3 as much as the others when we got lucky and found a deal. Titan and Texas Strength make some decent products for a low price, but some pieces just aren’t worth saving the $100-200 for a subpar product. Texas Strength makes an okay belt squat, but the slippery foot plate on it was likely the reason I tore my groin doing belt squats. In the age we live in now, it isn’t hard to research and find reviews on products you’re looking to buy. Keep in mind, some or all of those can be paid or reviews written by those looking to sell the product. Deception can be commonplace on the internet.

More specifically, how should you use this bar in your own training? It depends on all of what we’ve discussed, right? How you recover from benching with it and how much straight bar work you need matter. With that being said, here’s a rough guideline.

SQUATTING WITH THE BUFFALO BAR

If your straight bar squat technique is ironclad, I’d say use the buffalo bar for 50% of the time you’d use the straight bar. So if you squat heavy twice a month with the straight bar, use the buffalo bar for one of those. If you’re more advanced, you could use it more. I go periods of several months without touching a straight bar on the squat.

If your straight bar squat technique is not ironclad, you probably need to use the straight bar more often. You could use the buffalo bar for work outside of your main movements, such as backdown sets or volume work you’d typically use the straight bar on. Even that might help decrease stress on your upper body.

If you do speed squats, you can run a 3 week wave using the buffalo bar over the straight bar, then move back to the straight bar for your next wave.

BENCHING WITH THE BUFFALO BAR

I’d say for most, benching heavy with this bar once per month is enough. I’d much rather see a lifter leave a bit in the tank with this bar, and I don’t advise max singles on it. Sets of 3 or 5 might be a better option.

Another way you might use it is for volume sets after main work. I like to use this bar in succession with a 3 week wave of speed bench. So do you sets of speed work, and then wave the weight and reps alongside the speed work. Maybe week one you do 3 sets of 10 reps, week two you do 3 sets of 8 reps, and week three you do 3 sets of 6 reps. These aren’t max rep sets, just simple hypertrophy work.

In my opinion, the first bar you should buy is a power bar. The second you should buy is a safety squat bar. The third is a buffalo bar.

A haphazard Google search shares a few statistics I’d like to share with you.

A high level professional bowler made $115,000 in 3 tournaments in 2018. There are more than a few professional video game players who make millions of dollars per year just from tournament play. Professional badminton players can make hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. There are many participants of fairly obscure sports that can make what most of us would consider a shit ton of money each year. An upward trend in popularity of sport correlates with more money being made.

No great mystery there, right?

Why is it we view powerlifting as it stands as a highly paid, highly popular, and highly unified sport? If your answer to this is because you wish to see it as one, fair. I have no direct counter to that argument. One that chooses to think that way is different than the way I think. And guess what? That’s cool.

However, what I do have in response to that argument is slightly related. Powerlifting has had shots at the big leagues and it hasn’t stuck, at least yet. I can imagine there’s probably a lot of people who truly wish to see it blow up and gain popularity for whatever reason. (I don’t mean this passive aggressively – I say this because there’s likely differing reasons people want the sport to increase in popularity).

And you know what? That’s okay. Does the fact that powerlifting isn’t more mainstream make you uninterested in the sport? I’d hope not.

I think it was Katt Williams who said a Chrysler 300 looks like a Bentley until a Bentley pulls up next to it. What’s wrong with just owning our Chrysler 300, calling it a Chrysler 300, and being content with a nice enough vehicle that gets the job done?

This is my argument here. Powerlifting means a whole hell of a lot to many of us. However, because it means something personally to me, or to you, or to a whole lot of people doesn’t mean we should aim to subject that meaning onto those who may not feel the same. This doesn’t need be done, and it’s not likely that someone else is going to see it the way you do. Hopefully, the meaning that you take from powerlifting is highly individual and formed by your own experiences and lessons you’ve learned along your journey.

Not everything in powerlifting needs to be a movement. We exist in a world where we can share our entire lives with the public. Every single training session, every single meal, every single thought, there’s absolutely no limit. Does that mean you should do that? That’s your choice. However, I don’t think every single thing you like or are passionate about needs it’s own hashtag, call to arms, and then movement. You can do that if you please, just don’t expect it to mean to others what it does to you. You shouldn’t expect others to want to validate your experience.

Powerlifting is a niche sport. Most people do not care to participate in it, and for good reason. It’s extreme. It isn’t running, which is good for you. I’m sure the act of running a marathon isn’t the best thing for you body. However, training to run a marathon will benefit your cardiovascular system and keep you around to see the grandkids for a longer period of time. Powerlifting isn’t a general physical activity that will improve your health or that your doctor probably endorses. Walking and running are what our bodies are designed to do, even though they can cause problems. Our bodies were not designed to max out on squats. Powerlifting will not improve your health. There are of course ways to do powerlifting more healthily, but it probably isn’t going to lead to you living longer. You might make the argument that lifting weights and exercising can improve one’s health, but that isn’t powerlifting.

When I started powerlifting, it consisted largely of misfit types. Absolute and total characters. The first guy I ever met I’d say was a, “powerlifter” used to lick the bar before each heavy squat attempt after he covered only his eyebrows in chalk. People who were either a little or a lot “off” in some way were very much dominant. That was cool, but that isn’t how the majority of powerlifters are now. That’s also cool.

I’m close with a few individuals who are have given their lives to the sport, and that have been doing so for a long time. I’m not talking about being hard at work posting on their social media pages or commenting on popular posts. I’m not talking about being highly motivated or excited all of the time. Powerlifting has formed a piece of who they are.

I mean that they’ve lived powerlifting for multiple decades. Everything that they have put into their bodies for years and years has been with powerlifting in mind. Financially, they’ve put powerlifting before bills or necessities when they had to. They’ve had dozens of surgeries. They’re in constant pain from 20 or 30 years of powerlifting training. They’ve taken a lot of years off their lives for powerlifting and they’re aware of that. They still choose to do it at 40, 50, and 60 years old.

They belong in powerlifting because they’ve chosen it, and you belong in powerlifting if you’ve chosen it. Even if you are in year one, and you might not plan on being around in a couple of years. None of these veterans need to explain it to anyone who doesn’t get it, because they know it won’t mean the same thing to anyone else. Sure, they might enjoy talking about their passion when asked about it. They’re even more excited when they find a younger lifter who has found something similar to what they found with powerlifting. A newer lifter might feel the need to project because they’re excited or unsure and want the validation. If you do project, you’re going to be validated best by someone who’s already chosen powerlifting.

What is all of this to say? “Shit needs to be less like it is now, and more like it used to be, right, Lones?” I’m not saying that here. I won’t sit here and kid you, saying that I’m personally and heavily invested in exposure or further growth of the sport. Some of the things that come with that make me cringe and I’m content with the personal meaning powerlifting has to me. However, things are how they are right now and I accept that. Hell, at least I’m writing a blog post about it.

What powerlifting means to you is just that – and it doesn’t need to be anything more than that. If it does need to be more than that to you, I’d suggest maybe doing some introspection and figuring out why that is.

Now that I’ve had some time to process in the 20 minutes or so I’ve spent writing this – the moral of the story here is driven by a feeling I recently had. I’ve had the same feeling several times this past year. It’s a feeling of confusion mixed with humor. It was most recently sparked by a video of a squat deemed high at Slingshot Record Breakers. You saw it, right? Judges were blind, what the hell was that, that guy should kill himself, the SPF is a joke, and so forth.

I realize I’m exposed to powerlifting more than some are, but you don’t need to be to realize the level of segmentation that exists. In the last year, I’ve seen many things that have struck this chord even further than a routine depth call. Meets without enough spotters. Plates mismatched and very clearly differing in weight for whole meets. Meets that advertised prize money the winners didn’t get paid. Judging and rules within the same federation differ VASTLY from meet to meet. People judging who don’t even lift or have never done a meet. A large meet that ended with news that it was actually unsanctioned. Various forms of cheating from lifters, like briefs under singlets. Wraps I know were way too long. Judges judging training partners. Red lights for reasons I asked about that I couldn’t find in rule books and had never heard of. 1,250 lifters at USAPL Nationals this past year. This doesn’t even scratch the surface of the of venom lifters spit at one another social media.

This just isn’t new. Yet we act like it is every time something like this happens, which is honestly pretty often. Like the standards of powerlifting are so high, powerlifting is so unified, and the integrity of the sport is so highly regarded. It’s a far cry from that right now. It’s segmented and not unified. Bullshit has always existed behind the scenes. You can either work to unify powerlifting and work to fix it by taking action, or you can stick to your meaning and your pack and dismiss the rest.

What’s the purpose in pointing out all of these blatant questionable calls, breaking of rulebooks, and discrepancies? Just to shit on the sport of powerlifting because you’re an old salty lifter, right? That may be closer to the truth than it is further, but no. I’m saying that shit like this has been around for at least as long as I have, and surely even longer. I’m not here to tell you that this is a good thing or a bad thing. At this point, in my opinion, it has become part of the sport. Whether that ever changes or not is yet to be seen. I’m not here to discuss if it’s a good or a bad thing or if it will ever change, because I’m apathetic to that.

Powerlifting is awesome as an individual pursuit. Chasing my last total and maxing out on the squat, bench, and the deadlift is what I love. I’m fortunate enough to be able to help others do the same. That’s enough for me. If you value my opinion whatsoever, I’d urge you to let that be enough for you too. At least for right now.

In light of the WPO being live streamed on ESPN 3 this past week and the resulting commentary the few days afterwards, I feel compelled to throw my hat in the ring. Some of you may disagree with what I’m about to present, and that’s okay. Some of you might see this as click bait. It’s just a discussion for something that I think deserves attention.

It seems that when it comes to viewpoints on the WPO and equipped lifting in general, there are two common themes that oppose each other. Night or day. Left or right. With this (as with anything else), black or white just isn’t how it is. Grey area exists between the two sides.

This is how it is, most generally: You either think equipped lifting is stupid and atrocious or you think that if raw lifters want to run their mouths, they should put a on a suit.

Powerlifting being associated with a large reaching sports network such as ESPN is really neither here nor there to me personally. I really am not interested all that much in powerlifting’s exposure level or growth at this point. The words “integrity of the sport” don’t really strike an emotional chord with me like they used to. What does that phrase even mean, exactly? Powerlifting is to me now as it was when I started, when the meet entries were nearly 20 times less than they are now. It means something to me, and that’s enough for me. I was good with the exposure level when I was one of 11,000 entries (there were over 175,000 entries last year). So take the rest of this with that bias in mind. I’m also an equipped lifter myself.

Many are invested in the growth and exposure of powerlifting. Powerlifting being associated with ESPN is thus some sort of step forward with that. I have no idea how many people it reached or will reach in the future. It might not be as big as some may think, but then again, I could be wrong. ESPN 3 is a streaming platform, though ESPN is the biggest broadcasting name in the sporting world. I am comfortable stating the the live stream of the WPO was the best live stream I’ve watched. It was clear and the production value was great. ESPN had what it took to make that happen.

“But this is making a mockery of powerlifting to the general public.” As if the general public cares. Powerlifting has grown, sure. However, it’s still a far cry from the MLB or NBA. The audience of powerlifting is basically just powerlifters and those interested in the sport before the WPO was on ESPN 3. I doubt many individuals from the general public will be interested in sitting down and watching that whole meet if and when it’s shown in the future.

The majority of the issues that people have involve judging of squat depth. “We need new standards for equipped lifting” “Geared lifting is dead” and so forth. Equipped lifting isn’t dead, and saying so is dramatic. It is, however, a drop in the bucket compared to other forms of powerlifting now. There were 55 times more raw meet entries than multi-ply meet entries last year. Many of the lifters complaining about squat depth at the WPO weren’t around when equipped lifting was more popular. So it’s hard for them to relate to equipped lifting.

The WPO organized a semi-finals meet with the the top 30 male and female multi-ply lifters and cracked that down to a finals meet with the top 15 male and female lifters before crowning an overall male and female winner by formula. It’s an actual tournament series structured like a bigger sporting event might be. There’s unity and lifters are coming together. I realize this is easier for multi-ply due to it being a smaller demographic of powerlifters. However, this wasn’t the first time the WPO did this.

All lifters were judged as equally as they could be with human beings doing the judging. On the same platform. On the same day. You can hate equipped lifting with a passion and still admire the structure here. Wouldn’t that be cool if that happened with raw lifting, too?

As raw lifting continues to grow, the number of large meets has seemed to increase with that growth. More big meets that offer money isn’t a bad thing, and many of them do pay well. Yet still, unity isn’t great with such a large number of raw meets. You’ve got Boss Of Bosses, the US Open, Pioneer Tribute, Big Dogs, Record Breakers, The Apeman meet, and so forth. Not to shit on any of those. There’s just a lot of them. The closest that I’ve seen raw lifting do what the WPO did this week (and in the past) was probably the Raw Unity Meets. I’d also like to make a point about money. Money drives competition and supports the lifter. However, money isn’t everything for every lifter. Many lifters that pour themselves into the sport and even kill themselves for the sport will never get paid. Yet they still do it, intrinsically motivated.

I won’t sit here and try to tell you there were no calls made that I didn’t disagree with as I sat on my couch watching this meet. That happens at every meet I’ve been to, and I’ve been to approximately zero meets where equipped lifting was dominant the last year. I’ve also been to a lot of meets in different parts of the country the last couple of years specifically, from USAPL to RPS. But it isn’t up to me to make that call from my iPhone, from my couch, or from the audience. It’s up to the judges. Blaming individual lifters for a squat that you think was high is a cop out. Doing so passively from your iPhone while you take a shit is some further level of that.

Now, if a lifter chooses to do a backyard meet they know they can get a high squat passed and deem themselves a top level lifter with a squat that was blatantly high yet never travel to compete against other top lifters, that’s a bit of a different case. Such is not the case with the WPO, so that’s really here nor there.

As previously stated, I won’t say I agree with all of the calls that were made at the WPO. However, the call isn’t up to me to make that call from a front facing camera via live stream.

There are really no differences when it comes to judging with raw and equipped lifting when it comes to the rule book, but this is where I think a lot of lifters get hung up. I agree that the top of the hip crease should be below the top of the knee for all lifters regardless of what equipment they choose to wear. It is also fact that some raw lifters benefit from using the stretch reflex. So the deeper they squat, the more force they can produce out of the bottom. It isn’t like that in equipment. Yes, you’ve got a shit ton more to gain out of the hole from 4 layers of material around your hips than a raw lifter does with the stretch reflex that exists in their own body. But equipped lifting often requires a slower eccentric for multiple reasons we don’t need to get into. The point here is that bottoming out a squat in equipment isn’t going to happen unless your equipment is terribly loose. So, equipped squats are higher than raw squats a lot of the times. I’m not denying that fact. It’s up to the lifter to get themselves where they need to be and up to the judges to call it as they see it.

Equipped lifting is about putting as much weight on the bar as one possibly can and performing the lift to the standards of the rule book – and not a half inch further. This includes wearing supportive equipment, squatting as high as possible while still getting 2 out of 3 white lights, and most importantly when discussing judging of squat depth…how wide one’s stance is and the technique utilized.

It’s about taking advantage of leverages. While some raw lifters can squat with a really wide stance, typically, that isn’t optimal. It’s hard on the hips and one can typically squat more raw when utilizing a closer stance, and for a longer period of time. While one might be able to squat more with a closer stance, one could squat higher and still break parallel at the hip joint with a wider stance. Again, this typically is not optimal for most who choose to lift raw. But we are taking into account the means of which the hip breaks parallel the easiest and nothing else. Making the distance between two points as short as possible. That’s the goal with equipped squats. It’s similar to a sumo deadlift. The range of motion is shorter. I’m pretty sure at one point we had a group of people that despised sumo deadlifts as well, if we don’t still have them. Sumo deadlifts are allowed in the rule book for every federation as far as I know. There’s no extra white lights for squatting deeper than needed or for pulling conventional. Don’t expect lifters not to use this to their advantage both in raw and equipped powerlifting. They should.

I attached a picture at the top. I’d have attached it here, but I’m not quite that tech savvy yet. It is of me squatting to the same 16 inch box last night. One is with a wide stance wearing briefs and sitting back. The other is a closer stance, raw, and sitting down.

What you’re going to see is that my depth comes easier with a wider stance and when sitting back. This is a point that isn’t news, yet I think it deserves to be considered.

I’m not saying equipped lifters should be able to squat higher than raw lifters. I think in many scenarios, when it comes to the structure of your hip joint and squat stance, they are simply different ways to achieve squat depth that are both allowed within the rule book. One last time, this isn’t to say every multi-ply squat in history has been to depth or that this is a defense for every wide stance multi-ply squat ever.

The difference in stance and technique paired with stigma revolving around equipped lifting and its past, the squats were all going to all be called high by many before the meet even started.

The last point that I’d like to make is that what we have now with powerlifting was built upon the backs of many equipped lifters from generations before us. Not all of it was built by equipped lifters, but a lot of it was. Many who we’d all consider legends of the sport were equipped lifters. Louie Simmons, Donnie Thompson, Shawn Frankl, Dave Tate, Steve Goggins, Andy Bolton, just to name a few. What the WPO did in the early and mid 2000’s was a big deal. I think it all deserves more respect than it gets.

Lighten up. You may be heavily invested in the sport of powerlifting to gain popularity and increase exposure and the WPO might not fit into that schema. You may have a definition of “integrity of the sport.” However, people have differing viewpoints. Always have and always will. I can remember hearing lifters saying, “that squat was high as fuck” in the warmup room since I started powerlifting. It isn’t new. Equipped lifting and raw lifting are different sports with the same rule books. I’m unsure how much unity exists within the sport or will in the future. However, I can say the way the WPO did what they did reads as a pretty damn good example of coming together. And it still got shit on by a lot of people.

What does the future hold when it comes to unity within powerlifting? Who knows, and it certainly isn’t for me to say. Right now, it doesn’t seem great and is quite segmented as a whole. I don’t think this is something we’ll get together any time soon. But for now, what just happened with the WPO was cool to see from my viewpoint and makes me excited for the future. Well done to those involved with what went into that.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.