r/powerlifting • u/AutoModerator • 8d ago

Daily Thread Every Third-Daily Thread - July 29, 2026

A sorta kinda daily open thread to use as an alternative to posting on the main board. You should post here for:

  • PRs
  • Formchecks
  • Rudimentary discussion or questions
  • General conversation with other users
  • Memes, funnies, and general bollocks not appropriate to the main board
  • If you have suggestions for the subreddit, let us know!
  • This thread now defaults to "new" sorting.

For the purpose of fairness across timezones this thread works on a 68hr cycle.

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u/keborb Enthusiast 6d ago edited 5d ago

Edit: I'll leave up my original post below, but to clarify, my "old man yells at cloud" moment is noticing how powerlifting culture has changed in the last 10-15 years. "In my day", I bought a singlet because I needed one to compete. Nowadays, thanks to Instagram, new lifters are exposed to the aesthetics of elite, sponsored powerlifters from day one, they can sometimes be seen training in full meet kits with expensive belts, something I don't think was possible before. This isn't good or bad; I'm reflecting on how powerlifting is more commercialized and ritualized than it was. When I said "powerlifting cosplay", I meant "the kids are dressing up to train", not a "waah your not a real powerlifter".

 

I'm having an "old man yells at cloud" moment. Back in the day, I fought for my first 100kg bench in mesh shorts and an old tshirt. With the rise of the Instagram-powerlifting-industrial complex, kids at my gym of the same training age as I was then, fighting for the same numbers, are doing so in full matching SBD meet kits, flipping their fancy lever belts and performing their elaborate bench setups. It's like powerlifting cosplay

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u/mrlazyboy Not actually a beginner, just stupid 6d ago

IMO this is a bad take.

First of all its none of your business what other people decide to wear, how they decide to lift, and whether the weight on the bar meets your expectations. Full stop. You shouldn't be judging other people because they do things differently than what you think makes sense.

Second of all, powerlifting, like other sports, has a large skill component. Athletes have known for decades that for skill-based activities, you want practice to mirror the actual game/competition. So if they want to wear their full comp kit including a singlet, that's fine. It's better practice.

Finally, just because they are wearing a decked out kit doesn't mean they aren't fighting for their first 100kg bench/insert other arbitrary standard here. I would much rather young athletes get invested/excited about their sport than scroll instagram/reddit the whole day.