Powerlifting Essay

Through powerlifting and consistently going to the gym is a very new hobby, people have become very knowledgeable about it. The increased knowledge known about powerlifting and the gym in general, has caused an increase in the popularity of these two things. There has been a shift in the idea of the American dream because it has been molded to include a healthy and strong lifestyle. Now, approximately a fifth of the United States has a gym membership. The boom in popularity of powerlifting has resulted in an increased desire in many individuals to go to the gym and improve their physical health. Powerlifting had started a lot sooner than most people realize. Men in Ancient Grece was move large stones to prove their strength,

The competition was titled “Powerlifting Tournament of America” The event had 21 men of varying weight class (Conner Hefferman). The interest and the success event convinced the AAU to start to take powerlifting seriously. Hefferman says “an official AAU endorsed powerlifting meet was held the following year in York, Pennsylvania. This time 47 lifters from 17 US states took part in an event which began at 11am and only ended the next morning at 2.30 am. Significantly, the event was widely covered in muscle mags from across the globe and ignited an interest in holding more events. What’s more, the event effectively set a benchmark for the sport in choosing the squat, bench, and deadlift as its core lifts (14). In 1966, the first official British powerlifting competition was held, based largely on the AAU example”(1). That quote shows how that event paved the way for the industr in powerlifting. People saw how popular it was getting and decided to see what it was about, but this was just the beginning of

A quick summary of PED’s are taken so that people can gain more muscle and boost their strength. These drugs are made to work like the hormone in the body called testosterone. Obviously doing something unnatural like this to your body could have effects. Mayo Clinic says that “Men may: See their breasts grow, notice their testicles shrink, ot be able to get their partner pregnant. Women may: Get a deeper voice. Treatment may not be able to change it back, notice changes in their genital area, grow more body hair, lose the hair on the head, stop getting periods or get them much less often than they used to. All people who use anabolic steroids might start to get: Severe acne, a higher risk of swollen or torn cords in the body called tendons, which attach muscle to bone, Liver tumors, or other changes to the liver, higher levels of the "bad" cholesterol, called low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, lower levels of the "good" cholesterol, called high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, high blood pressure, problems with the heart and blood flow, issues with anger or violence, Mental health conditions, such as depression”(1). As you can see the amount of affects that PED’s can have the body is astonishing. You may be wondering, why would anyone put their body through that? Well a main reason is that they simply just like the way their muscles look while on the drugs. More