How Is Powerlifting Different To Weightlifting?

A new year is, for many regular gym members, mixed with both promise and frustration, as January is a month when it can be hard to get access to equipment and can otherwise be disruptive to regimes. 

 

For people looking to maintain gains or train for competition, this can be particularly frustrating, which is why we offer a wide range of home gym equipment, from adjustable dumbbell sets to Olympic-style rubber bumper plates ideally suited for competition practice or structured training.

 

There are a huge variety of ways to lift, but many people who are aiming to compete in either amateur or professional competition will be practising either the two lifts that make up competitive Olympic weightlifting or the three that make up powerlifting.

 

What is the difference between the two? Why is there a difference? And how can you train to excel at both disciplines?

 

Why Did Weightlifters Compete In Powerlifting?

Powerlifting is very similar to Olympic weightlifting in concept, with the difference being in the types of skills and strength being demonstrated.

 

Olympic weightlifting, particularly in an era when the clean and press was part of the competition, prioritised finesse, form and technique as much as raw strength.

 

Part of what makes Olympic weightlifting a joy to watch and incredibly rewarding to execute is that complexity and the multiple muscle groups each exercise targets.

 

By contrast, powerlifting is more focused on raw strength and power, focusing on the three core lifts that most people who weight train with a barbell will often learn the proper form for first and can be more easily measured and judged.

 

Because of this, powerlifting is an extremely popular discipline, and the deadlift world record transcends the sport in terms of interest and fascination as a test of pure strength and power.

 

When Did Powerlifting Originate?

Much like weightlifting, early powerlifting is almost unrecognisable compared to its more modern and highly structured form seen today.

 

It originated in the sport of “odd lifts”, a varied set of exercises that tested a wide variety of different muscle groups, form and technique that had, over time, gradually been collected together.

 

Because of this, however, there were a wide number of regional variations not only in terms of form and rules but in terms of the lifts themselves. In the UK, for example, it was far more common to do the bicep curl rather than the deadlift, but this changed as the sport became more standardised.

 

Is Powerlifting An Olympic Sport?

Whilst the bench press is competed at the Paralympics, powerlifting is not an Olympic event, although there has been a concerted effort by the governing body, the International Powerlifting Federation, to change this.

 

There have been various issues cited as the reason, from a lack of inclusion in other multi-sport events, to governance and even the length of the competition itself, the biggest issue with powerlifting as compared to Olympic Weightlifting is standardisation.

 

Whilst there are three standard lifts, powerlifting has a remarkable number of federations, disciplines and divisions that interpret the rules around them fundamentally differently.

For example, powerlifting has different categories for unequipped lifters compared to those who use squat suits and bench shirts that provide additional support that can affect lifting results at the elite level.

This could potentially be confusing for an Olympic audience who does not follow the sport as closely as fans and competitors, and possibly unfair to lifters who specialise in equipped lifts.

However, given the popularity of powerlifting and the familiarity of the lifts even to non-powerlifters, the sport has a potentially wider appeal than Olympic weightlifting.

Why Does Powerlifting Use Different Bumper Plates Than Weightlifting?

Whilst you can use conventional Olympic plates to powerlift, traditional powerlifting plates, including the ones that we offer, are typically thinner, with less of a rubber bumper coating.

This is because the lifts they tend to be used for are very different to the ones used for Olympic weightlifting, and the weights do not need to survive being dropped or slammed. 

A deadlift is lowered gradually, and both the bench press and squat are typically placed on a rack carefully afterwards. 

Contrast this to the characteristic bounce of a snatch or clean and jerk, and the differences between the weights themselves become clearer.

What Are The Big Five Lifts?

Across weightlifting and powerlifting, there are five main lifts that are considered to be more important than any other, to the point that they are known as the Big Five. These are:

• Snatch

• Clean And Jerk

• Deadlift

• Squat

• Bench Press

Why Do These Five Lifts Matter To Weightlifters?

These five lifts in combination are the ultimate test of strength, technique and form in weightlifting, and being skilled in all five is often a sign of particular versatility in strength athletics.