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A heavy weight championDate: 16.12.2003
Posted by: Anabolic Info Team United States
"This is like winning the Super Bowl of powerlifting."
That's how Gold's Gym owner Saul Friedman describes the world record set by 48-year old Dennis Montembault.
On Nov. 28 at the World Powerlifting Championships in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Montembault registered a squat lift of 825 pounds, shattering the previous mark of 804 set in 1986.
If that wasn't impressive enough of it's own, Friedman said the New Bedford resident may not yet have reached his powerlifting peak.
"He's still got great potential," he said. "Age isn't a factor in these competitions. The sky's the limit. A powerlifter's body matures with time, unlike football which uses your body up in four or five years."
Montembault competed in the 220-pound division for men 45-49 years old in November, and has much higher aspirations for his future in the sport.
The man who works by day as a maintenance mechanic for Teknor Apex Co. in Pawtucket, R.I., hopes to squat 1,000 pounds sometime in the next three years.
"Dennis is an all-natural athlete, he doesn't use anabolic steroids," Friedman said. "Athletes are tested at each competition."
Competitions which aren't as much like bodybuilding as most might think.
The difference between Montembault and a bodybuilder is that powerlifters rely mostly on their ligaments and tendon strength. They're not sculpting their muscles with repetitions. The joints of a powerlifter have to be able to handle large amounts of weight in a single lift.
Powerlifters train for four months for one competition, and require plenty of recuperation after it's over -- the goal of powerlifting is to squat, bench press and dead lift as much as possible in one lift.
Which, if your Montembault, is more than anyone else has ever lifted.
Montembault began weightlifting at the age of 18. Ten years later, friend James Bourgault told him that his short and squat body lended itself to powerlifting. That began what has been 20 years of training at Gold's Gym. He currently works out two hours a day, five days a week, but within nine weeks of a competition, his routine changes to lifting three days a week with heavier weights. Given how much weight he's lifting, the training is strenuous even for those around Montembault. He requires three or four people to spot him during his training. "It's all about confidence," he says. "You have to have no fear and a little craziness." The preparation isn't all that goes into a lift, though. Montembault says that there are variables to how well lifters can perform on a given day -- everything from sleep and diet to how your day went at work. In many ways, the mental side is just as important as the physical one. "You psyche yourself up by having a mental image of yourself lifting the weight," Montembault said. "You try to build up a controlled anger -- you don't hear or see anything but that bar in front of you. That bar being the lifter's greatest opposition. Montembault said one of the major differences between powerlifting and some other sports is the camaraderie between those involved. "Powerlifters support each other. You get help from your competitors," he said. "Your only competition is the weights." Weights that haven't even been competition for the newest world record holder. "You have to be completely dedicated to achieve what Dennis has," Friedman says. "Everything has to be on point to be an athlete of that caliber." "He's not afraid of anything," Bourgault says of his lifting partner. "He's very confident. If he sets his mind to something he does it. "I'm not surprised that he's reached this level and I'm sure he'll keep going." "It's like anything you do in life -- you want to be the best at whatever you do," Montembault said. Right now, he is.
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