POWERLIFTING

type of weight lifting, an offshoot of the classical sport that emphasizes sheer strength without regard to form and balance. Powerlifting was developed primarily in the United States and Canada by weight lifters whose concentration on power alone, they felt, was excluded from formal competition. In 1967 the Amateur Athletic Union began national supervision of the sport in the United States, and the International Powerlifting Federation, made up of groups from the United States and 12 other nations, was created in 1972. A competition consists of three events. The bench-press lift, done from a prone position, demonstrates upper-body strength. The squat, or deep-knee-bend lift, shows leg power. The two-handed dead lift, in which the lifter raises the weight from the ground to hip level in one movement, displays low-back and gripping power.