An Interview with Mike Boyle on Powerlifting Today
By Myles Kantor

Mike Boyle is the owner of Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning in Winchester, Massachusetts. One of the country’s most distinguished coaches, his career has included serving as Boston University’s Head Strength and Conditioning Coach and the Boston Bruins’ Strength and Conditioning Coach. Mike is the author of Functional Training for Sports and the Functional Strength Coach DVD set. His websites are www.strengthcoach.com and www.bodybyboyle.com.

In addition to his broad coaching experience, Mike has a diverse athletic background that includes powerlifting. In a recent post on T-Nation, he described contemporary powerlifting as “a farce of drugs and elastics.” I contacted Mike to discuss this subject in more detail and his background in the sport.

As a context for your remarks, I would like to begin by discussing your background in powerlifting. How did you discover powerlifting, and when did you compete?

I discovered powerlifting around 1978 while pursuing my dream of being a football player in college. I competed from 1978-1982 in the 181s.

What were your best lifts and total?

475 Squat
475 Deadlift
275 Bench
1125 Total

Do any lifters or particular lifts stand out in your memory as most impressive?

In New England, I saw Ernie Hackett set a world record in the squat at the Boston Open in the late seventies. Somewhere in the 900s. Bruce Takala was impressive as was a guy named George Paragian. I had the pleasure to train with and coach a kid named Howie Hoffman who won the Teenage Nationals at 148 and the Juniors at 165. Howie could have been one of the greatest lb for lb deadlifters of all time. I think he did mid 500s at 148 as a teenager.

Like everyone else in those days I read everything I could find by guys like Larry Pacifico, Mike McDonald, Doug Young, Vince Anello. I became a huge Ken Leistner fan before I really knew what HIT was. Ken was always dead on for drug free guys like me. Keep it simple, low volume. Ken was one of the first guys to say that all the muscle mag stuff was bullshit. Fred Hatfield was a big early influence. He was very scientific at a time when few were.

What did Leistner's low volume approach translate into for number of training days per week, etc.?

Usually three. One for squats, one for upper body, and one for deadlifts.

How much did equipment and drugs figure in powerlifting when you competed?

Equipment didn’t figure much. The Supersuit was just being introduced. Many guys lifted in wrestling singlets. Drugs figured in more than I thought. I was naïve and believed a lot of guys who lied about drug use. It was a confusing time. I used to wonder why some guys got such great results and I didn’t. The good part was it really made me a student of strength as I searched for answers.

As I worked with powerlifters in the later eighties, I began to realize that it was not as much about training as it was chemistry. I saw incredibly rudimentary routines produce results I never thought possible. The reality was it was very dosage related. When I saw how easy the drugs made things I came to the realization that you could no longer compete without them. It was at that point that I completely lost interest in a sport that once fascinated me.

I set my sights on training just athletes and trying to produce great drug free results.

What equipment did you use?

We used knee wraps and probably a Supersuit 1. I also bought one of the first double thickness belts. I guess it was the beginning of “gear.”

How much carryover do you think you got out of the Supersuit and wraps?

In those days it was good for 5-10%.

Why did you stop competing?

My body was not really made for powerlifting. I had shoulder surgery in 1984 from chronic tendonitis. I had been a swimmer in high school so I already had pre-existing shoulder problems. I also seemed to incur a back injury every time I flirted with the 500 lb squat/ deadlift mark. It led me to believe that maybe everyone’s skeleton has a structural limit.

On not being made for powerlifting, were you tall for a 181?

I’m about 5’10”, not made for it, but not tall.

If you could go back and change your powerlifting training, what would you change? You have written about regretting cheat shrugs and rocking box squats.

I would say those are the big two. The third is the bench press emphasis. If I had understood structural balance more I would not have needed shoulder surgery in the 80s. As I have said, much of my philosophy is an outgrowth of my own stupidity. I have no desire to see kids have the litany of injuries I have or to be experts on anti-inflammatories.

On structural skeletal limits in lifting, do you think the 300-400-500 standard for bench-squat-deadlift written about by John McCallum, Stuart Roberts, and others is attainable by most guys?

Those numbers might be a bit on the high side, but I would say they are close.

You have described powerlifting today as "a farce of drugs and elastics." I'm interested in what you would identify as the tipping point for this farcical turn. In Champion of Champions, Larry Pacifico writes about starting steroids in 1975. Wraps and some form of suits were also used in the 70s. When did gear become too much? Or was the gear of the 70s too much to begin with?

The gear of the 70s was non-existent compared to today. When it began to take three guys to get one guy dressed the handwriting was on the wall. To me the tipping point was the invention of the bench shirt. It allowed the bench pressers to take center stage again with huge numbers. In the seventies we laughed at the guys who just had a big bench. We didn’t consider them real lifters if they couldn’t squat and deadlift. Bench shirts are the epitome of phony gear in my mind. They changed the way people lifted and took a lot of the attention away from the squat and deadlift.

The justifications I've seen for today's equipment fall into the following five categories. Please remark to whatever extent you like:

a: The Evolutionary Argument — Contemporary gear reflects how the sport has evolved, akin to the evolution of more powerful rackets in tennis. To stop using multi-ply shirts, etc. would be a step backwards for the sport comparable to tennis going back to wooden rackets.

I can give you a simple answer. Look how the popularity of powerlifting has dropped to non-existent. People prefer The World's Strongest Man. I can’t argue with the evolutionary argument, but the truth is the shirt lifts the weight. Just look at the results of raw versus shirt. It can be 150 lbs. That in my mind is a joke.

b: The Public Appeal Argument — Totals and lifts would decrease in the absence of contemporary gear, reducing the growth of powerlifting to a broader audience.

How large is the audience now? I think the audience has decreased, but I might be wrong. I don’t really pay attention. Plus, wrestling has huge public appeal, too. (Some people don’t care if something is real; they only want to be entertained.)

c: The Longevity Argument — Gear allows lifters to compete longer than they would be able to raw.

I’m not sure if this is true either. I think gear raises the possibility of significant injury when gear fails.

d: The Safety Argument — Lifting without gear is like playing football without a helmet or an old leather helmet. Today's suits, shirts, briefs, and wraps reduce injuries.

Again, have we looked at injury trends among powerlifters? In football, gear is protective for collision, in powerlifting gear only allows for increased loads. Is there a perception that increased loads are somehow safer, or do things cancel themselves out? The reality is improvement in football equipment may be the reason for the concussion phenomenon. We have created a way for large men to hit each other harder and do more damage to the brain. Progress is not always progressive.

e: The Skill Argument — Gear makes powerlifting about more than brute strength. It enhances the skill dimension of powerlifting by enabling a lifter who might be weaker raw to out-lift a stronger raw lifter through superior technical mastery of equipment.

Or is it simply a better budget? I liked it when it was obvious who the stronger man was. Powerlifting is supposed to be about brute strength, not gear budgets. This is why the deadlift may be the last bastion of powerlifting. In the deadlift, the eccentric role of the elastic fibers is minimized.

Will powerlifting just be about new developments in fiber technology?

On a related note, technology also changed the traditional performance of at least one lift – specifically, the Monolift and the elimination of the walk-out for the squat. What are you thoughts about this?

I think this is a great safety move as it eliminates the unilateral loading of the spine and SI joints with massive loads in the walk out. Unilateral loading with the kind of weights guys squat today can’t be good for you.

Judging might be as hotly debated as gear today: quick or slow press commands, white lights for high squats or requiring excessive depth for whites. Were these big issues when you competed?

Judging has always been the Achilles heel of powerlifting. It adds a degree of subjectivity. I think that is why so many feel that a deadlift is the ultimate strength test. Less judging.

Regarding drugs in powerlifting, drug-tested IPF lifters like Clive Henry are putting up huge numbers in single-ply gear; so contemporary PL has evolved to provide places for drug-free guys to compete.

My problem is that the leaders are still primarily drug guys. One guy does not create a movement. My point is that I would never encourage anyone to compete in powerlifting or in Olympic lifting. They must eventually decide to lose the chemistry contest or to enter it.

There's currently a debate about what constitutes raw lifting. One federation's definition of raw allows neoprene knee sleeves, wrist wraps, and a belt, while another federation allows a belt but not wraps or sleeves. Others say that lifting with a belt isn't raw. What does raw mean to you?

I haven’t given it much thought. I guess belts have always been a part of the sport. I don’t think neoprene supplies much competitive advantage. However, if you had to define it, I’d elect to say a belt and loose fitting shorts and shirt. What a lifter would normally wear to train.

To learn more about Mike Boyle, visit www.strengthcoach.com and www.bodybyboyle.com.

Myles Kantor (myles.kantor@gmail.com) is a Certified Fitness Trainer with the ISSA and competes in the APF and USAPL.