Some of the strongest men and women in the area will will be squaring off at the new Body Shop in Chico this Saturday. It's the 1st Annual NorCal Strength and Power Championships.
This Saturday will be somewhat historic for those competing at the Body Shop.
Body Shop Owner and Operator Jeff Paull says, "Typically in weightlifting and powerlifting, they're separate disciplines and they're held in separate meets. To my knowledge this is the first time that weightlifting and powerlifting will be combined in the same meet."
Action Sports Lee Carrell says, "Maybe describe what differentiates weighlifting and powerlifting."
Paull responds, "Well weightlifting is essentially the olympic lifts, which are what you see in the olympics. That's clean and jerk and snatch where you lift a heavy weight from the floor over your head using 2 different techniques. Powerlifting traditionally is squat, bench press, and deadlift."
And while the competitors will have the option to participate in just a single event on Saturday if they choose, those who want the overall title will have to prove that they can pull their weight in more ways than one.
Paull says, "We're gonna have 4 events, bench press, deadlift, clean and jerk, and snatch. Each competitor gets 3 attempts in each discipline."
And with somewhere around 15 lifters expected, it should be quite a show.
Event Competitor Matthew Aikin says, "People don't get to watch on a regular basis, see the weight moved that we're gonna do, or in the fashion that it's gonna do. Like clean and jerk and snatch, like if you ever watch the olympics it's a pretty explosive movement, it's pretty exciting to watch, and although you're not gonna have too many of us lifting that level, there's probably gonna be a couple of us that have guaranteed that, that have committed to coming that are gonna be lifting pretty heavy weights."
But if they do well enough, the only thing they'll have to lift at the end, is a trophy. Reporting in Chico for Action Sports, I'm Lee Carrell.
