You Versus You: The mental weight of powerlifting
Davin Arvelo’s highs and lows of powerlifting throughout the past seven years
By Liam Britt
Since 2018, Davin Arvelo has been competitively powerlifting, watching their growth as they progress in the sport. Now, seven years later, Arvelo is looking back at the highs and the lows of what once encapsulated their life.
Powerlifting is a sport based on lifting weights in three different ways: the squat, bench press and deadlift. The traditional scoring system in powerlifting is called DOTS, a ratio based on two variables: How much you can lift and the amount you weigh.
As far back as 2016, Arvelo has been consistently going to the gym, but it wasn’t until high school when they joined the powerlifting club. From there, they began going to competitions and became instantly hooked.
“Powerlifting is equally competitive against other people as it is a competition with yourself,” Arvelo explained. “Everybody cheers everybody on, everybody celebrates everybody else.”
This welcoming environment pushed them to improve, and eventually, powerlifting became a part of who Arvelo was. Like everyone else in the sport, they were pushing to be the best, strongest version of themself.
With how important the aspect of body weight, muscle ratio and energy is in powerlifting, it can become an integral part of your everyday life.
“I incorporated being strong with my identity,” Arvelo recounted. “So it was very difficult when I wasn’t competing at where my expectations were.”
When your life is so intertwined with a sport, mistakes or failure to meet expectations can dictate your mood for long periods of time.
Since scoring high in powerlifting is based heavily on body weight, lifters put a lot of pressure on making their body as light as possible. The act of “cutting weight” has been a long-standing practice, where lifters spend weeks before competitions attempting to lose as much body fat as possible to fit into lower weight categories.
In a recent 2024 study of 16 Olympic weightlifters, the idea of competing without cutting weight was “unimaginable.” During the same study, they followed an athlete during a 12-week period of weight loss. In this time, they reduced their body fat from 12.1% to 7%. It’s unheard of for professional lifters to compete in competitions without cutting heavy amounts of weight.
The majority of lifters in a small 2022 study reported negative changes to their psychological state, such as experiencing fatigue, anger, feelings of isolation and anxiety. These weight-making methods have been shown to increase the risk of in-competition injuries.
After graduating from high school, Arvelo’s appearance at competitions slowed down. As other aspects of life started speeding up, powerlifting became more and more difficult.
“I felt very burnt out, both in life and through powerlifting, cause the gym was such a big part of my life,” Arvelo said.
Along with this, finding events in the area became more of a hassle. Arvelo had to pick between going to one or two competitions a year in neighboring cities or spending hundreds of dollars on far-away regional events.
To stay in condition for occasional nearby tournaments, Arvelo began working with a trainer after finding it difficult to keep their regiment alone. Issues grew, though, as the trainer’s approach to lifting was very different from that of Arvelo.
“My trainer had expectations of me that I wasn’t meeting, so that was very, very [demotivating] and off-putting of the sport,” Arvelo revealed. “There was a lot of conflict with him trying to work around me.”
This is where the mental burnout began weighing more on Arvelo, who was also dealing with a consistent knee injury at the time.
"It was definitely wearing on my mental health, just dealing with the pain,” they said.
Although Arvelo was struggling with burnout, they were still pushing their limits and competing at a high level. In their final competition, Arvelo broke four state records and got a personal best score in all three lifts. With a squat of 512.5lb, a bench of 365.9lb and a deadlift of 529.1lb, they placed first in their division and sixth overall, standing beside powerlifters twice their age with decades of experience.
After competitive weightlifting for six years, Arvelo didn’t feel capable of continuing. After stopping, there felt like a piece missing. Having made powerlifting part of their identity for so long, Arvelo felt the absence of it in daily life.
Now, after almost a year since their last competition, Arvelo seems to have moved on. Although they still attend the gym, stress and overexertion are no longer weights they have to bear.