Napier Boys’ High School students lift their way to victory
Injury setbacks did not deter two Napier Boys’ High School students who lifted their way to victory at the WPCA Powerlifting Competition in Masterton.
Year 12 student Logan MacIsaac achieved first in the 83kg Sub Junior weight class with a 170kg squat, 92.5kg bench and 225kg deadlift. While Lachlan Maxwell, (pictured above), in his final year of high school, achieved first in the 93kg Sub Junior weight class with a bench of 132.5kg.
The event, which was postponed due to Covid-19, is a qualifier for regionals in July at the Viking Brothers Strength and Conditioning gym in Lower Hutt.
For Logan, the win signalled the end of competing for the time-being to allow his torn patellar tendon to heal.
Despite tearing it about ten months before the competition, he pushed through and didn’t see a doctor, not only because it “wasn’t that bad” at the time, but also because he didn’t want to end his dream before it began.
“I felt like I had been lifting for two years and I was finally getting to do my first competition and I didn’t want to put all that effort to waste.”
Logan MacIsaac, Napier Boy Highschool year 12 student
However, the 16-year-old “definitely” did feel the pain a couple of months prior to the event in May when the “weights started getting really heavy”. During the competition, Logan says “it was good but that was probably purely because I had so much adrenalin”.
While he admits it is “irritating”, he plans on doing the same qualifier competition next year and competing at regionals and nationals. And his goal of breaking an ocean sub junior deadlift record before he is 18 years old.
His current personal best is a 232.5kg deadlift, 180kg squat, and 95kg bench. Like Lachlan, he trains three hours a day, five days a week. “Training just consists of lifting some heavy weights.”
He has just recently started with coach Aiden Potts.
Lachlan says he did better than he was expecting. “I was expecting to only get it over the 125kg mark, but I figured I would push myself a little bit extra.”
He enjoyed being around the other competitors.
“That’s one of the best things about powerlifting in my opinion - just the community of people that you’re involved in, they’re all really passionate and love the sport.”
Due to a core breakdown in his stomach which started sometime last year, he is not able to squat or deadlift at the moment so is just focusing on his bench this year.
His goal is to bench 160kg at the Nationals in November, breaking the current record of 157.5kg.
When Lachlan first started training in year 11, he could bench 60kg. “It’s just about putting the work in and you’ve just got to keep up with it that’s all,” he said.
His journey into the sport began after watching the NFL and seeing the numbers some of the players were lifting.
“We would send videos of it through Instagram so we thought it wouldn’t be too bad and one of our other mates, his brother was really into it, he started encouraging us so we thought we’d give it a go.”
Lachlan, Logan, and another mate started at around the same time. “So we were just bouncing off each other in the gym really.”
A torn ACL in early 2018 led Logan to discover a love for powerlifting. Although it is mentally challenging, he loves the satisfaction he gets of lifting a heavy weight. “It is a great feeling knowing that you’ve achieved and physically bettered yourself.”
