There’s something about the first year of competition and record-setting performances.
Okotokian Chase Weigel has added to his considerable bodybuilding resumé with a world record and five titles at the 100% RAW World Lightweight Powerlifting Championships in Virginia Beach.
“I have this habit of coming in as a rookie and ending up at the world championships,” said Weigel, a 2004 Holy Trinity Academy graduate. “I always joke that my sport life seems to be very Forrest Gumpy.”
Weigel, competing in the sub-165-pound weight class, established the world record with a 525-pound pull in the squat and came close to the total weight lifted world record as well.
“I came in with the goal of shattering the record by almost 100 pounds, because in training I was able to quite handily do it,” he said. “If I hit the numbers I wanted, I would have been able to hit the third heaviest squat in my age class this year in the world, regardless of federation.
“I was a little bummed not to do that, but still came in and broke the current world record and just missed the total weight lifted one by a math error.”
Weigel, who isn’t coached, said he was accidentally going off the record for the higher weight class on total weight lifted and ended up putting more weight on the bars than was required and then missed his mark.
“They give you about 45 seconds to pick your next weight and I came out and looked at the wrong column,” he said. “That one’s going to bother me, but in the end I got one world record and five Canadian records.”
On top of his success in the squat, his Canadian records include total weight lifted, deadlift, open regardless of age class in the squat and in the single lift categories for deadlift.
The record-setting performances happened nearly five years to the day Weigel made his mark on the bodybuilding stage, earning the 2018 NPAA Canada Classic overall championship and WNBF Calgary Naturals Men’s Overall championship, and being ranked sixth as a professional.
“It was definitely interesting to go the other side of the platform where instead of flexing, I pick up some heavy circles,” he said. “It was a neat little transformation. I did my first powerlifting contest in Medicine Hat in April, ended up setting a Canadian record in the squat and unknowingly qualified for world championships.
“I just figured let’s just go for broke.”
The regimen to get ready for worlds included four days per week training in his basement along with dieting and a pretty significant weight cut using every tool at his disposal.
Chase sought expert tips from his brother Blake, well versed in cutting weight as a Muay-Thai fighter, and soaked in scalding hot water in a hotel bathtub for 10-minute intervals before wrapping himself in towels, resting and repeating.
“I called him up and said, ‘What’s the protocol? What did you do, what worked, what sucked,’” Weigel said. “And he basically said anything you’re going to do is going to suck, but the whole goal is to get as much back into your body as you can after.
“I got out of there and drank 12 litres of water that day and ate about 8,000 calories during the day, predominately sugar and salt to try and get my weight back up.”
Weigel, a former nationally ranked athlete in long-track speed skating, is new to powerlifting competition, but far from a novice in the foundational lifts of squat, bench press and deadlift.
The latter is an area he’s still hoping to improve.
“I am naturally competitive, but the nice change up for me, just like when I was a competitive speed-skater, is weights don’t lie,” said Weigel, a math teacher by trade. “There’s nothing subjective about it, 500 pounds is 500 pounds, it’s not how you picked it up, did it look better, if you have a nice smile.
“It’s just you won because you lifted more than the person next to you.”
Another welcome change is many times the person next to you is not only a competitor, but your biggest supporter in powerlifting.
“I’m used to competitive sports being very cutthroat and people being like, ‘Good, you messed it up, now’s my chance,’” he said. “But there it was more if you mess it up, you’ve got it next time, maybe try this or here’s a technique tip from someone that’s trying to beat you.
“It’s a very cool spot to be in and it’s something I’ve realized I can do further on in life and knowing that it’s a very happy, welcoming community just makes it that much easier.”
