The Kingdom and the Powerlifting and the Glory

Kevin Vost

When you’re figuring out how to live a holy life, lifting extremely heavy weights—powerlifting—might not be the first place you’d think to go for inspiration. You might even think powerlifting is vain, an obsession with good looks or superior physical strength as a detriment to personal holiness. But I’m here to tell you that’s all wrong . . . and one of the Church’s greatest saints and minds would agree with me.

I write this piece from experience as an Olympic weightlifter (performer of the overhead lifts called the snatch and clean and jerk), powerlifter (performer of squats, bench presses, and deadlifts), and now, as a would-be strongman senior citizen. Back when I was in second grade, I was mesmerized by a weightlifter I saw on TV (perhaps during the 1968 Olympics). I asked my dad for a set of barbells, and he happily complied. I was “bitten by the iron bug,” as older lifters used to call it, and even today, fifty-four years later, I lift almost every day. (I just heard the voice of my 35-year-old son, who has arrived to hoist barbells and dumbbells in our garage gym. I’ll have to go out in a bit and monitor his form on his heavy sets.)