How CrossFit saved Powerlifting from the Magical Shoes

My Sport Was Committing Slow Suicide

My sport was committing slow suicide. Powerlifting was dying a deserved death. Then, at death’s door, the greatest strength sport ever invented was given CPR and revived by the most unlikely of saviors. How CrossFit saved powerlifting. But I am getting ahead of myself...

The Magical Shoes Analogy

Imagine if someone invented magical shoes that, when worn, enabled any runner to run faster — way, way faster, as in 20% faster. A man that ran the 100-meter dash in 11 seconds, a good time for a high school sprinter, could put on the magical shoes and run 8.8, faster than Usain Bolt. This 20% improvement could be realized by anyone that had the $300 to purchase the magical shoes.

Other shoemakers jumped in and a shoe war broke out. Breakthroughs in shoe technology enabled sprint-shoe makers to improve upon the initial 20% improvement. The logical thing would be for the governing track and field body to step in and ban the shoes. However, shoemakers use their lobbyists to ply sports officials with cash, gifts, junkets, and expensive meals. The fix is in and the shoes stay legal.

Now that the shoes are sanctioned and here to stay, a nuclear arms race in shoe tech begins. New breakthroughs occur every six months and within five years shoe users are able to run 100 meters in seven seconds — a 36% increase. Like 4,000-horsepower dragsters, man and tool are melded into one. The magic-shoed cyborg runners set 100-meter dash records that are pure science fiction. Oddly, the shoe-wearing runners, when forced to run without the shoes, are slower, way slower, than sprinters were before the shoes came along.

How Supportive Gear Changed Powerlifting

This nightmare actually occurred in the sport of competitive powerlifting. Back in the 1970s, powerlifters discovered that they could lift more in the squat if they wore knee wraps and a weightlifting belt. Officials were indifferent and supportive gear got a toehold. In the mid-1970s, a few grassroots companies sprang up catering to an emerging powerlifting supportive-gear market.

Thick powerlifting belts appeared, massive and wide. These belts were revolutionary in that they were wide all the way around, not just in the back. This wrinkle made squatting easier because most lifters bend forward on the squat descent, and the wide belt in front gave the lifter something to push against and expand against. Knee wraps slowed the descent and attained a coiled-spring effect at the bottommost turnaround point, when descent became ascent.

Knee wraps became increasingly springy and sophisticated. Old School powerlifters had used pathetic ace bandages, brown stretch material found in a first-aid kit, for knee wraps. The new breed of knee wraps was made from highly elastic stretch material that could be cinched incredibly tight around the squatter’s knees. The big belt and knee wraps, when worn together, added 100 pounds to a 500-pound raw squat. Remember the 20% bump the magic shoes gave the mythical runner? Knee wraps and a lifting belt added 20% to many a man’s raw squat. But we’re just getting started...

The next “breakthrough” was the invention of the squat suit. Someone got the idea to create a singlet made of thick, restrictive material. The suit fit like a girdle with straps and made squatting way easier. The 500-pound raw squatter that added 100 pounds with knee wraps and a belt added another 50 pounds with the addition of a properly fitted squat suit. Our 500-pound raw squatter is now a 650-pound squatter. We have added 30% to “raw” squat, real squat ability.

In the intervening decades, knee wraps got much better. Squat suits got much better. Many powerlifting organizations allowed extra-length knee wraps to be used. Wrap length had been legislated to a maximum of ten feet and now newer organizations said, the hell with that — you can use any length knee wrap you want. Some lifters were wrapping their knees with 15- to 20-foot-long knee wraps. Squat-suit technology went ape-crazy. The modern fully geared squatter wears a super-restrictive half suit, a pair of shorts made from restrictive stretch material. Over the top of the half suit the modern squatter wears a canvas suit with adjustable-length straps.

In an effort to make squatting easier, someone invented a device that eliminated having to “set up” squats. Classically, a lifter ducked under the squat bar in a squat rack, stood erect, then stepped back and assumed the start position. Now, using this expensive device, the lifter positioned his feet, stood erect, and a cradle swung away, leaving the lifter free to descend. The walkout-avoidance device was promoted as “safer” in that it eliminated the “dangerous” walkout, which presupposed there was some epidemic of catastrophic walkout accidents, which there were not. The device enabled big lifters to lift weights they would be unable to walk out and set up.

In a final effort to make barbell squatting easier, the judging was corrupted. Squats four to six inches above parallel were now routinely passed. Add it all up — the weight belt, extra-length knee wraps, multiple squat suits, walkout avoidance, and corrupted judging — and you create a 40% increase over a man’s raw squat. If a 500-pound, below-parallel raw squatter used full battle gear, no walkout, and was allowed to squat four inches above parallel, he could squat 700 pounds, no problem.

This represents a 40% increase in squat poundage handling ability. Double the gains of the magic shoes. Remember how even in our wildest sci-fi imagining of the magical shoes, we strained credulity by dreaming that shoe wearers could run seven-second 100-meter dashes? This is a mind-blowing 36% increase. Our real-life geared-up powerlifter obtains a 40% performance bump.

The Bench Shirt Version of the Magical Shoes

Results derived from using a version of the magical shoes in the bench press produced even more spectacular results. In Marty’s original example, the all-time equipped bench press record stood at 1,102 pounds, this from a man with a 700-pound raw bench press: a whopping 57% increase over raw, shirtless capability.

Bench shirts are made of material so restrictive that a major problem for properly shirted bench pressers is they cannot pull the loaded barbell down to touch the chest. Imagine a device so restrictive that a man with 800 pounds loaded on a barbell cannot get that weight down to touch his chest, this despite him pulling downward with all his might on 800 and to no avail. A common cause for disqualification in shirted bench press competitions is inability to touch the chest. Imagine the amount of coiled energy ready to be released. In a bizarre turn of events, the shirted bench press records exceeded the all-time deadlift records in many weight classes.

CrossFit and the Raw Powerlifting Revival

Then a weird thing happened. My dying sport, splintered, fragmented, diluted, inflamed, exaggerated, and corrupted, got a blood transfusion from an unexpected source: CrossFit. Powerlifting competitions suddenly and unexpectedly began to see a flood of new competitors. However, these competitors were not interested in competing in geared powerlifting. Instead, this new influx of neophyte powerlifters wanted to compete in raw powerlifting.

Raw powerlifting, in the sense praised here, was the category wherein lifters lifted without squat suits, bench shirts, and the major supportive gear that had blurred the line between human strength and equipment assistance. At a national championship powerlifting competition a few years back, 65 geared lifters competed spread over ten weight classes. At these same championships, meet organizers cut off raw entrants when they reached 450. What accounts for this stampede of new athletes coming into raw powerlifting? It was CrossFit and its emphasis on Old School barbell exercises.

CrossFit-style barbell training helped expose new lifters to squats and deadlifts.

Image Credit: Kyra Milligan @quads.like.kyra

Why Squats and Deadlifts Mattered

CrossFit helped powerlifting by including the back squat and the deadlift in its progressive resistance regimen, legislating that these exercises need to be practiced and mastered. A whole lot of new people, nationwide and worldwide, were suddenly exposed to barbell squatting and deadlifting, many for the first time. A premium was placed on optimizing performance in the two lifts.

At the CrossFit Games you don’t get to squat wearing a squat suit and knee wraps. You have to go below parallel in CrossFit squatting. Turns out there are a lot of CrossFit athletes that decided one sure-fire way to up their squat / dead game was a dose of competitive powerlifting. Thus began a vital transfusion: new talent, both male and female, began entering Old School-style no-gear raw powerlifting competitions.

This miraculous turn of events took powerlifting back to its pure roots, back to a time when supportive gear was nonexistent and it was easy to tell which person was the strongest and who was the best. We needed to take off the magic shoes and find out who really was the fastest and who really was the strongest.

CrossFit put the emphasis right back to where it used to be and where it should never have left. Way back when the magic shoes were first introduced into powerlifting, the powers that be should have said, “Oh my God! No way will we allow supportive gear — how could you tell who was the strongest? That’s insane!” Thank God CrossFit decided squat and deadlift prowess were part of the archetypical athletic ideal: they saved my sport’s bacon.

Safety Note for CrossFit, Raw Powerlifting, and Supportive Gear

This article preserves Marty Gallagher’s RAW perspective on CrossFit, raw powerlifting, supportive gear, and the return to old-school barbell strength. It is not individualized medical, rehabilitation, CrossFit coaching, powerlifting coaching, rules interpretation, or programming advice.

Heavy squats, deadlifts, bench presses, supportive gear, knee wraps, powerlifting belts, squat suits, bench shirts, CrossFit-style barbell workouts and competitive lifting are not automatically appropriate for every athlete. Age, injury history, shoulder health, back health, knee health, hip mobility, cardiovascular status, blood pressure, medications, coaching, recovery capacity, technical skill, and federation rules all matter.

Build gradually. Warm up thoroughly. Learn the rules of the federation or event you enter. Use appropriate equipment, rack safeties, spotters, secure collars, and safe loading. Stop or scale back for sharp pain, chest pain, dizziness, faintness, unusual shortness of breath, numbness, uncontrolled bar path, repeated technical collapse, grip failure, failed warm-ups, or any symptom that feels different from normal training effort.

Equipment Notes for Raw Powerlifting and Cross-Training

The equipment does not create the lifter. The athlete, the technique, the rules, the logbook, and the willingness to strain honestly create the lifter.

For readers comparing broad training paths, IRON COMPANY has sections for cross-training and powerlifting. For the barbell work at the heart of this article, compare barbells, Olympic weightlifting bars, weight plates, barbell collars, and power cages and platform racks.

Specific tools such as the Legend Fitness 3121 commercial squat rack, SnapClips barbell collars, IRON COMPANY premium rubber bumper plates, IRON COMPANY heavy-duty deadlifting mats, and the IRON COMPANY Iron Cowboy Powerlifting Bar may fit certain training spaces when the lifter, room, floor, coaching, and intended use align.

The tool should clarify strength, not hide it.

Related Powerlifting Reading

For more Marty Gallagher writing on old-school powerlifting history, read When Powerlifting Giants Walked the Earth. For another raw-strength profile, read Forged Passion: Brad Gillingham.

RAW with Marty Gallagher, J.P. Brice, and Jim Steel Podcast. 

About the Author: Marty Gallagher

As an athlete Marty Gallagher is a national and world champion in Olympic lifting and powerlifting. He was a world champion team coach in 1991 and coached Black's Gym to five national team titles. He's also coached some of the strongest men on the planet including Kirk Karwoski when he completed his world record 1,003 lb. squat. Today he teaches the US Secret Service and Tier 1 Spec Ops on how to maximize their strength in minimal time. As a writer since 1978 he’s written for Powerlifting USA, Milo, Flex Magazine, Muscle & Fitness, Prime Fitness, Washington Post, Dragon Door and now IRON COMPANY. He’s also the author of numerous books including Purposeful Primitive, Strong Medicine, Ed Coan’s book Coan, The Man, the Myth, the Method and numerous others. Read the Marty Gallagher biography here.