Features Reporter
Clint Imlay pushes a loaded bar off of his chest during the bench press competition Wednesday.
Photos by Clinton (Buddy) Brown
Pushing a bar loaded with weight from the tip of your sternum straight up in the air is a triumph known as the bench press, a feat of strength performed at events like the Olympics, the NFL Combine and the World’s Strongest Man competition.
Last Wednesday, the Exercise Physiology Research Club brought the event to the CMU varsity weight room in search of the student who could lift the heaviest total weight and the student who could lift the most in relation to their body weight.
EPRC Vice President Ryan Teal explained that the competition was set up by the club as a fundraising opportunity and a chance to conduct exercise science tests in preparation for the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) conference in Denver.
“Every dollar we earn from this competition is going towards traveling to the ACSM conference,” Teal said. “For us to show up at that conference already having experience using equipment that normally is only used in graduate schools is pretty phenomenal.”
Students of all ages, sizes and genders came down to the varsity training room in hopes that their explosive strength would earn them a first place trophy and the title of the strongest Maverick. Each contestant had 10 minutes to reach his or her one rep maximum weight. Along with the time constraint, each was also required to meet the criteria set by the EPRC members, which included the stabilization of the shoulder blades, lower back, and both feet during the press. Failure to keep any of those points flat during the lift resulted in disqualification.
The tone was set in the first wave of competition as senior exercise science major Paul Manzella maxed out at an impressive 365 pounds After his performance, Manzella held the top position in both absolute strength and relative strength for most of the competition, until a worthy adversary took his place.
Junior exercise science major Clint Imlay, sporting a short-sleeved X-men wolverine t-shirt, lived up to the reputation of the mutant superhero as he heaved up a whopping 375 pounds above his body to snatch the lead. Imlay’s superior strength was unmatched by any other competitor, which gave him the victory in the category of absolute strength. Imlay said that his motivation to participate was simply for the competition.
“I used to play football, but haven’t really had any sort of competition since I stopped,” Imlay said. “I really just wanted to compete.”
Despite being bested by Imlay, Manzella did not walk away empty-handed. He took home the 1st place trophy for showing the most relative strength based on his lift compared to his weight. He explained that his success in bench press in the past gave him plenty of confidence going into the contest.
“I had never seen anyone bench press more than me before,” Manzella said. “I also had never hit 365 pounds before today, so I feel like I did pretty well.”
In the female division, one competitor stood above the rest after posting a 180 pounds one rep max. Holly Lepro, a freshman biology major and member of the CMU track team, took home first in both categories in dominant fashion. She described her performance as an improvement from her last outing but still not up to her full potential.
“My goal coming into this competition was to lift more than my last bench press competition, which was 170 pounds,” Lepro said. “I still feel like I could have done better, but I’m happy with my improvement.”
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