Lila Sweet is known for putting a lot on her plate. As a political science student on the pre-law track at Michigan, Sweet balances a heavy school workload in addition to other responsibilities.
However, the weight of her work at school often pales in comparison to the weight that she lifts in the gym.
Stacking several plates on the barbell when she works out, Sweet is an avid powerlifter and proud member of the University of Michigan Powerlifting Club (UMPL), an organization that aims to introduce students to the sport. Sweet heard about the club before coming to Michigan, submitted an application to the university and joined UMPL immediately upon her arrival in Ann Arbor.
She is now one of seven women on the team competing in the Collegiate National Championship next weekend. Despite powerlifting for only a year, Sweet has already cemented herself as one of the strongest women in the state.
Her qualification at nationals highlights her dedication to the sport and her remarkable success so far. The journey to this success is a culmination of different factors, one of which was her family.
“My role models are both my grandmas,” Sweet told The Michigan Daily. “My Oma, my mom’s mom, she has had ALS for over 40 years now. Her ability to speak isn’t as great as it used to be. So, one of the reasons why I wanted to get stronger is because when I have the time when I’m back home, I want to be able to help her. That means helping move her around. That means helping her get out of bed.”
Helping Oma move swiftly around the house is one benefit of her powerlifting. Sweet not only spends quality time with her grandmother, but also uses her strength to physically and metaphorically lift up her loved ones — including the ones who powerlifted before her.
“My other grandma, my dad’s mom, she was a weight lifter for a long time, actually,” Sweet said. “While she never competed, she did train powerlifts, and so I really wanted to prioritize my longevity of health and my ability to move.”
While strength evidently runs in the family, Sweet’s consistency in the gym is a key factor to her success. Her workout routine is both regimented and fluid. She regularly ventures to the North Campus Recreational Building four times a week, where she often meets with a personal trainer, Thomas Coons, who is a PhD candidate at the University of Michigan.
Coons regularly works with Sweet to structure her workouts around her goals. Her gym sessions range between an hour and a half to two hours, including a series of heavy compound exercises like squats, bench press and deadlift.
Sweet is intentional with the decisions she makes in the gym, studying her form to make sure she’s performing the exercise correctly and resting for a couple minutes between sets to allow her muscles to recover. Her precision is one of the many reasons her workouts quickly translate to results in the weight room. Today, Sweet can deadlift 265 pounds without a gym belt for assistance.
According to Sweet, her strength is not only beneficial in the weight room but also at home.
“You know, when future suitors, men or women, try to tell (my younger sister) they’re really strong, she can tell them that it’s not impressive because her sister can lift more,” Sweet said.
Although Sweet is now capable of lifting more than most, the process to achieve this level was arduous. Back pains and bad breakups marred the early days of her powerlifting career. She had to learn how to pick herself up and take care of herself before she could successfully pick up the heavy weights before her.
Her experience at the 2025 Michigan State National Championship exemplifies this. Following a tumultuous break up with her ex-boyfriend the month before the meet, Sweet found herself at a loss for words. Her mental health spiraled, causing her to distance herself from her loved ones and stop eating due to stress. By the time the championship rolled around, Sweet checked in five pounds lighter than her typical weight class, a physical manifestation of the mental struggles she faced.
The nature of competition compounded these issues. The event allows each athlete three separate chances to complete the exercise presented before them. Sweet struggled early on with the squat and bench exercises. She failed on the first and second attempts, placing tremendous weight on the third and final attempt.
“My coach basically told me to lock in,” Sweet said. “He didn’t tell me how much weight was going to be on the bar in that final deadlift, because he said, ‘We’re going to put the missing weight that you needed to qualify for collegiate nationals on your final deadlift, and you’re going to go up there and you’re going to lift it.’ So I did.”
At her lowest point, Sweet found a way to raise the bar. And she raised it high enough to qualify for nationals with her final deadlift in the event. UMPL later went on to win the Michigan State Championship, and Sweet proved to be one of the reasons why.
Her qualifying totals from the weekend seem inconceivable to the layperson. She squatted 279 pounds, benched 152 pounds and deadlifted 330 pounds. Put together, she lifted 345 kilos, which is roughly 776 pounds.
“She is very much a perseverer,” Marley Dodenhof, the President of UMPL, told The Daily.
The moment is an incredible demonstration of physical power. But her emotional fortitude in this moment is perhaps even more admirable. Through lifting, she turned pain into power. She drew inner strength from a sport she loved, revealing another, more personal reason for starting this journey.
“For many, many years, I struggled with my mental health and an eating disorder,” Sweet said. “As cliché as it sounds, powerlifting really helps take away the mentality of food as a reward when I train, when I lift, and when I exercise. I used it more as like ‘If I don’t eat or if I don’t properly fuel myself, I will not get stronger.’ It really, really saved my mental health in terms of how I look at my body as a machine rather than something that needs to be idolized by a certain scope of people. So, I do it for me.”
Sweet may lift weights because she loves her grandmothers and wants to help them in any way she can. She may powerlift because she wants to act as a bodyguard for her little sister, who’s navigating the dating world. But most importantly, Sweet lifts heavy weights because she wants to. That choice, lifting simply because she can, is where the real power of powerlifting lies.
And it’s something that she wants other people to enjoy as well. Sweet is on the E-Board of UMPL this year, designing merchandise for members to sport around campus and on the way to competitions. She also assists Coons by helping him train other members of UMPL, inspiring and motivating the next generation of lifters in the process.
“I think she is a woman that other people, other girls on the team, can look up to, especially in your first year of powerlifting,” Dodenhof said.
Through her leadership in UMPL — and her willingness to push her limits on the platform — Sweet sets a strong example for female powerlifters. And if her journey is any indication, her legacy with UMPL will extend beyond the accolades to the empowered female athletes she inspires along the way.
