It may not be easy, but it has become a labor of love.
Corinne Cook is an accountant by trade, but her passion lies beyond the numbers, and to a place where only the strong survive — literally.
The North Plains resident recently earned one of the Lifters of the Meet awards at the Oregon State Powerlifting Championships in Sisters, and despite being relatively new to the sport, she’s fallen in love with everything it brings to the table from the process, to the competitions themselves.
“I really enjoy the community,” Cook said. “It’s so diverse. You will meet people from all different backgrounds that do all different careers, and everybody treats each other with so much respect. And everybody cheers, no matter how much weight is on the bar.
“Even if you’re competing against somebody, you’re still their biggest fan because you know, eventually, really, what it’s about is you versus the weight on the bar.”
Cook took up powerlifting four years ago after a series of knee injuries steered her from CrossFit where she cut her teeth in the fitness competition world. But while the two sports are different, they are appealing to the 52-year-old for similar reasons.
“Both sports require incredible discipline,” Cook said. “They take a ton of focus, and they both speak to me because they’re both about building blocks and taking your training and absolutely leveling up slowly, one bit at a time.”
Powerlifting consists of three disciplines: bench press, deadlift and squat. Competitors open at a weight of their choice, then work their way up before three failed attempts end their turn. For example:
“They give you commands that they say start, so you can take the barbell down to your chest,” Cook said regarding the bench press competition. “You have to wait for them to say press, so they can wait a couple seconds. You have to hold the barbell on your chest, and then they say press, then without any downward movement you have to press it up, and then you have to wait for them to say rack before you put it back in the rack.”
After they’ve completed their three disciplines, they total the weight and record an aggregate score that goes against their competition. If that sounds like a long day, it is, but while both physically and mentally taxing, Cook said she’s energized by it — at least until it’s over.
“By the time you get to deadlifts you’re pretty tired, but by the time you stand up for your third deadlift, you’re just completely energized and jazzed to do it,” Cook said. “But I won’t lie, I usually sleep the whole drive home.”
Cook placed first in the Master’s 50-54 division’s 100kg weight class, finishing with a total weight of 285 kilograms (628 pounds), squating 102.5 kilograms, bench pressing 62.5 kilograms, and deadlifting 120 kilograms. The win helped her earn one of the competition’s Lifters of the Meet, but what also aided the designation that’s voted on by meet’s directors was Cook’s circumstances leading into the event, something the directors described as “inspiring.”
Prior to the meet, Cook — who is a horse owner and has long competed in equestrian — fell from her horse after an encounter with ground hornets, and after a stint in the emergency room, left the hospital with a neck brace and ankle boot.
“I messaged my coach and said, ‘gosh, I hope I can still compete,’” Cook said. “They just said that it was really inspiring that I still showed up and I still worked really hard, and I still did really well.”
Cook said that like with any athletic endeavor, powerlifting — like crossfit, which her husband Mike competes in nationally — brings with it an inherent risk of injury. But in addition to working hard, she works smart in an effort to avoid just that.
“My programming is really well thought out because I don’t want to get injured,” Cook said. “I do know other people who will go just balls to the wall, and they’ll get fired up, and they’ll be lifting days after a meet and I’ll see them get hurt. So I would just say anybody has the capacity to take that sport either way, and I think it depends on an athlete. You know who you are as an athlete and who your coach is to kind of rein that in.”
That doesn’t mean there still aren’t things left to chance, but Cook says that to this point, she’s benefitted more from the training and competition from a health standpoint.
“I would say any sport done improperly will take a toll, but this one has done nothing but make me stronger, and actually helped me,” Cook said. “I was supposed to have a second knee replacement, and so far between weight loss from being active and keeping it going, I have not needed the second knee replacement yet.”
Cook isn’t just a local standout either. She’s competed in national events as well, which brings a whole other element to the competitive arena.
“You’re on a national stage,” Cook said. “It’s YouTube Live. They have full on people sports commentating the whole time, and you can hear them. You walk out on stage into lights with cameras literally feet from your face. It’s a whole production.”
And did that bother her? Initially, yes. But after some early jitters, she figured out just how to go about her business even with all of those external distractions.
“So you do have to stay super focused, and you can’t let all those lights get to you because the one time I did, I went too fast,” Cook said. “I jumped the command and went too soon, so I had all red lights. It didn’t matter that I lifted the weight. You must show control.”
How long does Cook plan to compete? Your guess is as good as hers, but as of now she sees no end in sight. After-all, she still has stuff to accomplish.
“I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon,” Cook said. “I’m enjoying myself too much and I still have goals to reach.”
