Back on October 18th, Oroville powerlifter Joel Anderson finished 5th overall at the WPO Super Finals in York, Pennsylvania out of 30 men’s competitors. But, the 4-year journey to get there took nonstop discipline, working out and cutting down nearly 25 pounds of weight.
OROVILLE, Calif. – An Oroville gym owner recently finished with a top spot at the World Powerlifting Super Pro Finals in Pennsylvania last month.
Back on October 18th, Oroville powerlifter Joel Anderson finished 5th overall at the WPO Super Finals in York, Pennsylvania out of 30 men’s competitors.
But, the 4-year journey to get there took nonstop discipline, working out and cutting down nearly 25 pounds of weight. “[My] First worlds, the top lifters that I’ve grown up to watch and learn from…I’m now on the same stage. It was pretty neat” Anderson described.
After getting into a serious car accident when he was younger, Anderson lived with back pain for years.
Then, at 31 years old, he decided to take up powerlifting as a way to rehab his back instead of surgery or modern medicine. “I feel like, especially lower backs in the world today, there’s a lot of people walking around in pain and I wanted to fix it. Or, at least let people know there’s another way” he explained.
Soon after seeing progress in his back and the rest of his body, Anderson started being asked by his friends and other parents if he could train their kids to powerlift.
Anderson says after training young athletes out of his garage for a little while, he decided to expand to his own gym and opened ‘Relentless Barbell’ on Oro Dam Boulevard soon after. “It [then] progressed into teaching the younger generation how to lift properly technique wise so that they don’t get hurt in the gym, and then they miss out on their sport of choice” Anderson told me.
After discovering how much he loved teaching, Anderson started inviting student-athletes not only to train with him, but also read the same books he did when he was recovering from his injury, and challenge themselves. “I focus strongly on finding the individual’s weakness point and then attacking that” Anderson said of his coaching ability.
Anderson says besides more competitions, he’s looking forward to continuing to mentor other athletes, and show them that weight lifting can be used for more than just individual achievements. “I just wanted to give what powerlifting and weight training gave to me, which was another chance at life” he said.
“A good, healthy life.”
