Para powerlifting is a test of upper body strength, for people with a range of lower body disabilities.
Lying down on your back, you get three attempts to unrack or receive a weight at arm’s length, hold it steady, bring it down to your chest on a start command, pause it and press it back up again, holding it until commanded to rack. Two out of three referees need to give you a white light to score a good lift (and that means no lifting of the head, no lifting of the bum, no downwards movement of the bar after pressing up, and no wonkiness.)
There are a few differences from the bench press discipline you’d see in able-bodied powerlifting competitions:
- the bench itself is different, being longer and wider. Legs (if you have them) are as flat as possible on the 2 metre bench, and can be strapped down.
- weights are in whole kilograms.
- while there has to be a visible pause on the chest, the referee does not give a press command, only the start and the rack commands.
- the bar has to rise evenly. It’s technically more difficult, as the entire upwards movement must be even, and the lift has to finish with equal extension of both the arms with locked elbows.
All athletes compete in the same sport class–though split by weight categories. If it’s in strict bodyweight categories (there are 10 for women ranging from <41kg to 86kg+) it’s down to who lifts the most kilograms; if it’s a smaller comp with wider weight ranges (light and heavy) then the winner is decided by AH points (multiplying a bodyweight-based co-efficient by the kilos lifted). International standards are incredibly high–with a remarkable percentage of women lifting twice their body weight, and men tripling their weight.
Want to see some of the best and strongest bench pressers in the world? There’s a huge collection of videos from Para Powerlifting internationals.