Being strong is a good feeling for Joe Mickelson. But giving advice and encouragement to help others become strong, that feels even better.
The 57-year-old Mickelson won his first world powerlifting championship 10 years ago, and he has since won 12 more titles as recognized by the World Association of Bench Pressers and Deadlifters, one of several international powerlifting federations. He competes several times a year and his accomplishments are meaningful, but he still gets greater satisfaction from helping others to excel.
“I really enjoy the human side of this,” said Mickelson, who lives in south Everett. “I train six or seven women, some older guys and some young people. I just enjoy teaching the sport and giving back to the sport what the sport has given to me.
“When you go to the gym and you lift a lot of weight, people see that and it can intimidate them. But if you share your knowledge, you can help them be successful. And if I can help somebody do better, that’s really important to me. It’s better than anything I do, for sure.”
A few years ago he began coaching a woman in her 50s who recently broke an age-group world record. “For me,” he said, “those kinds of things really make the sport fun.”
Mickelson, the operations manager for the Cascade Water Alliance, started lifting weights as a boy growing up in Seattle. He went on to play basketball at Mountlake Christian High School, where he was a 6-foot-3, 178-pound forward. Mickelson is still about 6-3, but the weights he began lifting more seriously after high school have increased his size to 308 pounds.
He generally trains six days a week with a combination of weight (three days) and cardio (five days) workouts. He is diligent about his diet, drinks plenty of water, gets ample rest and, very importantly, abstains from steroids.
“I’ve always been drug-free,” Mickelson said. “That’s always been my focus. When I was lifting as a kid it was legal to take steroids. You could go to the doctor and get it prescribed, but I never did that.”
Powerlifting is a sport that involves three separate events — the bench press, deadlift and squat. The WABDL competes in the bench press and deadlift, and Mickelson has seven world championships in the bench press and six in the deadlift in the 47-53 and 54-60 age groups.
He also has two world records for the combined bench press and deadlift, both in the 308-pound weight class and one in each age group — 1,036 pounds for 47-53 and 1,047 pounds for 54-60. “I’m actually getting stronger as I’m getting older,” Mickelson said with a smile.
And for all he has achieved, he still has other goals he wants to realize. His maximum competitive bench press is 563 pounds, “and I’d love to bench 600 pounds,” he said. “But I haven’t quite got it yet.”
In addition to his lifting, Mickelson is active in the sport as a leader and an advocate. He is the state chairman for the WABDL “and he is one of my top advisors,” said association president Gus Rethwisch.
Mickelson will be inducted into the WABDL Hall of Fame next year, Rethwisch said, and that honor “punctuates all that he’s done. The Hall of Fame is not just about lifting. It’s also about his leadership and his ability to recruit lifters for the federation. He brings in quite a few new lifters, so he’s very valuable to this federation.”
Even at 57, Mickelson believes he still has many more good years in powerlifting. In fact, one of the great things about the sport is that people can compete as long as their health permits. At the recent world championships, Mickelson said, a 90-year-old man set an age-group world record with a bench press of 200 pounds.
“This is the first sport I’ve ever competed in where the egos are left at the door,” Mickelson said. “There were world champions who helped me train and I was always impressed with that. … The camaraderie and friendships are way more important to me than the trophies and the championships.
“(Powerlifting) for me is about the journey, and it’s been a great journey,” he said. “I just feel younger when I do this. … And I love doing it. I love going to the gym, I love lifting weights, and I hope to keep doing it until I’m taken away.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
