Putting the Powerlifting World on Notice (w/Hunter Henderson)

I think a lot of people have crap diets and they don’t put an emphasis on health. I think health should be your number one priority. If you don’t have health, then you can’t have that 600 pound deadlift. You can’t have this world record squat.

Welcome to the “BarBend Podcast,” where we talk to the smartest athletes, coaches, and minds from around the world of strength. I’m your host, David Thomas Tao, and this podcast is presented by barbend.com.

Today, I’m talking to Hunter Henderson, a record setting powerlifter. A heads-up that we recorded this podcast before the current US Open, a competition where hunter won her weight class with a commanding performance and took home a few records as well.

Hunter has an interesting focus on cardio for recovery, which is something a lot of strength athletes can learn from. I do want to take a second to say that we’re incredibly thankful that you listen to this podcast. If you haven’t already, be sure to leave a rating and review of the BarBend Podcast in your app of choice. Now let’s get to it.

Hunter, thanks so much for taking the time to join us today. You came to our attention through some pretty impressive feats of strength that were getting a lot of buzz online. Congrats on the recent training progress. How are you feeling, and what are you training for right now?

First off, thank you for having me. It’s awesome to talk to you guys. Right now, I’m currently in prep for the current US Open. That will take place in about 19 days.

You’re very specific. I like it.

Yeah, nobody’s counting. Whatever. [laughs]

About 19 days, 4 hours, and 17 minutes exactly.

Yeah, about that. This is my first wrap to meet. I’ve never competed in wraps before. I’ve only been in sleeves up until now. This will be my fifth meet so far. Yeah, fifth.

How long have you been training a powerlifting?

I just hit my three year mark. Just hit three years. Before this, I did…kind of like a bodybuilder. I did a lot of high reps, a lot of AMRAP supersets, drop sets, stuff like that, but I did not eat like a bodybuilder at all.

Had no direction, no coach, had no idea what I was doing. I was just a gym rat. That’s how I built my base.

 That’s the thing. It’s fun to train like a bodybuilder. It’s a lot less fun to eat like a bodybuilder. I think that’s the important part of the equation.

Yeah, no fun at all, no. I had no idea what I was doing back then and then just randomly one day I was on social media and I saw a video of Stacy Burr. She was deadlifting at the 2017 Current US Open. Up to that point, I had absolutely no idea what powerlifting was.

I didn’t even know that it existed. I just watched her and I was like, “Man, I want to try that. Want to do that.” I got connected to my coach and the rest was history, man.

Have you had the same coach for your entire career so far?

Yeah, same coach from day one, Ryan Sylva.

That’s pretty, I don’t want to say it’s rare, but it’s rarer than you might expect. You often see folks like to compete for a year and then they’ll switch coaches. Sometimes their coaches will be like, “Hey, I’m not used to training an athlete with your potential or something.” You don’t see people sticking with the coach for that long always.

 I completely agree with you. I see a lot of people like, “Oh, I’m back with this person or I decided to train myself now and…”

 …which is never the right answer by the way.

No. God, no. it’s like as soon as people don’t have that immediate success or they don’t lose 20 pounds in a week, they’re like, “Nope, we’re done. Jump ship can’t do it.”

“I switched coaches of dropping four weight classes and I need to add seven kilos to my total, and I have three weeks of prep.” That’s the key. I also think that it’s interesting. This is not like look people switch coaches for a variety of reasons. They might be moving.

It’s completely illegitimate, but I will say the thing that has gotten to me a little bit is like changing coaches, it’s like a big reveal on social media. It’s almost like a gender reveal for an unborn child.

That is amazing that you said that, because I literally feel the same way. They make like this big thing out of it. Like, “Oh my God. I’m coached by so and so and I’m like it’s great. Love that. Awesome for you.”

Again, if you switch coaches, you can have legitimate reasons for it. I’ve just sometimes a little like, the announcements confuse me a little bit because I’ve not only seen coaching change announcements like, “Oh, I’m changing gyms, or I’m changing programs. I’m competing with this person.”

What I started seeing is pre-announcement. I’ve seen now people who will post that they’re changing a coach and they’ll say, “Stay tuned, I’ll let you know where I’m going.” Then a few weeks later, they’ll post, like, “Here’s my new coach.” Does that need two announcement really?

Yeah, I feel like people take things a little too seriously here and there.

 [laughs] At the end of the day, it’s great that you seems like you and your coach have a great relationship.

We do.

Tell us a little bit about the decision to go to compete in reps because you’ve competed primarily only in sleeves.

Yeah. The 2020 [inaudible 6:24] I was in prep for that before it got postponed and then canceled. I got a couple of weeks of practice in reps, and then it got pushed off, whatever. This is my second time training in reps. It’s OK. It’s definitely not my comfort zone. It’s a little, just like a step outside my comfort zone.

I’ll be honest, the majority of this prep has been hard connecting everything. My knees were doing one thing my feet were doing one thing. It was a little disheartening because I was failing week after week. I had a win throwing in there, sprinkled in there, here and there. This past week, my body just figured it out finally.

Better late than never, but I enjoy it. Do I want to do it all the time? No. There’s just so much that goes into it. You got to have somebody wrap you, and all this stuff. I’m a pretty independent person. Having to rely on all these people to get me there is not my favorite thing.

Yeah, you have to find people in the gym just for your squat set.

Yeah, just to do something.

What something has been clearly going well, that’s your bench press progress?

I love bench.

OK, that’s pretty clear.

We tend to like what we’re good at, right?

Yeah, right.

In college, we’re in school, we like the classes that we get As in.

Yes. Absolutely.

Let’s talk about the bench. How is that going? What are some of your recent numbers? Most importantly, what is your target bench number? I’m going to ask for all your target numbers at the current. This podcast might come out after the current opens, so we’ll know how accurate we get.

[laughs] Yeah, bench has just blown up. I competed in September of 2020. The heaviest I bench there was 319. Last week I did 315 for a double. My best right now is 325 for a single. I would love at the meet to hit about 335-ish. I’m fully capable of that. Bench has just taken off this prep, and it’s really exciting to see.

I’ve gotten so confident with self handoffs and having 300 pounds on you. It’s a good feeling and it’s going really well.

I didn’t ask this at the beginning and I should have. What bodyweight category are you competing in for folks who might not know about your competition history?

 I typically compete in the 165-pounds or 75-kilo class. Eventually, I would love to compete in other classes probably go up to the 181s or even the 198s.

 I like the first thing you say is go up because…

Growing going down.

This is the floor. We’re only going up from there.

No, absolutely not. What’s? I don’t even know the weight class below 165. What is it? 148.

For you it doesn’t exist. Let’s put it that way.

No, it don’t.

Honestly, I think I weighed 148 in the fifth grade. I was junk. The thought of getting that low right now does not sound good at all. I’d probably have to lose some muscle to get down to that. No. Thanks.

I had a weightlifting coach who told me that if he could cut off my head I’d be a much better lifter, because I’d go down a weight class, and I wouldn’t talk back as much. That’s the perfect lifter you, don’t need that. It would get out of the way. Out of clean and jerk, I hit my chin once and he was like, “Look, if we got rid of your head, that’s no problem.”

What are some of your other target numbers for squat deadlift? It sounds like on the squat it’s been a little bit of a struggle to get used to the wraps. It’s a different movement. The physics changes when you’re in wraps.

Yes, it does. This past week I hit 625 for a single, which is really solid awesome. Love that. At the meet, I would love to hit in the 640-650 range somewhere in there. Then for deadlift is going to be exciting.

Exciting can be good. Exciting can be bad.

Exciting in a good way. For this meet, I would love to walk away with a 600 pound deadlift. I have attempted it in training, but I failed with maybe an inch or two to go. I think it’s definitely there, and I’m really excited for it.

There are very few women who can say they’ve deadlifted 600 pounds. Fewer still, if you take the strong woman category out of it. You take the straps out of it, fewer still. You can count them on two hands, definitely. Maybe on one hand. That’s a pretty historic mark if you could pull off that total.

Yeah, for sure. I honestly don’t know how many women have pulled 600.

This is something we should have better records of it at BarBend. There are a lot of late ’90s, early 2000s lifters, who would be deadlift specialists. There are more than I always think, but there still aren’t that many, especially in powerlifting.

Strong arm there are a few folks have done it like Andrea Thompson, very famously did. I think she holds the record now, it’s like 620 something, but again that’s using straps. It’s very different.

Yeah. I know CC Holocomb, her deadlift I believe is the highest female deadlift, I think it’s 622. I’m pretty sure it’s CC who has the best female deadlift.

Yeah, I think in powerlifting competition. The interesting thing about deadlift is you can never look at the super heavies to find the heaviest deadlift. You always have to look like one or two or sometimes three weight classes below that.

I want your thoughts on this. I’ve heard, A, sometimes it’s about the physics. For super heavies they can squat a house, bench a house, but they just have trouble getting the bar around their bodies.

The other thing I’ve heard too, this is something I’ve experienced when I’ve got my weights fluctuated. The lighter I am, the leaner I am, the better I can grip the bar. I was curious about your thoughts on that.

Honestly, I have never heard someone say that. The physics things, like the mechanics of it, being at a higher body weight. I could see that, absolutely. I’m sure that it’s probably a little harder to get down to the bar, and get into a good starting position. Easier to grab the bar?

Yeah. If you’re leaner, your hands can get a better grip. If you look at a lot of super heaviest lifting, they do tend to miss lift — this isn’t everyone — but you see a lot of super heavies miss lifts at the top on their grip. Because if you have more body fat on your hands. I don’t know, something to think about.

Very interesting.

We’re getting into the real powerlifting nerd stuff here.

Yeah.

All right. What is your training schedule, or I guess your training block been leading up to kern?

 It’s been pretty good. Everything’s gone really well. I feel like I train four days a week and then the other three days I do cardio, mobility, and stuff like that. I’m always doing something to get better.

What’s that split look like across those four days?

I train on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday.

What are you training each of those days? Do you have a different emphasis each of those days?

Yeah. I have two bench days, then Thursdays I deadlift, and then Sundays I squat.

Two bench days. OK. Clearly it’s paying off.

It is, very much is.

What kind of accessory movement are you doing in those sessions as well? Every time I record with powerlifter, we always get comments like, “You got to ask them about their accessory work.” Is this like that’s the magic bullet? I’m asking.

 I do a lot of bodybuilding stuff, lap pull down, triceps extensions, pushups, abs, all that stuff. I did a bodybuilding style after the main work is done. Yeah.

Let’s talk about cardio. You’ve posted about this on Instagram. You have a little bit more emphasis on cardio than I think a lot of people might expect for a powerlifter at your level. Talk about that and the role it plays in your training and your recovery.

I think it is so important for cardiovascular health. Just like recovery in general, if you are sitting on the couch and not moving your body, not stretching those muscles, you’re going to get tight, and you’re going to eventually get injured.

I utilize those three days that I’m not lifting weights, I utilize that time to go walk. Honestly, I just do incline walking for about 25 to 30 minutes, and that’s it. I’m done.

You’ve talked about a lot of things doing in bodybuilding style. That’s straight from the days of bodybuilding. You see everyone put on the sweats, they put an incline on the treadmill. They put the headphones on and they just go for 20, 40 minutes.

Yeah. I solely do this for a recovery purpose. I don’t do this for a fat loss or at least that’s not my emphasis. I’m not doing this for like a fat loss thing. It’s just solely for recovery and keeping the body moving, keeping myself healthy. That’s all.

More aerobic capacity is also going to help recovery between sets and over the course of a competition as well.

Absolutely.

Competition days are long days. We only see nine attempts on the platform as a spectator, but we’re not seeing all the warm up attempts. We’re not seeing all the times that you might have to re-warm up, because you’ve had too much time between attempts. It’s a lot of reps to put on your body over the course of the day.

It is. Powerlifting meets are long days, long days.

 I come from a weightlifting background. Weightlifters will complain about the length of competitions. I’m like, “Guys, guys, imagine you had another lift and three more attempts?” That’s how long it’s going to be.

What are some misconceptions do you think people might have about…That’s a misconception that weightlifters have about their own sport, that it takes forever compared to other things. It doesn’t. What do you think are some misconceptions folks might have about powerlifting from other parts of the strength world or just people in the general population?

That’s a good question. I like that.

That’s why I ask it. Always the tough questions here.

Misconceptions. I’d say that you can eat whatever you want and perform great. A lot of people have crap diets and they don’t put an emphasis on health. Health should be your number one priority. If you don’t have health then you can’t have that 600-pound deadlift. You can’t have this world record squat.

People just come into this with this idea that they’re going to be this huge monster. Super strong. They forget to check their blood pressure. They forget to get their labs drawn. People just have this misconception that it’s all performance. They kind of just leave their bodies behind, I guess.

People don’t put enough emphasis on health. They don’t put enough emphasis on the diet, and they pay for it.

You eat primarily Pop-Tarts, right?

That’s the stereotype people have about powerlifters. It’s Pop-Tarts.

We’re fat powerlifters.

If you don’t know, because you can’t be fat if you’re a powerlifter. That’s what I heard.

No, you cannot.

At least not in my world.

I told a friend of mine that as a stereotype. Which I don’t actually think is true. I know a lot of powerlifters here who follow very, very strict diet templates and care very much about what they put in their bodies. I did talk to a friend about this stereotype of powerlifters eating Pop-Tarts. They were about to join a powerlifting gym for the first time and work out there.

They went. The next time I saw them, I was like, “OK, How’d it go?” and they’re like, “Well, the stereotype you said was completely wrong. They weren’t eating Pop-Tarts. They were eating Uncrustables.”

Yeah. Sounds about right. What about the Sour Patch Kids?

Yes. Sour Patch Kids.

I see a lot of Sour Patch Kids.

Gummy bears. Sour Patch Kids, I like the flavor though. Gummy bears are too sweet, you need a little sour to cut that.

Another misconception. This has to deal with the ladies. Something that’s been on my mind a lot lately. This misconception that when a woman goes into powerlifting or any strength sport for that matter, that she loses her feminine side.

I see that a lot. Women don’t want to lift. They don’t want to become too muscular or anything so they’re afraid to try this awesome sport or learn a new thing. Another big misconception that I can see around strength sports is women and how they think that they are going to lose their femininity by going and lifting weights.

I think that every strength sport — we cover a bunch of different strength sports [inaudible 22:04] . I say all of them but there are some very obscure ones, we don’t cover that often. So I’m not going to say we cover every single one. I think this is something that in all strength sports you see.

Powerlifting is not right for everyone. Weightlifting is not right for everyone. CrossFit and they’re going to be mad at me saying, this is not right for everyone, right?

I agree.

If you do CrossFit, go ear muffs, put your hands over your ears for a second or go mute for a second. Not everything is right for everyone. However, we’re clearly believers that there’s a place for strength training in everyone’s fitness routine.

Absolutely agree.

At the same time, what I would push back and say is if you’re aiming for an elite level in any of these sports, it’s not necessarily…You have to give up a little bit of the focus on the health side because pushing yourself…

That far.

That far. It’s clearly not the healthiest decision.

Yes, I completely agree with you there, the water cuts all of it. That stuff’s not good. It’s not good. It’s so hard on your body.

If you hit an arbitrary number on the scale relative to your strength, you don’t wake up that day at competition weight, and suddenly you’re at your healthiest, you’re just not. You could be dehydrated, you could be fatigued, other parts of your life might be compromised. All sorts of things.

I do appreciate what you say about being a little bit more well-rounded and focusing on cardiovascular health as well, but a lot of people underestimate that. Just because someone can lift a bunch of weights, they don’t necessarily have the most well rounded health spectrum.

Agreed.

I just went on a diatribe there. Sorry to all the listeners. I do that every couple episodes. Who in powerlifting do you admire?

Man. Give me a second here.

No one clearly, you…

I like people.

I don’t necessarily look up to anyone. I did maybe when I first started powerlifting, I obviously looked up to Stacy Burr, I looked up to Steffi, I looked up to all these guys. Now that I am at this level, I don’t necessarily look up to anyone.

Who do you respect in this sport? Not that you’re necessarily chasing anyone but who do you respect?

Yeah. Christie Hawkins, she’s in my weight class. She’s an incredible person, and she’s obviously insanely strong. Brianni Terry. I think that she is an incredible athlete. As far as the guys go, I don’t really know.

That’s fair. [laughs] What about in other strength sports, if there’s a strength athlete, not in powerlifting, can be a weightlifter, crossfit, strongman athlete, arm wrestler, bodybuilder, if you could train with anyone from a different strength sport, who would it be and why?

Tia Toomey.

OK, great answer.

 Love her, adore her. I just love her mindset. I’ve heard her on a couple podcasts. Her mindset is just so spot on. I would love to be around her, train around her, and have her push me through a workout or something. That would be incredible.

You might regret that halfway through the workout.

I’m sure I would, I get my ass kicked. I know that for sure, but I just think she’s awesome.

That is a fantastic answer. Obviously I have to remind folks sometimes, even if you don’t like crossfit, she also went to the Olympics in weightlifting and won a Commonwealth championship in weightlifting. If you don’t like crossfit, she’s also very elite in this other strength sport. That’s something to celebrate as well.

Yeah, it is.

What about if you could compete in any other strength sport? I should ask, because some people have asked us and they’re like, “I’m going to be switching to weightlifting in a year or something.” If you could compete in any other strength sport, if you have plans to compete in any other strength sport, what would it be?

I don’t know if I ever would, but that strong man is pretty fun to watch. That would be cool to do at least once or twice.

It’s probably the one that has the most transferable base from powerlifting.

Yeah, just like brute strength and all this. That would be fun. I would love to compete in bodybuilding eventually. Other than that, I don’t think I would enjoy doing a crossfit workout.

Unless it was with Tia Toomey?

Yes, unless it was with Tia.

The one exception? [laughs]

The one time I would do it would be with her.

You going to do one, and you’re done.

Yeah, exactly.

Choose wisely.

I think you do see a lot of powerlifters going over to Strongman with a good bit of success. The thing they have to build is their speed and their work capacity because suddenly it’s like, “Oh. Pick this up cool, now run with it.”

Yeah. Now go run.

Press please. [laughs]

Some of the stuff they do is crazy.

I think people really underestimate the work capacity Strongman takes.

Oh yeah. Absolutely. We have a pretty good Strongman community at our gym. I just tried to log a couple of weeks ago, and I barely had any weight on that thing. My God, that was so hard. I don’t know how they do that.

Powerlifters always have to adapt to going overhead, right?

Yeah. That’s hard.

It’s got to feel foreign if you are in that range of emotions.

Yeah.

If you ever decide to compete in the Strongman, let us know. We’d love to cover that. It’s always interesting to see people kind of like…It’s almost like they have their sea legs the first time, powerlifters do something like that because suddenly it’s like you have to move. You can’t stay in one spot. You got to move around a little bit. It’s always fun to see. Hard to train for. Where is…

I’m sure.

 Where is the best place for people to follow along with your training? This will probably release after the Open, but if folks want to follow along with your training and upcoming competitions, best place for them to do that?

Best place is just Instagram. My Instagram name is hunter_marie24. I post all my training on there and you’ll be able to…

 …watch some clips from the meet on there. Yeah, Instagram is the best place.

Fantastic. Thanks so much for joining us today. It was a pleasure to get to know you a little bit better, and best of luck on the meet.

Thank you. Thank you for having me.