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Podcast: Powerlifting Fact and Fiction with Bryce Krawczyk

Written by David Tao
Last updated on August 6th, 2023

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Powerlifter. Coach. Vlogger. Movie star? Bryce Krawczyk’s journey in strength started with his desire to bulk up, and it’s led him down a pretty incredible path. In this episode, Bryce Krawczyk shares his evolution from complete beginner to world record holding powerlifter and documentary subject in a groundbreaking film. Now a renowned coach and the face behind Calgary Barbell, Bryce is one of Canada’s top lifters and ambassadors in strength. It’s a journey he hopes will eventually take him to the World Games, a competition Bryce calls the “pinnacle” of powerlifting for athletes around the globe.

Bryce and host David Tao also dive deep on misconceptions around the sport of powerlifting — especially when it comes to raw vs. equipped lifting — and why Canadian powerlifters have some of the best nicknames in the sport.

They also discuss the inspiration behind Bryce’s popular “So You Want to Be a Powerlifter?” video series and Bryce’s best advice for making the most of your first competition experience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hR0tbS5gfE

In this episode of The BarBend Podcast, guest Bryce Krawczyk and host David Thomas Tao discuss:

  • Bryce’s history in powerlifting and growth from beginner to world record holder (2:34)
  • How Bryce fell in love with competing in the sport — and how he bounced back from his first-ever bomb out (5:50)
  • Bryce’s first experience with equipped powerlifting and how he’s used that version of the sport to train with and around injury (8:50)
  • The most common misconception about equipped lifting (SPOILER: It’s not easy!) (11:33)
  • His foray into strength content creation and the growth of Calgary Barbell’s amazing YouTube channel (seriously, check it out!) (13:36)
  • Bryce’s advice for first-time powerlifting competitors — and why you should be SOCIAL at powerlifting meets (19:18)
  • “The Powerlifter” documentary and how Bryce ended up in a starring role (23:58)
  • Would Bryce do ANOTHER documentary? (27:13)
  • Bryce’s preparation for the World Games and what it means for the future of his powerlifting career (29:20)

Relevant links and further reading:

Transcription

David TaoDavid Tao

Welcome to the “BarBend” podcast where we talk to top athletes, coaches, influencers, and minds from around the world of strength sports. Presented by barbend.com.

Today on the BarBend podcast, I’m talking to Bryce Krawczyk, the owner and head coach at Calgary Barbell, a company dedicated to coaching services as well as educational and entertainment content via YouTube and Instagram.

He’s an IPF Classic world medalist, Canadian national champion, and IPF Open world record holder. He’s also a barbend.com contributor and the subject of a great new documentary titled “The Powerlifter.”

If you haven’t seen Bryce in Calgary Barbell’s content before, it’s truly top-notch. Their series titled “So You Wanna Be A Powerlifter?” was a hit on multiple platforms, including their YouTube channel and a written series on BarBend.

Bryce makes powerlifting fun, funny, and accessible to just about anyone. I’m excited to dive in to what motivates him, both as an athlete and an influencer in the sport. Just a quick reminder, if you’re enjoying the BarBend podcast, make sure to leave a rating and review in your podcast app of choice.

This helps us stay on track in bringing you the best content possible, week after week. If there’s someone you’d absolutely love to hear on a future BarBend podcast episode, let us know in your podcast review. I personally read each and every review so your suggestions will be seen.

Today on the BarBend podcast, I’m talking to someone who I’ve been following in the sport of powerlifting for a number of years. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with him on a few pieces of content for a BarBend, and that is record-holding powerlifter Bryce Krawczyk.

Bryce, thanks so much for joining the podcast today.

Bryce KrawczykBryce Krawczyk

Absolutely. I’m very, very happy to be here. I know we’ve had the opportunity to collaborate on a couple of things. It’s cool to have the opportunity to be in one of your inaugural episodes. I’m excited about it.

David TaoDavid Tao

We are definitely early on in the podcast recording process, but so far we’ve had a pretty diverse array of folks. I believe you’re our second or third powerlifter. Everyone’s been a world record holder at some point so far. You’re joining rarefied air.

Just to kick off, Bryce, a lot of people know you as a record-holding powerlifter, a content creator, the face behind Calgary Barbell. How did you get started in powerlifting? When was that?

Bryce KrawczykBryce Krawczyk

For me, powerlifting was…I kind of fell in love with just going to the gym and lifting. Some of that basic, “doing the damn thing” early on as a function of being unhappy with being a skinny guy. I was naturally scrawny, had a very slight frame.

I think I was looking back at an old training journal not long ago and seeing myself writing a celebration of hitting 160 pounds body weight. It started off as one of those things to try to be a bit more comfortable in the skin that I live in. Quickly realized just how much I liked to lift and how much I enjoyed the process of getting better at things.

Decided to try my hand at competing in something related to that. The bodybuilding for me just never appealed to me. It just didn’t check those boxes for me for a number of reasons. My boss at the time was actually a bodybuilder. I was working for a small personal training company.

He did some powerlifting in his off season. Said, “Why don’t you come try a powerlifting meet?” So I went to my first powerlifting meet in 2012. It was one of those light bulb moments. It just clicked. I was like, “This is my thing.”

I had never felt that way, even coming off the platform for my first squat. I had never had that kind of a rush before in my life. It immediately sunk in that this was something I was going to do a lot of. [laughs]

David TaoDavid Tao

That first meet back in 2012, what body weight were you competing at? Do you remember what your lifts were?

Bryce KrawczykBryce Krawczyk

I competed at 181 or 183. I think it was the 83 kilo category. My squat was about 190 kilos. Bench was somewhere in the 130 range. My deadlift was, I want to say, just over 500 pounds. So 230, 240 kilos.

David TaoDavid Tao

Just to give folks a reference point as to where you are now in body weight and numbers, we’re here in 2019, summer of 2019, what are you competing at? What are your best competition lifts as of now?

Bryce KrawczykBryce Krawczyk

I compete at 105. Currently in the process of moving up a weight class, so I’m a little bit heavier than that right now.

David TaoDavid Tao

105 kilos, just to clarify.

Bryce KrawczykBryce Krawczyk

105 kilos, yeah. 231 pounds. My best lifts in competition, raw anyways, are a 315 kilo squat. I think that’s 694 pounds. 182.5 kilo bench, which is 403, or 402 maybe, and a 375 kilo deadlift, which is, I want to say 840, 830. Somewhere in there.

David TaoDavid Tao

What’s the difference? I mean what’s 10 pounds when you’re deadlifting over 800, right?

Bryce KrawczykBryce Krawczyk

It’s a lot then. [laughs]

David TaoDavid Tao

 It’s a lot?

 

Bryce KrawczykBryce Krawczyk

It makes the difference between standing up and not. [laughs]

David TaoDavid Tao

 I promise I was being sarcastic there.

Bryce, you compete…Back in 2012, your first one, you get a rush coming off the platform.

Bryce KrawczykBryce Krawczyk

Absolutely.

David TaoDavid Tao

Did that open the floodgates and you wanted to turn around and compete again?

Bryce KrawczykBryce Krawczyk

To a point, yeah. It gave me enough to continue on with things. I did my second meet. I actually bombed on my second meet on the squat. I got called for depth on my first one, made some poor decisions on my second and third, and didn’t end up getting a squat in, but stuck with it a little bit.

After I moved to Calgary in Alberta, the big one that opened the floodgates was the first time I ever went head-to-head with somebody. It was for the provincial title. It came down to the last deadlift. It was very, very heated back and forth.

I fell in love on an even deeper level with that kind of competition within the sport because it was the first time I had experienced that. I did win. There were a lot of things there that opened the floodgates. Up to that point, it was cool and I enjoyed it. After that, it was like, “OK. This is my life now.” [laughs]

David TaoDavid Tao

 I have to say provincial title sounds so much cooler than the American equivalent, which is state champion. That’s a great accomplishment, but saying, “I’m the provincial titleholder,” it got such swagger to it.

Bryce KrawczykBryce Krawczyk

[laughs] Maybe it’s because there’s a number less provinces than there are states. Who knows?

David TaoDavid Tao

How many times have you been the provincial titleholder in Alberta?

Bryce KrawczykBryce Krawczyk

Maybe two or three times. Generally, when provincials come around, I referee because we have to participate. In Alberta, we have to participate in our provincials in order to go to nationals.

Most of the time, I choose not to lift at provincials and tailor my competition schedule to the bigger meets at this point, but yeah, so maybe two or three times I won provincials.

David TaoDavid Tao

Got you. Now, something you’re known for online and it shows through in a lot of content you produce. We’ve worked on some of this together for BarBend.

Some of the content Calgary Barbell puts out there is shining a light on the difference between raw and equipped powerlifting, some of the misconceptions folks have. How did your evolution in the sport come about when it came to transitioning from raw and then starting equipped powerlifting, basically?

Bryce KrawczykBryce Krawczyk

The big thing for me and, honestly, there was a real tipping point with that as well, I had seen equipped lifting and it looked cool. The prevailing mindset or prevailing school of training at the time when I first started into powerlifting in regards to equipped lifting was the Westside, multi-ply, super-wide stance, super-high squat, monolifted.

It was a very different kind of lifting and a very different attitude towards things. At the time, equipped lifting in the IPF, at least in this part of Canada, was very, very minimal.

I was exposed to a little bit of that, thought it was cool, and went and presented at a coaching conference alongside some great coaches. One of the coaches’ presentations was, “Hey, guys. This is what equipped lifting is.”

It was at that point that I thought, “Hey, I wonder if that would be something I wouldn’t like to try?” Got into it and immediately fell in love with it again. That was in the midst of some hip injury issues that I have been dealing with on and off for a number of years.

Being in the equipment, I had no pain. That was another big draw to it for me. It was another thing that I could get good at at a very quick pace. One of the things that drew me into lifting when I first started was that I saw so much progress. It was very exciting to see myself progress at that rate and addicting in some ways.

Getting into equipment was another learning curve. I was a novice. I didn’t know how to use the equipment. I couldn’t use the tight stuff. It was an opportunity for me to find something else within the sport that allowed me to push that much further and get that much further.

 

David TaoDavid Tao

I’ve heard a few other athletes talk about this. Blaine Sumner is one that comes to mind. He made his name as a raw powerlifter. Now, he’s one of the finest equipped powerlifters in the world, or definitely one of the best well-known as well.

He talks about equipped powerlifting as a mechanism to extend his training career and extend his competing career as well. Do you find some personal validity to that?

Bryce KrawczykBryce Krawczyk

I think so. Like I said, I know, for me, that I’d say 99 percent of the time, if I’m in a squat suit, I don’t get the usual hip pain that I have to be cautious with, and lift in such a way and be very conscious of my intensities like I do when I’m raw.

For me, it’s the ability to go out there and push hard and not have to worry about some of those other things. Being able to push in that movement, there’s enough literature about the psychological impact on pain and these kinds of things.

Being able to squat heavy and hard, and push myself, even with the use of a suit, has aided me in being able to stay training raw and do a better job of that training, push harder and hopefully, yeah, compete for longer. I definitely think there’s some merit to that idea.

David TaoDavid Tao

I know this is something you get asked a lot. I’ll definitely tell people at the end of this podcast and put it in the show notes to check out all the awesome content Calgary Barbell has on the subject.

What are some misconceptions do you think a lot of powerlifters, a lot of people in strength training and even raw powerlifters might still have today when it comes to equipped lifting and what that really means?

Bryce KrawczykBryce Krawczyk

The biggest misconception is that it’s easy. You put on these suits and, miraculously and all of a sudden, you can use it like an expert and get 100 kilos or 200 pounds on your squat. You get into this thing and, “Hey, everything’s easier.”

It’s so, so far from that. It’s a whole other learning curve. It takes you a long time to be able to use the stuff that is going to give you the benefits of being able to add that much.

It’s very much like a scaling ladder of, “OK, skills improved. Now, I can get into tighter equipment,” and then your skill increases. You can get into tighter equipment. It’s definitely not an easy thing.

David TaoDavid Tao

Got you. I do want to take a different perspective here because you’re not just a competitive and record-holding powerlifter. You’re a content creator. You’re a coach. Calgary Barbell puts out what I think is some of the best content in powerlifting, especially on the video side. How did you come to get involved in so many aspects of the sport, not just competing?

Bryce KrawczykBryce Krawczyk

The content creation and stuff like that…When I first began powerlifting, I was doing personal training. It logically followed. As I became a better lifter and educated myself further in this sport, I was able to begin coaching powerlifters at a more novice level and help introducing people to it.

As my skill as a coach grew, I worked with more and more advanced clients. That logically followed. In terms of the content creation, that was all meeting Dillon by chance. Dillon Jakovac is my business partner and the guy behind the camera for all of the Calgary Barbell content.

We lifted together. He was doing some vlogging and decided that his vlog content wasn’t what he wanted to be doing. He thought that he had a good grasp on the behind-the-camera stuff, but with him as the subject, he felt like it was falling short in some ways.

We decided to make some promotional stuff and some quick videos that very quickly turned into, “OK. Well, we can make our actual goal with this and try to produce more and more content.” It again caught on and snowballed from there, but that stuff’s all Dillon, man. [laughs]

David TaoDavid Tao

What is Dillon’s background? How did you all get linked up? You were training partners first?

Bryce KrawczykBryce Krawczyk

Yeah. He trained with another guy who goes by Fergie.

David TaoDavid Tao

That’s the most comedian powerlifting name I’ve ever heard, Fergie. What weight class is Fergie? Is he a super heavy?

Bryce KrawczykBryce Krawczyk

Fergie was a 120. He dabbled in the super heavies more than once but usually competed around 120. Fergie and Dillon had some classes together. Fergie and I got chatting one day in the hallway because I was wearing an EliteFTS sweater or something like that.

Anyways, we ended up training together for a while and getting to talking. It developed from there. Dillon has a kinesiology degree and wanted to get into…Physical therapy was his end goal, but ended up taking an elective which required him to do a film project.

It was one of those things that is like something clicked for him. He decided that was what he wanted to do, and then was able to make that connection between his kinesiology background and lifting and film through us creating Calgary Barbell.

David TaoDavid Tao

Let’s talk about that. Calgary Barbell, what is it? It’s not just a YouTube channel. You’re very much the face of it. If folks want to understand what is Calgary Barbell, what are all the services you offer for the powerlifting community, what’s the elevator pitch there?

Bryce KrawczykBryce Krawczyk

First and foremost, we’re a coaching company. It’s myself. I have four other coaches employed. We do personal training and one-on-one coaching, small group coaching, as well as a great deal of online coaching.

Secondly, it’s education. We do a lot of seminars and education on a novice and more advanced level, depending on the audience and that kind of thing. Lastly, that education branches into what we try to do with the YouTube content.

We sell some apparel. We are working currently on a program library that people can purchase programs from that will allow them a taste of what we offer in online coaching.

David TaoDavid Tao

Awesome. You all have some fantastic video series on YouTube. The one that we’ve worked together on the BarBend and Calgary Barbell site is “So You Wanna Be A Powerlifter?” where you break down all these steps. I’m sure that’s a lot of content that you would have liked maybe when you were first starting your powerlifting career.

Where do the topic ideas come from? Are these questions that people are reaching out to you about? Are these questions that maybe your training clients have? How are you coming up with these ideas?

Bryce KrawczykBryce Krawczyk

The biggest thing there, and you nailed it right there, was that it was the things that I wish I would have known going into powerlifting meet. It branches into some of the things that I thought were more advanced things that maybe…It would be good to be conscious of these things, but it’s not necessarily 100 percent necessary for you to know all of it.

I showed up to my first powerlifting meet. I had to revamp my bench press in the warmup room because I didn’t know that your head had to be down on the bench. I didn’t know you had to wrap your thumbs around the bar. I didn’t know that your heels had to be down.

As I’m warming up, people are looking at me like, “You can’t do this on the platform, dude. That’s not OK”

Through that and through also taking a lot of lifters to their first meets as a coach, and running through the gamut of, “OK. These are the rules. These are the calls. These are what the lights mean, etc., etc., etc.,” I thought that that would be a good resource to direct people to and say, “Here, take an hour out of your day and watch them all, or take 20 minutes a day for a week out of your life to go through this.”

Then you know, and you can ask me to touch on some of the finer points.” I thought that was something that would have a lot of value for a lot of people because the sport is growing at such a rapid rate. There’s a lot of first-time lifters.

On the coach and the referee side of things, it’s good when people come in and they’re like, “Yep, I know that. I know that. I got my rack heights. I have my open attempts in kilos. The numbers all make sense. I’m not trying to open with 51 kilos or anything like that.”

It’s just an attempt at helping to provide people with something that can leave them a bit more well-versed for their first trip to the platform.

David TaoDavid Tao

Something that you’ve touched on in your videos, and actually in conversations we’ve had just over email or over the phone, is advice you have for first time competitors. Especially those who might not have the luxury of having such an experienced coach like you in their corner.

What are some the main tips you might give to folks who are into powerlifting, thinking about competing, but maybe they don’t have a coach yet? Maybe they’re thinking, “Oh, I shouldn’t compete. I don’t have this whole support team behind me.” If someone’s going at it alone at that first competition, like your top three tips you might give them.

Bryce KrawczykBryce Krawczyk

Number one, I would say try to be a bit social. A lot of times if you can make a connection with somebody and be friendly, they can help guide you in some ways. Maybe their coach will help you sling plates in the warm up room. I know I’ve done it for people who are like, “Hey, man. Can I work in on that rack?”

They have a couple of very novice questions and things like that. It’s sort of like, “OK, we’ll kind of take you under our wing today. We’ll give you a bit of a hand.” Because I find the powerlifting community is really, really, great in that way. A lot of people are very willing to help out. Number two would be don’t worry about your weight class. That’s a huge, huge one.

People are, “Oh, should I cut 10 kilos for my first meet so I’m more competitive?” No, dude, just eat and drink as normal. Go in and compete as somewhere in the middle of a weight class. You’re not trying to maximize your lean tissue at that point. Just go lift and don’t do that to yourself. Lastly, would be, try to familiarize yourself with the rule book. At least, to some extent.

Take the time to understand how the meet’s going to run, what you’re going to called for, or hopefully not get called for, and how the order of things will go and what the referees do, and who to ask about what.

That would probably be the big one, or the big three there.

David TaoDavid Tao

You forgot the most important one which is come prepped with a powerlifting nickname. Fergie is already taken apparently.

Bryce KrawczykBryce Krawczyk

 [laughs] Yeah, if you got one of those, put it in quotation marks and try to get that on your lifter card so it shows up on the screen every time.

David TaoDavid Tao

 [laughs] Bryce powerlifting in 2012, Bryce powerlifting now in 2019, you’ve changed a lot. You’ve grown a lot. How do you think this sport has changed and grown in that time period?

Bryce KrawczykBryce Krawczyk

One of the cool anecdotes that I often go back to when I reminisce about the olden days, and I’m not that veteran in the sport, I understand that. There’s a lot of people who have been doing this for 30 or 40 years. In the time that I’ve seen, one of the big things is just the number of lifters at a meet and the number of people interested.

My second meet, I talked about bombing out of, that was Western championships. There was no qualifying total. There were maybe 12 or 13 lifters, I think total. There were probably two female competitors. You go to a meet now and it’s Western Canadians, I think, is coming up here in September.

There’s probably five or six hundred lifters. I would be very surprised if we weren’t 50 or even 60 percent female lifters. Those are probably the two biggest changes, are simply the number of people and the number of female competitors has greatly increased which I think are fantastic markers for progress in the sport.

David TaoDavid Tao

How do you think, all of the different infrastructures behind powerlifting, whether it’s gyms, gym owners, federations, where have you seen them succeed in keeping up with that growth and where do you think there’s still a lot of gaps?

Bryce KrawczykBryce Krawczyk

Again, I can speak maybe more to the gym side of things because I’ve been involved with our gym here in Calgary since its inception. A lot of people, as gym owners, there are two big mistakes. Number one, they try to start too big.

They try to take on this gigantic facility, outfit it with all comp spec equipment, and create this huge initial investment and overhead that isn’t sustained if you don’t have a community. As a gym owner or a prospective gym owner, definitely focus on the community first.

Secondly…I forget where I was going to go with that one.

That first one’s a big one. Maybe I covered it. Just concept there.

David TaoDavid Tao

The second concept is, rewind this podcast by a minute, listen to that first one again because it’s pretty important.

Bryce KrawczykBryce Krawczyk

 Yeah, [laughs] that’s probably the biggest one. Your eyes are bigger than your stomach kind of thing.

David TaoDavid Tao

Now I want to shift a little bit because something that some listeners might have seen and something that I hope all of the listeners to this podcast will check out after this, we wrote about it on barbend.com, is the documentary that you’re the star of, the power lifter. A fantastic documentary covers…

It goes really deep into your process, your competition preparation, you as an athlete. How did that come about and ultimately what’s it like watching a representation of yourself as an athlete on screen in that big format?

Bryce KrawczykBryce Krawczyk

It came about Dillon has, like I said, been involved in film and has his ear to the ground, has a couple of friends in the industry, or at least in art schools and that kind of stuff. We’ve found out about this Storyhive grant that Telus does and they give out a whole bunch of money to…I think it was 20 different entries and they do different styles.

This was a documentary. They have one for music video, they have one for Web series, etc. We signed up, we tried to…We entered for this documentary one and there were a number selected by panel of judges and number selected by popular vote. We were lucky enough to have enough influence that we could pester people enough that they would go and vote for us every day.

Sometimes on all the different devices, and people were awesome in terms of their support for the thing. We ended up winning by popular vote and we got a grant. We were able to get some pretty fantastic equipment because Dillon’s obviously very well versed at doing the whole process himself.

We didn’t really need to hire much for outside help or a team or anything like that. In terms of what it’s like, I felt a little vulnerable sometimes in some situations putting some of that stuff out there and a bit unsure how it was going to be received.

My process is not everybody’s process. My feelings toward powerlifting and the way that it integrates to my life is not the same as everybody else’s. Our big hopes with the film were to try to…For one, explain what powerlifting means to me and try to put into words why I think people are drawn to the sport.

As a second part try to explain that previous concept to people who look at us like we’re insane and like “Why would you want to do that?” To explain, “Hey, this is why we love this. This is why we pursue this, this is why we’re willing to injure ourselves and go through setbacks and things like this for this sport.”

Our goal is that people who may be aren’t lifters and don’t get lifting can wash that and be like, “Oh, OK. I guess that makes sense.”

 

David TaoDavid Tao

What’s some of the feedback been from folks inside the powerlifting community and also your friends and family who are not necessarily super entrenched in powerlifting or the strength sports community?

Bryce KrawczykBryce Krawczyk

I would say 95 percent, 99 percent of the feedback from the powerlifting community has been outstanding. It was pretty incredible to hear all of the feedback and all of the people who were able to identify with what we said and things like…This is why I lift, but I’ve never been able to put it into words before and things like that which really made me feel good.

We accomplished what we wanted to accomplish. I’ll talk to a lot of lifters who forced their non-lifting friends to watch it. Even then they said that it was pretty well received. I guess we’ve accomplished some of the things we set out to try to accomplish with that.

David TaoDavid Tao

Would you, if presented with the opportunity, do another documentary that semi-invasive up close and personal look inside your life or are you good for a bit on that?

Bryce KrawczykBryce Krawczyk

We’re actually mulling about the idea of doing something, maybe not more personal, but maybe more general.

I’m trying to talk to more lifters and talk to budding powerlifting communities and figure out why different people power lift, and get more perspective, and try to understand other different ways of looking at the sport as well as continue to follow as I work towards the World Games in a couple of years.

It’s something longer form and maybe a bit broader, but that might be in the works. Who knows?

David TaoDavid Tao

Who knows? You might, but not leaking too much right now.

Bryce KrawczykBryce Krawczyk

Right.

David TaoDavid Tao

World Games. That’s a great segue. What does your training look like these days? What are your immediate, mid-term, and longer-term goals for yourself in the sport?

Bryce KrawczykBryce Krawczyk

Currently, training is kind of the calm before the storm. I’m heading into Worlds. In November, I’ll be competing in Dubai at the IPF Open World Championships.

I’m in a maintenance block doing some hypertrophy work. Things are light. Things are a lot of sets of 12 in those kinds of things.

David TaoDavid Tao

Rough.

Bryce KrawczykBryce Krawczyk

I’ve just finished a really productive raw block, which is really encouraging. I feel like if I could get my raw strength up, my quick lifts are just going to be better. I’m pretty excited to get back to it at this point.

Training has been going really well. The hype hasn’t been giving me many issues. Trying to maintain perspective on the long-term being that 2020 Worlds means more than this Worlds, and face myself a little bit and some of that stuff.

David TaoDavid Tao

Let’s talk about next year, the year after that. You talked about the World Games, preparation for that. Just for folks who might not be super familiar with the International Powerlifting calendar, what does that look like for you and how does that influence your long-term goals?

Bryce KrawczykBryce Krawczyk

World Games is the end of the tunnel for me at this point. We’ll see what happens after that. World Games is a multi-sport event. It’s the pinnacle of powerlifting. Right now, they take the…

I believe you have to hit the podium at Open Worlds the previous year, or there are some wild card slots based on how you perform at other international meets that are available for certain countries.

It’s the best of the best. They trim the weight classes down to, I think, light, middleweight, and heavy. Whoever lifts the most or they might go by IPF points. I’m not entirely sure. Yeah, it’s the elite of the elite, and that’s my big goal right now.

David TaoDavid Tao

 It’s a bit like powerlifting is not an Olympic sport, yet, as of this recording. The World Games isn’t an every year thing. Just to give folks at home more perspective.

Bryce KrawczykBryce Krawczyk

Yeah. It’s essentially the sports that are waiting to or trying to get into the Olympics. It’s recognized by the IOC, which I’m not exactly sure what that means, as an event. There are a lot of different sports that are vying for Olympic or they are Olympic hopefuls, I guess.

David TaoDavid Tao

 It’s every four years, right? The World Games?

Bryce KrawczykBryce Krawczyk

Yeah, every four years.

David TaoDavid Tao

So it’s a bit like the testing grounds there?

Bryce KrawczykBryce Krawczyk

Yeah. It’s one of those things where I might have two shots at this if I have a nice long career. Beyond that, I don’t know if I have another 12 years of being this competitive in me. We’ll see.

David TaoDavid Tao

Bryce, as we are coming towards the end of this recording, where can folks follow along with you, with Calgary Barbell, the awesome content you all are putting out?

If they are interested in learning more about your training and your approach, where can they find that info online?

Bryce KrawczykBryce Krawczyk

We are Calgary Barbell literally everywhere. We are Calgary Barbell on YouTube, Instagram. We are Calgary Barbell. My personal account is Bryce_CBB. I post a lot more of my training on there.

We try to put more educational coach content on the Calgary Barbell Instagram. We are on Facebook despite not posting there too much. We do actually do some Twitch live streaming now.

We do live phone chats and have our viewers send in videos we analyze them. It’s pretty cool. We do that once a week. There’s a couple of different ways you can get in touch with us.

David TaoDavid Tao

Awesome. Bryce, thanks so much for taking the time to share today. I know it’s busy between training, coaching and managing all the other aspects of your business, so I really do appreciate it.

Bryce KrawczykBryce Krawczyk

Thanks for having me on.

About David Tao

BarBend's Co-Founder and CEO, David is a veteran of the health & fitness industry, with nearly a decade of experience building and running editorial teams in the space. He also serves as a color commentator for both National and International weightlifting competitions, many through USA Weightlifting.

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