In about three and a half years of serious lifting, 22-year-old Amanda Lawrence has already accomplished what most powerlifters can only dream of: winning the International Powerlifting Federation World Classic Powerlifting Championships.
Lawrence took first in the women’s -84kg (185 pounds) open class with a 243kg (536-pound) squat, a 117.5kg (259-pound) bench, and a 252.5kg (556-pound) deadlift, making for a total of 613kg (1,351 pounds). Her squat, deadlift, and total were world records, and she won the Champion of Champions award for being the strongest woman overall at Worlds, regardless of weight class.
Any powerlifter—man or woman—would kill to be in Lawrence’s position, and it’s all the more impressive considering how quickly she’s progressed. Before 2016, powerlifting hadn’t even crossed her mind and she had never trained in squat, bench, or deadlift movements.
Her first meet was in June of 2016, which she started training for in January of 2016. Lawrence credits a program that had her squatting every single day with getting her started. For four months straight, she didn’t take a day off—a notion that she knows sounds crazy, but it paid off at her first meet, the USA Powerlifting Twin Ports Raw Open in Duluth, MN, where she squatted 167.5kg (369 pounds). These days, she’s still known for her squat and deadlift.
Since then, she’s absolutely dominated at USAPL competitions, crushed it at her first IPF Worlds in June, and built a substantial Instagram following along the way. Her presence on social media grew quickly, a side effect that has both pros and cons.
Her 100,000-plus Instagram following exposes her to an audience that’s not strictly limited to people who actually follow powerlifting, and people love to accuse her of being on steroids or using fake weights (spoiler: neither is true). But in her eyes, all that doubt is just a compliment.
We got ahold of the powerlifting phenom to talk lifting, world records, and social media trolls. Keep reading for her take, as told to M&F.
I was just going to the gym, watching YouTube videos and doing bodybuilding workouts just to lose weight while I studied biomedical sciences at college. A friend noticed that I was naturally strong, even just doing normal bodybuilding movements, so he told me about an upcoming USAPL meet he was doing.
I knew nothing about powerlifting. I had never trained the squat, bench, or deadlift movements, so I decided, “Why not? It’s something fun to do in the gym, and it’s something fun to train for.” My first meet was in June of 2016, and I started training for that in January of 2016. I did this thing called a squat every day program—I literally squatted every day for four months straight, and that’s how it really took off. That sounds crazy, four months. I didn’t take a day off.
Going into that first local meet, the Twin Ports Raw Open in Duluth, MN, I knew nothing about the records or anything. I ended up breaking the American Junior squat record without even knowing it.
The strength has always been there, but it’s a matter of learning to unleash it. That’s what I did between March and June for Worlds—and that’s only a few months. I had a base of strength, but [my new coach, Joey Flexx] helped me put those things together.
To take the win at Worlds was pretty cool, and going forward I want to show what we actually can do, because we’re just kind of warming up. I’m not comfortable just competing at one world championship, because it can be taken away from you before you know it.
[Before March 2019] I was training with straps all the time and with non-calibrated plates, on incorrect bench heights. It made things hard when you actually had to train on standard equipment on game day.
I had a lot of changes I wanted to make from the Grand Prix in March of this year to Worlds. I hired a new coach, Joey Flexx, and he changed everything for me. I purchased calibrated plates, got a rack and everything, and started training on the correct equipment. Now, I have a different perspective on what I can improve upon.
I didn’t get to go as high as I wanted to [at Worlds] because you go to Worlds to win, not to set records. That’s typically what Nationals is there for. My third squat at Worlds was at 549 pounds, and that was super easy. My deadlift was easy, and bench has been steadily improving.
It’s hard to be the best at all three lifts, but just having the best of two of three lifts is great. You just want to try to stay in the race. My mentality is always to act like you’re second place, because second place will always outwork first place.
It’s tough because I didn’t start this sport for other people—I did it for myself. I always think that you should lift for you, versus sitting there and trying to chase somebody else’s success.
My Instagram blew up really fast, and I think I was exposed to an audience that isn’t as experienced, and so it’s hard because I feel like maybe my account receives a lot of hate because people don’t know [powerlifting]. But at the same time, for all the hate, there are so many nice comments. That said, you have to have thick skin.
We’re pushing women’s strength to heights that people haven’t seen before, and I think that’s the reason why [people think we’re all on steroids]. Honestly, I take it as a huge compliment if somebody thinks I’m on steroids, because I’m not. I’ve been tested out of meet and in-meet maybe 10 times in the last three years because I’m on an out-of-meet athlete locator form. They know where we are at all times, so they could show up at any point and drug test us.
They’ll show up at your house, at the gym, or wherever you are at any time, and if you’re not there or don’t notify them in a 60-minute time slot, it’s a failed test. People say, “They just cycle off of something, and then just test at the meet.” But that’s not how it is. Maybe all the speculation has got to do with insecure men in the community, because they haven’t seen women’s strength get to this point yet. But in the end, what are you going to say to people? They’re going to believe what they want to believe.
I don’t like comparing myself to other people, because it will eat you alive. My way of thinking is “do your best, and like I said, success will come with it.”
One of the things that bothers me about the Internet is that people try to hype up meets where me and Dani Melo will be competing—but that’s not how we are. I think the Internet tries to portray us as rivals, but in reality, we’re not. We definitely push each other, but I think we could both attest that neither one of us is going to be happy if we just constantly try to one-up each other. You can’t hate somebody for being just as good as you.
I know my body’s limits, and I’ll purposefully not go through with a rep if something feels funny. Of course, I always have spotters, but knowing my limits has allowed me to continually push weight faster than others without getting injured.
Before a lift, I’ll stretch a lot, use rollers, and do hip circles to loosen up my hips for both squats and deadlifts. I don’t do a ton of post-lift stretching, but I use recovery creams and make sure to eat a healthy diet. When it comes down to it, if you’re going to get injured, you’re going to get injured. There’s no way to prevent it, but just don’t be stupid and know when to stop.
I’ve noticed the heavier you start squatting—especially, for me, once I got into the 500s—it’s harder to recover as fast from that. I used to squat three days a week, but I’m down to two days a week, and I haven’t found the lift decreasing at all. Then, I deadlift twice a week, and then I bench up to four days a week.
I do the different phases leading up to a meet: a volume phase, a strength phase, and then a peaking phase. When I’m in a volume phase, I’ll work in more different movements. As time goes on, the reps decrease and the weight increases. It’s always fun restarting volume after a meet.
For accessory movements it all depends on where your weak points are for your lifts, so that’s how I gauge what I should do. For example, I do a lot of pullups and rows for deadlifts. For squats, my quads are pretty developed, so I do more hamstring and glute work.
On bench, I need some dumbbell work, but it’s tough because I feel like the more you do the movement, the better you’re going to get at it. I don’t necessarily believe accessories are going to be a massive game changer. I skip them quite often, so those aren’t as big of a deal to me.
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Fueling Performance
I eat the same things a lot, over and over. That’s just what works for me. I like a high protein diet—at least one gram per pound of body weight—because you need that just to perform and fuel. I go a little bit lower carbs, but make sure I get enough to fuel my performance.
I follow a Renaissance Periodization diet, and they have an app you can use to track macronutrients in a plan that’s customized to your goals. It has set food choices that you can pick from. For example, if you need to get 30 grams of protein in and you want to eat specific foods, the app will tell you exactly how much to eat of specific foods to hit the nutritional value of 30 grams, or whatever fits your needs.
