Blog

Congrats to FT Trainer Filipe Cotas - Brings Home Medal at First Powerlifting Meet

Congratulations to Fitness Together Personal Trainer Filipe Cotas, who not only competed in his first weightlifting competition, but won first place in his division.  Filipe competed at USA Powerlifting's 2011 New England Open Powerlifting Championships.  In powerlifting, participants are placed in classes according to their sex, weight, age group and whether they use extra supportive equipment or compete “raw.”  They tackle three exercises - the squat, the bench press and the deadlift –and have three attempts in each exercise to see how much weight they can lift for one repetition. All of the lifts are witnessed by judges, who will either pass the lift or disqualify it if the proper technique is not used.

Filipe received passing marks from the judges on all 9 of his lifts, and he finished with personal bests of 380 lbs. in the squat, 308 lbs. in the bench press, and 501 in the deadlift. To put these numbers into perspective, Filipe was able to bench press 1.5 times his bodyweight, and squat and deadlift over 2 times his bodyweight. Now that’s strong!

Filipe is currently training for his next competition, the USA Powerlifting Massachusetts and Rhode Island Bench Press and Powerlifting Open Championships , taking place in Johnston, RI,  in December.