Gay lift

His thick, strong physique handles the others like they’re weightless. You could only load more weight on your bar, not take it off, so the last thing I wanted was to fail.

I instinctively looked for a guy around my size so I could copy his warmup plan, but Carr had figured out a better way to guide athletes through the process.

I exhaled and told myself it’d be okay to fail.

I approached the bar, flipped my grip, and pulled my shoulder blades down.

Later that year, the IOC changed its stance completely, writing that the relevance of testosterone to athletic performance varies from sport to sport, and that even elite male athletes could have testosterone levels in the normal women’s ranges. The block party had three things that really trigger far-right extremists: drag queens, trans people, and children.

But each of the five years I’ve done the Open, I’ve become a different person. I used my lats to pull the weight in close to my shins and tried to stand. We all gathered to find a new one-rep max on a closed-down street in the heart of Seattle’s Capitol Hill gayborhood. I thought about the rainbow flag that Barbend had just posted on its Instagram account, and the number of reply guys who’d rushed to make the same tired joke in the comments: “We appreciate your support for those that pull sumo.” Wow, I thought, the loser energy of being so concerned about how other people lift.

“So we went through and chose the most energetic and supportive people to be team captains and rally you through the entire experience.” My team captain assured me that 315 was a good opener—something I knew I could hit fairly easily—but said I could change my number up until my first attempt. The event also allowed participants to pull conventionally or in a sumo stance, which the internet loves to hate, and prizes went to the athlete with the best costume, not to who pulled the most weight.
It was a radically different model than the one I know best: the CrossFit Open, the annual three-week competition that starts the CrossFit season.

I Discovered a New Future for Strength Sports at a Pride Deadlifting Event
IT WAS HARD to stay preoccupied about my opening deadlift weight while the drag queen performed in the Seattle rain.
Events like Pull-A-Palooza can offer a new way of thinking about competition—not just in the types of athletes that are allowed to be included, but also in the relationships it encourages between them.

During the Open, I put up scores that I can’t imagine replicating once it’s all over.
All 12 athletes in my heat were warming up using one barbell. Most of them PRed as well, and nearly everyone was smiling and high-fiving. The crowd was less impressed.
I approached the barbell, flipped my grip, and pulled my shoulder blades down.

It takes practice at events like Pull-a-Palooza, which make it clear that you're deadlifting with everyone else, rather than against them. Do I open heavy so I can make small jumps on the way to my new (fingers crossed) PR? Or do I go light to get some momentum?