Cormac Walsh, 17 of Wiscasset, rocked the youth powerlifting circuit in 2012, breaking several Maine and New Hampshire records, while racking up the wins in his first year of competition. He has set his sights on several more records in the 2013 season.
Walsh is a straight A honor student and senior at Wiscasset High School.
He started lifting weighs at the age of 12, after his parents divorced. As a seventh grader he was 5’1″ tall and weighed 230 pounds.
“I was a very round and heavy kid,” he said. “I decided to lift weights and exercise and get in shape.” Cormac and his father, Mark Walsh, started together to “exercise and get stronger and to start eating right.” The hard work paid off and Walsh got his weight down to 140 pounds.
He started reading books on nutrition, anatomy and weight lifting, and the information he gleaned from them and his exercise regimen changed his life. After Walsh first heard about powerlifting, he looked it up on the Internet. He started competing against 20 year olds, until 2012 when he started competing against his own age group.
“I’ve done pretty well,” he said. “I have had great support from my family.”
Walsh won his very first competition, at a high school championship meet in Caribou last May. He benched 250 pounds and dead lifted 440 for first place.
He set a youth 16-17 bench press record in Maine (314 lbs.) at the New England Regional championships in Portland on June 16 in the 181 pound weight division, and won the deadlift as well with a lift of 451 pounds.
He also broke three New Hampshire 16-17 age division records at 181 pounds while competing in an Elite Powerlifting Federation sponsored meet in November. He broke the New Hampshire squat record with a lift of 375, the bench record with a lift of 280 and the deadlift record with a lift of 480.
There are three events in powerlifting: the squat, bench press and dead lift. A competitor gets three attempts to lift a weight. A competitor’s best valid lift counts towards his total. If two competitors lift the same amount, the lighter competitor ranks above his or her competition.
In the squat a weight bar is lifted off a rack located just below shoulder level and an athlete lowers his body until his hip line is below his thighs then returns to an upright position.
“It is the event they are most strict about. Athletes everywhere need to start doing the dead lift as it is the most important (weight lifting) for any athlete,” Walsh said.
In the bench press, an athlete is lying on his back on a bench and must keep his feet in position on the floor. The weight is lifted out of the rack and lowered to the “torso” and held there until a command to lift is given. The weight is held for a two count and not racked until a command to rack is given.
The bench press is Walsh’s favorite event. “Being a really heavy kid, I never had the upper body strength to do pushups so I started bench pressing and I really enjoyed getting stronger,” Walsh said.
“The deadlift is the most simplistic,” Walsh said. The weight is lifted off the floor to the hips and held steady with the shoulders locked out and the back straight, then lowered to the floor.
Walsh said a big key to competition is the mental focus. “It can be exhausting,” he said.
Walsh, who does most of his training from home, has primarily trained himself, with spotting help from his father and best friend, CJ Maguire, who is a trainer at the Wiscasset Rec. Center.
“I have over 600 pounds of weights. I have more weights than the Wiscasset Rec. Center,” Walsh said.
He trains five days a week, including four days of lifting and one day of conditioning. He does the Westside bar bell method of alternating his weight workouts between heavy and speed days. On heavy days he lifts heavy weights with low reps, and on speed days he lifts 50 percent of his maximum weight as many repetitions as he can. “The speed workout helps with my explosive strength,” Walsh said.
For the past two months he has been training for the 2013 season with his former football coach, Gary Gravel, at Gravel’s home gym in Damariscotta.
“He has a great work ethic and is very dedicated,” Gravel, a former Maine bench press record holder at 180 pounds, (485 pounds) said. “He is very strong, but still very raw. He is still learning. Once he learns more (about lifting) he will break a lot of records. He is very mentally strong.”
Walsh watches his diet and takes supplements including protein shakes, which he believes helps with his recovery and cuts down on the saturated fats he would get from eating a lot of red meat.
When he first started his exercise regimen he counted calories. “When you get to a certain level you don’t need to, but when you start you need some guidelines,” Walsh said.
Walsh is a member of the World Association of Benchers and Deadlifters (WABDL) and of the Elite Powerlifting Federation (EPF). “I wish there was more interest in powerlifting. It seems to have a negative connotation. It’s not about strength, it’s about meeting goals and gaining self confidence,” Walsh said.
His personal best in the squat in competition is 375 pounds and in practice 385 pounds; in the bench press is 314 (with supportive gear), in raw (unsupported) 280 pounds, and in practice 375 (300 raw); and in the deadlift in competition is 480 pounds and in practice 505.
The events he competes in are called clean meets, meaning competitors have not used muscle enhancing drugs. There is random drug testing of winners.
“I am so thankful for my parents (Mike Walsh of Wiscasset and Jude Neveux of Biddeford) getting me to competitions and helping me with weights and supplements. They are at all my meets,” Walsh said.
In 2013, Walsh has set ambitious goals. He hopes to break Maine and New Hampshire records in the 198 pound weight division. He will start out in the 16-17 age bracket, then move up to the 18-19 age division late in February.
“It is hard to get stronger, without getting heavier,” Walsh said of moving up a weight division this year.
His goals include breaking the Maine record at the Winter Classic in Portland on Feb. 2. He hopes to have a raw lift in the bench press of 330 pounds, and a deadlift of 510 pounds.
His next squat competition will be at the Maine Games in Brewer in March. He also plans to compete in New Hampshire on Feb. 16 in a bench press only meet, and again hopes to set a new record.
“I am a big supporter of exercise,” he said. ” It builds self esteem and will help anyone on every level.”
His college plans are unclear, as he was deferred by Bowdoin College and has not heard from Bates. He hopes to be accepted at Bates because Lewiston has a strong power lifting community. He has also applied to several other small colleges.
Although his college plans are in limbo, Walsh is adamant that he will continue to powerlift throughout his life. “It is unbelievable what you see at meets. At one meet an 80-year-old man benched 300 pounds. To me that was amazing. Everyone (in the weight lifting community) is so supportive and are always cheering you on.” Walsh said.
