Lily Riggs found her calling in the gym. It just wasn’t the calling she had expected.
“I was a dancer in high school. I loved to dance and was fully invested in it,” she recalls. “But I wasn’t built to be a dancer, so I started going to the gym because I wanted to be leaner. The more I worked out though, the bigger my legs got.”
Lily’s story might have ended there but for one unavoidable fact: “I realized how much I loved lifting weights.”
At Valhalla Strength and Conditioning Gym in Sechelt, usually training with aspiring hockey players, Lily began pushing herself well beyond her comfort zone.
“I enjoyed competing with the boys,” she says. “I remember one saying, ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen a girl lift that much’. I loved pushing my body to the limits, the feeling of working out until I couldn’t work out any more.”
Her coach at the time, Curtis Munson, began looking into powerlifting records in Lily’s age and weight class. “He told me that if I competed, I’d have a chance of breaking some records based on what I was lifting. So, we set up a program and I started training more consistently.
“I’m a quick learner. I remember thinking, I’m not bad at this! I knew this is what my body is meant to do.”
Powerlifting comprises three disciplines: squat, bench and deadlift. You’re allowed three attempts to lift the weight. A judge confirms the legitimacy of the lift while spotters either side of you help guide the bar back into the rack. How does powerlifting differ from the Olympic sport of weightlifting?
“The biggest difference is that in powerlifting, the bar is on me, and I move,” explains Lily. “In weightlifting, there’s more mobility; lighter weights but more range of motion.”
At her first powerlifting competition, held at the University of British Columbia in 2017, Lily won her age and weight categories (72 kg - 158 lbs), setting new B.C. records in squat, bench and deadlift. She won top overall female lifter. “I also made my coach cry,” she says, laughing.
Encouraged by her success yet still highly motivated to improve, Lily progressed to bigger tournaments—provincials, Western Canadians, nationals—consistently setting new B.C. and Canadian records. Last year came her biggest challenge to date: the World Junior Powerlifting Championships in Istanbul, Turkey.
“I prepared all summer,” says Lily. “Three months out from a competition, it’s basically eat, sleep, breathe, train. It’s the only thing I’m thinking about. I didn’t go out with friends because I needed sleep for recovery time. Nutrition also becomes important, tracking macros—protein, carbs, fat.”
Powerlifting’s explosive demands on the body mean frequent rest periods between lifts. “Going into competition, you might get between 10 and 30 minutes between lifts,” says Lily. “If I’m training two to four hours a day, four days a week—I might be in the gym three hours but the rest times are longer between lifts.”
A typical training day incorporates a warm-up focusing on the main joints to be used for the session. Lily isolates the movements involved in squat, bench and deadlift into sets, which are repeated at varying weights. Accessory exercises are incorporated into the routine to help work on weaknesses within each lift.
Lily finished seventh at Worlds, squatting 162.5 kg (358.2 lbs), benching 82.5 kg (181.8 lbs) and deadlifting 169.6 kg (374 lbs). For perspective, the squat and deadlift totals are each more than twice Lily’s bodyweight.
However, it’s not until you actually watch someone lift twice their bodyweight that you fully appreciate the drama of the sport. It’s exhausting! Search “Lily Riggs” on YouTube and see for yourself.
First, Lily approaches the rack, which holds a barbell laden with weight plates; measured steps are followed by a few moments to curl her fingers in a tight grip around the bar. She ducks under the bar, jerks her head and snaps her neck while pivoting at the hips to plant her feet squarely under her shoulders.
Neck veins bulging and cheeks puffing, Lily bears more than 350 pounds across her shoulders and takes a step backwards from the rack. Flanked by spotters and scrutinized by a judge, she descends into a deep squat, pausing for what looks like an excruciating second before pushing back up to stand. The lift successful, it’s at this point the spotters help support the weight back into the rack.
The lift has taken 30 seconds from start to finish.
When we talk, Lily is preparing for Canadian Nationals, to be held in Richmond, B.C., later in February, after Coast Life’s print deadline. Now 24, she’s no longer classed as a “Junior” and will be competing in the highly contested “Open” category for ages 24 to 40. She’s excited to be working with Team Canada powerlifting coach, Jimmy Willard, and has set new personal bests in all three disciplines since Worlds in Turkey.
But stats tell only part of Lily’s story. Last August, she opened a gym in Upper Gibsons with business partner, Gillian Morrison. During the years of training and competing, she was also coaching fitness classes and “boot camps,” while earning accreditation as a personal trainer.
“If I had never started training in a gym, I would have zero idea of what I would be doing for work,” she says. “I wouldn’t have a business—a gym—at this age. My biggest goal was to show teenage girls they can be strong and now I am in a position to do that. They can train and be comfortable. My lifting has created that.”
Her lifting has also been something of a family affair.
“My whole family has been forced into working out,” she says, laughing. “My parents train with me sometimes. My sisters work out. My family has been incredibly supportive. My parents have always been ‘whatever you need’—gym memberships, driving, coaching costs, travel across Canada.
“Last year the whole family flew to Newfoundland to watch me compete. My grandparents live there, so the entire family were there to watch me compete, which was really cool.”
The wider Sunshine Coast community has also played its part in Lily’s progress.
“I used to send my lifting results into the paper—I worked hard for those results—and people I’d never met would congratulate me. I’m proud to represent the Coast. When I went to Worlds in Turkey, I had multiple sponsors for that trip and everyone was so fantastic.”
Lily doesn’t appear to be slowing down any time soon.
“I’ll lift till I die! I’ll be squatting 200 pounds when I’m 90.”
