It all started with the International Powerlifting Federation. the game originated from Weightlifting where the “odd lifts” then became recognized and put into a special format.

The first “genuine” National meet for powerlifting was held in 1964 at the York Barbell Company within the US and therefore the progression began from there within the USA and UK then began to develop in other countries.

In the UK, the first powerlifting federation was BAWLA – British Amateur Weightlifting Association and from that emerged one man to start out the start of the powerlifting revolution within the UK. David Carter.

David Carter left BAWLA and started a replacement federation named British Powerlifting Organization – an “equipped” federation that allowed lifters to wear single-ply equipment and was connected with the planet Powerlifting Congress – who we are affiliated with in the present. He transformed powerlifting within the UK taking it new levels and provided lifts with choice of which federation they lifted in and decided to make a supportive and inspiring environment which is what we learned from him. During this point, other UK federations began to emerge from Davis Carter’s first steps.

The British Powerlifting Organization then made a choice to maneuver far-away from the WPC and that they joined the planet Powerlifting Federation. Thereupon move, the lifters who wanted to remain with the BPC formed a replacement federation by the name of the BPC – British Powerlifting Congress.

The sport had another great breakthrough with the couple Brian and Vanessa Batcheldor heading to make the competitions spectacular and hosted in venues like the NEC and the BIC in Bournemouth. Vanessa Batcheldor was one of the simplest female powerlifters we had squatting more than 200kg at 60kg in bodyweight which remains a record nowadays.

Since then British Powerlifting Union was formed, along with the planet Powerlifting Congress as our administration. It had the stress of bringing back the element of “run by powerlifters, for powerlifters” and the element of support that might be lost at elite levels. Our aim is to progress the game and supply opportunity at the amateur level during structured thanks to encouraging new lifters to the game and supply a grass roots platform in order to develop from to national and international competition at the elite level.