Unlike Tony Stark and his Iron Man superhero alter ego, Tara Green does not derive her strength from her suit.
She proved that last weekend in Calgary at the Global Powerlifting Committee (GPC) national championships, where her raw power carried her to four new world records. She won her junior category and also captured the best overall lifter award.
The 23-year-old from Prince George found out the hard way she couldn't compete in the equipped category when the suit that allows her to lift more weight proved too restricting to allow a deep knee bend in the squat event. At the time, she was attempting a lift of 630 pounds, and was forced to drop out of the event.
"My suit was a bit too tight, tighter than it is normally, and we barely got it on and I couldn't get low enough in the squat," said Green.
"Since I was there and wanted to compete, I entered the raw [without lifting suit] category, which went on later that day, and that went well."
Did it ever.
Green cleared 335 pounds in the squat, bench-pressed 242 pounds and dead-lifted 407 pounds. Her three individual lifts and the combined weight total also shattered four Canadian Powerlifting Federation (CPF) national records.
"I've been having some issues with dead lift but it went well," said Green. "Training for this meet, my back would get super stiff and so I didn't dead lift a lot for the meet, so that's why I was happy with 407. I was really happy with my bench, but I should gotten around 365 with my squat."
Green said her five-foot-four, 180-pound body was likely bloated from eating differently on the road and that might explain why her suit was too small for her in Calgary. The fact she has 15-inch biceps, 23-inch thighs and 42-inch shoulders -- muscles that would put most men to shame -- were obvious contributing factors.
"It's an advantage to be shorter [in stature] in the squat and the bench, but in the dead lift , generally tall people have an advantage because their arms are longer," she explained. "When they are at the top of their lift and lock it out, their hands are almost at their knees and my hands are almost at my hips."
Green's love for weight training started when she was a teenager with the Central Interior Freestyle Ski Club. When the club folded, she kept training with weights at the Family Y. She joined Xconditioning in 2010.
Green works as a cashier at the municipal pools in Prince George and also has a part-time job as a trainer at Xconditioning, where she works out with the likes of Mike Webber. Webber, 42, hoisted 440 pounds to win the raw division masters 1 bench-press only title in Calgary, establishing new GPC and CPF national records.
For her record-setting efforts, Green will likely earn an invitation to The Olympia pro powerlifting championships in Las Vegas, Sept. 27-28.
