Tara Green is perfectly suited to her job as a security officer for an armoured car company.
With muscles on her muscles, like a spinach-fortified Popeye, it's no problem for her to lift bags of loonies and toonies as she goes about her daily business, and only a fool would try to steal that money from her.
Green, 21, is a powerlifter and in two weeks she's going after world record in her sport when she competes in the 75-kilogram junior class at the Global Powerlifting Committee Canadian national championship in Calgary.
"All year I've been training with these guys who are lifting several hundred pounds more than me and when I looked at the records I realized I'm pretty close to that and I might be able to get that," said Green.
Green got hooked on sport 1-1/2 years ago when she started working out with the Xconditioning powerlifting team. Three of her workout partners -- Jason Cook, Mike Webber and Brad Priore are also entered in the national event and Green will be relying on their advice.
"It's very rare that you do your lift perfectly so it's invaluable to have people there to give you tips," said Green. "Your first lift, you have to choose [how much weight] and there's no way I know how to do that on my own.'
The GPC world record for 75kg women in the junior squat is 200kg and last week in the gym Green lifted 234kg. The bench press world record is 117.5kg. Green's best so far is 125kg. That's 275 pounds. Most males would get crushed by that much weight.
"Some of the guys I work with are like, 'I don't know if I could bench press half of what she can,'" said Green. "That makes me feel pretty good. It's worth all the time and effort I put into training I've always been around the gym since I was in Grade 11.
"I've always been fairly strong, not like I am now, you just have to learn technique and how to use the gear properly. There's a lot more technique involved when you're wearing gear."
Green, a former provincial-level freestyle skier in moguls and big air, won the overall female national powerlifting championship last year in the raw category (no lifting gear allowed). This year she will be wearing full gear (squat suit, bench shirt, dead lift suit).
Cook, 28, is also going after a world records in the men's 82.5kg class, but to do that he's in for a roller-coaster battle with the weigh scales. The week before he leaves for Calgary he plans to superhydrate with 12 to 15 litres of water per day for a week, and the day before the weigh-in will deprive his body of all fluids in an attempt to flush his system of as much water as he can. Once he makes his weight, he will then have to drink as much as he can to restore his fluid levels and put back the seven kilograms he plans to lose.
The national squat record is 675 pounds and 852 is the world record. Cook will open up at 800 pounds.
"I've done 825 in the gym so I should be close to that," Cook said, who competed in the 100kg class last year. "The world record's going down for sure, unless something catastrophic happens."
Webber, 40, moves up the masters class for the first time, competing at 125kg. Last year at the national event he blew out his knee while attempting a squat. The injury didn't faze him, and this year his goal is to become one of only three Canadians to squat 1,000 pounds (454.5kg).
"I did it last year in training, where you add chains of bands to the bar so it gets heavier at the top," said Webber. "I had the same goal last year but I tore my MCL on my second squat at 953. I've had lots of injuries, it's just part of the game."
Priore, 38, is competing in his second national championship in the 82.5kg submasters raw category. He won gold there last year.
n X-conditioning lifter Dallas Smith, 30, will compete May 21 at the national weightlifting championships in Scarborough, Ont.
