The McHenry Strength and Powerlifting programs’ annual Liftmas event took place in the Upper Campus weight room on December 12, and served as a good opportunity for the MCHS powerlifting team to practice before their first meet in January and to celebrate the holidays.

The MCHS strength program has hosted Liftmas since 2020, and the event is meant to introduce new powerlifters to the program as well as welcome returning ones by hosting an exhibition practice meet. The event is also an important baseline powerlifters can use going into the season to track what their next maxes need to be on lifts, and get used to the rules regarding powerlifting.

Director of strength and conditioning and Powerlifting coach at MCHS John Beerbower explained how the creation of Liftmas was meant to give students in the powerlifting club an opportunity to have a holiday party, and to also thank them for their hard work.

“The inspiration for Liftmas was wanting to provide kids in the powerlifting club an opportunity to do a holiday party,” Beerbower said. “But to also have it be an exhibition to where going into the spring where we have most of our meets, it could give everybody a chance to kind of see what [the program] is about.”

Beerbower explained some of the activities that happened at the party outside of lifting, such as the decoration of the weight room with Christmas lights and inflatables for the event, but also how the Liftmas t-shirts the weight room was selling serve as a fundraiser to the powerlifting club and to improve the school’s weight room equipment. Beerbower also emphasized the importance of the event being a way to introduce newer powerlifters to some of the differences involved with the rules of powerlifting.

“I will say it’s different,” Beerbower said. “When you have a guy giving you the commands, it’s different. Because you have three judges looking at your depth with two on the sides, it’s much more strict than with PE. With PE, the bench press, come down, touch your chest, but [during meets] there’s three people watching… you’re thinking you gotta touch it, and then you’ve got to pause until they tell you to press it that makes it a little hard,” Beerbower said.

With the conclusion of the event, Beerbower feels the team is in a good place heading into the season with many of the upperclassmen returning with the success the team saw last year.

“We had a lot of kids last year, a lot of them are back, and then we have some new kids involved,” Beerbower said. “Last year we had a very successful team. I think all the kids that are coming back are very excited. Last year, because the date of the state meet fell on the same date as graduation, we went to the state meet with all underclassmen. So all the kids that went to state last year, have done it already… And based on the numbers from the first semester, I think kids are looking really strong [as well].”

Senior powerlifter Vinny Bramel was one of the lifters who participated in the exhibition lifts, and similar to Beerbower is excited about the upcoming season and enjoyed attending Liftmas.

“I had a great time at Liftmas this year,” Bramel said. “My favorite parts were the energy and meeting many of the new lifters.”

Bramel is also excited about the upcoming season, and is looking forward to lifting in a different weight class and improving on his success from last year.

“The lifts I did were squat, bench, and deadlifts,” Bramel said. “I feel great about the powerlifting season and I’m excited to lift at a lower body weight and to lift heavier as well.”

With the end of Liftmas, the team heads into the second semester ready to begin competing in meets starting in January.