A Top Powerlifter's Surprisingly Simple Advice To Get Stronger

Sydney Hunter doesn't look like what most people picture when they imagine a powerlifter—and she's perfectly fine with that. The powerlifter, personal trainer, and track-turned-barbell athlete is gearing up for powerlifting nationals this March.

Hunter started lifting at 13, not because she was chasing a certain look, but because she wanted to improve as a runner. As a competitive track athlete running the 200, 400, and 4x400, she used Olympic lifts like cleans, snatches, and jerks as cross-training tools to get faster and more powerful. What she didn't expect was that strength training would eventually become her activity of choice.

"The competitive mindset was that same one-to-one sport," she explains. "With track, whoever crosses the line first wins. With powerlifting, whoever lifts the most wins. Simple as that." The clarity of it spoke to her athlete brain, and she's been hooked ever since.

For the uninitiated, powerlifting competitions come down to three lifts: the squat, the bench press, and the deadlift. Your combined total across all three is what determines your ranking, so it's not just about one big moment, but the sum of your strength across the board. Hunter trains these “big three” all year long, adjusting volume and intensity as competitions approach, but she complements her lifts with other dynamic strength training moves and sprints (she hasn’t given up her love of speed). 

How much you lift relative to your weight also plays a part. In powerlifting, this is measured by a scoring system called DOTS that uses a formula to account for that weight difference, so athletes across different weight classes can be fairly compared. It's one of the reasons Hunter's lifts are so impressive: competing in the 63 kg weight class, she's one of the smaller athletes on the platform, at a bodyweight of just 138 pounds.

If there's one non-negotiable in Hunter's nutrition plan, it's protein. She currently eats 150 grams per day, and she's strategic about how she gets there.

• Breakfast is a protein shake. 
• Lunch and dinner each feature eight ounces of protein (she sticks to fish and red meat out of personal preference).
• She'll also have protein oats as a snack or sometimes six ounces of meat. 

"I only have one protein shake a day as my supplemental non-eating source," she notes. The rest is real food, stacked deliberately.

Hunter has been in the gym for over a decade. She knows firsthand how easy it is for fitness to start feeling like a chore, especially when social media is constantly serving up a new "best" way to train, eat, and get results.

Her solution is to make it fun. "Less is more," she says. "Just go in there and have a blast. Listen to your music, jam out, put the cute outfit on, and we're going." 

It sounds simple, but Hunter is adamant that taking the fun out of fitness is one of the biggest mistakes people make. When something feels joyful, you come back to it. When it feels like a punishment or a performance, you don't.

With nationals six weeks out at the time of our chat, Hunter was deep in her last big training block before tapering. The routine intensifies with heavier loads, less volume, more feedback with her coach, and more attention to how her body is responding day to day. Goals shift from building to peaking.

Her training runs in four-week cycles: four weeks of training, one deload week (lighter weights, same structure), then back at it. Every cycle, the aim is to get a little bit stronger. And recovery is a foundation. She does an ice bath once a week, sees her chiropractor once a week, and gets sports massages twice a week. She’s "big on recovery, big on self-care." 

Hunter’s mental game has to be just as dialed in. "I want to reach new heights, push my body a little bit past its limits." The numbers tell the story, the lifts either move or they don't, and there's a simplicity to that which she thrives in.

Sydney Hunter reminds us all that strength is about so much more than aesthetics. It's about confidence, longevity, and how you show up in your own body. Fitness is about the fun of a challenge.