Matthew Hill deadlifts 550 pounds during a session in 2024. Monsters Bent Barbell is hosting the first United States Powerlifting Coalition Para Nationals & Monsters Power meet on Saturday. (Photo provided by Jennifer Huffman)

PARKERSBURG — Monsters Bent Barbell is hosting the first USPC (United States Powerlifting Coalition) Para Nationals & Monsters Power meet starting at 9 a.m. Saturday.

Located at 3011 Seventh St., Monsters Bent Barbell will have weigh-ins at 9-10:30 a.m. and 5-6:30 p.m. Friday with no late exceptions. Weigh-ins on Saturday are by appointment only.

“This is the first ever national para lift competition, and we’ve hosted this event at Monsters for over five years,” said Jennifer Huffman, who is also competing on Saturday. “There’s about 10 para lifters signed up and they’ll go first for each event.”

The event will feature para athletes who will showcase their abilities with different lifting events like the back squat, bench press and deadlift.

“There’s currently about 28 people total and roughly 10 of them are para lifters who are coming here from all across the nation,” said Huffman. “There’ll probably be more people signing up throughout the week.”

She said for the past year, USPC President Johnny Layne and para lifter and USPC Ambassador Matthew Hill have been working diligently to include para lifters in the competition.

Hill joined USPC in 2023 and said that this is the first national Para Division powerlifting competition.

“There’s lots of opportunities for para athletes who are runners or swimmers but there’s not a lot for powerlifting,” said Hill.

As a below-the-knew amputee, Hill said he qualifies for the able bodied category.

“This is the first time a competition has done adaptive lifting,” he said, adding the competition is designed to incorporate a variety of events that accommodate and include all athletes.

He said one of the lifters doesn’t have arms but the community sticks together to push one another to the best of their abilities.

“Our hope was to make this accessible to all athletes which is why we have different events,” said Hill.

There will be a “SBD” event which is back squat, bench press, and deadlift as well as a “BD” event which is bench press and deadlift.

Bench press only and deadlift only events are available and they can also be added on to the other events. Squat only, squat and bench press, and squat and deadlift are newly added events as a way to accommodate para lifters during the competition.

Lifters have the option to be in the raw, raw with wrap, single ply, multi-ply or unlimited division.

Huffman said that each flight has three tries for each event. The flights are groups of individuals based on alphabetized order of last name. The flights each take turns doing rounds until all flights have completed three rounds before moving on to the next event.

“We have such a good community and committed volunteers that the competition will probably be done around 3 p.m.,” said Huffman.

The awards and medals ceremony will take place at the end of the competition. Huffman said that all of the records are uploaded onto the USPC website.

Hill said he’s excited for this Saturday for many reasons and he’s going to be the first amputee to squat 500 pounds in competition. He will also be deadlifting over 500 pounds.

“I’m very excited to showcase the skills of all the athletes and to be able to build relationships, because we stick together as a community,” said Hill.

He wanted to give a special thanks to Monsters Bent Barbell, the USPC, and Mars Bar for their donations and to help make the event possible.