Man of Steel

Brandon powerlifter Byron Nichols bench presses more than 600 pounds during practice.

At the Lakeland Courthouse fitness center in Flowood, a man with muscles that push the boundaries of his stretchy blue shirt takes his position on the bench.

The bar above him is bending in its struggle to support more than 300 pounds weighing down each end. The man, whose full workout clothing would lead you to believe his name is Clark Kent, changes the expression on his face from stern to dead serious as he grips it.

Three other well-built men combine to spot him 625 pounds of iron. Upon receiving it, he grunts, grimaces and motors the weight equivalent of two NFL offensive linemen to his chest and back up to the initial starting position.

Byron Nichols isn't really Superman, but he might as well be.

"You can't play defense in this sport," Nichols, 41, said of powerlifting. "You can only play offense. You can't control what another person does. You can only control what you do, so that's what I encourage people to do."

Nichols competed Saturday in Prague, Czech Republic, at the International Powerlifting Federation (IPF) Bench Press World Championships - the Super Bowl of competitive bench pressing.

Nichols finished tied for fifth place in his division with a lift of 633 pounds.

After winning the Bench Press National Championships in Denver this past November by lifting a career-best 639 pounds, he earned a spot on Team USA as the representative for the 243- to 275-pound weight class.

Iron over adversity

The Leland native started powerlifting back in 1994 and aimed just to break Mississippi's then-state record of 545 pounds. International competitions and his rise to the top of the sport have far exceeded his initial expectations.

"When I first started doing it, I was just having fun," said Nichols, who now lives in Brandon with his wife, son and step-daughter. "Never did I ever imagine being here."

His success in powerlifting has been the result of a goal-setting and goal-achieving mindset.

"Pick a meet to go compete in and set personal goals. Once you hit those personal goals, find another meet and try to beat the goals you just set, try to set new goals and better your personal best," Nichols said.

Nichols, who is a territory manager for Cybex International, Inc., began lifting weights back in 1986 as a means of rehabbing his right arm from a bad case of osteomyelitis, a bone marrow infection. The infection was so bad that his surgeon said there was an 80 percent chance he'd have to amputate it.

Nichols competed for the first time at a statewide meet in 1994, benching 410 pounds in a losing effort.

"Up there I got beat pretty bad," Nichols said. "I did that just for fun and really really enjoyed it and wanted to come back the next year."

Nichols encountered adversity once again in 2002 when he attempted to break the state record. On his first attempt to bench 565 pounds, he suffered a total detachment of his left triceps tendon while shredding all three heads of the triceps muscle.

Nichols' physical therapist at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Oxford, Ken Causey, who is also his friend from their days at Delta State in the 1980s, said that the surgery for that type of injury is limited in its ability to repair the damage, and coming back from it is very difficult.

"Not too many people rehab well from this surgery," Causey said. "The tricep is the prime mover and it makes the weight go up."

Causey said that Nichols' recovery was a similar process to a racehorse's recovery - knowing when to push forward and when to hold back.

"You kind of have to know the attitudes of the people," he said. "Knowing Byron from college, you know his strong will and true faith that the Lord would bless him that (a strong recovery) would happen. He's truly been blessed no doubt."

Since 2004, Nichols has won 11 titles in various statewide and national powerlifting events despite being physically unable to put his arms at zero degrees (perfectly straight). He also has two silver medals from the Masters (lifters over 40) Nationals in Milwaukee and the Masters World Bench Press Championship in Germany.

Not weightlifting

Nichols hopes that his efforts will also help promote the sport of powerlifting, which is different from Olympic weightlifting and bodybuilding.

Powerlifting is comprised of three different events: the squat, bench press and deadlift. Olympic weightlifting consists of lifts called the clean and jerk and the snatch.

A bench press specialist, Nichols started competing in full meets in 2006 where the lifter does all three events and his or her best scores in each are added together for a total score.

"I love being in the full, three-lift meets," he said. "Training for squat and deadlift made my bench go up."

The squat involves carrying the barbell across the trap muscles on the back. The deadlift requires one to bend over and pick up the barbell by standing up and lifting with the back muscles. Training for these two events works out Nichols' lower body and leg muscles, which, though one might not expect it, play a big part in the bench press.

"If your (bench press) technique is correct, you get a lot of leg drive there," he said. "So, if your legs are stronger then you're going to get more push out of your legs."

As for bodybuilding, it is about how good you look, while powerlifting is about how strong you are.

Nichols and USA Powerlifting Mississippi State Chair Jim Battenfield both think that growing interest in bodybuilding helps promote the sport of powerlifting.

"I think there's a good correlation between bodybuilding and powerlifting," Battenfield said. "Bodybuilding is geared more toward power than Olympic weightlifting because they do squats and weightlifting."

Nichols said that the two areas complement each other well because some popular bodybuilders like Ronnie Coleman do powerlifting exercises to build muscle mass and some powerlifters will turn to bodybuilding at the end of their lifting careers.

"A lot of times you'll see guys that may get injured in powerlifting that will turn to bodybuilding because they developed such incredible mass," he said. "They cut the body fat off then they're perfect specimens for bodybuilding."

Due to the basic differences between the sports, powerlifters are less restricted in their diet than bodybuilders.

"We can pretty much eat whatever we want to eat," said Nichols, who also takes nutritional supplements and multivitamins. "Pizza seems to be my secret weapon on a heavy bench day."