Is powerlifting safe? • Stronger by Science

Powerlifting often gets a bad reputation for being dangerous. For a lot of people, the image of grinding out very heavy weights automatically translates to “injury about to happen.” But when you actually look at the data, the reality is extremely different.

A ​2024 review by Tung et al​ examined 17 studies on injury rates in both powerlifting and Olympic weightlifting and found that powerlifting has an injury rate of just 1 to 4.4 injuries per 1,000 hours of training, significantly lower than popular sports like soccer (around 15 injuries per 1,000 hours). Even more importantly, most injuries reported were minor injuries like muscle strains, overuse issues, joint sprains, etc.

But that’s not all. Powerlifting is not only pretty safe from an injury perspective, but it can arguably be a great way for people of all ages to engage in resistance training, which, as you probably know, comes with a ​ton of health benefits​.

A ​2024 study, by van den Hoek et al​, tracked roughly 21,000 powerlifters across more than 50 years of competitions and found that the age of competitors ranged from 8 to 87 years old. Interestingly, although most competitors were in their 20s and 30s, many were middle-aged or older. Even more interestingly, people who started powerlifting after age 36 tended to powerlift longer and compete more often, demonstrating that powerlifting can be accessible and sustainable even later in life. Unsurprisingly, across all ages, powerlifters in this study consistently outperformed general population norms for strength, further showcasing the potential health benefits that the sport may offer.

Since powerlifting is essentially effective, whole-body resistance training, it can help prevent age-related muscle loss and improve key health markers such as bone density, metabolic health, body composition, and potentially even mental health.

It’s also important to note that you don’t necessarily need to become a competitive powerlifter or break world records in order to powerlift. Training as a recreational powerlifter, and at any experience level, can still be a rewarding way to break personal records, build muscle, and reap some of the health benefits resistance training has to offer.

Overall, powerlifting is safer than many mainstream sports and can be done by people of all ages and training levels, even people who’ve never lifted before (ideally with the help of a qualified coach). So, if you’ve ever thought of powerlifting as something only suitable for “serious” lifters, it might be time to reconsider.

Sales pitch for powerlifting aside, feel free to check out our ​strength training​ and ​squat​–​bench​–​deadlift​ guides, they’re free to read and could be a valuable part of your strength journey!