Reflections on Powerlifting Journey and Training During Lockdown

Walter Cariazo joins Omar and Eric Helms on Iron Culture to discuss his decade-long journey in powerlifting. He’s won the 93kg National Championship twice and the 105kg National Championship once in Canada and has had the opportunity to represent Canada twice at the IPF World Championship, most recently in Lithuania in June. In this most recent competition, he was a dark horse for the podium, as he placed 4th in the 105kg class, getting the opportunity to pull for the bronze medal position, which would have secured him a spot in the first World Games in 2025 to include the raw division. While this in and of itself is worth highlighting, most impressively, Walter has continually progressed in his decade in the sport, despite a busy, demanding work and life schedule. He is a full-time medical radiation technologist, in addition to working as a videographer (you may have seen him on Omar’s YouTube channel) and photographer. The perennial lifelong lifter, Walter embodies the spirit of iron culture as a “blue-collar powerlifter” who is optimizing his lifting pursuits within the constraints of life - approaching the pinnacle of the sport while doing so.