The strong arms of the law
Search for powerlifting gold sending NRP detective sergeant to Mongolia
“I know I need to give it my all, just to keep up with these guys.” STEVE MAGISTRALE Canadian powerlifting champion
Looks can be deceiving.
At first glance, Steve Magistrale, at 5-foot-9 and tipping the scales at 297 pounds, looks like he used to excel at football in high school, perhaps even at the university or professional level.
But Magistrale, who turns 45 in June, at age 16 was less than half that size – 135 pounds, to be exact – when he was in high school.
Oh, he played football, though not all that well, and definitely not as well as he wanted.
“I played a little high-school football near the end, but I wasn’t every athletic,” he recalled. “I was OK, but I wasn’t going to go anywhere with football.”
The 17-year Niagara Regional Police veteran didn’t begin adding muscle mass, and becoming much and much stronger in the process, until he went out for powerlifting after enrolling at Brock University.
“Powerlifting, all the heavy training and stuff like that kind of thickens you up a bit,” he said in an understatement. “I’m all belly and butt.”
Magistrale wasn’t “particularly athletic” growing up but started to be drawn to working out in high school.
“I didn’t have any gifts, I didn’t have any raw talent, but for some reason I stuck with the working out and then I moved to the Niagara Region in 199394 for Brock University.”
At university the Toronto native met several powerlifters who worked out at the YMCA in St. Catharines, including Jay Gemmel, Glynn Moore and Brian Duguay.
“They took me under their wing and it seemed to be something I wasn’t particularly good at at first, but I noticed there was a passion. I enjoyed doing it.”
Magistrale’s first contest was May 1998 in London, Ont. He has been specializing in the three lifts – squat, bench and dead-lift – ever since.
He has five Canadian championships to his credit, the last coming earlier this year in Calgary. The Welland resident hopes to add a world championship to that resume in October when he competes at the international championships in Mongolia.
Magistrale, a detective sergeant working out of the NRP detachment in St. Catharines, has learned a lot about powerlifting over the years. He was “pretty reckless” when he was younger but since joining the masters 1 division after turning 40 he has come to appreciate the strain lifting all that weight puts on his body.
“Now, I have to be a little bit more aware of recovery,” he said. “Now, I only train three days a week – now, those three days are three-hour workouts, and they’re pretty intense workouts – but that gives me more time to recover.
“I find now it’s a matter of recovery and trying to stay injury-free.”
Magistrale can’t see himself giving up powerlifting any time soon.
“I’ve been at this sport for a long time and I want to continue for as long as I can,” the father of three said. “My goal is to be world champion and my ultimate goal is to be multipletime world champion.
“In order to do that, you’ve got to stay healthy and injury-free. You have to pick and choose how heavy you go.
“I don’t train heavy all the time. Now, I only train really heavy when it gets closer to a contest.”
The window for powerlifting at the world-class level isn’t necessarily defined by age. Moore, Magistrale’s training partner, was at his competitive peak in his 50s.
“He started powerlifting late, he started powerlifting in his 30s, and he was hitting his best numbers in his mid-50s,” Magistrale said. “I think it goes against the general perception that your window is in yours 20s and 30s, and everything else kind of falls off.
“If you keep your technique and train right and be aware of recovery, you can keep going heavy and be stronger than you were in your 20s and 30s.
“I know I am.”
Drive, discipline and tons of commitment are required to excel at an individual sport such as powerlifting.
In Magistrale’s case, the motivation comes from wanting to be best that he can be in the sport.
“It’s a drive for me to be the best at something,” he said. “I’ve kind of geared to focus just on family, work and powerlifting.
“For me, it’s a desire to be known as the best that I can be, I want to be world champion.”
Limiting distractions to a minimum is an important key to giving his dream the attention it deserves.
“In order to be great at something, you have to specialize in it, so I kind of take all the distractions away,” Magistrale said. “I don’t do a whole lot of anything else, I put all my energy in those three things.
“It’s a drive in me I found that I didn’t even know existed.”
He trains three days a week, three hours at a time, at Top Dawgs Fitness and Training in Welland. That time in the gym helps him forget the stress of being a detective sergeant
working out of the NRP’s St. Catharines detachment.
“The job is pretty unique and stressful,” Magistrale said “There’s kind of a two-fold thing: it allows me to become the best at this sport, but it does give me a little bit of an escape from the stresses of the job, and everything else.”
Top Dawgs is “great environment” for training.
“It really helps in terms of my training,” he said. “If I’m looking for motivation, everybody here, in some form or level, is competitive at something.
“I know I need to give it my all, just
to keep up with these guys.”
The 20-year powerlifting veteran has made a point of giving 100 per cent to whatever he’s doing at the time, and only on that facet of his life .
“For my own personal success, I have been able to compartmentalize my life, so when I’m at work, I deal with work and it’s all about work,” Magistrale said, elaborating on this philosophy.
“When I’m at home, I’m a husband and a father, and that’s my focus.
“When I’m at the gym, I’m Steve the Powerlifter.”
Wife Tracey is “tremendously supportive” and a big reason he is preparing to compete at the world championships for the second time since 2011.
“She is the most-supportive person that I have ever met,” he said. “Without the support at home, I couldn’t do what I do.
“It just wouldn’t be possible.”
At the national championships in Calgary, Magistrale squatted 750 pounds, bench pressed 550 pounds and dead-lifted 660 pounds to remain undefeated since turning 40 and competing in the masters 1 division, 40-49.
That’s not the only heavy lifting powerlifters need to do if they want to compete against the best in their countries, let alone in the world.
They also need pay their own way, which in the case of going to the Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, could cost as much Magistrale as much as $8,000.
“That’s for one day, three lifts, nine attempts, so you better make them count, because you’re spending a lot of money to get there,” he said with a chuckle.
For the first time in his powerlifting career Magistrale is looking for sponsors. “So far the support has been very good.” Josh Gervais, the owner of Top Dawgs, and Steve Gibb, the owner of Popeyes Supplements in the Pendale Plaza in St. Catharines, have been especially supportive.
People interested in sponsoring Magistrale can contact Top Dawgs.