Mike Mayo Places Second at USA Powerlifting Nationals

Three years in the making.

That’s what Mike Mayo said it was when he placed second in the 60-69 Masters III age group at the USA Powerlifting Championships, held in Memphis, Tennessee, from September 14-17. It wasn’t too long ago when the 60-year-old New York City resident, who has spent the past three decades living part-time in Westhampton Beach, competed in his first major powerlifting event in Rocky Point in December 2021, when he invited a bunch of family and friends, only to be disqualified after faulting on his first three squats.

Mayo, the Wells Fargo Securities managing director, has certainly come a long way in what has become his favorite form of working out after being a runner early in life.

“I’m like an evangelist for strength training,” he said. “I still do some of my cardio, but strength training is even more front and center. After 45 years of cardio, my main course is strength training, or powerlifting, which is a combo of three lifts, squats, bench press and dead lift. I can’t believe how strength training has made me feel. It’s helped eliminate aches and pains. My bone health and bone density has improved by 20 percent and strength training has been the leading contributing factor to that. The average person between 40-80 loses half their muscle mass. I really enjoy hitting new personal best records as I get older. It’s just a great feeling.”

Mayo opted to go a little bit of a difficult route to get to Nationals. He decided, sort of last minute, to drop a weight class, from 183 pounds to 165, which he said would put him in a little bit of a better position to improve his chances of placing. It included losing 20 pounds, 11 percent of his body weight, and he had to requalify under his new weight, which he did at the Northeast Powerlifting Championships in Saratoga Springs in July.

Mayo said his performance at Nationals was far from perfect, but he was a bit out of his comfort zone, he admitted. There were multiple platforms and announcers. There were lights beaming down onto the lifters, including lengthy gaps of time between each type of lift with over 1,000 people competing across numerous different age groups. Again, as a former cardio and cyclist enthusiast, Mayo likened it almost to a marathon.

“It reminded me of going for a 100-mile bike ride or marathon,” he said. “You get there and you could be there for five to six hours. Except it takes more concentration and pressure during the moment of truth when you actually have to do your lift. You’re lifting nine times, it takes a matter of seconds, but you really have to bring your game as much as humanly possibly for those nine lifts.”

Mayo said he missed a few lifts here and there, but was able to make up for them. In the end, he felt like he could have performed better, he said, but he’s learned along the way that’s how most powerlifters feels after every competition.

“In this meet, I was satisfied that I did it,” he said. “My goal was simply to go to Nationals, get some swag, some T-shirts. I never thought I had a chance at getting to the podium. Competing at all of these different events, you learn everyone’s view and philosophy, because everyone thinks they could have done better that day. But what you learn is that you did the best you could do on that day, and that’s just what it is.”

After going all-in on powerlifting three years ago, Mayo’s goals halfway in were to reach the first big milestone for any powerlifter, which is to lift 1,000 pounds total — which he did at the Squats & Science Spring Fling this past May — and to compete in the USA Powerlifting Nationals. With both goals completed, Mayo just wants to continue to promote the sport as a healthy and legitimate alternative to the various cardio options that many people his age abide by.

“What an experience, what a journey,” he said. “Powerlifting is incredibly underrated, as far as physical training. Powerlifting is underrepresented in the media, but in my personal experience, I’ve never felt better. By no means have I reached the top of the mountain in this sport, these are just another points along this journey. It’s humbling joining the 1,000-pound club. You meet people at nationals who are incredible, people who are much older who lift incredible amounts of weight. It’s a good reference point, seeing over 1,000 competitors packed into a setting where everything is kind of normalized for you.”