Powerlifting is, in addition to the sport-specific shape, in my opinion one of the best training methods because you work with exercises that involve the whole body. The three lifts: squat, bench press and deadlift will help you with both strength, coordination and balance. Something in one way or another is needed in most peoples daily life. It doesn´t matter whether you are young or old, has ambitions to compete or just want to train for good health, everyone can do powerlifting. Powerlifting is also a form of exercise that is relatively spared from sports injuries because the exercises, if properly done, is done in a well-established and soft movement. Powerlifting is the sport with a capital “S” for me and it has given me friends all over the world. There’s a camaraderie in the sport that you won’t find anywhere else.
So, who am I then?
Well, my name is as you now know Joakim Lakso and I´ve been training and competing in powerlifting since 1994. My club Luleå Athletic Club was formed in 1941 and we have over the years had lifters who´s been successful in both weightlifting and powerlifting. I´ve originally been working as a carpenter but these last years I´ve been working as a sports teacher, seller/service technician in the coffeemachine industry and now I work as a manager for a carcare center. Besides that, I have also been “bouncing”, ie working as a security guard at nightclubs, for a total of fourteen years. In my spare time I enjoy powerlifting, powerlifting and powerlifting … eeh … oh, and I also drive an American two-cylinder motorcycle in the summer. Since I was born in Luleå, a “hockey-oriented” town and my father was a bit of a local celebrity in hockey circles, my first choice of sports was quite natural. I started out at the age of seven, playing with Bergnäsets AIK who at that time had a relatively large youth activity and also a fairly talented Division 1 team. I, with my already back then chubby body, was not the fastest one on skates, so I moved myself further and further back from the center line until I ended up where I did the most good … as a goalie … So, the first half of my sport career I counterattacked pucks, until troublesome knee problems ended my hockey playing days . I made my last season in 1990 and spent half of it outside the rink, just watching. Now over to the other and still active half of my sport career. My interest in power sports has always been great and post-hockey career, I had to devote myself to a long period of building muscles around and stabilizing the knee but also balance training. First I went to the local gyms, but it moved pretty quickly from there, down in the basement of the city’s big sports hall, to Luleå Athletic Club where I´ve been training ever since. Since both the youth- and junior activities more or less lay fallow, I was both welcomed and well looked after and thoroughly drilled in barbell technique. It took just three weeks before I made my debut at the District Championships in Öjebyn/ Piteå, where I got a bronze medal. Since then I´ve continued to compete with not entirely amiss success, first as a youth, then as a junior and now as I´m writing this, as a senior.
Apart from competing, I’ve had a number of positions of trust both in my home club, Lulea Athletic Club and in the district of northern Sweden. I have also had the benefit of beeing team captain for the Swedish Powerlifting Federation and coach of both subjunior/ junior- and senior national team for several years and I´m also an international powerlifting referee.
