The Morning This episode of The Morning Lift broke format completely, and it was worth it. Instead of one guest, Brendon and Lauren sat down with the entire leadership committee behind the USPA — United States Powerlifting Association — for a rare, no-filter USPA powerlifting interview that pulls back the curtain on how a national federation actually gets built and run. On the call: Steve Dennison (President), Tyler (Chief Operations Officer and Steve's stepson), Corey Knight (Chief Marketing Officer), and Carl Goodtrip (Creative Director).
If you've ever stood on a competition platform and wondered who's behind the scenes making it happen — the sanctioning, the staffing, the chaos of loading three trucks of equipment into a hotel ballroom at 1 a.m. — this conversation answers that. You'll hear how Steve founded the USPA out of pure frustration with the direction of an older federation, how the team built Ultra Nationals from scratch (and nearly watched it fall apart the night before), and where USPA is headed next, including a bold push to pay powerlifters like real professional athletes.
Whether you're a lifter chasing your first meet, a coach building a program, or an entrepreneur studying how niche sports organizations scale, this episode is packed with specifics you won't get anywhere else.
From a 1983 Magazine to Founding the USPA
Steve Dennison's origin story is the kind of thing you can't script. He fell in love with lifting as a teenager, then stumbled on a copy of Powerlifting USA magazine in 1983 — no internet, no Instagram, just grainy photos of guys like Ed Coan on the cover. That discovery sent him into his first meet, and from there, "the iron bug" bit hard.
Steve's first meet as a director wasn't in a gym — it was in 1987, in front of a JCPenney at the Pine Ridge Mall in Pocatello, Idaho. The mall paid him $2,000 to bring in legendary strength coach Dr. Fred Hatfield, fresh off squatting 1,014 pounds in Hawaii earlier that year, to headline a dual-sanctioned meet with a warm-up room set up down the mall corridor. It was such an undertaking that Steve didn't direct another meet for ten years.
By 2010, frustrated that the old USPF had lost its direction and its IPF affiliation back in 1997, Steve launched the USPA on October 4th, 2010, starting with a single meet in San Luis Obispo, California. Phone calls started rolling in almost immediately — Buffalo, Florida, Missouri — and a federation was born out of one guy who just wanted to put on meets and have fun. That's the throughline of the whole episode: everyone on this call got into powerlifting for the love of it first, business second.
What Actually Goes Into Directing a Powerlifting Meet
If you've ever wondered what does a powerlifting federation do behind the scenes, Tyler's answer is the most honest one you'll find: he literally wrote a 24-page Word document just to explain the process, and even that "gets kind of boring with how much detail there is."
Here's the short version of how to become a powerlifting meet director, straight from USPA's Chief Operations Officer: lock down a location and date, work it out with the venue (sometimes gyms reach out to USPA, sometimes USPA reaches out to gyms), submit the sanction, and then manage equipment, electronics, staffing, registration, athlete communication, weigh-ins, and the physical setup — all before a single bar gets loaded. Tyler called it "a whole ass process," and Lauren, who hosted her first USPA meet alongside Third Attempt at her own gym, backed that up immediately.
The takeaway for anyone thinking about hosting their own meet: it's brutal, unglamorous logistical work — but as Tyler put it, it's also deeply fulfilling. Every lifter who walks away from a well-run meet talking about how much fun they had is the direct result of someone losing sleep over HDMI cables and broken crystal trophies the night before.
The Birth of Ultra Nationals — and the Night It Almost Fell Apart
Corey Knight pitched the idea that became Ultra Nationals after noticing powerlifting was getting segmented — separate nationals here, separate nationals there — when the sport needed the opposite. "Guys, powerlifting is small, and we need to be more community," he told the team, pushing for something closer to "a Super Bowl" that the whole USPA community could rally around once a year.
The execution, though, was chaos. Tyler was at Walmart at 11:45 p.m. the night before Nationals buying replacement HDMIs and laptop mice. Carl was setting up the livestream until 2:30 a.m. Half the crystal trophies broke. An inflatable display nearly got shut down by the fire department. Contracts with partners almost fell through because, as the team learned the hard way, "you gotta have a lot in writing even with certain partners."
Despite all of it, from the competitor's side, Lauren said it went great with zero negatives. That gap — total behind-the-scenes panic versus a seamless athlete experience — is the whole job. Ultra Nationals is locked in again for 2027, with the team already identifying what to upgrade next.
Growing the Sport: Women, Social Media, and Misconceptions
One of the most encouraging stats in the episode: USPA membership is now roughly 40% women, and at the most recent Nationals the breakdown was 62% men to 38% women — a dramatic shift from the days when, as Tyler remembers, "you'd go to a meet with 50 people and there'd be 1 or 2 women." Lauren's own first meet in 2015 South Carolina had maybe five women in the room. Her gym now runs all-female flights.
Tyler was direct about the biggest misconception athletes have about federations in general: that leadership operates from "an ivory tower," dictating rules without listening. He described the USPA team physically pulling coaches and lifters aside mid-meet asking for feedback — TVs behind platforms, more deadlift jacks in warm-up areas — and treating every event as a live product to improve, not a finished one.
On growth, Tyler credited social media as a clear net positive, while noting the total pool of powerlifters is actually growing even though average competitors only stay in the sport 2-5 years. The goal across the board: get a bar in more people's hands, especially women and younger lifters.
The Vision: Paying Athletes and Getting Powerlifting Into Schools
Corey didn't hold back on USPA's long-term ambition: building toward a federation that actually pays its athletes, rather than leaning on sponsors and brands. "Not a brand, not feds having to suck up to brands," he said — a direct swing at how the sport currently operates financially.
Corey also pushed for powerlifting in more high schools, arguing it's one of the only team sports where being 6'6" or running a 4.4 isn't a prerequisite. Carl is separately developing a defined "lifter journey" — local meet to state to regional to Nationals to Worlds — something he says the sport has never formally mapped out the way other sports have Little League-to-pro pathways. USPA is also hosting Worlds this year and is aiming to elevate the event to what Corey called "a strength Grammy feel."
Key Takeaways
- Steve Dennison founded the USPA in October 2010 after growing frustrated with the direction of the old USPF, launching with a single meet in San Luis Obispo, California.
- Directing a powerlifting meet involves far more than people realize — venue sourcing, sanctioning, staffing, registration, weigh-ins, and setup, documented by Tyler in a literal 24-page process doc.
- Ultra Nationals was born from Corey's idea to unify a segmented sport into one flagship event, even though the first year nearly derailed the night before due to broken equipment and partner contract issues.
- USPA membership is roughly 40% women, with 38% of recent Nationals competitors being women — a massive shift from a decade-plus ago.
- USPA has no "Article 4" restriction, meaning lifters can compete across multiple federations — a deliberate choice reflecting the leadership's love of the sport over internal politics.
- The USPA Foundation, started by Liz Frill in 2019, fully covers coaching, gym access, and travel costs for lifters who can't otherwise afford to compete.
- Long-term, USPA leadership wants to see athletes actually paid to compete, powerlifting integrated into high school athletics, and a defined competitive pathway for new lifters from local meets to Worlds.
Want the full, unfiltered conversation — including the truck-breaking-down-in-the-desert stories and who the team thinks is the most underrated lifter in the federation right now? Stream Episode 10 of The Morning Lift wherever you get your podcasts, and subscribe so you don't miss the next one.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the USPA in powerlifting?
The USPA (United States Powerlifting Association) is a national powerlifting federation founded by Steve Dennison in October 2010. It sanctions local, regional, and national meets, including its flagship Ultra Nationals event, and is affiliated internationally through the IPL (International Powerlifting League).
How do I start competing in powerlifting with USPA?
You don't need prior experience. The team on this episode emphasized that USPA welcomes tested, untested, and adaptive lifters at every level, from local gym meets to Nationals and Worlds. Find a sanctioned meet near you, register through the USPA's process, and show up for weigh-ins — the federation is built to be approachable for first-timers.
How do you become a powerlifting meet director?
Based on Tyler's breakdown in the episode, meet directing starts with securing a location and date, coordinating with the venue, and submitting a sanction through the federation. From there it's managing equipment, electronics, staffing, athlete registration and communication, and race-day logistics like weigh-ins and setup. It's demanding work, but as both Tyler and Lauren noted, it's also one of the most rewarding things you can do in the sport.
Why did Steve Dennison start the USPA instead of joining an existing federation?
Steve was a longtime member and national referee within the USPF but grew frustrated watching the organization lose direction after losing its IPF affiliation in 1997. He looked at other federations like USAPL and APF but didn't feel aligned with their structure or testing requirements, so at his wife's suggestion, he launched the USPA in 2010 to build something different.
Does USPA pay its athletes?
Not yet — but it's an explicit goal. Chief Marketing Officer Corey Knight stated outright that one of USPA's biggest long-term ambitions is to become the first federation to actually pay competing athletes, rather than relying on brand sponsorships to fund the sport.
Is powerlifting growing, especially among women?
Yes. The USPA leadership team confirmed that women now make up roughly 40% of USPA membership and 38% of recent Nationals competitors, a dramatic increase from years past when a 50-person meet might include only one or two women.
The biggest thing this episode makes clear is that a powerlifting federation runs on the same obsession that drives the lifters on the platform — it's just channeled into logistics, sanctioning, and community building instead of squat numbers. From Steve's mall meet with Fred Hatfield in 1987 to Tyler setting up a livestream at 2:30 a.m. before Ultra Nationals, every person on this call has bled for this sport long before it ever became their job.
If you've been sitting on the idea of competing in your first meet, coaching a team, or even building something of your own in the fitness space, this episode is proof that the people running the biggest stages started exactly where you are now — just with more duct tape and a lot more miles on the road.
Don't sleep on this one — it's one of the most honest looks at the business of powerlifting you'll hear all year.
Listen to the Episode
Catch the full USPA powerlifting interview, including every meet-day disaster story and the team's unfiltered take on the future of the sport, on The Morning Lift Podcast.