More than 100 lifters will participate in the 25th annual Sertoma Sunrise Warrior Liftathon on March 2 and 3 at 3:30 p.m. both days in the Brainerd High School strength room.
Participants include 84 boys and 28 girls from the Brainerd school district in grades 8-12.
There are 12 fundraising teams with 9-10 lifters per team. Each team includes at least one female and one junior high lifter. Teams are captained by a Sertoma Sunrise Club member, who will seek pledges from the community on behalf of their team.
The Liftathon raises funds for charitable organizations and those in need in the Brainerd area, and also raises funds for improvements in school district weight rooms.
Participants may also compete for T-shirts based upon Most Pounds Per Ounce guidelines. MPPO is a measure of a lifter's overall strength in relation to body size. The lifter's one-repetition maximum effort in each lift is added together, and then divided by the person's body weight to determine MPPO. The lifts are the bench press, power clean and parallel squat.
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T-shirts are awarded for MPPO performance level. The boys' standard is 4.00 or greater for lifters with a body weight under 250 pounds, and 3.50 for lifters with a body weight of 250 pounds or more. The girls' standard is 2.75 or greater.
T-shirts are also awarded to lifters who have participated in the Liftathon a minimum of three years.
Stephen G. Nunnink MPPO scholarships are awarded to the top male and female lifters based upon MPPO performance. Two-time MPPO winners Winsten Fenske and Erica Rehnblom graduated last spring so new winners will be crowned in this year's competition. Nunnink initiated the MPPO concept when he founded the Brainerd strength program in 1975.
The Warrior Wall is a display area next to the high school weight room that recognizes the top 10 all-time MPPO in each grade, and the top 10 overall bench press, power clean and parallel squat performances for boys and girls since the Liftathon began in 1991.
The two-day event will be judged by current members of the Brainerd coaching staff, Brainerd area law enforcement officers, community members and former Liftathon
participants.
The event is free and open to the public.
