This topic is being addressed by a lot of people. I think a lot of things are being left out of the narrative when people are discussing this. Most of the answers that I've seen so far have been, "Because the sport's growing so fast."
I don't necessarily believe that's true. When I look at the numbers and compile the stats for the number of competitive lifters that there are in the United States, I do not see the growth everybody else is seeing. I should note I do not count high school powerlifters, because they don't seem to transfer over into any open powerlifting and I haven't count them over past years when looking at this. I'm also not counting recreational powerlifters because there is no real way to do this.
Now, from that standpoint with the recreational powerlifters, yes, the popularity of powerlifting is way bigger than it's ever been before. What I'm looking at are the numbers of lifters that compete. There were somewhere between 14,000 to 16,000 ... total unique lifters in the United States in 2015. Out of that, 85% of them are Raw.
With that in mind, most of them that are Raw are going to be lifting in relatively new federations - or those who focus the most on Raw. The number of lifters has been stagnant or grown some since 2012. I was told by a very prominent lifter, and business owner in this space that there were around 12,000 in the 80's. I did this same research ( I used that word loosely because this only took a few weeks and wasn't "official research". I would love for someone to do this that can spend the time to do it). In 2005 the team I pulled together for this came up with around 14,000 lifters. Once you go deeper than 2012, you're starting to compare a lot of apples to oranges, because Powerlifting Watch wasn't being sent all the results, and it was more through Powerlifting USA; so, it becomes tricky.
All that's irrelevant. The only part of this that's relevant is the growth in the numbers of lifters isn't what many are making it out to be. A lot of people are making it sound like there's 100% more, 200% more, 1000% more. What people are seeing are more lifters at the meets they are going to.
What's being left out is there's also less federations than there were before. In Ohio there used to be a couple of federations that used to have meets every weekend all year. They don't have meets anymore, so they're not pulling the lifters that they used to. Where are those lifters going to go? They're going to go into the federations that were already existing. Those people that are going to those meets and the meet directors that are hosting those meets are now getting twice the lifters that they used to have before and think that there's this huge growth that really isn't there. What they are seeing is migration.
The other thing is the social perception. People have told me that there's way more lifters, because that's all they see on their Facebook feed. That's all they see on their Instagram feed. People, you pick your own friends. How many posts do you see on your feed about My Little Pony? Probably not a whole hell of a lot. Are we to assume that My Little Pony is dead and they're no longer popular? No. You're picking your own friends, and your own friends are going to have similar interests; so, that's why you're seeing more people posting, because they do what you do, the same way you're doing more posting.
Anyhow, back on point.
Why are there more world records? Here are some things that have been left out of the narrative. For the better part of 40 years, there was no option to be able to compete Raw, none. When I came into the sport in '83, when I retired in 2005, I didn't once see an entry form that gave me the option to compete Raw, never. It was geared to single-ply, masters. I mean, there are a million other divisions that I could compete in, but zero for Raw.
Looking through some of the websites the other day, the first IPF World Classic Raw meet was in 2012. The IPF might have been a little later to the game, so maybe around 2010 there were a few other Raw meets. Once you start to get before 2010, there were less meets that were Raw. RUM, which was one of the first real big Raw meets, the first one happened 9 years ago. I remember that, because a lot of lifters thought it was a joke; so, it took a few years for that to gain traction.
All the records that you're seeing right now that are being broken, they're Raw records, correct? Now 85% of the sport is Raw. We're dealing with a sport that has only been around for less than ten years. Then there's a gap. All the lifters before then, going all the way back before gear was even part of the sport, which would be the early '80s, because when gear started to come into there, nobody had the ability to break Raw records. All those lifters for those 40 years didn't have the ability to even try to break a raw world record because they didn't really exist. There was one all-time world-record and that's what everyone went after. If you could single ply there were two all-time records.
Now, with that in mind, the world records that are being broken, that started 6, 7, years ago. When they started, they were based upon the world records that were going back 40-some years.
Forty-some years ago they didn't have the same squat jacks that we have today. Today the squat jacks that are being used: the Eleiko, the ER Racks, some of the other competition racks, you don't have to step over this big fucking plate and take 5 steps to get your stance. Go back and look at some of the old, old lifters who were breaking these world records, and you'll see they weren't able just to do 2 steps. They had to do 5 steps to be able to get set up. Today they barely have to walk out. It's 2 tiny steps. That's being compared to guys that were doing 5 steps years ago. There's a big difference.
Forty years ago they didn't have the rounds system and many time the strongest lifters (that would be setting the records) had to follow themselves on the platform.
Forty years ago they didn't have 24 hour weighins.
The other difference is outside of the IPF specialty bars are being used now, which are allowing people to break the world records that ... Forty years ago there were no squat bars. There were also no deadlift bars. Today we've got squat bars, deadlift bars, and racks.
They didn't have knee sleeves back then, either, so the knee sleeves have some carryover. Now, before people get in an argument and say, "Well, the knee sleeves don't have a carryover; they don't add that much," my reply back to that is, "Well, then, don't use them. If they don't help, don't use them. Why do you use them if they don't help?" It doesn't make any sense.
I can put it this way... Years ago I used to train with a sleeveless bench shirt, which I could touch the bar to my chest. I did it because it stabilized my shoulder and allowed me to train without pain, or minimal pain. Jim Wendler and I got into a conversation/argument/busting-each-other's-balls one day about it. He was telling me that I had my cheater shirt on. I said, "Well, it doesn't do shit. I can touch the bar to my chest. It doesn't help." His reply back to me, "Well, if it doesn't help, take it the fuck off." I wouldn't take it off. Then there's the answer. If I wouldn't take it off, then it obviously helps. If it helps just by supporting the joint, and by supporting the joint it helps you become stronger, then it helps. and justifies the point that they were not available 40 years ago.
That option wasn't presented 40 years ago; so, whatever the carryover is is really a moot point, because it helps. If it doesn't help, take them off. Then you'll be comparing apples to oranges because they didn't have it. Let's say the record that somebody's trying to break that's 40 years old was done by a guy whose knees fucking killed him. He had to ice them before and after he squatted. Well, had he had knee sleeves, could he have squatted more? Hey, if they help support, probably. Who knows? Then, again, they may not help at all; but, if they don't help, why wear them? It doesn't make any sense.
I think that the racks, weigh-ins, round system, sleeves, and the specialty bars are helping lifters break these records. There is NO DOUBT to me the training has evolved, and the standard and expectations have raised. There's no doubt about that. I don't want to take that away as it is more important that all the others combined. The longer that the sport stays around, regardless of what the sport is, the more mistakes are going to be made. Each decade of lifters is going to make new mistakes, and then those are going to be mistakes that won't be made by the next generation, and so forth, and so forth, and so forth, and so forth.
You will end up with better, more organized training over a period of time. The training now today is probably being looked at from a more holistic nature than it was many years ago as well. People are looking more into nutrition, looking more into recovery than they ever have before.
All these things have a factor. All these things are playing into why the world records are falling left and right, but I think the biggest one is they simply haven't been attacked for decades. The IPF, I believe, changed the world records in 2010 or 2011, completely wiped what they had and then started with new weight classes and new records.
Are lifters stronger today than they were before? Personally, yes, I think so. I think they are, because the training has evolved, and the holistic approach to the training has changed, but these other factors can't be dismissed as well.
Take Away - This is a bigger question to address than saying it is this or that, as with any sport it evolves. Some will say the shift to raw is taking the sport back to it's roots and to a degree I agree - but it's still evolved a lot since it's roots... and will keep evolving more as sleeves will keep getting better, I think we will begin to see "competitive singles" within the next couple years. This is simply the competitive nature of sport.
One thing that I think has gotten lost in all this is how exactly did the sport go from no Raw division to a sport where only 10-15% is Single Ply and MultiPly (combined)? Think about this. This is not in the best interest of all the companies that were making money on the sport and it was not in the best interest of the Federations hold the Power (If it was they would have embraced it way sooner). The reason this was done is because this is what the majority those competing today wanted! Look back not that far and you will see the best raw lifters were traveling out of the country to compete. What other sport do you know where the athletes have this much power?
Personally, I think this is one part of the sport that makes it great!