Powerlifting isn’t just for gym rats with protein shakes. And spending time tossing around heavy weights can be good for your bones, brain and social life, especially as you age. Ask Suz Luhr, the 68-year-old weightlifting champion who lives in Laramie.
Back in 2011, Luhr was hit by a truck while riding her bike down Grand Avenue, breaking her femur and fracturing her pelvis in three places. She recovered after the accident, but years later, she started noticing some unexpected complications.
“I was not able to climb up steps without compensating with my right leg,” said Luhr. “I wasn't able to climb up rocks while hiking, and it just hit me like a ton of bricks that I was failing badly here and didn't even realize it.”
Then, her physical therapist at High Country Physical Therapy introduced her to deadlifting. Luhr also started going to the Wyoming Senior Wellness Initiative classes at her local gym, which take place twice a week and are focused on building strength to reduce frailty and fall risk.
The meet-ups are funded by a grant from the Wyoming Department of Health and the federal government, with the goal of helping more older adults get into weight training. There’s also two similar meet-up programs in Cody and Powell.
Now, Luhr is a powerlifting champion, with wins at the 2025 Cheyenne Senior Olympics and the USA Powerlifting Wyoming Ladies of Iron Competition. Powerlifting is a category of competition that includes deadlift, squat and bench press.
This year, she was also one of five people nationwide chosen to be an AARP Senior Planet Sponsored Athlete. Through the program, Luhr will teach virtual classes and share blog posts with her training routines and wellness tips, to help inspire others to embrace a more active lifestyle.
Wyoming Public Radio’s Hannah Habermann tagged along with Luhr to learn the ropes during a workout at Altitude Fitness in Laramie.
Editor’s Note: This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Suz Luhr: Deadlift: Keep the back straight, bend the knees. What you want to do is grab the bar, and I usually do what’s called the switch grip, so I grab here and here.
Then you take the slack out of the bar and lift and push through your feet. Act like you're pushing your feet through the floor. That's how you do dead lifts. It's 110 pounds, but that's what I weigh. This is what I weigh! You want to act like you're closing a door with your butt.
Hannah Habermann: You’re about to lift your entire body weight?
SL: Yes! I do like deadlift. I can lift a little over 200 pounds, so I enjoy deadlifts. That's my thing.
HH: When you first started deadlifting, did it feel easy? Were you like, ‘Oh, I'm intuitively pretty good at this!’ What was that arc like?
SL: After my accident, my PT was the one that introduced me to the deadlift. It just – it felt right.
At that last meet I went to, after the whole meet was over, this guy came up to me, this big burly bearded guy and said, ‘You are built for deadlift. You should never quit deadlifting. Never quit!’
He explained how my short legs help and my arms are a little longer than the average. So, of course my husband likes to call me “ape arms” now.
The group here is how I got into this. It's a seniors weight training class. Jared got a grant for it and we're in the third year now.
That's why we have such a big group of seniors weightlifting right now here in Laramie. And there's two others in the state.
Jared Nelson: I’m the chief sports scientist for the Wyoming Senior Wellness Initiative.
Suz was one of our earliest participants when we were just getting the program off the ground, and [she] started with no lifting experience. Is that right? Do I remember that correctly?
SL: Pretty much.
JN: In the last two, three years, she's gotten very strong now, competing in power lifting. Incredibly impressive work from her.
HH: Suz, how did you hear about the class in the first place?
SL: I am in a book club and two of the gals were talking with each other, and I'm like ‘Huh, I might try that!’ So I just showed up the next day and never left.
HH: How many people are in each class?
SL: We've got upwards of 50 people in our class, so we break into five different groups and have to just keep rotating throughout these stations or they’ll never get us out of the gym. We have to keep these people moving!
It's funny because we all have made friendships here, so we get to talking and it's like, ‘Oh, my doctor's appointment yesterday!’ You know how old people are, you’ve got to talk about your problems.
It's the people that have really kept me coming back.
JN: What we're doing here is applying heavy load to bones, connective tissues, joints, muscles to prevent tissue loss, and then also just increasing the integrity and strength of these tissues.
It greatly reduces risks of falling. It greatly increases your chances of a better outcome should you fall.
If you do contract chronic disease later in life, you have a much greater chance of success with treatment. But the main thing here is just to prevent long-term mobility limitations that can cause you to end up in a nursing home.
Also, dementia and Alzheimer's are a huge threat to people's health later in life. Resistance training is actually one of the most robust preventative measures you can do for those, because it's a workout for muscles, but also for your central nervous system as well.
HH: Suz, how much do you think is mental in weightlifting?
SL: Probably about 80%, 90%. I'd say a lot. The heavier the weights, the more the mental power it takes.
HH: What do you think about when you're thinking about the mental part of weightlifting? Is it confidence in yourself?
SL: It helps having a cheerleading section. It helps having people around you that also believe in you and, yep, you’ve got to believe in yourself. It's when I don't think I can do it, that is when I usually don't pull it off. It's 95% mental, maybe.
HH: And you are a champion in deadlifting?
SL: Oh, that's ridiculous! I mean, it's kind of a stretch. Champion's definitely a stretch. There's not many people in my age and weight category, so I win every time!
HH: I think that means you're just good!
You are one of AARP’s Senior Planet five sponsored athletes this year. What does that mean to you?
SL: It comes with some responsibility, and I'm looking forward to it. I want to encourage people who maybe have physical limitations or drawbacks, like what I went through, and came out the other end.
I want people to know that they can too, with luck and persistence.
Exercise is different for everybody, but I want people to know that if I can do it, they can do it. If my story inspires people to get out there and try something that they didn't think they could do, that's my goal.
HH: What words of advice would you have to people who are curious about getting into exercise or getting back into exercise but they're not sure where to start?
SL: Find a coach or a class like this, some place that you can learn proper techniques, because you would definitely wanna start out with the right techniques.
Start light. Don't jump into heavy weights right off the bat. You'll work up to that. Your confidence and weight will come with time and persistence.
But the key is just to start. The key is just to take the first step. I'm a big fan of walking, so if nothing else, get out and walk. Get your body moving!
