For the Love of the Game

Written by Tex

Michael Jordan famously had a “Love of the Game” clause written into his NBA contract. It meant he could play basketball anytime, anywhere, with no risk to his contract.

“My love of the game (clause) within my contract … if I was driving with you down the street and I see a basketball game on the side of the road, I can go play in that basketball game. And if I get hurt, my contract is still guaranteed.”

"I love the game so much that I would never let someone take the opportunity for me to play the game away from me.

—     Michael Jordan, 2025, NBC

He had a real love for the sport and it’s exactly how I feel about powerlifting.

A Lifetime in Sport

I’ve been involved in sport for as long as I can remember. Rugby, football, badminton, track, volleyball, baseball, boxing, bodybuilding if it was competitive and active I was in!

There’s something unique about physical performance. The ability to completely switch off from everything else and focus on a single task, pushing your body, testing your limits, and seeing what you’re capable of.

The hardest sport I've ever done was the 400m sprint. When doing it EVERYTHING ached, but my mind was completely free, I couldn't think about anything even if I wanted to. And from the first time I set, despite feeling like my lungs were going to burst from my chest, I knew I wanted to beat it. That's a feeling that I've shared in every sport I've done (well the wanting to do better part, Powerlifting doesn't have quite the same cardio impact!).

But no matter how much you love a sport, almost all of them have the same flaw: They don’t last forever.

Time, lifestyle, and physical wear all start to catch up. Training becomes harder to prioritise. Recovery takes longer. And eventually, whether you like it or not, the sport begins to move on without you.

Even the greats aren’t immune. You’ve got legends like Jonah Lomu (rugby's GOAT) turning out for amateur sides later in life, or Edgar Davids (UEFA Champions League Winner) playing in the lower leagues just to stay connected to the game in their later years, but eventually even they stopped. That’s the reality for most athletes: the love never leaves, but the opportunity does.

Why Powerlifting Is Different

This is where Powerlifting stands apart, it's one of the few sports that doesn't follow this pattern the sport doesn't need to leave you, in fact it's a sport that many find once their first sport falls away. Not only do the peak years come much later than in most sports (30s-40s) but there are so many avenues to stay competitive throughout life. From Age Categories, to Equipment, and even Single Lifts, Powerlifting is a sport that you can genuinely do as long as you want. There’s always a way to stay involved, and more importantly, to stay progressing.

Something that adds to powerlifting's longevity is the ability to really adapt the sport to you. Individual programming, focused recovery, and adapted training and competing to when and what works for you, is something that this sport has more than almost any. Powerlifting isn’t about fitting your life around someone else's schedule, it's about making it work for you and enhance your life rather than feeling like a burden.

My Journey Into Strength

My own path into powerlifting wasn’t planned, like a lot of people it came about through training for another sport.

I started lifting weights at 12 years old in Junior High School in  Texas, initially for American football. When I moved back to Scotland and transitioned into rugby, I kept lifting to get stronger.

But, as almost anyone who's played it can emphasise with, rugby came at a toll on my body. Injuries started to stack up, quite literally from head to toe including six ankle ligament tears. Then a car accident that took me out on top of that.

At this point, more of my time was spent rehabbing than actually playing.

That shift, being in the gym to recover rather than practice or playing, ended up being what drove me into focusing on strength.

Instead of seeing the gym as support work, it became the main focus. Progress in strength was my goal, rather than just a benefit to my playing abilities.

Then, while I was rehabbing from the car accident, I attended an Andy Bolton deadlift seminar. That was my introduction to powerlifting as a sport.

Even when young I'd always feared having to eventually give up sport, but when I discovered powerlifting and learned more about it, I found a sport that would stay with me.

Defying Time

One of the most powerful aspects of powerlifting is how it reframes ageing. You don't just need to take my word for it either, simply go on OpenPowerlifting and look through the ages, or better yet go to a comp and watch a Masters flight and see incredible and inspiring lifters.

I dare anyone to watch a 70 year old woman squat 100kg bare knees and beltless and not be amazed!

Giving the finger to father time can be such a huge motivator. One of my lifter's, Darren, knows all about this; approaching 50 and known for his deadlift, he's determined to live up to his name and show he can keep lifting over 300kg for 20 years running (and we are making damn sure this happens!). While other sports have people thinking about giving up once they turn 30, this one will be there forever.

An Injury isn't the End

If time doesn’t take you out of sport, injury often will (It certainly did for me in rugby!).

But one of the biggest differences I’ve found with powerlifting is that injury doesn’t have to be the end, it can be managed, adapted around, and even if not fully recovered from there will still be avenues for you.

That’s become a major focus in my coaching.

Over the years, I’ve worked with lifters dealing with:

•      Double quad tendon ruptures

•      Complete pec tears

•      Hip labrum injuries

•      Adductor tears

•      Even a broken back!

These aren’t minor setbacks, they’re the kind of injuries that would typically mark the end of a sporting career.

As passionate as I am about sport myself, I'm equally, if not more, passionate about making sure others can keep enjoying it. Being able to use my experience, knowledge, and skills to help someone come back from their most difficult injuries, and then to see and hear the joy from them when they achieve something they couldn't have imagined doing again, is a reward like no other. Each one of those injuries above have not just been recovered, but they have gone beyond what they could imagine even before the injury.

(It's well worth having a look at the Reel on Power-Breed Instagram on this)

More Than Competition

One thing that often gets overlooked is that lifting doesn’t need to be competitive to be meaningful.

Yes, competition is a huge part of the sport, but it’s not the only driver. Training can be used as a huge benefit in life giving you structure, a mental release and some real long-term health and resilience.

Not everyone wants to be a pro level competitive powerlifter, but the fundamentals of the sport and training can be great for almost anyone. Even just as something that's yours for a few hours away from the rest of the world, whether that's looking to set an all-time world record or just achieve your first pull up, it's sustainable as you can adapt it for you.

The Love of the Game

At its core, this all comes back to the same idea “The love of the game.”

It doesn’t matter whether you’re elite or a complete beginner, if you train, you recognise that feeling, the pull to improve, the satisfaction of effort and the enjoyment of the process itself.

Most sports eventually force you to walk away from them, Powerlifting doesn’t.

There’s no expiry date. No fixed endpoint. No moment where you’re told it’s over.

You don’t need a clause in a contract to keep showing up.

You just need the decision to come back and the willingness to keep putting in the work.

The barbell doesn’t go anywhere.

And if you want it to, neither does the sport.

Walk the Walk

This piece isn’t just on paper, it’s been my personal experience. Like anyone who’s spent a lifetime in sport, I’ve had my fair share of injuries and more than a few visits to A&E. Powerlifting hasn’t been exempt from that either. I’ve dealt with a complete pec rupture that required reattachment (and left some gnarly scars), along with some pretty serious adductor tears.

Injuries always suck, no matter the sport. But what makes them harder in most sports is the pressure of time, the feeling that the clock is ticking down, and that time away might be time you don’t get back. That's always been how I've felt. Every setback came with the urge to rush back, to make the most of whatever time I had left, and the underlying fear that one big injury could be the end.

But with powerlifting it's been very different. Knowing the sport isn’t going anywhere has completely changed how I approach recovery. It’s allowed me the time and space to not just come back, but to come back properly. After my pec injury, which happened when I was pressing 190kg, I was told that getting back to around 80% strength would be a best-case scenario. But without that time pressure, and with the right approach to training and rehab, I didn’t just get back to where I was, I pushed beyond it and hit 200kg, knowing there’s still more there.

The same has been true with my adductors. In another sport, especially one like rugby, that kind of injury at this stage (mid 30s) could easily have meant calling it a day. In powerlifting, it’s different. Not only do I have the time to recover, but there are always ways to stay involved; whether that’s adjusting training, using supportive equipment, or shifting focus to something like push/pull while things heal.

Michael Jordan loved the game so much he had it written into his contract because he knew one day the opportunity to play might not be there. I share that same love for sport, but what I’ve found in powerlifting is amazing. A sport that doesn’t take that opportunity away, no matter the setbacks, it’s still there for you. That’s something I don’t take for granted, and something I want others to experience too.

Life makes you leave a lot behind, but lifting doesn't need to be one of them, that’s one of many reasons why I love this game.