A Powerful Combination Mikesell Brothers Push Each Other To The Limit In Sport Of Powerlifting

If you happen to be in a gym in the Spokane area and notice a small crowd watching two men lift weights, chances are you’re seeing two brothers who have been gathering crowds around the nation with their feats of strength.

Brent and Matt Mikesell, raised in Spokane, are powerlifters who are making a name for themselves in the world of big muscles.

“It’s nice to have the attention. This sport never gets recognized,” said Brent, 31. “There’s not a lot of people around that are doing that anymore.”

And, as an added bonus, it’s something they can do as brothers, benefiting from the support they can offer each other.

“We’re close, and I want to stay close, and it’s something we have in common,” Brent said. “If it was a one-man show, it would be a hell of a lot harder.”

Powerlifting is a sport that focuses on three different lifts. Powerlifters compete in the deadlift, squat and bench press.

Weightlifting, an Olympic sport, focuses on the snatch and the clean and jerk.

Both Mikesells found a love for this sport while playing football. All-Greater Spokane League players for University High School in the 1980s, both earned college scholarships.

Brent, a former linebacker, began powerlifting in high school. He competed in several state meets, grabbing third place his junior year and second his senior.

After playing three injury-riddled seasons at the University of Montana, which included two knee surgeries, a dislocated knee and a pinched nerve in the neck, Brent gave up the gridiron and began pumping more and more steel.

”(Powerlifting) became more fun than football,” he said.

Now a math and P.E. teacher at Bowdish Junior High, as well as an assistant football coach for his old high school, Brent, at 6-foot and 295 pounds, has amassed quite a trophy case. Among others, Brent claimed national titles in the deadlift in 1996 and 1997 and took second in the World Association of Bench Press and Deadlift. Earlier this month, he captured fourth in the Senior Nationals in Chicago, one of the biggest events of its kind, with a three-lift total of 2,037 pounds. Brent can lift 765 in the deadlift, bench more than 500 pounds and squat 810.

Matt, 28, has a similar story. After quarterbacking Western Washington University through his freshman year, Matt found himself injured as well and also found weightlifting more enjoyable and quit football.

From there, he took on body building, training for the best physique rather than just raw power. At 6-foot, 250-pounds, Matt has also won awards around the nation, including placing third in an event in Palm Springs and fourth in 1996 and 1997’s Emerald Cup in Seattle.

But now Matt, who works as a courier for Group Health, is crossing over from bodybuilding to powerlifting. He totals 660 in the deadlift, 425 in the bench press and 565 in the squat.

“Over the last couple years, it’s gotten to be the freakier and the bigger (in body building) the better,” he said of his decision to switch. “It’s not where I want to be. I don’t want to be 350 pounds and be a gargantuan freak.”

Matt and Brent both have a tough task balancing family, work and the need to lift enormously heavy objects. Between 1-1/2 and 2-hour workouts and traveling around the country for an average of four shows a year, it takes a lot of time and money away from each their families.

“It just has to be a compromise,” Brent said. “I told my wife when we were dating, ‘There is only one thing I need to be happy and stay married: I gotta lift.’ That’s the one thing in my life that’s really important to me. I could never have gotten married if I hadn’t said that.

”(Our wives) don’t jump up and down about it, but they understand that’s what we need to be happy.”