Gig Harbor grad Gabe Rochette finds passion, success in powerlifting

Gabe Rochette stopped participating in school sports after his sophomore season in cross country at Gig Harbor High School. But while he might not have been interested in the traditional sports high schools have to offer, Rochette has found his passion and put many hours of hard work into it.

Rochette was among several hundred lifters in Denver for the High School and Teen National Championships for powerlifting in late May. While there, he finished second in the raw (little to no equipment used to aid lift) high school division and seventh in the third tier of the raw Teen division.

What started as a hobby at the age of nine turned into an outlet for Rochette to compete against other powerlifters in the United States and test his mettle. The best part for him is that Rochette is good at powerlifting, too.

“I don’t have a coach or a gym that I go to. I switched from cross country about two years ago because I wanted to do something a bit easier,” he said. “Running all the time was getting to me, so I decided I will just go down to my garage and lift weights. I got pretty strong, so I decided to compete… I’ve been lifting my whole life. I could bench 225 pounds and I was deadlifting over 300.”

Cross country is not known for having runners that can bench and deadlift heavy weight. So for Rochette, transitioning from one sport to the other was not that big of a leap.

Rochette is not the first person in his family either to compete in heavyweight training competitions. His grandfather was a deadlift champion in his time, pulling up 600 lbs. It is safe to say he serves as inspiration for Rochette.

“I just found out [about my grandpa] a couple of months ago. I didn’t know he did that when I started lifting,” he said. “He was about my size, and it was cool to see. I thought ‘oh wow, maybe that’s where all my strength comes from’.”

When Rochette enters in competitions, three major lifts are scored: squats, bench press, and the deadlift.

To place, a lifter must do one rep of each lift correctly in the eyes of the judges. All three max weights are added up for a total score and then put into an algorithm for a final score in the meet.

Rochette put up roughly 400 lbs in the squat at the national championships, 215 in the bench press, and 500 in the deadlift. These lifts were used in the two divisions and netted him the second and seventh placings at the meet.

“It was amazing, it was only my second official meet. It was really fun,” he said. “I think I went in ranked number one for high school so I hoped to get first place. I’m not disappointed to get second place but I was hoping to get first… I had trouble acclimating to the altitude in Denver and I ended up dropping 12 pounds. I had muscle spasms and cramps the whole week so I was lucky to just get on the board.”

Despite losing a significant amount of body weight in Denver, Rochette still showed that he is a force to be reckoned with in the powerlifting community.

What is even more impressive about how Rochette is conducting his weight training is that he is doing it all on his own. Currently, he does not have a coach to get a program from week to week.

Rochette just goes into his home gym and works whatever he feels like that day. Even though it has proven to work for him thus far, a coach could still benefit Rochette in the long run.

“I don’t have an actual training program, I mostly go down and do whatever I feel like. Whatever feels good,” he said. “I don’t have a set warm-up, I just have what I am going to do this week and then next week I make another plan. I think a coach could help me hit my max whenever I go to a meet instead of two months before. I could hit my peak right at the meet.”

However, after all the preparation that he puts into a competition, Rochette planned to take the summer off and give his muscles a bit of rest. Doing year-long heavy lifts would do more damage than good.

So to keep himself occupied until he feels ready to train in the fall, Rochette has been doing CrossFit. Another tough, yet full-body workout that he enjoys.

“At the moment, I am going to be doing CrossFit at my CrossFit gym,” he said. “I just like doing that during the summer because it is a change of pace. I can’t be lifting all year because it will take a toll on my body. So I like to take two months off every year and make sure that I am getting all the other essential muscles worked during those two months.”

His big goal for the next Washington State meet in October is to break the state record in the deadlift, which is 530 pounds.