Powerlifter lifts others through fitness

 

Mark Bryant has been teaching senior fitness for over a decade and also volunteers at Bumblebee Boxing Club and the Union Gospel Mission in Othello.

 

At 57, Mark Bryant, is a fitness trainer and award-winning powerlifter despite having a total left hip replacement in 2008. He was recently inducted into both the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Washington State Strength Sport Hall of Fame and the Washington USA Powerlifting Hall of Fame after pulling a 407-pound deadlift during a competition in March – the only amateur athlete in the state to have been awarded both honors. “It’s not just weightlifting,” said Andrew “Bull” Stewart, owner of Columbia City Fitness, the gym where Bryant trains and also teaches classes. “It’s integrity, what you do in the community, it’s what you’ve given back,” Stewart emphasized. Bryant has been teaching senior fitness for more than a decade at the Southeast Seattle Senior Center, and he also volunteers teaching classes at the Bumblebee Boxing Club and Union Gospel Mission in Seattle’s Othello neighborhood. When Bryant had his hip replacement, he was back at competition in five months, complete with a titanium rod running down his leg. “You gotta be smart about it, and know yourself,” Bryant said. “You don’t give up, you’ve got to keep trying.”

 

March 28, 2016

By Bettina Hansen

Seattle Times staff photographer

 

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