Bryant Dutcher, better known as Dutch, has been lifting for some time now. During his journey, Dutcher has amazed the audience during his lifting meets, helped grow the powerlifting club at BV, and has frequently shared his lifting journey on his Instagram, which currently has over 700 followers. 

With his dedication to getting into the gym on a daily basis, it may come as a shock to some that at first that Dutcher wasn’t as interested in lifting as he is today. “It started genuinely in high school, just lifting for football because you had to. I started a little late, I didn’t really start till junior year of high school. Which is silly cause I love it now; I just wasn’t interested,” Dutcher explains. 

Dutcher started to get more interested in lifting when he discovered there was a gym close to his home in Boone called The Strength Shop. There, he met the owner, the late Court Burkamper, who welcomed Dutcher to the gym with open arms.  

“He kind of took me under his wing. He was like a role model for me, got me into it and showed me what to do. He was the main reason I’m into it as much as I am now,” Dutcher said. 

Burkamper competed in body building when he was younger. Later, he got into powerlifting, reaching up to 800 pounds in deadlifting at the Iowa State Fair. After that, he focused his time on helping people get better in the gym. 

“If anyone got to meet him, he was all about helping other people. He had the biggest heart. It’s like so easy to get caught up into lifting and sometimes people think of lifters as meatheads but if you do it for the right reasons, which Court definitely did,” Dutcher explained. 

Today, Dutcher stays motivated to keep lifting and pushing himself to achieve his goals. His current PRs on the big three lifts are 735 pounds in squatting, 355 in benching, and 675 in deadlifting. His goal is to reach 1,000 pounds in either squat or deadlift.  

Dutcher has had a lot of support from his peers at BV during his journey. Friends have spotted his lifts to make sure he safely performs without injury. One of Dutcher’s best friends, Errol Alden, is looking forward to seeing him accomplish his goals.  

“I want to see him hit the 1000 pounds. He is getting really close to hitting that mark, which is awesome. What he has done at his age has been really cool to see. I am really looking forward to seeing him achieve his goals down the road,” Alden explained.  

Dutcher’s love for lifting has expanded to helping those around the campus of BV get better at lifting, just like his mentor Court did. Part of this is role as president of the powerlifting club at BV, with hopes of the growing the program with inspired lifters. 

“It was Jose Paredes’ idea originally. He got the idea started and it became an official club. After a while, I took over and I got the first competition started, got all of the meetings rolling,” Dutcher said. 

Dutcher did a couple of competitions in high school, but he wasn’t necessarily training for them. His football coach would suggest that he should do them, and he went and did it. He still feels new to competitions. He has done a few sanctioned competitions, which mark your max lifts to make them official. 

Dutcher has had a lot to look back on and be proud of during his journey, which helps him continue his drive to reach his goals. 

“My biggest highlight was the first time I squatted over 700 pounds. Also, the first time I deadlifted 600 pounds. I was 19 when I did that, but it was such a big milestone to get over 600. That one was really special.” 

The biggest wonder for the future of Dutcher’s journey is what exactly he plans on doing once he reaches his goal of lifting 1000 pounds. 

“I don’t have any aspirations to be the greatest [lifter] ever, I just know that I want to get to that 1000 mark and sort of retire, but I would just lift for fun just for my health,” Dutcher said. 

Dutcher not only wants to make himself better, but he wants to make others around him better. He continues to inspire and have fun in the weight room. Making the weight room a positive environment is very important to Dutcher. It is almost impossible to not root for Dutch during his journey.