23 Mar Meet Team PRS’s Newest Member: Bruce Mason

By: Morgan Colling

Bruce Mason began his athletic career playing high school soccer as a second-string goalie. Being a high school athlete also meant being exposed to the weight room and later, the “1,000 pound club” – comprised of the box squat, bench press, and trap bar deadlift. After fighting for his 1,000 pounds all four years of high school, he finally reached his goal. From there, strength was his main focus in and outside of the weight room.

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Bruce even focused his education around strength and went to college at Ashland University for Exercise Science and Foods and Nutrition. Here he joined a powerlifting club, which competed in the USAPL in single-ply gear. At the time, his best total was around 1,500 @ 198. After graduating, he relocated to Akron, Ohio and earned his Masters degree in Exercise Physiology; additionally, he slowly transitioned into multiply lifting.

The 198 weight class turned into 220, which later turned into 242. Bruce’s total at his peak – only one year into multiply lifting – was 1,900 at 22 years old. This was nearly four years ago; only one year later, Bruce suffered a back injury from a horrible car accident. “Listening to Brian Carroll’s journey was a huge step in the right direction,” Mason said. “I went from not being able to get out of bed to finally returning to the platform.”

In 2014, Bruce won APF Senior Nationals in the 275 class with a 2,155 total. From there, he went on to WPC Worlds and took third place with a 2,179 total. “At this point, I wanted to squat 1,000 pounds even though my best squat was 850 at the time,” he said. “This was my pink mist.” After working with Todd Brock for only six months, he earned his 1,000 pound squat and totaled 2,300 @ 275. “From here, I felt like the sky was the limit, and I still do.”

Bruce recently competed in the 2016 XPC Finals at the Arnold and had the best meet of this life, where he went 1010/685/750 for a total of 2,445. He plans on competing again sometime this fall and intends on totaling over 2,500 @ 308. He looks forward to bringing both his formal education and personal experience to the Team PRS table and believes that his persistency and hard work will be valuable to our team.

[When asked how Team PRS differs from competitors]: “Team PRS – even before I was a part of this – showed a team and positive family atmosphere that no other group does. For example, Brian flying from Florida to Michigan to help other teammates compete is unlike any other CEO of a big company. I look forward to being part of a very successful team who is made up of the strongest and brightest lifters out there.”

Last but most certainly not least, keep an eye out for a feature of our remaining newest team member: bench specialist Paul Key.

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Brian Carroll

Owner and Founder at PowerRackStrength.com

Brian is a retired world-class powerlifter with over two decades of world-class powerlifting. From 1999 to 2020, Brian Carroll was a competitive powerlifter, one of the most accomplished lifters in the sport's history. Brian started off competing in bench press competitions 'raw,' then, shortly into the journey, he gravitated toward equipped lifting as there were no "raw" categories then. You only had to choose from single-ply (USPF) and Multi-ply (APF/WPC). Brian went on to total 2730 at 275 and 2651 at 242 with more than ten times his body weight in three different classes (220, 242, 275), and both bench pressed and deadlifted over 800 pounds in two other weight classes. He's totaled 2600 over 20 times in 2 different weight classes in his career. With 60 squats of 1000lbs or more officially, this is the most in powerlifting history, regardless of weight class or federation, by anyone not named David Hoff. Brian realized many ups and downs during his 20+ years competing. After ten years of high-level powerlifting competition and an all-time World Record squat at 220 with 1030, in 2009, Brian was competing for a Police academy scholarship. On a hot and humid July morning, Brian, hurdling over a barricade at 275lbs, landed on, fell, and hurt his back. After years of back pain and failed therapy, Brian met with world-renowned back specialist Prof McGill in 2013, which changed his trajectory more than he could have imagined. In 2017, Brian Carroll and Prof McGill authored the best-selling book about Brian's triumphant comeback to powerlifting in Gift of Injury. Most recently (10.3.20) -Brian set the highest squat of all time (regardless of weight class) with 1306 lbs – being the first man to break the 1300lb squat barrier at a bodyweight of 303 lbs.

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