“Tony Grana, our coach, would teach us the basic form of lifting, and we’d do one meet at the end of the semester,” he said. “That’s how I learned to do it.”“Since I lift in specific weight classes, I have to eat as much as I can to stay in that weight class and have enough energy to lift, but not too much that I go over the weight,” he explained. “I eat a lot of meat, protein and carbs, but no processed foods, to fuel my training.”
Wendy Ludbrook said raising a weightlifter has been quite fun.Being the mom of a champion weightlifter takes a special person.While Upmeyer said he would love to try to make it to the Olympics, he said it would be difficult to qualify and require him to drop “literally everything in my life and focus on nothing but training just for a chance to go … and I don’t know if I would do that.”He is, however, attempting to qualify for the Senior World Championships, “which is the best in the world overall,” he said. “It’s the difference between college football and the NFL, and I’d like to qualify for that.Upmeyer followed that plan through his senior year at Kirkwood High School. He qualified for the Pan American Games in Palmira, Columbia, in June 2024. The event is a competition of the best athletes in North and South America. Upmeyer competed in the junior division, and took bronze medals in the snatch, clean and jerk, and overall.  Then COVID-19 hit, and Ludbrook stopped weightlifting.In September 2024 at the age of 19, Upmeyer went to the Junior World Championships in Leon, Spain. There, he snatched 319 pounds, and went 385 pounds in the clean and jerk, taking 13th place overall.Right now, wrestling, weightlifting and homework occupy his “spare” time.Henry Ludbrook (left) and George Upmeyer (right) at the 2024 USA Weightlifting Nationals in Pittsburgh.Upmeyer, a 2023 graduate of Kirkwood High School, was in fourth grade at North Glendale Elementary School and doing CrossFit when his mom signed him up for a weightlifting class.Henry Ludbrook, 17, started weightlifting in sixth grade at Nipher Middle School, which had a weightlifting club that met twice a week.Henry Ludbrook lifting at a local competition at Strength Works in Brentwood.“I went every week after that, and it just snowballed from there,” he said.But Upmeyer kept training and, slowly but surely, got stronger.After a competition, Upmeyer takes about three weeks off from training and then follows a program his coach has for him which includes specific weights and exercises.

Even Bigger AspirationsUpmeyer, 20, lifted weights three days a week and trained at BARx CrossFit in Kirkwood two days a week until he was in eighth grade. He then suffered a back injury, which he attributes to “a few minor errors in my form.”Upmeyer not only made it into the top 10, he took gold in the snatch, clean and jerk, and overall at the USA Weightlifting Nationals in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in June 2024.“The USA weightlifting community is very positive and supportive, which may not be everyone’s first impression,” she said. “The kids that lift all cheer each other on. At the national events, you compete on the same stage as Olympians and American record holders. “It takes maybe a week for my body to recover after a meet,” he said. “It’s mainly the mind, and it takes a lot out of me, mentally.”
Upmeyer also follows a diet prescribed by his coach.Henry LudbrookThe MomsWhen he’s not training, Upmeyer works at Reclaim Renew in Kirkwood and enjoys doing carpentry in his spare time.It took Upmeyer two and a half years to prepare and qualify for his international meets, which involves attending a national competition and being in the top 10 in the U.S. “We have enjoyed watching him become dedicated to lifting and the increase in his work ethic and confidence,” she continued. “We’ve also had an immense increase in the amount of pasta and protein consumed at our house. The fact that he will continue to lift in college is a bonus.”

“I found Strength Works in Brentwood my middle year of high school. Then my coach, Zach Huse, told me he thought I could qualify for Junior Worlds, and it really surprised me,” he said.  “I didn’t think I could be that good, but he put me on a program where I trained five days a week.”But he’s not going to Louisiana State just to lift. He’s considering a major in occupational physiology.Ludbrook, on the other hand, has the Olympics in his sights. He is set to graduate from Kirkwood High School in May, and plans to attend Louisiana State University.“Then, after a long break because of COVID, I came back and did that meet again in 2022. That’s when I actually started competing and I qualified for nationals,” he said. “I won my weight class (150 pounds) and was second for all youth.”“I had to do really well at a national meet to qualify (for the international meet),” he explained. “It’s how good of an athlete you are, how good you can do under pressure at these meets, and how much you can lift and get into the top 10.”Ludbrook, who is also coached by Huse, trains five days a week for about three to three and a half hours a day; follows a diet that includes beef, rice and pasta; takes ice baths and makes sure to get plenty of sleep.“Right now, I’m focusing on my longevity in the sport,” Upmeyer continued. “I pushed hard for those two and a half years and used every single ounce of my time on lifting and recovering. When I wasn’t doing that, I was working, so I didn’t have much time to do anything other than that. So right now, I’m taking a lighter approach to my training so I can stay in the sport long enough to qualify for that senior meet.”Two young men from Kirkwood are competing at the national and international levels of weightlifting, with both young men — George Upmeyer and Henry Ludbrook — having been involved in the sport from an early age.“And I do like to hang out with my friends,” he added. George Upmeyer, making his final clean and jerk at the Junior World Championships in Leon, Spain, on Sept. 25, 2024.“LSU offers a program in strength conditioning like coaching, so it will be one of those two,” he said. “I want to do something related to weightlifting for my career. I either want to become a coach or a physical therapist.”“In my freshman year (at Kirkwood High School), I started wrestling and thought that would help me get better with weightlifting, and I fell in love with it all over again,” he said.“As parents, knowing how hard he worked, the dedication, discipline, and mindset it took to reach this level —knowing what it meant to him and being able to see him compete on national and international stages in a USA singlet with ‘Upmeyer’ on it was amazing, inspiring and a bit emotional, honestly,” she continued. “He set his mind on a goal, worked his butt off and did it. We couldn’t be prouder and happier for him.”In the summer of 2024, Ludbrook attended the USA Weightlifting Nationals in Pittsburgh with Upmeyer. There, Ludbrook took gold in the snatch, bronze in the clean and jerk, and silver overall, qualifying for the Pan American Championships alongside Upmeyer.“I just signed to lift at LSU Shreveport. Hopefully, that will give me a good boost, then I can make a run for the 2032 Olympics after college,” Ludbrook said. Ludbrook’s first official competition was the Justin Thacker Meet in 2020 at the L.A.B. Gym in St. Louis, prior to the pandemic. George Upmeyer