Chi Ossé Is Powerlifting His Way Through Politics

Reported by Vogue.

New York City Council member Chi Ossé competes in powerlifting competitions while managing constituent crises, White House events, and protest arrests. It's the kind of schedule that would flatten most people, but Ossé has found something crucial in the weight room: a form of resistance that feels both deeply personal and inherently political.

About eighteen months ago, Ossé discovered powerlifting through a CrossFit box and became immediately obsessed. "It felt really nice to pick up heavy weights and put them back down," he explains. The appeal wasn't just physical—lifting offered something meditative, something that cut through the noise of his high-octane life. Working with trainer Anthony Aristy, he bulked up methodically, treating his body like a video game character leveling up: heavier weights, new skills, measurable progress. The protocol is rigorous—he targets 200 to 250 grams of protein daily, one gram per pound of body weight—and the discipline keeps him anchored.

Getting Buff as an Act of Resistance

This past weekend, Ossé competed in his first official powerlifting competition, singlet and all. He hit two personal records and discovered something equally important: the community didn't match the stereotype. Yes, there were stereotypical "big bro-dudes," but the space welcomed people who didn't fit the traditional powerlifting archetype. People like him. For Ossé, that's not incidental—it's the whole point. "I view powerlifting and getting buff as a leftist, queer person as something really important. It's political for me to take control of my body and get strong—it's an act of resistance," he says. The manosphere and patriarchy have long equated physical strength with whiteness, straightness, conservatism. Ossé is quietly demolishing that equation, one PR at a time.

The timing of his competition—sandwiched between a White House event, mayoral video shoot, and constituent eviction protest—might seem chaotic, but Ossé sees it differently. "I see exercise as a part of self-care," he explains. "It's a symbiotic relationship—I have found it essential for me to exercise in order for me to do my job and navigate the world." The weights don't distract from his political work. They fuel it. When he talks about getting strong as a queer leftist, he's not being rhetorical. It's resistance—the kind that lives in the body.

Strength, for Ossé, isn't about dominance or the lean-in hustle narrative. It's about reclaiming the body as a site of power in a system designed to convince you that you don't have any.

Read the original at Vogue.