High Life: A WEEKLY FORUM FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS : In Pursuit of Weighty Matters : Athlete: Gretchen Buerki, a Fullerton Union High School teacher, is a world class power-lifter.

When one thinks about tough guys and musclemen, the names that most often come to mind are Rambo, Schwarzenegger and Rocky. But Hollywood isn’t the only place where power and strength are legends.

Gretchen Buerki, affectionately called “Many Muscles” by her fellow faculty members at Fullerton Union High School, is the second-best woman power-lifter in the world for her class.

Last summer, Buerki, who has taught special education classes at Fullerton for nine years, traveled to Sydney, Australia, to compete in the International Powerlifting Federation’s inaugural world women’s masters championship.

She returned home with a silver medal for her second-place finish in the over-40 heavyweight class.

“I started lifting weights at age 43,” said Buerki, who recently turned 50. “I was trying to lose some weight, and I wanted to tone myself up.”

She has only become serious about power-lifting in the past five years.

“A few of my weightlifting friends encouraged me,” Buerki said, “and I just enjoyed the sport so much that I decided to excel at it.”

Power-lifting consists of three events: the dead lift, the squat and the bench press.

The results of her three lifts in Australia: She squat-lifted 315 pounds, bench-pressed 176 and dead-lifted 380.

Buerki is the California record-holder in the dead lift at 413 pounds, setting the mark at the American Drug-Free Powerlifting Assn.’s women’s open.

Dedicating oneself to a sport can be very time-consuming. According to Buerki, she has canceled family vacations with husband Robert and daughter Noel so she could attend meets.

Buerki follows a strict and vigorous workout schedule, hitting the local YMCA gym or the Sequoia Athletic Club every other day for 2 1/2 hours per session. She starts with her major lifts, finishing up with assistance exercises that help work all of her muscle groups.

Placing in a power-lifting competition isn’t easy. Buerki learned this the hard way during her first meet five years ago. Of nine competitors, she placed dead last. But this experience was not without its reward.

“I learned that you need to set goals and work very hard to achieve them,” she said. Since that first meet, Buerki has competed in eight others, winning two national masters titles (1989 and 1992) and finishing third in another (1990).

After her victory in 1992, Buerki was required to be tested for drugs before she would be allowed to compete for the world title. This wasn’t a problem for her, however, as she is a drug-free athlete who takes pride in knowing that all she has accomplished is because of hard, diligent work.

“It’s a harder, longer road when you go drug free,” she said. “But it’s you, not something artificial.

“The sport of power-lifting is making tremendous strides to clean itself up by requiring drug testing.”

In addition to her work with special education students, Buerki helps the Fullerton football team with its weightlifting techniques.

“I just became friends with some of the boys on the team,” she said. “They stop by my classroom to talk, and I’ve invited some to train with me.

“I just wish I had a little more time, but when you train at the level I train . . . maybe someday.”

One of the important lessons Buerki has learned during her training and competitions, and one that she hopes to pass along to her students, is that hard work really does pay off.

And success is definitely worth the weight.