Iron Insights with Big Brother

A few weeks ago, I was talking with my brother Roy about getting into the gym and fitting a good workout into our busy schedules, despite heavy work demands. He was on the road and managed to get a late night training session in at the nearest gym – and made sure to let me know this fact. I am always proud to hear this, coming from my 42 year old bro’ who used to hit the weights pretty hard (not for powerlifting, for bodybuilding – but still).

I credit Roy with introducing me to old school gyms and heavy weights – and the glory of lifting them – in the first place. It all started when he got a membership at Bath Beach and Bodyworks Gym in Brooklyn, New York – he was a teenager, and I was a little kid – and he never stopped talking about it (or flexing in front of the mirrors at home). When I was 10, he made me a pro-wrestling fan during the World Wrestling Federation’s heyday (the Big 80’s), looking up to these muscle-bound men in spandex who went airborne off turnbuckles, surrounded by packed arenas. Then, he got me a set of free weights for my 16th birthday, which I put to use at home. And when he served in the U.S. Military, he toted me alongside him and had me watch him work out – and try it myself – at the Air Force Base gym in Bangor, Maine, when I was 17. I joined THE GYM Training Center in Fridley, Minnesota when I was 19 to gain some weight; and when I visited Roy the next year, we trained at the Minot Air Force Base gym in North Dakota…

Long story short, he didn’t know that was all going to translate to his skinny little sis’ becoming obsessed with the sport of powerlifting, to the point of winning national championships and representing the USA internationally.

Speaking of that…we spoke about that, too. We got on the topic of Women’s Nationals; he asked me some really great questions, as he likes to pick my brain every now and then – and he asked from the perspective of someone very familiar with the weights, but not personally familiar with the training and competition aspect of powerlifting.

“Do you think you could do those lifts again?”

My immediate reaction was a definite “yeah,” because I was already thinking ahead about what new PRs (personal records) I want to achieve next. But he added that he was curious because I had mentioned that my max lifts at Nationals were real tough – I had to give everything I had, and more, to successfully lock them out.

For example, a peek into how I had to grind-out 336 lbs. for my final deadlift:



Or the even-more-painfully-slow 176 lb. bench press (which my competition kicked to the curb with her 198 lb. lift):



That led me to talk about how having close competition drove me to deliver the very best that I could – which turned out to be a 9-for-9 performance this time, for the first time in my life. I guess the real answer was, “Yes – if I want to, badly enough… or if I have to… yes, I could do them again. And, if I continued to train hard, I could do more.”

I am a believer that you could talk yourself into doing anything (or not doing it): “The power of life and of death is in the tongue.” Self-fulfilling prophecies are real. Your actions follow your words, which follow your thoughts. It all starts with what you believe, what you choose to focus on, and what you tell yourself. There’s reality –and much of that is the reality you create.

So he also asked me to compare the competition I typically face at Nationals, to that at World’s, and how that affects my lifting. A common theme of discussion related to what went down in Miami (and at the other Women’s Nationals I’ve won) has been how having competition motivated me. After I won in 2007, former IPF World Champion Ann Leverett told me I am “definitely a meet lifter,” meaning that under stressful conditions, high expectations, and around challengers doing their very best… I do my best.

I’ve lifted at three Nationals and had close competition at each one. So I’ve achieved personal bests at these meets – the “worst” ones being 8-for-9 performances (missing just one attempt). However, at IPF World’s in 2007, I felt as though I was lifting alone, against myself, since almost all the other women in my weight class – the 48 kg., in which I was new – were so far out of my league. And the drop in my total – from a 783 at Nationals in February, to a 749 at that meet in October – seemed to reflect that. (My best deadlift was a 309!!) Two years prior to that, at the World’s in 2005, I had very close competition from Laurence Hernandez of France. I tied her to win the overall bronze medal in the 44 kg. class by lighter bodyweight.

I will also say that lifting these big weights is the ultimate form of stress relief for me. Literally, one hour in the gym in which I pull 330 lbs. is often a manifestation of a huge release of frustrations – and a desire to compensate for other times in which I have failed – by NOT failing. Rather, by crushing. Overcoming. In a matter of seconds.

All the more rewarding when some would say it cannot –- or should not –- be done.

For a variety of reasons, I have declined my spot on Team USA for the IPF World's in India later this year. I have no definite meet in the near future, other than the NAPF/IPF Pan American Championships in August. What is going to motivate me in the meantime, and keep me coming back into the gym?

Time will tell. But a lot of it will probably have to do with that one pound that stands between me and 800...