Lift like a (fat) girl

Over the weekend I competed in a Novice Powerlifting competition. This was my third comp. I went in injured (I'm having knee surgery in 5wks or so).

A couple of MFP friends bullied me into my first comp. Before it I came up with a bunch of excuses.

"I've got so much weight left to lose"

"I don't want to wear a onesie!"

"I'm not strong enough yet!"

And then one day I realised that at any other pursuit, I wouldn't expect to be the best at the first competition I went to. I should just go for the experience.

So went, and I learnt a lot.

Before this competition, I suggested that my PT compete too. He wasn't keen at first, he had excuses too, but he finally agreed and he convinced other people from our gym to go along to the comp. All of a sudden, I was part of a team!

Because of my knee injury, I went really light with my squat (40kg), this meant that my squat was the first lift of the whole competition. I was really nervous, because I was sure I wasn't going to make depth. I've only done squats in training twice since I hurt my knee in March.

But I made depth, and I got three white lights. I went for a second squat of 60kg and once again, I got three white lights.
I decided not to push my luck, and decided not to go for a third squat.

I was pretty confident with bench, I went 55/60/65kg, and didn't get a single red light.

At the top of my 65kg bench.



(I'm sure there aren't many powerlifting comps that someone benches more than they squat!)

My knee slightly impacts my deadlifts, so I opened fairly light 80kg, but it went up so easily that I pushed it up to 100kg for my second and 110kg for my third.

110kg deadlift:



I was by far the largest lady lifting that day.

I wasn't the strongest person lifting (by a long way) on the day.

I did NOT ONCE feel judged for my weight. Not the weight on my body, or the weight on the bar.

I did however feel like I was part of a team.