Blog

posted on September 22, 2022

A few weekends ago I was at our powerlifting meet at here at Union Fitness, where there were some very heavy lifts, and even some records set. But that wasn’t my favorite part. My favorite part was seeing the excitement when a strong female lifter hit a lift that she has been trying to accomplish for a while. The confidence and happiness these ladies radiated on that platform was something I hope every woman gets to experience in her lifetime.

I encourage all women to lift heavy, to get out of out comfort zone and see just how strong you really are, because I promise however strong you think you are right now… you’re way stronger. I see it every day, when I am training female athletes and I convince them to just put a little more weight on the bar, and they lift it. It gives them the confidence to keep putting even more weight on the bar. After all, we can only grow by continuously stepping out of our comfort zone.

By lifting heavier weights, it builds confidence and can help you focus on the strength you are building instead of focusing on how our bodies look. I think this is something a lot of us women can benefit from. We start to see ourselves in a different light and fall in love with our bodies again. I want all women to see just how strong and powerful we are, when we start to focus on our strength instead of things society has convinced us that we should focus on.

Once I started powerlifting, I started to see myself as this strong, powerful, badass woman instead of being so worried about how I looked in the mirror. Now I am happy, strong, AND I love what I see in the mirror, and before lifting heavy weights I didn’t think I could ever get here. Many people in my life recognized the confidence I was starting to build after I started lifting heavy. And I recognized it too, which is why I believe one of the best ways to empower women is through strength.

Maria Fautali