Finding my strength again

Once upon a time, before 2 young toddlers and a demanding job in oncology I threw myself into power lifting. In 2018 I competed in my first power lifting meet after deciding about 8 months earlier to start training as part of my wedding prep routine. When I remember those times I was bubbling over with strength, swagger, and confidence every time I dropped a heavy weight on the floor. I would step into the barbell area and post up to the squat racks and dead lift area in full power lifting gear. The knee sleeves, weight belts, powerlifting shoes, deadlift shoes! I felt like badass every time I stepped into the gym. I’m not proud of it, but I would kind of look down on the people that were using light dumb bells as part of their workout routine. At that point in I could not understand the point in lifting if it wasn’t crazy heavy.  

Fast forward to being post-partum in the pandemic 2020 and I was itching to get back to lifting. My brother and his partner created this amazing space for lifters during the pandemic out of a storage locker. We rotated times using the space to get in our workouts. That was when Urban Powerhouse was born and then expanded to a space where we could all workout together with one on one coaching or individual workouts. I became pregnant with our second child soon after getting into a rhythm and stepped back from power lifting. After our daughter was born my body was a post partum wreck. My mind could not accept that my body was different and needed to shift. A friend of mine sent me a link for a 30-day yoga challenge by Yoga with Adriene. I had done power yoga in my younger years, so I was nervous about starting. Amazingly Adriene had a way of starting with the basics and building so you did what your body needed. I cherished that time, and by the end I couldn’t believe that I could do a push up again from the ground. Slowly I started to realize my strength was in showing up for myself exactly where I was that day. Yoga helped me rehab out of the post-partum period and I started powerlifting again. It was good but felt very different. Injuries started to pile up, and life was making it hard to show up for myself. I finally had the strength to step back from powerlifting and start back with the basics of considering how to move in a way that honors and respects my body today. This is still a work in progress of course. As I walk down the path of transition ,I wonder what is going to keep me motivated to show up to keep building strength for my mind and body.  

https://www.urbanpowerhouse.org/

https://www.youtube.com/user/yogawithadriene