I have been around weights my whole life because my dad is a high school weightlifting coach and my sister was a high school weightlifter. A year ago, I wanted to start lifting with them to improve my tennis game. Little did I know I would fall in love with lifting and it really helped me become a better dancer also. In November of 2014, I started training with my dads powerlifting team Hillbilly Power. My coach is Toby Irby. He is a great coach and is fun to be around. I really enjoy being a part of the group and soon I was asked to compete. My dad explained the commitment it would take and how I would be the only 11 year old in our area to compete. I didn’t matter to me, I wanted to do it.
So we set the date for competing and I never missed a workout for four months. I worked out four days per week, even though that meant sacrificing many things my friends were doing and even got funny looks from friends that felt it was weird for a 11 year old to compete in the sport of powerlifting.
I competed on February 28, 2015 at the APF/AAPF Florida State Championships and had an incredible day. I was able to set all the records in the teenage division in the 97 lb class even though I only weighed in at 84 lbs and was two years shy of being a teenager. My lifts were 99 in the squat (barely missed 114), benched 66, and deadlifted 137 (barely missed 147). I loved the the whole meet.
After the meet, I couldn’t wait to do it again. My goals for November (next scheduled meet) I will squat 150, bench 95, and deadlift 185. I would also love to lead the way for other little girls to be involved in this amazing sport.
Thursday night Toby introduced me to sumo deadlifts. This was the first time I have ever did them. I love them. He only let me do 5 sets of three and wouldn’t let me go higher than 130 pounds. It was easy. When I get used to these, I just know my deadlift will go Read More »
I hear boys at school talk about me lifting weights. They think it is weird or they don’t believe I lift. But then they brag about how they lift with their dad or do push ups at home. Other boys think that makes them cool. Why do people think people doing the same thing is Read More »
Tonight was Bench night. Toby had me doing lots of reps again. Here is tonight’s workout: 1. Close Grip Bench – four sets of 5 reps with 55 pounds. 2. DB Incline – four sets of 8 reps 3. Overhead DB Press – four sets of 12 reps 4. JM Press – four sets of Read More »
Monday is always squat day for HBP. Tonight was no different. Workout was very hard because we did high reps on most exercises. My legs are dead! Here is what we did: 1. Squats with Buffalo Bar – for some reason tonight I had trouble with balance. I had two warm-up sets of 8 then Read More »
Next week I will start talking about my workouts but now I want to talk about where I train. I train at Future Fitness in Lake City, Florida. We have everything. Chains, bands, boards, crazy bars, 2 monolifts, competition benches, and even a special built rack. It’s cool. My coach is Toby Irby. He makes Read More »
Mattilyn, Welcome to gometal blog. It was nice to look your lifts in last competition in Orlando. You were awesome on platform.
