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(On Saturday, October 3rd, our first ever real [FIT] life Powerlifting team entered the Northeast Iron Beast USAPL Push Pull meet in Latham, New York.
For five of our team members, this was their first powerlifting meet experience, and they all did an amazing job.
Each day this week, real [FIT] life will feature one of our team members, their stories, their struggles, and their amazing successes.
So be sure to check back tomorrow and every day this week to learn more and to be inspired by everyday real people just like you!
To learn how to bring out your own inner athlete, be sure to read our recent real [FIT] life newsletter topic, “Do you believe you can achieve fitness greatness? (you should)” Click here.)
A little info about Jayne
I have heard Jayne’s story about her initial thoughts on training with us at real [FIT] life, a couple times now, but I still don’t get tired of it. In fact, it’s a favorite of mine.
Jayne was already a seasoned fitness enthusiast when she tried the 6 Week Start up Program at real [FIT] life. She admitted to me much later on that she initially tried it just out of curiosity, and in the first week or two, thought it was too easy, and that she definitely wouldn’t be staying past week 6.
But then somewhere around week 4 things started to get real. As we had found her weak links and focused on improving her lifting technique, her favorite phrase became “It’s so much harder this way!!”, and by week 6 she was hooked.
That was well over a year ago and to our delight, she never left.
Jayne is a tiny bundle of determination who likes to initiate friendly competition with any guy who is willing to get into a push-up challenge at random parties. She is a healthy food addict, who further enhances her foodie obsession as a part time college attendee, studying for a degree in nutrition. Did I mention that she also has a full time job and a part time waitressing gig? Jayne is BUSY yet she still makes time for fitness.
In our training sessions, Jayne is sure to have a good story and is always making our other real [FIT] life’rs laugh.
The Meet
Jayne entered the Open division in the women’s 57 kg weight class. In training, Jayne had recently benched 100 lbs as her max but I knew she could do more than that. Jayne is a strong bencher, which is extra impressive given how tiny she is.
Deadlifts were proving to be a little more challenging for Jayne. Due to some dignosed knee issues, we had switched Jayne from a conventional stance to a sumo stance a while back, and we were still fine tuning her set up. Only one week pior to the meet, we narrowed her stance, which definitely worked better for her. Typically changes like this aren’t made so close to a meet, however, Jayne was clearly able to lift more weight this way, so we went with it.
Bench
The most important thing to know about Jaynes bench attempts is that she killed all three. Her second attempt, 99.2 lbs, went up so easily that one of the officials tried to persuade her to go for 110 lbs for her third attempt.
Jayne came over and asked my opinion. We had 104.7 lbs selected as her final attempt. Given that she had never benched 104.7 lbs before, even in training, I recommended she stay with our original plan, to ensure success. I was positive Jayne could bench 104.7 lbs, and I had told her so.
Here is a video of Jayne successfully benching her third attempt, 104.7 lbs. This was a personal record for her.
Deadlift
Jayne’s deadlift performance did not go as smoothly as her benching, but for certain reasons, I think her deadlift accomplishments were equally, if not MORE, impressive.
As I had mentioned earlier, we have still been fine tuning Jayne’s set up. When testing her max rep for deadlifts, in training, Jayne pulled 135 lbs.
Since Jayne’s first meet attempt was 126.8 lbs and the USAPL plates are in kilos, the bar was slightly lower to the floor than what Jayne had been accustomed to in training. When she approached the bar for her first attempt, it threw her off, and she could not lift the bar off of the floor. It was stuck. She shook her head in defeat and walked off the platform.
I knew that this was a crucial moment for Jayne if she were to successfully complete her second attempt. I also knew that she was more than capable of deadlifting that bar. Now we needed for her to believe it.
I went over to her and told her, “Do NOT think about it. Here’s what I want you to do. Keep your hips a little higher on your next pull. Also, when you go out there, don’t pause. Just bend over and pick up that bar.”
As Jayne paced and waited for her next attempt I continued to remind her to just clear her head.
And when Jayne went out on that platform again, here is what happened.
I cannot begin to tell you how hard it can be for someone to be able to come back from a failed attempt, especially when that attempt was such a struggle.
And not only did Jayne successfully complete this lift, but she also completely nailed her third attempt, 132.3 lbs. In fact, once she had her confidance back, her last lift went up even faster.
To add to the sheer joy of her victory, the refs, the crowd, our team, EVERYONE was cheering her on and screaming in unison, “PULL!”
The announcer even yelled into the mic, “Don’t think. Just pull.”
I was SO proud of her and her can do attitude with which she turned things around.
I saw Jayne at our real [FIT] life session yesterday and she is already plotting (planning) for her next meet in January.
We all can’t wait to see what she does next!
Congratulations, Jayne!
Be sure to check back tomorrow, when we’ll feature another one of our real [FIT] life team members and their meet results!
Jeannine Trimboli, CEO, real [FIT] life
www.realfitlife.net
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