The search for the perfect sport for me

I wrote this for school in 2005. I though I would share it because people always ask me how I got interested in lifting. 

The search for the perfect sport for me

I was always quite active growing up. One of my first experiences with physical activity was climbing trees in my backyard and going across money bars. There was a great park and playground right by my house and I would go there all the time. I would also ride bikes and roller blade all the time. My friends and I (my neighbors, all boys) would have races around the tennis courts and around the blocks. I was pretty good and fast and had good balance, I rarely fell.

When I was in kindergarten I took ballet and loved it, I loved the outfits and the movements. But I quit before I was suppose to move on to toe shoes because I was scared of the new teacher. I wish my parents made me continue because if they made me I would have, because I secretly wanted to.  When I was in elementary school I did Softball for three seasons. It was fun, but I didn’t like being part of team because I don’t like depending on people and the coaches did a half assed job teaching us and basically just favored the better players.

In Middle School I liked P.E. class and loved doing the crunches and push ups etc, that everyone hated, and I would do them at night as well.  In high school I liked PE class still but assumed that I would never be an athlete. My family is not very athletic so I was never exposed to it. In high school I would do exercises in my room that I read about in teenage girl magazines, like lunges, push ups, sit ups etc with 10 lb dumbbells, then 15 lbs. I would do my exercises every night and liked the way it made my body look compared to my friends. While my friends complained of flabby triceps, I just shrugged. Mine were great. My best friend and I played “powder puff” football, but that wasn’t very fun for a number of reasons. The guys “coaching” us just flirted with the popular girls and we just jogged and tossed the ball around a bit. I learned nothing. It solidified the fact that I would never be an athlete. I really wanted to join a gym, but I was intimidated by all the machines and of people criticizing my technique. I felt like I would get laughed at and was very self conscious.

In Junior College I took physical education classes like yoga, jogging and FINALLY weight training! I felt like I was in heaven. I was the first one there and last one to leave. I expanded my routine from what I was doing in my room in high school and was getting stronger and in better shape. But I had no idea about progressions and training plans. But I never thought I could be an athlete because I would need a sport to compete in and I had no access to sports that suited me and my personality.  My boyfriend was very much into working out and I was too intimated to tell him that I too loved working out because I didn’t want him to think I was copying him so he would like me. He took me to the gym at Stanford where he was a student and at Granada High, where his father was a track coach. I pretended I didn’t know what to do because I didn’t feel sure of myself. But we started working out together more and he showed me squats and dead lifts. Some of his friends did Powerlifting and my boyfriend started training for that, basically narrowing down the lifts to bench, squat and dead lift plus assistance to those. Even though I wasn’t lifting that much right way I started training for Powerlifting too. It turns out I have a natural ability for weightlifting. My boyfriend and I would go to Stanford on the weekends and train with his friends who had formed a Weightlifting Team. It was great to have smart people to train with. My boyfriend likes to tell the story of the first time he showed me how to Deadlift. The bar had 135 lbs on it and he said ‘do as many reps as you can’, then went to do his set of squats. When he turned about I was still going. I think I did about 10 or 15 reps. He was shocked.

 I was so nervous before my first competition. I think I didn’t want to play sports before because I am shy and don’t like attention drawn to myself.  I did okay and qualified for Nationals. I did another meet and got the state records for my age and weight class.  I later got the Jr. American deadlift record of 375 lbs. I won Jr. Nationals in my weight class 2 years in a row and placed 5^th overall in my weight class. (I would have gotten 3’s if I made my last deadlift attempt of 400 lbs). I pulled 400 in the gym though. I used gear at this time as well because that is how I was competitive. I was one of the alternates for the world team, but of course did not go. I had been thinking about switching to Olympics Weightlifting for a while. Many people said I would be good at it because I am fairly flexible. I wanted to pull 400 lbs officially first and try for the squat record as well before I switched over.

After nationals in 2005 I started olympic lifting with my boyfriend coaching me.

So I have been training the olympics lifts for the past year at the UCLA athlete’s gym. It is such an awesome and inspiring environment.  I am doing well, though there are ALWAYS things to work and improve on.  I am looking forward to doing a few meets in the spring and qualifying for Nationals in August. I think that weightlifting just might be the perfect sport for me. I know now that I AM an athlete and a good one, and it was just a matter of finding the right sport for me.

This was the meet I got my American Record and took a pee test with the amazing Pricilla Ribic. It was AMAZING watching such a high caliber (female) lifter in person! For people that say powerlifters squat high, you need to watch a video of this lady squat!! 

Written in 2005 by Christina Henesian-Stocking