Body Image and Powerlifting
Your sport and your self-image. The two are more interrelated than you may know. While most of the fitness industry is plagued with fad diets and harmful messages around training, all about how you can shrink yourself and be smaller- Powerlifting opens the door for a new way: a better way. Instead of wasting your energy trying to weigh less, you put it into developing the strongest version of yourself possible. This process can be healing and transformative for many. There's something beautiful about embracing your body and learning your potential. Let’s explore more of this topic- how Powerlifting can help better your body image and some struggles you may face along the way, too.
How can Powerlifting improve body image?
Breaking old beliefs and myths.
In the typical fitness world, messaging is centered on weighing less and losing body fat. Getting stronger and quitting your obsession with the scale is pretty radical, especially as a female athlete.
In mainstream media, you’ll often hear things like:
"Don’t eat carbs, they make you fat!”
”Do more cardio, so you can lose weight faster!”
”You don’t want to lift too heavy, you’ll get bulky!”
”Gaining weight is inherently wrong and unhealthy.”
Yet, Powerlifting questions and tears down all of these restricting beliefs.
When you spend most of your fitness journey focused on trying to eat less and working out for the sole purpose of weight loss, flipping the script is a revolution. It’s a brand new way of doing things, viewing your health and your lifestyle, and one that’s very transformative. It’s far more fulfilling when you use food as a means to fuel your body and training as a way to develop self-confidence rather than self-loathing. Powerlifting is a vessel to do just that.
2. Embracing what your body is capable of rather than how it looks.
Switching the focus from reducing the number on the scale to increasing the number on the bar has a profound impact on body image- even supported in the research.*
Strength is not a look, nor a body, it’s a feeling and a mentality. It's a descriptor that can apply to many.
No longer is the success of your progress based on whether you can see your abs, whether that damn number is lower or higher, and what size you can fit into.
Instead, it’s predicated on:
“Am I doing things I never could before?”
“Am I working toward my next milestone?”
“Do I feel empowered? Am I chasing the best version of myself?”
All your hard work is going toward something positive, something impactful, something you’re proud of, rather than a certain aesthetic. Pursuing your leanest version is never truly fulfilling- it’s not satisfying or gratifying. You never feel “enough.”
You don’t feel all that great when dieting, trying to reach a much lower weight than your body wants. But when you pick up a 300,400 lb bar off the ground? You feel like a badass.
Strength is an impactful feeling that stays with you wherever you go.
Lifting shouldn’t be about taking up less space and focusing solely on how you look. It should be about embracing your accomplishments and achieving highs you never knew possible. You won’t realize quite how powerful that journey is until you experience it yourself.
Stop focusing on reducing the number on the scale & start focusing on increasing the number on the bar.
With strength, there’s always a new number to unlock, a barrier to break, and another step toward something bigger. You’re constantly chasing progress in a way that highlights your character, your work ethic, and your individuality. It’s never about conformity but rather- embracing your truest self in a productive way. It’s you, but stronger. And that does wonders for your body and self-image.
Using your body as an instrument to reflect your self-worth and build character helps you see it in a different light. No longer is it something to punish, betray, or reduce, it is something to celebrate- because it allows you to do pretty cool things for yourself.
3. Adopting the "Athlete" Mindset.
Identifying as an “Athlete” can transform how you view yourself. And Powerlifting is the first exposure to being a true “Athlete” for many. Suddenly, everything has a purpose.
Athletes don’t starve themselves.
Athletes don’t destroy their potential by under-fueling themselves.
Athletes are no longer tied to the scale but instead to their sport and accomplishments.
Performance is the priority. Your course of action is altered as a result of this single word- because it holds a lot of weight. The term "athlete" inherently means a higher standard, that you've got intention in your life. Gone are the days of you going to the gym to slave to the treadmill, now you're actively working toward something. And that shift requires you to uplevel everything else in your life- it's a ripple effect. Being an athlete demands more responsibility but in a very empowering way.
You prioritize your self-care and your well-being because you know it’s what allows you to succeed. Powerlifting supports you in this feat, giving you a reason and motivation for everything. It provides you with a clear "why," and suddenly, every decision you make affects the next.
Struggles in Body image & Powerlifting
Being tied to a past, leaner self.
While your body image and mental health often improve in Powerlifting, that doesn’t mean you’re without struggle. For many of us, choosing to release control over restriction, and pursuing a certain aesthetic, is extremely difficult. Going from chasing a number on the scale for years to suddenly not worrying about it is not an overnight switch. This process takes a lot of time and a lot of work.
It can feel like the past version of yourself- the leaner, smaller, less-fed version is gone.
The one you thought would make you happy no longer exists.
And then our brains try to remind us of all the good that came at that weight- forgetting the inability to say, go out with friends, eat without stress, or deadlift even 200 lbs.
You have to ask yourself, “was it worth it?” “Would I be the person I am now if I were still chasing that aesthetic?” “Would I be capable of the goals I’m chasing now?”
The answer is likely, no. Otherwise, you’d still be sustaining that body weight and making strides forward.
You don’t have to go to immediate acceptance and love right away. Everyone has difficult days, and it takes a lot of work.
But the overall quest of chasing strength will be far more rewarding than an arbitrary moving target you can’t maintain. If the pros outweigh the cons, you know it’s worth it. Make the choice that Future You will thank yourself for. Provide yourself with the opportunity to learn how you can perform, allow the strength your body has inside to come out, and don’t let a number on the scale stop you from doing that. Pursuing leanness is always an option, but chances are, when you get a taste of something else, you’ll reap far more benefits & realize what’s best for you.
Determine what your end goal is. When you’re looking back on your life, which pursuit will make you prouder? The one that’s dedicated toward self-improvement, empowerment, unleashing your capabilities, or a life of restricting yourself to fit a mold?
2. Experiencing changes on the scale.
For a sport that should be about body positivity and embracing growth, weight classes can make that more difficult. It can bring back thoughts of “I want to weigh the lowest I possibly can!” or “If I weigh less, I’ll be more competitive.”
However, this often isn’t the case. The goal of weight classes is to allow you to find your sweet spot- where you’re performing at your best, able to sustain it & continue progressing, not going to extremes. In turn, you may compete at a different weight than you’ve been before or where you’d ideally “like” to be.
The more you try and fight your body to stay at a weight it doesn’t want, it's going to fight back. You’re going to hit a wall of what you’re capable of, and getting past that point will be damn near impossible, often leading to defeat and/or a potential injury.
Remember, Powerlifters are different from the general population- we have more muscle mass and exercise at a much higher intensity, meaning that both fueling and body weight will contrast typical recommendations.
Feeling “strong and healthy” for a sport is different from “strong and healthy” for a general lifestyle.
If you’re trying to push the limits, raise the standard, if you want to be something great, it’s going to demand more from you, challenge you. When you lean into that and embrace whatever weight you feel best, you’ll stop getting in your way and start breaking plateaus.
You can only go so far through restriction and tying yourself to a certain number. Not to mention, weight classes are not something that most new Powerlifters don't need to & shouldn't worry about. If you start your journey fueling yourself, letting your body fall wherever it does, and focusing on healthy habits, you’ll get far.
Unless:
-necessary for health reasons,
-you’re going to break a National/World record,
-you’re going to qualify for a National/International level meet,
Excessive weight manipulation is unnecessary and can take away from your performance.
Remember, you don’t "win" in Powerlifting based solely on your weight. This sport is about pushing numbers, building strength, reaching for more, and if you use it as an excuse to force your body to do something it doesn’t want to, you’ll be discouraged and disappointed with the result. Work with your body, not against it, and accept that to reach those numbers you want, your weight might be at a different spot than you “wanted” it to be. When you learn to embrace that, everything else transforms, and you start experiencing what’s truly gratifying: achieving accomplishments that matter to you. You’re not meant to fit into a box that suffocates you; allow yourself to adapt and flow to whatever comes your way and feels right for you.
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Body image- we all struggle with it from time to time. The ability to focus on your performance rather than aesthetics attracts many to the sport of Powerlifting. Yet, that doesn’t mean that athletes are without struggle. When you’ve spent your life focused on the scale or pursuing a certain look, it's to break past that. Focusing on strength can improve confidence, helping you feel empowered in your body rather than punishing it. Be aware of your struggles, and stay focused on what’s in front of you. Chase outcomes that are fulfilling and meaningful to you rather than spinning your wheels in the same endless cycles. Powerlifting allows you to do just that- and it can be a transformative and beautiful process. Everyone deserves the chance to celebrate their body & their potential.
*Ronie Walters & Kate Hefferon (2020) ‘Strength becomes her’ – resistance training as a route to positive body image in women, Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 12:3, 446-464, DOI: 10.1080/2159676X.2019.1634127
