Body Language
I’ve been wanting to write about body image and powerlifting for a while, but I’ve been struggling to find the right words. I want to be honest without being self-deprecating and acknowledge that every person who struggles with body image has an experience all his or her own, this is simply part of mine. This past Sunday was probably my hardest day at the gym since the early days of training over a year ago. My deep-seated and persistent negative thoughts about my weight and body image had been piling up, as they often do until I reign them in again. For the first time in a while, the gym was contributing to those negative thoughts; nearly every time I went to squat, my hips would rotate or my right knee would cave in and cause me to think about how I was getting bigger without getting stronger, and that really messed with my head. The thing is, I had no proof of this thought I was convinced was true. I just sat and looked at myself in the mirror between sets-- analyzing every per...