Go Mom!

Here’s an article I wrote for the Women’s Page on artofstrength.com a few months ago.  I went and checked out a strongman competition in PA.  It was neat to sit back and observe, although I must admit, I wanted to jump in and compete really badly!  I had the chance to interview the women competitors.  Check it out…

Go Mom!

by Stefanie Tropea

 

 

 

This week, my nail color is Yell-OH!  And last Sunday, I found plenty of reason to yell, and, oh, be impressed.  Amy is a mother who brought her daughters along to watch her compete in a strongman competition in Allentown, PA last Sunday.  I was there, too, as a fan.  I asked her why she was doing this.  

Despite having four more events ahead of her, she seemed to be relaxed and enjoying herself — a lot different than I was three weeks ago.  She told me that this is the only thing she has control over in her life.  She said, “I go to the gym, and I decide what weights are going to go on that bar and if I’m going to lift it or not.”  I guess she decided to lift, because, from what I saw, she gave the competition her very best.  Behind me, I heard her daughters shout, “Go, Mom!”  When she was finished, I think this mother and strongwoman felt proud, accomplished, and pleased.  

That’s what it’s all about.  That’s how I’m trying to approach it.  At York, three weeks ago, I was not like that.  I was so nervous that I made myself ill and I let my nerves get the best of me.  I bombed in events that I had expected to dominate.  Despite my intentions to compete mainly against myself, I worried too much about what the other competitors were doing.  I did not approach it as if it were just another training day.  I made it a bigger deal than it should’ve been.  I let the pressure get to me of not wanting to let anyone down.  I became obsessed with not coming in last.  I took a lot of the joy out of it, and I made the events a lot harder than they had to be.  After watching the women compete last Sunday, I hope I’ve learned enough from them and my own experience in York to have a much different attitude when I go to Atlantic City in August.  

I need to approach any contest like it’s just another training day.  In my training sessions, I do pretty well.  I have to carry over the feeling that I get in those sessions.  I’m still nervous in practice, but, when there’s no crowd, when there’s no distraction, it feels easy.  Of course, it’s not easy.  It’s just that when I step up to the weight, I think, “Okay, I know what I have to do here.”  That’s what I hope to feel at the next competition, instead of, “Oh s#*%!  How am I going to do this?”  I hope to achieve this by sticking to the same routines on each training day — from the exercises, to diet, to sleeping.  Maybe that will help me to keep perspective, to remember that strongman is just something I enjoy — no less and no more.  Amy, Mom, already seems to understand this and enjoys strongman for what it is and what she does.  

Strongest Mary, as she happily calls herself, one of the other competitors last week, told me she thought more women did not participate in strongman because it’s “too hard,” that the heavy weights and odd equipment intimidate them.  Indeed, the roughness of the sport is probably unappealing to the average female.  

There’s no question that for more women to participate in strongman, they would have to change their attitudes about being women.  Perhaps they are not accustomed to the extreme nature of the sport.  It takes a warrior’s attitude that many people normally associate with men.  

These obstacles, of course, are nonsense, prejudices that diminish what women can do.  Anyone can do strongman if he or she has guts, determination, and stops thinking it’s impossible.  You have to believe you can do it, on your own and beyond your ‘limits.’  Can women do this and still be women?  Of course.  Duh!

The youngest participant, Samantha, when asked why other women weren’t there, explained that they are “bitches.”  Perhaps, to rephrase, it’s  because other women, often taught to not be ‘too’ strong, themselves judge strongwomen as bitches or, in other words, as odd and inappropriate.  

If this is true, it is unfortunate. Nothing can be more appropriate for a woman than to be strong, than to struggle and do her best, and to achieve something extreme for herself.  Nothing could be more appropriate than this for anyone willing to push limits.  Responding to Mary, Samantha noted that heavier weights just made her want to lift them even more.  That’s how I hope to be at my next competition.  

 

"Strongest Mary"

Amy (the mom)

Samantha