I was never a gifted athlete, but I tried my best at sports growing up. The fourth grade was when I took up my first official sport, which was figure skating. I was enamored with Michelle Kwan, and was obsessed with the “Silver Blades” book series. My excitement with figure skating didn’t quite translate into athletic talent (despite weekly private lessons). I was afraid to fully commit to learning different jumps because I was so afraid of falling onto the ice mid-air. My time as a figure skater lasted just about a year.
Not too long after, I started group tennis lessons and stuck with it until middle school. I joined the middle school tennis team, but wasn’t good enough to be selected to play against other schools. Middle school was the last time I played tennis.
In 8th grade, I thought I could translate my failed figure skating talents to ice hockey- where I was no longer afraid to fall on the ice (as we wore a lot of protective padding). I could skate fast and with good form, so I thought it would be a great fit. Unfortunately the “puck handling” and execution of game plays were not my strong suit. My hockey career lasted 3 years. The same years I did hockey, I also tried cheerleading (yes, it’s a sport!), and that was fun and more technically challenging than I anticipated. Finally in college I tried my hand at crew as a rower and then later as a coxswain.
Even though I was not naturally fit, I did my best to try different things even after college. After graduation, I tried to get into running (I was not great) and lifting weights (I was decent). I found lifting weights to be the thing I liked to do the most.
Bikini bodybuilding and powerlifting
From 2011 until 2016 I consistently lifted weights, sometimes with a coach and sometimes without. At some point, I decided to train for my first bikini competition (bodybuilding). I was inspired by an older coworker at the time in her 50s who competed in physique bodybuilding. My first reaction to hearing about her experience was how I would love to try bodybuilding later in life. But then I realized that there was nothing stopping me from trying it now as opposed to later. And so, I found a local coach and started training for a natural, local competition.
Bodybuilding taught me a lot about discipline, particularly when it came to eating and working out.
I measured and tracked the macronutrient makeup for all foods I put into my body, and documented it all with the goal of hitting daily macronutrient targets over a period of 6 months. Alcohol was off limits, as well as specific foods. My meals were also expected to be salt free (i.e., I was not to salt anything I cooked). I often brought my own meals to restaurants to eat when out with friends. I was hungry for the majority of my 6 months of prep, and it took intense discipline to stick to my diet. My foods consisted mainly of protein powder, eggs, grilled chicken with mustard or hot sauce, steamed broccoli, and sweet potatoes.
When it came to the gym, I was consistently working out 5+ days a week, often getting there right when it opened at 5am. During my “cutting” period, I was at the gym twice a day doing both weights and cardio in separate sessions. This bikini training really took over my life and it was all I ever thought about. What I took away from the experience is that discipline is more important for progress than motivation, and more often than not, discipline won over.
After my competition I felt lost when it came to my fitness goals, so I turned to powerlifting as a way to track progress. I wanted to lift as heavy as I could. I was active in the gym, but was also active in my everyday life. Living in a walkable city allowed me to walk everywhere and also joined a kickball league. Eventually I also competed in my first powerlifting meet with the help of a coach at a local gym.
Losing motivation and strength during COVID-19
In 2018 I started working with a new and incredible powerlifting coach (a national competitor and also a team coach for national and international competitions) to help me build strength safely. However, when the 2020 COVID pandemic hit, I stopped working with my coach and completely fell off my fitness routine. My in-office job became fully remote, and everything shut down. Even when the craziness of the pandemic was letting up, I was still consumed by my job, and could not find the right rhythm or mindset to set a schedule to make the time to work out.
It’s taken until April 2024 to finally find another gym and sign up. The healing of my mindset took a long time. Figuring out how to heal and get “unstuck” was a big part of me being able to take the initiative to get back to the gym.
I’ve learned a lot over the years about injuries and how everything in the body is interconnected. I went too hard when I first started running in 2011 and injured my foot. Turns out that foot injury had an impact 10+ years later, where I found the old physical therapy exercises that I never did. Now that I’m doing them, my hip and knee issues have resolved quite a bit. I’ve had balance issues on the right side for YEARS and tried to resolve them by going to physical therapy (without thinking my foot injury from years prior could have been a cause). This issue has prevented me from progressing in balance and strength for many, many years.
I learned about the importance of proper warmups. I was inexperienced when I started my bikini training and would go deep into heavy weights without properly warming up. This resulted in me developing hamstring tendinopathy and having to see a physical therapist for it. This was eventually resolved with stretches and strengthening, particularly with ankle mobility exercises (which helped my squat depth immensely). As I’m older now too, I’ve noticed that warmups are more necessary now compared to when I was younger to prevent injury.
In those years where I wasn’t active (2020 and 2024), I noticed a significant decline in balance and mobility. I also feel and hear a lot more clicking and clacking of my joints. I expect the combination of aging and declining fitness levels and muscle mass is a contributor to these issues. My noticeable imbalance is one of the reasons I finally took action to try and get back to the gym. It is not a good sign at all that I was starting to experience these balance issues at my age because it will only get worse over time.
New goals
Before 2020, my goals were to become strong and lift as much weight as I could. Now in 2024, my goals are to be strong and healthy so I can set myself up to be independently able in old age. I’m taking the proper time to warm up and taking my lifts slower. I no longer feel the need to push myself to lift as heavy as possible as soon as possible. If I feel any sort of strain (outside of traditional soreness), I will dial it back.
Everyone loses muscle as they age. It’s approximately 3%-5% of muscle mass loss each decade after age 30. The older you get, the more significant the declines (source). This loss of muscle mass is a primary reason for falls (source).
As you may know, I have thought about aging a lot recently. Balance, mobility, and strength are things I’m trying to optimize as part of aging. Mr. Nacho and I do not plan to have children, so he and I need to be as self-sufficient as possible as we really won’t have anyone to take care of us (not that we would expect kids to anyway). Balance is important to reduce the chances of trips and falls. Mobility and strength are important to enable us to continue to be self sufficient, to move around and operate independently, and to also be able to get up on our own if we were to take a fall.
Balance, stability, and mobility were not things I focused on previously. In the past, all I really cared about was how heavy I could lift. As I continue on my fitness journey, I’ll be paying much more attention to these things for more functional fitness.
