From Earthquakes, Mountains Rise…Stories of Strong Women! Part 1

I came across this meme on facebook one day, and it just struck me. It made me think about the darkness I have conquered, the earthquakes that have nearly destroyed me, but in the end they helped me build mountains that are lifting me up. Well, at least I try to feel that way, life is still tough at times. I came from being overweight, in chronic pain, finding out I had a potentially disabling genetic condition that I passed to my kids, and severely depressed to now being a national record holding powerlifter. I have written about much of my story in another post. Some day I will tell my full story of the pain I have endured, of nearly letting another person destroy me, how that person doesn’t think what they did was wrong, and still mocks me for my pain to this day…..someday…..but today I am not ready. Today you get to read the many stories of women who have conquered the earthquakes of life and have become strong, and even more amazing. These women have told me their stories and given me permission to share them. Women, we are amazing. We endure, we conquer, and we move forward, but we never forget. We never get over our pain, we just find a place to put it. And sometimes, we take those earthquakes of life and build beautiful mountains. Here they are, part 1! There will be multiple posts.

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I grew up in severe childhood abuse which includes rape ,starvation and severe beatings, as an adult went through domestic violence which saw two of my children ripped from my arms through family court as he used that to hurt me when he could no longer physically hurt me. I have complex PTSD and was pretty disabled with it.  I managed to bring my children home but more battles arrived with damaged mental health especially with my son who is diagnosed reactive attachment disorder. My therapist suggested the gym as a way of releasing anger and pent up emotions. I found myself in the weights area and fell in love with it. I chose the gym my husband cleans as part of his job so knew most of the staff and one of the trainers took me under his wing. The Christmas just gone was the first time I have been able to shop by myself as crowds usually freak me out. Powerlifting has brought a new calmness to my chaos. When I’m not coping with life I lift and it really helps. For the first time I actually feel alive rather than just surviving.

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My husband and I had been trying for a baby for 3 years, after 5 miscarriages I felt defeated, mentally and physically. I was extremely over weight, felt like a failure, weak, and severely depressed. So, when my husband deployed I decided to do something about it all. I started on a weight loss journey and lost 30 lbs in 4 months but during that time I found powerlifting and fell in love with how powerful it made me feel. It made me feel strong and proud again and I haven’t really looked back, oh and I have continued to powerlift through my current pregnancy which I am due in a few short weeks. I got back my happiness and strength which overflowed into my family making me a better wife and mom, and also what I believe is what allowed us to get pregnant naturally again. ❤️

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To prove to myself that I can do anything I put my mind to. I was in a rollover car accident in 1996. Was told I’d only ever have 20% use of my right hand.  Diagnosed with PTSD  several years ago and in a fast downward drop to nothingness. Powerlifting saved me. It helped me to develop physical, mental, emotional and spiritual strength that has carried me through stuff that would make most people crash and burn. I do it for me. I am selfish about my lifting. It is mine. I own it whether I have a grand PR day or a rotten “cannot lift shit” day. It is one thing I can take a break from and come back to and it is the same. The plates and bars never change. And the challenge drives me on.

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I got pretty badly injured at work.  I ended up with 4 herniated discs and a handful of other painful diagnoses… I was told my only option was pain management. I asked the surgeon to clarify what that meant… and he said “narcotics”.  I said “no thank you”.  Nobody had ever suggested to me that perhaps being 300lbs was not so good for my condition 🙄Anyway, the weight loss started as the direct result of a breakup that left me heartbroken with zero appetite… I lost 16 pounds because I hadn’t eaten more than a couple hundred calories a day for like 10 days? I looked in the mirror one morning and went “Woah. A jaw 😳”.  I started thinking about something someone had said to me about eating fewer calories than you burn (which pissed me off at the time because surely I didn’t eat more than anybody else! How dare he suggest that! Lol) so I started reading… and learning… and the next thing you know I was 50 pounds lighter.  At that point my boss asked me to try her elliptical machine.  The weight loss hadn’t helped my back pain at all so I told her she was crazy.  I couldn’t stand, sit or lay still for more than a few minutes without excruciating pain. There’s no way I could do that.  She told me if I hurt too much to come to work the next day… she’d pay me anyway. Hard to argue with that. So I did it.  Then again the next day… and the next… for a couple of weeks.  I saw a HUGE reduction in my pain within that couple of weeks… so my boss asked me to go to the gym with her. I laughed at her and replied “hell no. Fat girls don’t gym”.  She made me the same offer of paying me if I hurt too much to come in.  She handed me a guest pass and off we went.  As soon as I walked through the door I handed her the pass back and bought a membership even though I was terrified.  9 years later… here I am.  100 lbs lighter, strong as an ox, and seldom in any pain.  No narcotics. Ever.

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I think I just really love doing it. It’s so fun. Feeling strong is so cool and empowering. I also was diagnosed with MS last year so now I feel like I’m also doing it for my life 🙂 But always for fun first..find me on instagram @joannfabrixx

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I had been an elite competitive athlete in several sports from a young age, however following knee surgery I was scared to put pressure on that knee, fast forward a few years, having gained weight and a lot of stress from having 3 autistic sons I returned to lifting, and in 2009 finally won a National title. Fast forward a bit more with injuries and age, competitive lifting became a struggle and I restricted myself to just coaching and at age 45 gave birth to my daughter. Yesterday rather than just registering as a coach again, I am again registered to compete as a Masters lifter despite injuries, arthritis and a 14 month old baby.

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I found out 2 years ago that I inherited the gene mutation for Huntington’s Disease from my Dad. HD is a neurological degenerative disease with no cure; meaning in 10-15 years, I will eventually lose my ability to control my body, & thoughts. I’m 25. Eventually I will no longer be able to speak, eat or move my body freely. The only thing that has shown real impact on increasing quality of life with HD, and delaying symptom onset, is a healthy diet & lifestyle. I lift to remind myself that while I have control of my body, I can do anything with it. I love feeling strong and powerful, and showing other people that a diagnosis isn’t a reason to give up. I want to inspire others to take control of their life while they have it – I lift because if I didn’t, the weight of HD might break me. I’ll do anything to not let that happen 💪🏼

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Two years ago I was raped by a “friend”. I took plan B and it didn’t work. 4 months later I found out and went to Atlanta for an abortion. They put an IUD in and I suffered with it for a year until my boyfriend who I met during that year convinced me to remove it because he as fixed. I got pregnant again because his vasectomy healed. I found out the week he left me (during the eclipse). That was also the week I found out I have an eye disease called keratoconus that could make me blind. I had another pill abortion but my uterus didn’t clear and I ultimately ended up in the hospital. Alone and completely broken. I wanted to kill myself. And then I found the bar.

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I had postpartum depression in 2015. I didn’t know I had it at the time because I didn’t know it could appear a few months after birth. I went on and got a gym membership and found lifting. Fast forward 3 years, I got promoted a few times and stopped working out when I got pregnant again. Got postpartum depression again and was like NOPE I’m not feeling this way again!! And I found the bar again. This time I’m not stopping! 🙂

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Originally, I got into powerlifting because I shouldn’t have been able to. I’ve always been one for breaking the rules. When I was 14 I was told by doctors to essentially “find a corner and die”. Fast forward to my early 20s, after countless physios and doctors, I realized it was on me to fix me. So I did, mostly. Thanks to chemo drugs and my pigheadedness, I could at least stand up but had lost so much muscle mass in the wheelchair (primarily bed bound) that I burnt out within 10 minutes and needed to sit/lay down all the time. On a whim, I jumped into powerlifting. It only slightly triggered my autoimmune disease (cardio is really bad for me), there was no ‘impact’ to destroy my joints even further and the injury risk was low. Despite mind blowing pain, I was actually doing okay……Then, 18 months in a “friend” tried to sexually assault me in the gym. Took me a long time to realize that in that split second, he broke the last remaining unbroken piece of me. My self reliance. That was the one thing I had always had, the fact that no matter what happened, I could always rely on myself to keep fighting. In the weeks that followed, my back blew out (which should have stopped me competing and never be able to lift again in general) and the people that meant to most to me, kicked me when I was down. I hit rock bottom in a way I haven’t for a very long time, I sat on my fathers grave ready to commit suicide. I had zero fight left. And for whatever reason, I stood up and drove to the quietest gym I could find where I wouldn’t be near people. All I really knew was I needed to get back under a bar. So I started from scratch. I spent 6 months rehabbing my back and earning back every pound of my total… and more. For no other reason other than, if I didn’t, I knew it would forever be in the back of my mind that I was broken. I competed in July, it was my biggest “fuck you” to all the bullshit. Now, training is back to being my outlet and couldn’t be happier.