lifting weights<\/a>. My trainer added more weight to the bar as I progressed, and I was surprised how strong I was\u2014and how much I loved it.\n<\/p>\n This was the transition to powerlifting\u2014I was drawn to the feelings I felt during those workouts: the clarity, the confidence, the calm.\n<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re not familiar with powerlifting, let me explain. It\u2019s a strength sport built around three lifts: the squat, the bench press and the deadlift. Unlike bodybuilding, which emphasizes muscle growth, definition and appearance, or Olympic lifting, which focuses on two explosive movements\u2014the snatch and the clean and jerk\u2014powerlifting comes down to one thing: pure, honest strength.\n<\/p>\n
For me, it\u2019s also mental. There is a strength and clarity that comes from lifting very heavy weights. It\u2019s the only time I feel completely free. When I\u2019m under a barbell, pushing or pulling hundreds of pounds of iron, I can\u2019t think about anything else\u2014not my restaurants, not the schedule, not the never-ending parental to-do list. That moment, that effort, is total presence. It\u2019s meditative. It\u2019s liberating. And it\u2019s all mine.\n<\/p>\n
When I first discovered the sport, I started following powerlifters on social media. I dreamed about doing a powerlifting competition for years, but I never believed that I was strong enough or good enough to step onto the platform. I worried I wouldn\u2019t belong and that people might laugh if I failed. I was nervous to put on a singlet, nervous to compete and nervous to fail publicly\u2014those fears kept me from competing for many years.\n<\/p>\n
Even if I had overcome those fears, life had other plans: I opened three restaurants, I wrote a book, my spouse and I spent seven years trying to have a baby\u2014and didn\u2019t succeed\u2014and then came a pandemic. I finally got pregnant, and our daughter arrived in the fall of 2022.\n<\/p>\n
There was nothing more clarifying for me than becoming a parent, especially an older parent. I gave birth to my daughter when I was 44.\u00a0 I made a promise to myself to improve my physical health\u2014not just to \u201cget strong,\u201d but to be healthy for the long run. For six months I walked 10,000 steps a day. I swam. I moved. I focused. And suddenly, I wasn\u2019t just lifting for myself\u2014I was lifting for her. To always show up, to keep up and to be there for as many years of her life as I possibly could.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
I thought again about competing, but all of my old insecurities came rushing back. But this time, I thought that having a goal could give my training a new purpose and might push me in a way nothing else had. So, I signed up.\n<\/p>\n
Binh Tran<\/p>\n
I competed in my first meet when I was 46. I chalked my hands, stepped onto the platform and did something I had only dreamed about for years. It was one of the most powerful experiences of my life. Not because I was fearless\u2014I was scared, but I did it anyway. And guess what? People didn\u2019t laugh. They cheered. They welcomed me. And I walked away not only stronger, but more confident, more focused and more proud of who I am than I\u2019ve ever been.\n<\/p>\n
Powerlifting gave me a new identity: not just chef, not just mom, not just business owner. I am an athlete. That word felt so far from me for so long, but now it\u2019s mine. And I\u2019m not giving it back.\n<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a particular kind of power in starting something new later in life\u2014especially something you were told not to do. You do it for yourself. You do it because you\u2019ve earned the right to take up space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I never meant to become a powerlifter. In fact, it happened by accident. In my mid-30s, I was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53561,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[565,134,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-53560","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-fitness","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}