Focusing on her own goals has paid off for Singleton’s, Sophie Thrift.
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The personal trainer and food coach pulled of a win on debut at the third leg of the Hunter Region Novice Powerlifting series on Sunday, November 9 at the PCYC.
Around 200 strong crowd packed the venue in anticipation of the unique contest.
Thrift describes competing as “a new experience” that forced her to step back and reassess her personal goals.
A journey that began when she started training at Fit for Kings in Rutherford with Jarrett King who was one of the organisers of the recent competition.
“I work between Singleton and Maitland so I recently began to train at Rutherford,” she explains.
“Jarrett asked me what my personal goals were and what I wanted to achieve. So I decided to give it go.”
Her efforts have certainly paid off considering she has only been training for this particular type of lifting since July.
And, that this training is quite different to what she was doing previously.
It is this point of difference that attracted Thrift to Powerlifting as opposed to traditional Body Building.
Bodybuilders focus primarily on building muscle, losing fat, contest preparation, or simply maintaining size and strength.
Powerlifters direct their attention to getting as strong as possible on the core lifts such as the deadlift, squat, and bench press.
She explains the goal is to perform a one-off lift at a weight you have never completed successfully before.
In other words, the goal is to always improve rather than what you look like.
“So you are not comparing yourself to others on the stage or trying to achieve a distorted body shape,” Thrift says.
“You are just working towards being healthy and strong; it is not about what you look like but what you can achieve.”
On the day Thrift lifted a combined weight of 345 kg and in all three of her lifts she recorded the ultimate result –Personal Bests (PB’S).
She lifted 140kg in the deadlift, squatted 140kg, and bench pressed 65kg and notched up a win in the Women’s Under 80kg division.
After getting a taste of competitive scene and enjoying the team atmosphere, Thrift now wants to compete at a sanctioned event.
With the goal of qualifying for a state event and beyond.