25 Sep It’s OK to be Ugly

By: Lisa Guggisberg

Admit it ladies, we all do it, we get our nails done before a meet, our make-up is usually planned out the night before, we match out socks to our singlet, we make sure our training videos are angled just right, when we put our singlet on we check our ass out 25 times to make sure it looks ok, we worry that our belt causes fat bulges, we’re afraid to refeed too much after a weigh in so that we don’t get too bloated or puffy looking.  I’m not going to lie I have been guilty of some of these myself; I still go during meet week and get my nails done.  It’s the struggle of being feminine in a traditionally male dominated sport, right?

[wa-wps]

Powerlifting is growing and a big reason for that are the large amounts of females that are getting into the sport.  But with this comes the pressure, from us and what others expect, to be feminine and perform.    Unfortunately, what I have noticed is a trend that female powerlifters are celebrating their physical beauty more than their strength.  Take a gander at social media and you’ll find the endless singlet selfies and some brief description of their “booty gains”.  So here is my question to all you ladies, why do you put so much pressure on yourself to be pretty? You can’t entirely blame women for putting pressure on themselves to be attractive, society dictates that there is a dilemma to succeed in our sport while still being feminine.  But I ask you this; why not accept that it’s ok to be ugly?

Ladies before you get your VS panties in a bunch I’m not saying you can’t be attractive and powerlift.  What I am saying is this is a sport and the object of the sport is to lift as much weight as possible, it’s not a beauty pageant. Give yourself a break stop stressing about your physical appearance so much and ask yourself, who are you being pretty for? Are you being pretty for yourself because it boosts your confidence or because you don’t want to be shamed and called manly or ugly?  Women are “supposed” to be pretty right, its human nature, it’s science right? If this is completely true then women shouldn’t be strong or athletes either right?  Why should we as female athletes worry about our evolutionary “duty” to be appealing?   Save the stress of looking cute for another time, outside of the gym.  If you’re in the gym stop focusing so much on your appearance and focus more on your strength.

Something I have learned; the only thing sexy about powerlifting is big numbers.  If you want to earn the respect of fellow lifters stop focusing on how cute you look while lifting and more on your numbers. Don’t worry ladies, the weights will still love you no matter how many double chins you have or how ugly your deadlift face is.

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Lisa Guggisberg

A self-proclaimed former high school band nerd turned meathead nerd, Lisa has been coached and mentored by Brian Carroll using 10/20/Life principals for 3 years. She started CrossFiting in 2006 but gave that up after realizing all she wanted to do was squat, bench and deadlift heavy. She now competes as a raw and multi-ply powerlifter in the 114 and 123 weight classes. Lisa has All-Time top 10 totals in both raw and multi-ply in her respective weight classes with a raw pro total of 936 lbs at 114 and a pro 1118 lb multi-ply pro total at 123 and 1090 lb multi-ply total at 114. She is currently ranked the #1 female multi-ply lifter at 123, #2 at 114 multi-ply female and #3 raw with wraps. Lisa has a B.A. in Political Science and a Masters in Public Administration, but hates politics and political debates. She is a mom of two, a firefighter wife and has worked as a full time litigation paralegal for almost 20 years.

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