When Mattie Rogers wasn’t seeing the results she wanted in weightlifting, she knew she had to let go of something. The former cheerleader and gymnast would have to give up a seemingly perfect body and put on weight to reach her goals.
Once she did it, Rogers found herself looking at her body differently.
“When you get to weightlifting, your body needs to look like what it needs to look like for you to perform at its best. You need to fuel it the right way. You need to take care of it, recover, train the right way to be able to perform at your best,” said Rogers.
The 20-year-old from Florida moved up from the 69 kilograms (152 pounds) weight class to 75 kg (165 pounds) She became stronger, and has improved her personal best to 202 pounds.
“Whatever my body looks like is just a result of what it needs to look like for it to perform at its best.”
She will compete at the International Weightlifting Federation world championships, an Olympic qualifying event, in Houston this weekend. It is a sport women should not be afraid of. In fact, Rogers found it to be life-changing.
“You will put on muscle, and it is a lot of work. But being strong is the best kind of confidence you can have. I’ve been in the girly, cheerleader shoes where you just want to be skinny and tan and look good, but you’re never really happy. You’re just trying to look like someone else. But when you’re strong? It’s like a totally different kind of confidence. You’re happy with how your body looks and it’s performing. It’s not just striving to be someone else.”
Courtesy of: USA Today