Hey–I’m Maddie, and here I’ll tell you a little bit about myself and The Barbell Way! You may have seen a snippet in the sidebar briefly introducing me, but I suppose I should introduce myself a bit further:
I am a 19-year-old college student at the University of North Dakota. I powerlift competitively, and I am currently working as a personal trainer. I’m also a certified USA Powerlifting (USAPL) coach.
It is my goal to help others in reaching their personal health goals through both healthy and sustainable methods, and it is also A HUGE passion of mine to encourage more women in powerlifting (or just strength training in general).
However, I wasn’t always this invested. I lived almost all of my life very overweight and unathletic. But after failing and learning many times, I was finally able to get it right; I lost 60 pounds as a 16-year-old. After losing weight, gaining muscle became my obsession–I absolutely LOVE strength training, but more specifically barbell training.
Eventually, I want to build a coaching business relating to the thing I am most passionate about: powerlifting. But in the meantime, I will be writing blog posts in hopes of sharing some of my knowledge with you!
Thank you for joining me!
Follow Me Here
More About The Barbell Way
I started powerlifting a few years ago, and it has truly changed my life in so many amazing ways. I could go ON AND ON about it, so that is exactly what I do here.
My success with heavy weight training was the inspiration behind the name The Barbell Way.
Here you’ll find lots of content related to strength training and powerlifting, but you may also stumble upon a few weight loss-related posts. My intention when starting The Barbell Way was to inform others of how I used heavy weight training to not only lose 60 pounds–but to also explain how it has helped me keep the weight off for several years now.
Read more about me and my story here.
I have since decided to turn the blog’s focus to women and powerlifting, but honestly, you may find a little bit of everything health and fitness related.
I am so excited to have you here!
My Full Story
I am now living the life I never thought was possible.
Whenever I look back on my short, yet eventful life, my weight struggle never fails to make its way back into my mind; I can never really get away from it. Quite frankly, obesity was a HUGE part of my childhood and teen years. My weight was a battle I fought for as long as I can remember.
It all started when I was maybe three or four years old. I definitely wasn’t one of those kids who picked at their plates trying to figure out what looked edible and what didn’t because honestly, I liked it all. It wasn’t that I ate loads of junk food, I just consumed crazy amounts of food in general.
My mom recalls her daughter eating adult portion sizes as a kindergartener. Thankfully though, my weight never bothered me so young. The last thing a five-year-old should have to worry about is the way their body looks.
But… inevitably, a few years later I did start to realize I was different—I started to notice that my body didn’t look like the other girls’, and I remember looking at myself in a mirror, with tears filling my eyes, wondering what I did wrong—wondering why I looked the way I did. Countless times before I went to sleep, I would pray to God, begging Him to miraculously allow me to wake up in a body more beautiful than I saw my own.
I would get out of bed, and I would make my way over to the same mirror with a little bit of hope in my heart, but every time I was devastated by the reflection I saw. I was only seven years old.
It was also around this time I first experimented with dieting. I didn’t understand the concept of calories and how our metabolisms function (also something no child should ever worry about), so my so-called “diets” failed every time. The number on the scale kept climbing, reading over 200 pounds when I was just thirteen years old.
I was determined to achieve my dream body the summer following my 7th-grade year. I just wanted so badly to feel normal—to be thin. Luckily (or not so luckily) for me, it was also around this time my mom became serious about trying to lose weight. She was serious enough to hire a coach, and the low-calorie diet plan her coach suggested definitely worked, but it certainly wasn’t the most sustainable way of losing weight long-term.
Essentially, that summer I grew a few inches on top of losing 20 pounds (I pretty much did what my mom was doing), so I was finally starting to feel okay with the way I looked. Though, I did have the desire to drop a few more pounds. But, after losing the 20 pounds and trying to eat in a more reasonable, non-diet way again, my mom and I both gained all of our lost weight back, plus more.
This brings me to my high school years. I was well into 10th grade by the time I put 40 pounds on, weighing almost 230 pounds at that point in my life. When I saw what the scale read, I felt disgusted with myself and who I was. I felt hopeless. I had tried losing weight so many times, but I could never get it right. I was tired of failing Every. Single. Time.
Despite feeling absolutely hopeless in my ability to succeed, I decided I would give it a try just one more time. At first, I never tracked a single calorie. It was all about balancing portion sizes and making the best choices possible.
As far as exercise is concerned, I participated in very minimal cardio, but I did do some dumbbell-only exercises at home. However, when I got the courage to venture into the weight room and pick up the real deal (a barbell), my life seriously changed forever. Because of the type of training I do, I am able to maintain my weight loss, eat close to 2,500 calories as a result of the muscle mass I have, while also feeling amazing about myself and the way I look. But most importantly, I love doing it! A barbell way completely revolutionized my mind and my body.
Altogether, I lost 60 pounds when I was just 16-years-old. And not only that, what I do is sustainable, as I have been able to keep the weight off for several years now. I never ever feel restrictive with my eating. I’m now living the life I never imagined was possible, and I want to help others do the same.