All photos by Laura Polischuik. Instagram @laurallisonpo

Let me start by saying this: I don’t like labels and I try to avoid them, however recently in an attempt to express two sides of my training and bring awareness to the fact that women can be strong, graceful, feminine and badass all at the same time. I started to use the hashtag “weightlifteryogi” in my social media posts.

The truth is, I don’t see myself as a weightlifter or a yogi. I practice movement, and when I practice I become the weightlifter or the yogi or the movement explorer. When I’m lifting I’m a lifter and when I practice yoga I’m a yoga practitioner.

 What I’m trying to say here is that when I lift I don’t feel any different than when I’m on my yoga mat. I’m the same person, I just choose certain aspects of my personality to take over. I don’t feel less feminine when I put over 100kg on my shoulders to squat than when I do the splits. However, the intention with which I approach this movements is different depending on what I’m trying to achieve. For example, when I’m about to squat really heavy weight I can’t allow myself to be timid or apologetic. I have to keep my head high and look up, my chest needs to be proud, my stance has to be confident. Why? Because putting a barbell that weighs over 100kg on a 58kg body means if you let it, the barbell will physically crush you.

This is even truer when I snatch or clean and jerk. These movements happen in less than a minute and if I doubt myself for one second I’ll either get crushed or miss the lift.

When you lift, you only need to fight enough to survive. But you need to fight with a clear mind like a Samurai, you need to be so in the moment that when it’s over it feels like you weren’t even there.

In the yoga room on the other side, I need to believe I’m beautiful and graceful. I need to be gentle with my body and attentive in my thoughts. I need to stand tall and proud with a content yet calm demeanour. I tell myself that it’s ok to fall out of a balancing pose, it’s ok to not be able to wrap my arms or legs in weird contortions but, when Im able to do all those things, I tell myself that nobody cares because I practice yoga to train my mind and body to accept that Im perfect and that whatever happens in life

sometimes you need to fight for your life like in weightlifting but sometimes you just need to let it go.

Both practices are the perfect analogy to what I believe life is. They are both a journey, sometimes gruelling and painful but always rewarding and full of lessons.

The cool thing about movement is that it means something different to all of us and in consequence it gives us something different in return.

I have met women who have found strength in yoga the same way I show mine with weightlifting. Yoga can be an extremely challenging practice where you encounter a lot of the obstacles you find in weightlifting but there is no external weight to fight or work with which is what I like about weightlifting. It’s you against the barbell, sometimes you control the barbell but sometimes the barbell controls you and you have to find a way to overcome that. Every time the barbell gets heavier, there is a new fight.

Women in this society are forced to pick one. We are forced to either be a strong badass fighter or a delicate flower.

I think we should allow ourselves to access both the strong and the delicate qualities. Being strong is no less impressive or challenging as moving and behaving with grace and softness.

Who says a strong lady with bulging muscles isn’t as beautiful as beautiful as a small fragile looking one? It takes guts to choose, it also takes gut to embrace both says. In other words, it takes guts to be a woman in this crazy world.

Beauty comes from believing in yourself, from standing up for what you want. From knowing you can kick ass when you need to and still do the things that society stupidly calls feminine.

We all need some feminine and some masculine qualities. It’s all about balance and that is what I find when I lift and when I do yoga.

WEIGHTLIFTER, YOGI, WOMAN.

ABOUT ME

I was first introduced to the world of yoga by my dad at the age of six through zen meditation. I was the kid who grew up hanging out in an ashram playing with other kids and eating tofu while our parents studied yoga philosophy and asana with their guru (a real guru). I never thought anything was different in my life until I grew up.

Meditation was fun for me back then. My dad made it seem like this very special thing everyone should be doing but few actually did.

In preparation for it, he’d take a shower, wear a specific kind of clean, nice, comfy clothes, set up a spot in the living room with a candle and a bell he would ring to start and end the meditation. He did this everyday for an hour at a time. Sometimes twice in a day. I was required to do it once a day for 30min as my 6 year old tiny body and busy mind couldn’t handle more than that. The biggest challenge was to stay still even when my legs would fall asleep and my feet would cramp. We had to stay still and listen to the breath, clear the mind to be in the moment. Be with the discomfort

of it all. As I grew older, this life became annoying. I did not want to meditate or do yoga, I hated that we only ate banana and oatmeal in the morning, I hated that we didn’t drink coffee or watch tv but there was always something about movement which I felt without consciously realizing that “it” kept me sane. This is how I turned to sport.

I began my journey in a swimming team, then moved to soccer and basketball.

I got a degree in Dance and Humanities while I was still playing basketball in a team of boys because ladies only didn’t exist. I stuck with it because I really wanted to learn and it was hard. They made of fun of me, they flirted and they treated me like a cute puppy but I stuck with it. Months later, another girl came and she stuck with because there was a girl already there. Slowly a women’s team was built and we got good, we got good enough that the boys didn’t mind playing with us.

Later in life I ended up becoming officially involved in the fitness industry as a Pilates instructor, yoga, kettlebells and finally weightlifting. Weightlifting became my new passion and even though I’m pretty new to it, it has given me so much that I’m sure there will be a barbell in my life forever.

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