I Make Women Strong

I used to hate being called skinny. Now I help women get STRONG.

I don’t remember exactly what people used to say to me when I was younger, and I don’t think anyone meant anything bad by it. But I remember how it made me feel. I hated feeling small. I hated being called skinny. I hated feeling like I couldn’t fill out my clothes.

Then, during my gap year, I randomly saw an ad for a personal training course and signed up.

At the time, I was working on a farm planting lettuces on the back of a tractor from 4am until 3pm. On my lunch breaks I’d do burpees. I started pre-packing salads and tuna, running, then studying all afternoon. On my days off, I’d go to basically every class on the YMCA timetable because I wanted to learn as much as I possibly could.

I was obsessed.

And the funny thing is, I was going to be a Vet.

I’d wanted to care for animals for as long as I could remember. Every subject I chose in high school was geared towards getting into veterinary science. I even did the “suicide six” in Years 11 and 12, just trying to get an OP high enough to get into Vet.

That had been the plan for YEARS.

Instead, one random personal training course during my gap year completely changed the direction of my life.

It was where I first learnt how to strength train. I started with Pump classes: high reps, high volume and lighter weights. I remember being so inspired by one of the instructors who taught most of the classes. She had four sons, was incredibly strong (running most of the timetable) and I just remember thinking, what a beast (shout out to Maria Torrisi).

After about six months, I finally built enough confidence to walk onto the actual gym floor. I was still pretty lost, but then I moved across the state to study exercise science and met a PT in my course who taught me how to genuinely lift.

Over that year at PCYC, I got strong as fuck.

I built muscle. I learnt to squat, deadlift and lift heavy. More importantly, I started discovering what my body was actually capable of.

And slowly, the relationship I had with my body started changing.

Instead of only caring about how it looked, I became obsessed with what it could DO.

Could I squat more?

Could I deadlift more?

Could I learn a new skill?

Could I build muscle somewhere I’d never had it before?

I couldn’t get enough of lifting heavy, how it made me feel and how quickly I could see myself progressing.

It was addictive.

Me against me.

One year of exercise science also made something else pretty clear to me. I realised I wanted to work with people who had bigger barriers to movement and exercise.

I wasn’t particularly interested in working with elite athletes or people who had grown up confident in sporting environments.

I wanted to work with people who felt more like I once had.

People who felt weak.

People who had lost confidence in their body.

People who didn’t know where to start.

People who were injured, had low health literacy or felt like exercise and gyms weren’t really built for them.

Physiotherapy felt like the best of both worlds. I could understand injury and pain, but also coach movement, change health behaviours and help someone build strength from a starting point that might feel incredibly low.

So I transferred from exercise science in Cairns to physiotherapy in Townsville.

Over the next four years I studied injury and rehabilitation, while continuing to develop my personal training, coaching and understanding of movement through my own training every single day.

I did a bodybuilding competition. Multiple powerlifting competitions. Endurance events. Eventually, I opened my own CrossFit gym.

And somewhere along the way, I think I became incapable of looking at a human body without seeing its potential.

I watch gait. I notice forearms and hands. Muscle density. Movement patterns. Postural habits. Tiny movements someone probably doesn’t even realise they’re making.

I’ll shake someone’s hand and notice their grip. I’ll watch someone squat, get off the floor or carry something and immediately start thinking about the capacity that already exists and what else we could build.

And because I’ve spent so much time moving, lifting and learning my own body, I often know the feeling someone is trying to describe before they’ve quite found the words for it themselves.

That helps me ask better questions.

And hopefully, find the right place to start.

That’s one of my favourite things about physiotherapy - meeting the person where they’re at, and watching them flourish into who they were meant to be. We’re in this incredibly privileged position where someone can initially walk through the door because they’re injured or in pain, but the journey can become so much bigger than that.

It can become empowerment.

A lifestyle change.

Sometimes, a complete change in the relationship someone has with their body.

I don’t know if I ever pictured myself here, in this beautiful clinic at the bottom of the world, surrounded by such a great team of people who genuinely care about what they do.

But I do know that empowering people, helping them become stronger and teaching humans how to move well feels well and truely built into me.

I learnt that pretty clearly during the period of my life when I owned a cocktail bar and restaurant. I loved the pace, the people and the chaos of hospitality. It was fun.

But there was a huge hole.

Something was missing.

I missed helping people build something in themselves.

More movement.

More strength.

More capacity.

More confidence using their body.

And particularly with women, I think there’s something incredibly powerful about discovering that your body isn’t this fixed thing you’re simply stuck with.

You can train it.

You can build muscle.

You can learn movements you’ve never done before.

You can become physically stronger than you’ve ever been.

And strength doesn’t have to mean lifting the heaviest barbell in the room.

It might mean confidently lifting something off the ground. Carrying your kids. Getting yourself off the floor. Training without constantly worrying about getting hurt. Travelling. Running. Hiking. Playing sport. Or simply feeling physically capable in your everyday life.

Physiotherapy gives us an opportunity to understand what’s currently limiting you.

Then we get to start building.

So yes, I want to help reduce your pain.

I want you moving well.

I want you confident in your body.

But ultimately?

I want to make you strong.

And I think that’s pretty bloody cool.

Want to Feel Stronger, in your Body and Mind?

Whether you’re starting with pain, returning from an injury or simply don’t feel as strong and capable as you’d like to, we can help you work out where to start.

Book an appointment with the physiotherapy team at By Design Physiotherapy & Strength in North Hobart and let’s start building from where you are now.